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I'll never not marvel at the observation that Canada's Thanksgiving and Japan's Sports Day fall on the same day...the second Monday in October, considering one nation feasts while the other nation promotes strenuous physical activity. Regardless, I wish my fellow Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving. Our family had the regular get-together last night but since I'm the only person who likes turkey, it was sushi for dinner.
I figure that depending on the family and the logistics (or lack of them), there will be those who are having a pretty manic Monday getting ready to greet extended family after spending time, money and energy to create that traditional turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. So, as such on the usual special holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, I give you "Manic Monday" by The Bangles.
According to the Wikipedia article regarding the song, although it had originally been written and composed by Prince in 1984 as a duet between him and Apollonia 6, the deal with "Manic Monday" didn't quite make it, and a couple of years later, he offered it under the pseudonym Christopher to The Bangles. It was released as the band's single at the end of January 1986.
I remember first seeing the music video showing Susanna Hoffs singing while her fellow bandmates were making like regular folks trying to start off their Monday mornings. The lyrics and the music both come across as a relatable happy-go-lucky day-in-the-life pop tune about resignedly schlumping off to work while wishing that the weekend hadn't ended.
For both the American and Canadian charts, "Manic Monday" hit No. 2, and even in Japan, it managed to get as high as No. 56 on Oricon.
Interestingly enough, although I'd planned to consult the Oricon Top 10 for January 1986 for the comparative hits in Japan, I realized that I had already done so a couple of weeks ago for Sade's "Is It a Crime?" which was also released in that month. Therefore, let's go with the singles that were released back then.
Hideaki Tokunaga -- Rainy Blue
Misato Watanabe -- My Revolution
Yukiko Okada -- Kuchibiru Network (くちびる Network)
The funny thing about "Manic Monday" being blocked from the top spot in America was that it was blocked by Prince's own "Kiss." Imagine the flex of having a hand in the top 2 most popular songs in the country and both sounding pretty different from each other.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how The Bangles felt about it but Prince was probably strutting down the street quite proudly. He had a pretty good decade overall.
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