Human League -- "Don't You Want Me" (1981)

I picked you out, I shook you up

And turned you around

Turned you into someone new

Svengali, a character in George du Maurier's 1895 novel Trilby, exploits and manipulates the title character -- who is a young English girl -- making her into a famous singer.  Since then, the term "Svengali" has been used to describe someone (usually an older male) who dominates and controls a singer, actress, or other performer (usually a younger female).

In "Don't You Want Me," a modern-day Svengali transforms a humble cocktail waitress into . . . what exactly?  

The answer to that question isn't clear.  Perhaps her transformation had more to do with emotional maturity than with fame or fortune -- he made her a star, but more importantly he taught her about love. 

In his 1980 television special, Comedy Is Not Pretty, Steve Martin played such a Svengali.  "They come to me as girls," he told the audience.  "But they leave me as . . . boys."  (Martin's character later showed his savor faire when a waiter asked him if he and his female companion would like red or white wine with dinner.  But man-of-the-world Martin had a better idea:  "Do you have any beige wine?  Or maybe a nice plaid wine?")

The lyrics to "Don't You Want Me" -- which were penned by the Human League's lead singer, Philip Oakey -- were inspired by a story in a teenage girl's magazine.  Oakey originally conceived it as a male solo.  

But after seeing the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born (in which Kris Kristofferson portrayed a somewhat benign Svengali), he decided to turn the song into a duet.  Susan Ann Sulley, one of the group's two female backup singers, was picked to record the female character's part.

Oakey hated the take of the song that was released.  He thought it was too soft and poppy, and argued against releasing it as the fourth single from the group's third studio album, Dare.  

But "Don't You Want Me" was a huge hit for the British synth poppers, reaching the #1 spot on the pop charts in both the UK and the United States.  (The stubborn Philip Oakey still thinks the song is overrated.)

By the way, the song is not autobiographical.  Susan All Sulley was only 17 years old when the song was recorded -- which was too young under UK law for her to work as a cocktail waitress.

The first verse of "Don't You Want Me" is sung by a male, and the second verse is sung by a female.  Marc Costanzo of the Canadian group Len was inspired by this song to use the same structure when he wrote Len's 1999 hit, "Steal My Sunshine."  (Marc sings the first verse and his sister Sharon sings the second verse.)

Here's the official music video for "Don't You Want Me":

Click below to order the song from Amazon:

Andrea True Connection -- "More, More, More" (1976)

But if you want to know how I really feel

Get the cameras rollin'

Get the action goin'

Andrea True (who was born Andrea Marie Truden) was a porn star who later became a disco singer.

Andrea was born in 1943 in Nashville.  She attended Saint Cecilia Academy, a tony all-girls Catholic high school, then moved to New York City in hopes of becoming a movie star.

Andrea True

Andrea landed a few minor roles in mainstream movies – for example, she was an extra in The Way We Were – but eventually accepted an invitation to star in adult movies.  She eventually starred in more than fifty hardcore porn films.

Andrea True's porn oeuvre included Double Header, Doctor Feelgood, The Wetter the Better, and – this is one I really want to see – Sexual Freedom in the Ozarks.

Andrea also appeared in Deep Throat, Part II – the R-rated sequel to the most famous and widely-viewed adult film of all time.  In her 1980 autobiography, the late Linda Lovelace – the star of Deep Throat – describes Andrea as "much too smart to be doing what she did for a living," and tells how she tried to organize porn stars into a union.

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In the mid-seventies, while at the height of her porn career, Andrea was hired to do commercials for a real estate company in Jamaica.  While she was there, the country was plunged into a political crisis, and she was unable to leave until things were sorted out.

So she asked songwriter and record producer Gregg Diamond to come to Jamaica and produce a track for her.  The result of their collaboration was "More, More, More," which climbed all the way to #4 on the Billboard "Hot 100."

Andrea True eventually recorded three albums.  The first one was moderately successful, but the next two were flops.  After her third album failed to sell, she returned to doing porn.  But she was a bit long in the tooth by then – she was almost 40 – and her comeback attempt was unsuccessful.  

Andrea then developed a goiter on her vocal cords, which prevented her from making a singing comeback as well.  She eventually moved to south Florida, where she worked as a drug counselor and gave psychic readings.  

In 1999, the Canadian group Len released "Steal My Sunshine," which sampled "More, More, More."  Click here to read the previous 2 or 3 lines, which featured "Steal My Sunshine."

"Steal My Sunshine" was released on Len's
You Can't Stop the Bum Rush album

The success of "Steal My Sunshine" resulted in royalties and publicity for Andrea True.  She also appeared in the 2005 documentary, Inside Deep Throat, which examined the impact of that famous adult film on American society.  

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I was a senior at Rice University in Houston when Deep Throat was released.  I didn't have to go to my neighborhood porn theater and pay to see that movie.  Instead, I got to view it for free in my "Sociology of Mass Media" class.   

The local prosecuting attorney filed an obscenity complaint against the theater that was showing the movie in Houston, and my sociology professor – the late Chad Gordon – was hired to be an expert witness for the defense.  So he had our class watch the movie one day and fill out questionnaires about what we thought about it.  (You can best believe no one skipped class that day.)  

Professor Gordon testified that our answers to those questionnaires showed that Deep Throat was not obscene in the eyes of local college students, whose opinions on that topic should count just as much as the opinions of the little old ladies who attended the local Baptist churches.

I don't know how much our professor's testimony had to do with it, but the obscenity prosecution ended up in a hung jury.  The same thing happened when the prosecutor decided to retry the case.  After the second hung jury, the prosecutor gave up, making Houston and all of Harris County, Texas, safe for fans of adult films.  

Click here to read Texas Monthly's account of the Deep Throat obscenity prosecution.

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Professor Gordon died in 2007.  Here's an excerpt from a Rice University student newspaper story about him:

Former sociology department chair Chad Gordon, who was with the sociology department since its inception in the 1970s, passed away in late May after fighting cancer. . . . He was an assistant professor of sociology at Harvard before he came to Rice in 1970.

Sociology professor William Martin said Gordon was well-known for his courses on human sexuality and television called “Sex with Chad” and “TV with Chad,” respectively.

“[He taught] courses that were quite popular and a little different from the other offerings in our department,” Martin said.

Gordon had a creative teaching style and would take students to cemeteries and funeral home museums when he taught a course on death, Martin said.  He said Gordon also integrated progressive media into his course about television, often using TV clips, which were not considered a teaching tool at the time he began teaching it.

Sewall Hall, home of Rice's
Sociology Department

Martin said the last course Gordon taught on death and dying resonated on a very personal level.

“He taught his death and dying course when he was quite aware, and his students were aware, that he had a fatal disease,” Martin said.  “He was very candid about that, and I’m sure that was significant for the students as well.”

Gordon was also known for the band he formed during his early years at Rice and his strikingly colored motorcycle that he could be seen driving around the campus, Martin said.  Additionally, Gordon was known for the pool parties he threw at his house, and for being a “free spirit.”  He loved spicy food, and his friends would engage in contests with him to see who could eat the greatest amount of spicy food in one sitting, Martin said.

He said Gordon was a compassionate man who had a lasting impact on each student.

“[Gordon] seemed always to be in a good mood,” Martin said. “He always had a twinkle in his eye.”

The late Chad Gordon

As for Andrea True, she died of heart failure at a Kingston, New York, hospital in 2011.  She was 68 years old.

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Click here to listen to "More, More, More."

Click here to buy the song from Amazon.

Len -- "Steal My Sunshine" (1999)

I was lying on the grass

On Sunday morning of last week

Indulging in my self-defeat

The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said "Less is more."  The reverse of that aphorism -- "More is less" -- is equally true.

If you don't believe that, just look at the most recent 2 or 3 lines -- the one that featured Carrie Underwood's "Two Black Cadillacs."

I jumped from a tiresome discussion of another Carrie Underwood revenge song ("Before He Cheats"), to a tiresome rehash of Bill Clinton's shenanigans, to a tiresome presentation of some of the implausible interpretations (or "interoperations," if you prefer) of "Two Black Cadillacs" that were posted on a popular website by fans of the song, to a tiresome rant about Ralph Waldo Emerson.   

And what did all the time and effort I invested in that post produce?  

A big steaming pile of hot mess -- that's what it produced.

To date, I've written about over 600 songs on 2 or 3 lines.  You would think things would be running pretty efficiently by now, but I seem to be backsliding into excess blather and wasted motion.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about the venerable hymn, "Come, Labor On," which certainly was apropos -- because 2 or 3 lines is seemingly becoming more and more labored.   

The next few posts are going to be very different -- tight and economical and sans the excessive excess that characterized the "Two Black Cadillacs" post.

Siblings Marc and Sharon Costanzo

Len is a Canadian band that is the brainchild of Marc Costanzo (who later became a successful record company executive) and his sister Sharon, who played bass and shared vocal duties with her sibling.

I may have heard Len's "Steal My Sunshine" when it was released back in 1999, but I certainly don't remember it from then.  Lucky for you that I heard it on the radio last month, when I was vacationing on Cape Cod -- it's a pretty irresistible record.

The idea for "Steal My Sunshine" was born when Marc Costanzo went to a rave with some friends and happened to hear the old disco hit, "More, More, More," by the Andrea True Connection.   He decided to loop part of that record's bridge and use it as the basis for a new song.

After Marc wrote "Steal My Sunshine," he and Sharon recorded it on a half-inch tape recorder.  (Sharon plays bass and shared vocal duties with her brother.)  Marc was underwhelmed by the recording, and Sharon stuck the tape in a closet -- or maybe under a bed.  (Sources vary.)  Eventually the song ended up on Len's first major-label album, You Can't Stop the Bum Rush.

Marc Costanzo modeled "Steal My Sunshine" on The Human League's 1981 hit, "Don't You Want Me."  Both songs feature alternating male and female vocals.

The lyrics to "Steal My Sunshine" are pretty random.  Here's an example:

Now the fuzzy stare from not being there

On a confusing morning week

Impaired my tribal lunar speak

(Say what?)

Here's the official music video for "Steal My Sunshine":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: