Hi everyone, I have a challenging Name That Mystery Song. I was at California Pizza Kitchen last night and heard a familiar 80’s or 90’s song. I don’t have much to go on unfortunately.
Here is what I know:
[ul]
[li]It was a relatively mainstream song that got a bunch of airplay.[/li][li]I believe that it was sung by a female African-American solo act.[/li][li]There’s a catchy synthesizer hook at the chorus. Not much guitar stuff. It’s mostly synthesizers throughout.[/li][li]It’s more hip-hoppy and poppy than new wave or UK-sounding (e.g., more Janet Jackson-y than Pet Shop Boys-y)[/li][li]The lyrics at the chorus *begin *with something like “I get away” or “I get amazed” or “I get awake”. The “I get” part is right smack at the beginning of the chorus, not buried in the verses somewhere.[/li][/ul]
Most likely, my last word (away/awake/amazed) is incorrect because extensive google and youtube searching didn’t find it.
Alice, that was a great guess. The singer in my mystery song does sound a TON like Toni Braxton and it easily could be her. The mystery song is much faster than “You’re Making Me High” though.
pravnik, MIA was a great guess too. That wasn’t it, but that was a good match based on my description because of the synthesizers and the overall sound.
Oh Heart Full of Neutrality, that’s another great guess and one of my favorite 80’s songs. “I Get Weak” definitely fits the list of stuff that I know about the song. I should have said explicitly that the last word is two syllables because of the way that the lyric scans.
I’m not giving you much to go on. But these are fantastic guesses. Thanks to each you for trying to help!
I know- are you sure it’s “I get”? This is my field, man! Black female R&B singers of the 80’s-today… I should get this! No pressure! Think… think! Any more clues?
When I first read the OP, for some reason I was thinking of one of Natalie Merchant’s songs after she went solo, like Carnival or Jealousy. I’m not sure why.
Snowboarder Bo and Alice, I’m about 98% sure that the first two words are “I get”.
What I can’t tell for sure is whether the next two syllables after “I get” are one word or two. It dawned on me that the next two syllables could have been “a wave” or “a rave”; it could easily scan as “I get a wave” for example.
So I’m 98% sure that it’s “I get a-[syllable with a long “a” in it]”.
The song may as well be titled I Get a Rake for all I can remember.
Alice, more excellent guesses from you - great call on Natalie Merchant. Lots of synthesizer in *Jealousy *and *Carnival *. It’s a bit more speedy and hip hop than those two songs. The synthesizers in Mystery Song are more like the synthesizers in Gary Numan’s *Cars *or Usher’s Yeah than the organ-type sound in those two Natalie Merchant songs. The vocals are a lot like Toni Braxton.
God, I wish I could give you more information. Stupid, stupid ears! :mad:
I see now that I would be hard-pressed to make my clues more misleading than they were. But Ellis Aponte Jr. managed to figure out what I really meant.
On closer inspection of the lyrics and depending on how one counts, the phrase “I Can’t Wait” represents 30% of the lyrics of the song by word volume. The mystery phrase is repeated nearly every third line, on average. :smack:
Thank you all very much for helping to identify the song. You all made me wonderfully happy to know what that song was. I can’t wait to buy you all a round of drinks for your kindness.
But these are fantastic guesses. Thanks to each you for trying to help!