Encore: The Stories Behind The Songs You Love

Pack Your Bags - We're going to the South Pacific to explore the sunniest Christmas Standard ever.

This is the story of Mele Kalikimaka on Behind the Christmas Hits with Drew Savage

Last week on Encore - the CanConCore special edition - we focused on an absolutely absurd teeny-bopper anthem from the year 2000 - and a real crown jewel of obscure Canadian Pop Music - B4-4’s ‘Get Down’. 

While it was a wild and wacky song (and video) in its own right - nobody would be rushing to defend it as ‘groundbreaking’ - the three super-tanned members of the group were very clearly chasing the sound of the boyband craze of the late 90s in to early 2000s that was just about to reach its peak.

This week, we’re pulling a full 180 to talk about a song that upon its release in 1997, sounded nothing like anything on the radio waves in that era of music - and quite frankly, still sounds nothing like anything but… itself.

While both super weird in hindsight - there couldn’t be anything more diametrically opposed to the sound of Get Down than this week’s hit: Bran Van 3000’s Drinking in LA.

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio.

Welcome to a special episode of Encore where we take a look at some of the iHeartRadio team’s favourite Canadian songs that you may have forgotten about. We’re calling it CanConCore… get it? 

This week we have the story of B4-4’s “Get Down”!

Remember the year 2000? If we weren’t worried about Y2K and the millennium bug bringing on the collapse of society we were likely just sitting in our rooms listening to all of the great boy bands that were topping the charts. Because 2000 was the year boy bands reigned supreme. *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Westlife, O-Town… They were everywhere. And while it’s fair to say that most boy bands came from either the United States or the United Kingdom, I’d like to think Canada had a very memorable boy band of its own. 

This is the story of B4-4's 'Get Down' with newly unearthed footage from the band themselves.

Written by Cam Lindsay for iHeartRadio.

Ah the many faces of pop punk… 

Here on Encore we’ve explored a wide range of songs that fall under the genre’s umbrella; from the sounds of Green Day’s Rock-Opera-Political thriller American Idiot to SUM 41’s metal-worshipping, Jackass-inspired Fat Lip, to Avril Lavigne’s quirky and jealousy ridden hand-clapping Girlfriend - Pop Punk is a big ol’ tree with a whole lotta branches. 

In 2005, mainstream pop punk tied its wagon a lot closer to the traditional sounds of Rock N Roll, with heavy guitars and stadium-like bravado that kept the Rock-radio airwaves happy.

Emo; the emotional side of pop-punk was usually relegated to the sounds of the underground. 

The ‘scene’ was filled with bands across North America that were a little pop, a little punk, a little goth, and honestly, a little twee. 

If you were a band having deep, overdramatic feelings about life, love, and fitting in, and treated music as if it was your own personal confessional for all of the above - that was fine - you’d probably find yourself a fanbase - but you certainly weren’t going to find yourself a hit.

Coalescing with the rise of internet culture at the time - emo and screamo bands were massively popular on myspace - with filesharing doing a lot of the word of mouth heavy-lifting both virtually and in real life. 

In a time where everyone was making CD mixtapes - you could easily sneak a (legally or otherwise obtained) mp3 of your favourite emo band on a custom-curated disc - and it started to influence culture at large.

While a ton of emo bands eventually broke through, perhaps the very first of their kind was Fall Out Boy - and while they started off like many other subculture sweethearts of the era - in just a few short years - they would become one of the hottest bands in the world.

This is the Story of Fall Out Boy's Sugar We're Goin' Down

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio

Céline Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' is Arguably the most iconic ballad of the past 30 years. Despite everything Céline Dion has accomplished in her incredible career, which spans 45 years, if you can believe it, 'My Heart Will Go On' is without a doubt the song that everybody knows by her - and if you can believe it - it was recorded in one take.

This is the story of Céline Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' with newly unearthed audio from Céline Dion herself.

Written by Cam Lindsay for iHeartRadio.

Success in the music industry is a funny thing isn’t it? 

Whether you’re a Legendary Icon of the industry, or a One Hit Wonder, Pop Music truly feeds on a ‘what have you done for me lately’ model, where you’re almost always only as popular as your last hit.

When you hit a certain level of success as an artist and it’s time to follow that successful project up - even if you’ve blown every realistic expectation of success out of the water - you’re still gonna try something right?

Not necessarily. 

Which brings us to the curious case of fun.

This is the story of fun.'s 'We Are Young'.

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio

It’s beeeeennnn… one week since the last episode of Encore, and now here we are with another one. Our 79th episode in total - yes we counted. 

Now, in music, novelty acts don’t tend to last very long. In fact, the average best before date of a novelty act lasts only about as long as a box of Kraft Dinner, sometimes less. Back when Barenaked Ladies first emerged from the depths of Scarborough, they were widely considered a novelty act, largely because they mixed such a heavy dose of comedy into their genre-bending music.

Unlike so many official or unofficial novelty acts, Barenaked Ladies have resonated with millions and millions of music lovers for more than 35 years now. What started out as a bunch of guys singing jokey songs about becoming millionaires and being back in grade 9, developed into one of Canada’s most beloved and successful musical acts in that time span. They’ve had #1 hits all over the world, one of the best-selling independent releases in Canadian history, and made Prince’s favourite album of 1998… maybe.

This is the story of Barenaked Ladies' One Week - with newly unearthed audio from BNL!

Written by Cam Lindsay for iHeartRadio.

There are few artists that truly define ‘pop’ music and popstardom like one Ariana Grande; One of the most streamed artists of all time. She is, after all the first female artist to have no less than 20 songs hit a billion streams a pop.

Needless to say, this streaming success is not the only metric that defines Ariana Grande’s success - she’s sold an estimated 90 million+ records worldwide, and has been celebrated with: 2 Grammy Awards, A Brit Award, 2 Billboard Music Awards 3 American Music Awards, 13 MTV VMAs (including three this year) &7 iHeartRadio Music Awards - although technically one was for her dog Toulouse - but we’ll give it to her.

Obviously - Ari isn’t just a pop star either; her work on the big screen adaptation of the stage musical Wicked solidified her as a true Hollywood powerhouse, and of course - she’s historically no stranger to the Broadway Stage, or the world of Television. So it’s safe to say… she’s kind of a big deal.

With all these hits it was hard to pick just one! But this week we look at one of Ariana Grande's most important songs: One Last Time.

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio.

A great pop song can evoke a universal feeling that just about every listener out there feels. You can make a case for just about any song and any feeling, but has a song ever encapsulated the feeling of being a teenager as accurately as the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979”?

When he wrote it, at the age of 28 mind you, frontman Billy Corgan was looking to express what he felt in his adolescence - all of the angst, pain, fear, excitement, happiness and endless possibilities you face when you’re a teenager. And he nailed it. What’s funny is that when it was released in 1995, it sounded unlike anything else the band had recorded.

This alternative rock band often associated with the grunge scene and loud guitars, put out a soft, melancholy tune featuring synthesizers and drum loops. Even funnier is the fact that “1979” became the biggest song of their career, finding new audiences as the generations turn. Yes, it’s as popular with Gen-Z and even Gen Alpha as it is the Gen X that made it a hit in the first place.

This is the story of The Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 with newly unearthed footage from the band themselves!

Written by Cam Lindsay for iHeartRadio.

Nostalgia is one hell of a drug - and music is the best carrier of that magic elixir directly into our brains. 

While pretty much any song can be propped up as a totem of days past - sometimes songs feel specifically engineered to bring us back to a place and time.

While many songs that we’ve covered over the course of this podcast distill the feelings high school awkwardness and teenage angst; (I’m looking at you, Simple Plan and Jimmy Eat World) there’s no song that declares itself as loudly and proudly as a nostalgic teenage anthem like the certified grandaddy of them all - Wheatus’ anthemic ode to lovable Losers everywhere - 2000’s Teenage Dirtbag.

Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio.