John's World Top 30 Dance/Club Songs of 2012, Conclusion: The Top Ten

We've finally come to the top ten in our countdown to my picks for the best dance songs for the year 2012.  Before we get going with the final ten, here's a quick recap of #'s 30-11:

30 - Back in Time - Pitbull
29 - Domino - Jessie J
28 - Turn Me On - David Guetta, featuring Nicki Minaj
27 - Parking Lot - Nelly Furtado
26 - I Wanna See You Dance - Kat DeLuna
25 - We'll Be Coming Back - Calvin Harris, featuring Example
24 - Can't Stop - Martinn Solveig
23 - I Need Your Love - Calvin Harris, featuring Elie Goulding
22 - Titanium - David Guetta, featuring Sia
21 - Goin In - Jennifer Lopez, featuring Flo Rida and Lil John
20 - Gimme All Your Luvin - Madonna, featuring Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.
19 - Birthday Cake - Rihanna
18 - Where Have You Been - Rihanna
17 - Loca People - Sak Noel
16 - Pound the Alarm - Nicki Minaj
15 - Turn Up the Radio - Madonna
14 - Gangnam Style - Psy
13 - Die Young - Ke$ha
12 - Scream and Shout - will.i.am and Britney Spears
11 - Levels - Avicii

And now here's my top ten:



#10 - Big in Japan - Martin Solveig, featuring Dragonnette

Last night we partied a bit too hard
It's not quite coming back to me so far
I might not have slept but I woke up a superstar
On another side of the world

I keep my head down stay away from the flash
The whole dancefloor is saying I've got to smash
And I don't mind if it's all for the fans
Because the next thing you know I'm big in Japan

Silly....hell yeah, but that's why I like this song so much.  Big beats and big fun!!!!

#9 - Somebody That I Used to Know (Remixes) - Gotye, featuring Kimbra

Yes, this song was one of the sleeper hits of the year on the pop music scene, and a few months into its life, remixes started popping up all over the place, giving it a whole new appeal.  It's hard to pick just one, there are so many, but many of them are great and you can check out this blog post by Pigeons & Planes for a listing of several of them. And be sure to check out the comment section for even more. 



#8 - We Run the Night - Havana Brown, featuring Pitbull

I don't think this song made much headway on the pop charts, but it is fierce!  Only now that I looked up the lyrics, though do I understand what she's singing in the chorus...

We yes, as we run the night
Run em like, rum em run em

Hmmm...lol! Check it out:


Havana Brown - We Run the Night from Silo. on Vimeo.

#7 - I'm Addicted - Madonna

Here's one that many of you probably don't know, but it's one of my favorite dance cuts off of M.D.N.A.  The music track is oh so danceable and I LOVE the M-D-N-A, M-D-N-A's towards the end.  Check out a live performance of the track on John's World.

#6 - Girl Gone Wild - Madonna

Oh my God
I am heartly sorry
For having offended thee

Madonna's opening salvo to M.D.N.A, both the album and the show, is sort of a sequel to her Act of Contrition from the Like a Prayer album and a great segue to a great dance tune.  Check out the sexy video for Girl Gone Wild:


Madonna 'Girls Gone Wild' from Hani AlYousif on Vimeo.


nois3

#5 - Starships - Nicki Minaj

Let's go to the beach, beach, let's go get away...

Once again, I have no idea exactly what this song is all about, but it's maaaadddd fun!  Check out Starships.

#4 - Let's Go - Calvin Harris, featuring Ne-Yo

What can I say?  I love Calvin Harris and I love Ne-Yo!  This one's an awesome, awesome dance floor smash!  Check out this hot, hot song...


Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo - Let's Go from HBPMUSIC on Vimeo.

#3 - Sweet Nothing - Calvin Harris, featuring Florence Welch

Haha, yet another Calvin Harris track, this time with the unique vocals of Florence Welch.  This one took awhile to grow on me, but grow on me it did!  Love the hot music!  Check out Sweet Nothings.



#2 - Feel So Close - Calvin Harris

Okay, okay, so I really got into Mr. Harris this year, and this one was my favorite!  His own vocals on the track coupled with another awesome track makes my head bop and I feel good all over.  Check it out on John's World.

#1 - Dance Again - Jennifer Lopez, featuring Pitbull

The second J-Lo song to appear on this countdown is also my favorite dance track of the year.  This one recaptures some of that magic of On the Floor, with a hot dance floor vibe.  My favorite line is when she says, I, I, I, I, I love to make love to ya baby... Love it!  Check it out...


Jennifer Lopez - Dance Again ft. Pitbull from Azat Za-Za on Vimeo.

Well there you have it, my top 30 dance/club songs of the year 2012.  I hope you, too, have shaken your booty o some of these tracks during the year.  I know I have!  Stay tuned to John's World for the best in music and here's to a wonderful 2013!

Check out the rest of the posts in this series below, as well as last year's countdown:

John's World Top 30 Dance/Club Songs of 2012, Part 1: #'s 30 to 21

John's World Top 30 Dance/Club Songs of 2012, Part 2: #'s 20-11

2011

The Top 30 Dance Songs of 2011, Part 1, #'s 30-21

The Top 30 Dance Songs of 2011, Part 2, #'s 20-11

The Top 30 Dance Songs of 2011, Part 3, #'s 10-1

Tweet

Song of the Day - Levels - Avicii

I don't usually like to start the week off with a hardcore dance tune, but I just finally downloaded this one yesterday and I think it's a great way to start off the week...with a little pick-me-up.  Some of you may know this from the remix of Flo Rida's Good Feeling.  Every time I heard that one in a club, it was mixed with this one, and the melody is just so pleasant.  The track also reminds me of Madonna, because Avicii opened for her at Yankee Stadium back in September and this one got the crowd going.  Click play and feel good!  Happy Monday!

 

Avicii - Levels from Oliver Rose on Vimeo.

Tweet

Song of the Day - B-Day Song -Madonna ft. M.I.A.

Good morning everybody! Today is my birthday and I've been waiting since February to put this song as my Song of the Day today, but I hadn't anticipated all the trouble I'd have.  Unfortunately all of the videos that feature this song are on YouTube, who will not allow the posting of videos on my blog.  Luckily after an exhaustive search, I found one that would work on here, albeit the speed is a little quicker than it is on the album.

Anyway, even though it is not the favorite song of some of my fellow Madge fans, I think it's perfect for a day like today...

                         And the beat goes on...

                                                 I'm a happy boy...


 

Tweet

Madge, I've got a bone (or two) to pick with you!

This has been one long week, probably one of the longest and most trying of my life!  What started out as a nice, three-day weekend ended up for me, and many in my life, as a mentally and physically exhausting shortened week, and here I sit at my pc, on Saturday afternoon, still in my pajamas, and still trying to recoup my mind and body from the week's events.

Rather than scrunch all of the things that happened this week into one long post, I'm going to take matters one at a time, because I have a lot of things to say about some of them which might not get the attention they deserve in such a combined post.  The week all started with the M.D.N.A. tour at MSG on Monday night, and even though I am a huge Madonna fan, there are some things I need to get off my chest here...

madonnatribe

Madge, I've got a bone to pick with you...

On Monday evening, I saw Madonna perform at Madison Square Garden.  Though the concert itself was awesome, as before, I couldn't help but be frustrated at the timing of the show.  I've seen Madge many times before and she's long been known to keep her fans waiting for hours before hitting the stage, and last Monday's show was the latest I'd ever seen.

After an entertaining opening set by deejay/record producer Martin Solveig, the lights went back up around 9:15 in preparation for the nights main event.  Me, my pal Vera and my ex, Joe, chatted jovially as we waited for our idol to hit the stage.  And we waited, and waited, and waited...

Finally, at exactly 10:47, the opening salvo to the show began with the Act of Contrition Overture.  As would be expected, the goosebumps began to rise and the excitement level at the World's Greatest Arena hit a fever pitch.  The three of us smiled, danced and thoroughly enjoyed all that was happening on the main stage.  That is, until I started clock watching.

By the time the Nobody Knows Me Interlude came up, it was already past 12:30 and since I'd seen the show before I knew how many songs were yet to be performed.  I also knew that I had an hour's drive home and was looking at less than three hours sleep before school the next morning.  Sure enough, the show ended shortly after 1 a.m., and by the time we got to the car it was already past 1:30.  Needless to say, I was a zombie all day Tuesday.

As I recounted the show over the phone to my pal Rich the next day, he noted that she should be more wary of the people in her audience.  As evidenced by the pop chart performance of the songs off M.D.N.A., there is no doubt that the majority of those who still take an interest in her music are of the generation that was around back in her heyday, and she should be mindful of this.  Back when I was in my twenties, three-hour sleeps were commonplace in my life and because of my age I could handle it, but these days the effects of that short night's sleep lingered with me all week long.  Sorry Madge, I still love you, but the world doesn't revolve around you!

mobypicture

And another bone...

Another thing worth mentioning here, and this is admittedly a rant, is the subject of tickets.  This whole concert thing first came up because a friend of mine had offered me tickets to that show that a friend of hers was selling almost a week earlier.  All she had said to me in that first email was that the tickets were originally $300 and she was asking $175 for them.  Oh, and by the way, she said they were in the 9th row.

"What section are they in?" I asked.

Since the tickets belonged to a friend of a friend, she couldn't answer me at first, and so when she got back to me a couple of days later I found out that they were in section 109, at an angle to the left and somewhat behind the stage.

Now Vera, Joe, Rich and myself have been burned like this more than once before.  For the Blond Ambition and Confession tours, we had purchased similar tickets, and both times we all left the show unsatisfied and somewhat pissed off.  At the time, and still even today, I cannot believe that they even sell tickets in such places.  On both of those occasions we heard the show, but most of what we saw was the back of Madonna's legs...and believe me, we all paid well over $100 bucks for those seats.

To me, that's pretty disgusting.  From those angles, even the monitors cannot be seen, so you're really only paying for the privilege of simply hearing the show, not seeing it.  I know that Madonna is not the only one that sells such tickets, and it's probably not even her own decision, but that of the promoters, but this is an absolute scam and oozes pure greed.

Determined not to be fooled again into buying such seats, we abstained and searched for better seats, ones from which you could actually see the show, through StubHub, which brings me to my next rant...

StubHub and ticket scams

Historically, tickets to in-demand concerts, shows and sporting events have always been difficult to obtain, and there has always been an element of cheating when it comes to the purchase of such tickets.  Ticket scalping has always been illegal, yet it has always gone on seemingly without any attempt to prevent it, and nowadays it seems that the practice is being not only allowed to happen, but encouraged via ticket selling websites such as the popular StubHub.

One has to wonder about the sellers of tickets on StubHub and other ticket selling sites.  The premise of those sites is for people to be allowed to sell tickets for shows that they've purchased tickets for, yet are unable to go, which to me is absolutely fine. Yet I've borne witness to the almost immediate listings of tickets on the site whilst simultaneously trying to purchase seats through original sellers like Ticketmaster and LiveNation.

You have to question how do these people get such quick access to tickets, especially when they're immediately putting them back up for resale at much higher prices on StubHub and other sites.  Within an hour of the Halloween Grace Jones show tickets sale, $62 seats were going for more than $600.

Something's definitely not right here, and to me it's pretty disgusting that such bold ticket scalping is allowed to flourish unchecked as everyday fans are left paying even more exorbitant prices to see their favorite artists perform.  You have to wonder how these people get access to tickets.  I have no idea what the solution might be, and I know that there are much more pressing things for politicians out there to worry about, but c'mon, this is ridiculous!

Feel free to leave a comment if you agree or disagree with any of these issues, or have experienced any of these same frustrations about going to see an event live, and stay tuned for more from my week from hell coming shortly...    

Tweet

Ms. Madge's Special Gangnam Style Treat at MSG

eonline

allkpop

usweekly

Just my luck! Madonna just played two shows at MSG and I decided at the last minute to go, but it looks like I picked the wrong night,  Since Monday was a school holiday, I decided to go to that concert, but as it turns out, Ms. M had a special treat in store for last night's audience, as if you haven't heard about it already.

As is her way, Madge has a great ear for dance music and she brilliantly chose to perform her one song that blended perfectly with Korean sensation Psy's Gangnam Style.  Before she began Hard Candy's Give It to Me, she told the audience that she had a special treat for them, and well, just watch all the fun...

Tweet

Song of the Day - Intro/Girl Gone Wild - Madonna, MDNA Philadelphia

Happy Monday! I say that because for me it is a happy Monday for a lot of reasons.  First of all, today is Veteran's Day observed, so there's no school.  Also, the weather here on Long Island is absolutely gorgeous! And the final, bestest reason for me being happy today is because I have yet another date with Madonna.

Yes, the MDNA Tour is making its' second stop in New York City, this time at Madison Square Garden, and I will be there.  Although the Yankee Stadium shows were awesome, I'm looking foreward to this one because it's a much more intimate setting.  Stay tuned for more on this one, but in the meantime check out the opening of the show...

Tweet

P!nk #1 All Over the Place

starpulse

Well, it looks like a lot of people agree with my assessment of The Truth About Love.  Earlier today, Billboard Magazine reported that the newest album by the one and only Ms. P!nk has debuted at #1 on its Hot 200 Albums Chart.  The record is her very first #1 album (Funhouse peaked at #2), selling 280,000 copies in its first week of release.  The only two albums to sell more copies in their first week this year were Madonna's MDNA and Justin Bieber's Believe.

After just one week, I can already tell that this album will definitely become my pick for #1 of the year 2012, which is a pretty bold statement considering there are still three months left in it and MDNA also came out this year.  Truth is, I just cannot get enough of this one!  When it reaches the end I am every time wanting for more, and all I can do is go right back to the beginning and listen all over again.  The record is that good!

NY Daily News

Before this even happened, the very talented singer-songwriter extraordinaire took to her page to thank fans for their support:

Dudes! Dudettes! 

Seriously, I cannot thank you enough for the insane support and love that you've been throwing at me. It's like you just slapped me across the face with a big love slap and I have hand marks to prove it! 

Thank you for getting the album, for digging it, for watching all the new shows, and for coming to see me on tour - I can't wait to see all of you! I hope you all are feeling happy about the new music. If anyone doesn't like Kanye you should buy two more albums - just kidding :) love and bear hugs and big wet kisses xxxxxxxxxxxx 

Awwww!!!!  I'm just loving everything about her, can you tell?  I think she's different from all the rest, never a conformist, never shy, and always spot-on honest and up front.  Not only did she receive big news on the album, but its first single, Blow Me (One Last Kiss) also reached #1 on Billboards Hot 100 this week, making it the singer's 8th chart topper.

So stay tuned for more track reviews of The Truth About Love coming soon, and check out P!nk's performance on The Today Show from last week:

Pick up the digital album of The Truth About Love on iTunes or the CD at Amazon here:

Here are The Truth About Love track reviews so far:

Are We All We Are

Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

Try

Stay tuned for the rest...

Tweet

MDNA Tour, Yankee Stadium, September 8th and 10th, 2012

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Song of the Day - Holiday - Madonna, Live from Yankee Stadium September 8, 2012

madonnaremix

Last night was a rainy night at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and those of us who came to see Madonna were given an extra-special treat by the singer.  Watch...

 

Tweet

September 8, 2012: A Long First Week of School

Saturday is finally here and a well-deserved time for rest and relaxation after a first, long work week has come along with it. Wait, rest and relaxation?  Me?  Nah, of course not!  Since this was an extraordinarily busy and hectic week in John's World, I haven't had time for cleaning, laundry, errands, minding my checkbook, this, that, and the other thing, so I'll be doing that all day today and maybe, just maybe, I'll get to relax a little tomorrow.

The second of two Madonna concerts at Yankee Stadium is tonight, and I'm starting to get excited, although going a second time was not originally in my plan.  You see, when the tickets first went on sale back in February or March, my pal Rich and I gobbled up two of them for the show on Thursday, but I neglectfully forgot another pal-o-mine who's a big Madge fan, Vera.  Vera was less than pleased that she had not been considered while making the original purchase, and so she asked if I would go with her to the Saturday night show, and of course I said yes.  MDNA twice!  Um, yeah!

L-U-V Madonna!

fastcocreate

Back to School: A fresh start met with the same old frustration

School started this past Wednesday and on that day I posted a song that I've posted before, only with some commentary about fresh starts in new school years.  The song is Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten and the commentary is definitely worth a read, not just for teachers and students, but for everybody.  

Even though I had the most marvelous of summers, there was little dread about starting the school year for me, except maybe for having to wake up so early once again.  School for teachers began on Tuesday, really, with the students starting the next day, which was the day I looked forward to more.  Working with kids is much more enjoyable than working with the adults!  I shared my excitement, as well as my frustration with how teacher's are being looked upon these days on Facebook:

Yesterday I was reminded of how my honorable and important profession is still vilified by many, and any teacher-haters out there who think we have it so easy and cushy and are only in it for the money should know this:

I had an enjoyable summer, and knowing that all vacations must come to an end, rather than being sad and miserable about it, I and plenty of my fellow teachers out there are actua

lly looking forward with excitement to see our students and work with them again.

Twelve years ago, I left a high-paying career to go back to college to become a teacher, to make a difference in this world in my own small way. The road has not been easy, but so worth it. I love what I do, and no, not for the money or the vacation time, but because I get to reach plenty of kids who I know are enriched because I am in their lives somehow to help guide them through life.

To all my fellow teachers and all the students out there, have a great school year! And to anyone out there who thinks we have it so easy, why don't you go out and do what I did 12 years ago. Then you'll really see what it's like to teach!

Reading the comment again only solidifies the opinion I have on the subject.  I, and many of my fellow teachers, love what we do, and I think we have one of the most important jobs in society, yet there are way too many people out there who think we're overpaid, we have too much vacation, short hours, and overall easy jobs.  Thankfully, that post got plenty of likes and lots of great comments, but I just wish more people would see things that way.

This Teacher Witch Hunt is Killing Me

Politicians feed into this nightmare with all of their standards and regulations, part of their witch-hunt to weed out bad teachers.  Instead of allowing us the time to hone our craft and actually spend time preparing for teaching, we're tasked with preparing goals for ourselves to be rated on without any clear direction from the Department of Education.  Teachers in my school were made to come in for two days before school started, and all but 1/2 hour was spent being schooled on the latest from the State Ed Department and other unnecessary fluff, while preparing our classrooms and our lessons was frustratingly overlooked.  Yes, we were given just one half-hour out of two days to do all of that.  What a waste!

As a result, the first three days of school were maddeningly hectic, especially for me.  Seemingly every day a new student enrolled in my program to a point now where my population has almost doubled since the last school year.  

For those of you who do not know, I am an ESL teacher.  That is, I am tasked with teaching non-English speaking kids how to read, write, speak and understand English.  My students aren't given very many special accommodations.  They are required to pass all of the classes and state exams as everyone else, all while learning the language.  This is okay when a student from a non-English speaking country arrives here at a young age, but when they move here in, say the 11th grade, their being able to do all of this becomes a daunting task, to say the least.  I've got more than a few students in this situation and the time I'm given to prepare working with them is minimal.  So, yeah, you might say that my job is quite impossible.  

I'm Tired!

To top off the four days of bell to bell busy-ness, Ms. Madge began her show at 10:17 PM, on what was a school night for me.  By the time the show (which was awesome...stay tuned...) had finished, it was well past midnight, and my arrival in my bed was around 2:30AM.  Wake-up time is 5AM.  If you do the math, you might see why I've been a zombie for the past 30 hours or so.  Well, at least today is Saturday and Madge can start as late as she wants tonight.  I can sleep in tomorrow!

Regardless of how crazy my first week of school was, I still look to future days with eyes and arms wide open.  I'll get past this craziness one of these days, and go forth into a wonderful days and months ahead.  Won't you?

 

Tweet

Song of the Day - Madonna: "Turn Up the Radio" - Yankee Stadium Bronx, NY 9/6/12

openclipart

When the world starts to get you down 

And nothing seems to go your way

And the noise of the maddening crowd 

Make you feel like you're going to go insane

There's a glow of a distant light

Calling you to come outside

To feel the wind on your face and your skin

And it's here I begin my story

Turn up the radio

Turn up the radio

Don't ask me where I want to go

We gotta turn up the radio

This performance is from Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.  Turn Up the Radio is one of the best songs on MDNA and is Madge's current single, in case you didn't know that already!  Have a great Saturday!

Tweet

Song of the Day - Like a Prayer - Madonna Live MDNA Tour

Today's Song of the Day was by far one of the most popular songs played at last night's MDNA show at Yankee Stadium in New York.  Whereas many of the fans were not too familiar with some of her newer stuff (what a surprise...Not!), the opening to this song brought the more than 40 thousand people in the stadium to their feet, including me!  Part two tomorrow...

 

 



Tweet

Song of the Day - I'm Addicted - Madonna, Live in Istanbul - MDNA Tour

thewanderlife

Tonight...Yankee Stadium, The Bronx...Madonna's M.D.N.A. World Tour comes to New York City and I will be there! So excited......

   

 

Oh, and check out my review of the song right here.

Tweet

Music News Bytes: Madonna being sued for 'Vogue'; 'Turn Up the Radio' vid to debut; Gaga's 'Little Monsters'; New X-Tina song

Welcome back to Music News Bytes, a short collection of music news stories I follow.  In this edition, we've got the debuts of Madonna's "Turn Up the Radio" video and Lady Gaga's "Little Monsters" social network, a copyright infringement lawsuit against Madge for "Vogue," and finally a new song from Christina Aguilera.

the madge style collection

Madonna being sued for "Vogue"


Yesterday, a news story broke that Madonna is being sued for sampling another song, without giving credit, for her 1990 hit "Vogue."  Delaware based company VMG began the proceedings on Wednesday, saying the Madge sampled the 1977 song "Love Break," for which it apparently owns the rights.  Also named in the suit is deejay/producer Shep Pettibone, who worked on both "Vogue" and the earlier song (Hmmm!!), and the complaint says that Pettibone "intentionally disguised the sampling he did for "Vogue," according to MTV.

The suit claims that the samples are deliberately hidden throughout the song and it was only through modern technology that they were finally able to uncover the sampling twenty years after the fact.  The company, who tried this suit twice before, in 2011 and in February of this year, is seeking compensatory damages to the hugely popular song.  Stay tuned...

(*Note - I tried to find "Love Break" somewhere on the Internet, but cannot.  I'd love to hear it!)

"Turn Up the Radio" video to debut on Monday 


Just about a month ago, I told you that Madge was filming the video to her song, Turn Up the Radio, in Florence, Italy, and this coming Monday it will debut all over the place.  From news clips and previews, we can see that Madonna is seen in a convertible driving around with her dancers and fans chasing after her.  I'm sure I won't have access to it on here, but I will post a link to it when I get the chance.

"Radio" will be the 3rd single off of MDNA and I would hope that this one will fair better than Gimme All Your Luvin and Girl Gone Wild. If it doesn't, I'll have to believe that there are definitely some forces out there who don't want Ms. M to succeed with anything, as this song is true pop bliss and  very radio friendly.  We shall see...  In the meantime take another listen:

Gaga launches "Little Monsters"

For a long time now, Lady Gaga has been talking about her new social network where members can comment on everything Gaga, and the network, dubbed Little Monsters debuted earlier this week.  Joining the site is as easy as 1-2-3 with a Facebook or Twitter account, or an email address, and there's no doubt that lots of devoted "little monsters" are already on that bandwagon.  As for me, I think I'll pass.

pocket lint

Christina new song, album coming soon!

I've mentioned here before that Christina Aguilera has been working on her follow-up to 2010's disappointing Bionic album, and we're now closer than ever to getting a taste of what's to come.  The first single, tentatively entitled "Jealousy," is due out in early August and the album will not be too far behind.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, the song centers around the line, "all I want to do is what you wanted."  Definitely looking forward to that!

Well that's all I've got for this edition of Music News Bytes.  As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more...

Tweet 

Madonna filming "Turn Up the Radio" video in Italy

When the world starts to get you down

And nothing seems to go your way

And the noise of the maddening crowd

Makes you feel like you're going to go insane

Madonnarama

There's the glow of a distant light

Telling you to come outside

To feel the wind on your face and your skin

And it's here I begin my story

Today, one of my favorite Madonna fan sites, Madonnarama, reported that Madge herself was seen in Italy earlier today filming the video for her third "M.D.N.A." single, "Turn Up the Radio."  Now I don't know exactly what's up with the powers that be in the music industry, but I really can't, for the life of me, understand why Madonna is not being played on the radio.  Okay, I'll give ya "Gimme All Your Luvin."  I can understand that one as being a little too kitschy, but "Girl Gone Wild?"  That's definitely club and radio friendly...

Well, I predicted this would be the biggest hit of the new album and let's just see where it goes now that there'll be a video for it.  "Turn Up the Radio" is a very catchy song with a great, anthemic sound.  I don't know anyone who's heard it and doesn't like it. Maybe radio stations should skip one of their half a million plays of "Call Me Maybe" and play this one once in awhile.  Sheesh!

Madonna Turn Up The Radio by madonnaofficial

Anyway, check out the full piece on Madonnarama here, with lots of pics and a video to boot.  To see my reviews on all of the tracks on M.D.N.A., check these out:

Gimme All Your Luvin

Girl Gone Wild

Gang Bang

I'm Addicted

Turn Up the Radio

Some Girls

Superstar

I Don't Give A...

I'm a Sinner

Love Spent

Masterpiece

Falling Free

Beautiful Killer

I F**ked Up

B-Day Song

Tweet

Writing Wednesday...um, Thursday???

Hello and happy Wednesday, um....Thursday, that is.  It seems I'm always a day late and a dollar short, but better late than never.  Here's John's World's Writing Wednesday...

Roller Coasters

Summer is here and after not riding any coasters at all last year, I'm hyped up about the prospects for the summer of 2012.  I already shared some of the best new rides for the upcoming season, and last Friday I found out that Cedar Point, one of the best theme parks around, is finally building a new roller coaster, their first one since 2007, which is forever.  Read all about it right here.

Hersheypark unveils Skyrush

One of the new roller coasters for the 2012 season debuted recently at one of my favorite parks.  This one's definitely on my list for the summer.  Click on the link above to take a ride.

The Coasters of Busch Gardens, Williamsburg

This is an older piece I revamped and updated to reflect the latest line-up of thrill rides at this awesomely beautiful park, including the all-new Verbolten.

Music


Another great love of mine and many others is music, and I finally got some pieces out there on Yahoo Voices this week:

What Are You Listening To? Spring 2012

The 8th edition of my quarterly series on the latest in pop music playing on my iPod.

Track by Track Review of The Wanted: Special Edition

This one was actually written weeks ago, a lot closer to the release date than Tuesday, when it was finally published.  I had a lot of trouble getting this one out there I think because of the name of the band...you can imagine, search engines and stuff.  Anyway, I downloaded this one on the day it came out and virtually every song is good.  Check it out.

MDNA, MDNA...

Well Madonna is finally on the road with her new M.D.N.A. Tour, hitting the stage for the first time last Thursday in Tel Aviv.  Though I'm going to see her in September at Yankee Stadium, I couldn't help but watch and share some of the concert snippets that have been out there.  Look forward to more in the future, but for now check out these two clips:

Express Yourself/Born This Way

I Don't Give A...

Etcetera

Cool stuff to do on Long Island this weekend

I used to do these types of articles a lot on Examiner, but I'd been remiss in writing them for the past few months, mostly because they're labor intensive.  But they do get a lot of hits and they are filled with very cool things I wouldn't have otherwise known about.  This is the piece that prevented me from putting this post out yesterday, but it was worth it!  Look for these too come out Wednesdays, especially if you live in the Long Island area and are looking for suggestions on what to do.

I've got got to get myself together... 

This was my only personal piece of the week, and I penned it just because I needed to work through some emotions...stay tuned for more if you like reading these types of posts.

Well, that's it for this week.  As always, thanks for checking me out and have an awesome weekend!

Image Sources:

pennlive

cocoperez

Tweet

A Taste of the MDNA Tour - I Don't Give A, featuring Nicki Minaj

Here's another short clip from Madonna's M.D.N.A. Tour featuring a clip of Nicki Minaj rapping in the background on what is fast becoming one of my favorite songs off of the album. Love Nicki's rap and those Gothic chants at the end!  I can't wait till September!

   

Tweet