I The Behrend Beacon
If you're happy and you know it...
Top ten songs featuring handclaps: Part Two
By Sean Mihlo
student life editor
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This was tough. You really wouldn't think it, but
there are about a hazillion great songs with hand
claps. And it seems as though the handclap isn't
genre-specific: from pop to r&b, even from alterna
tive to rap, handclaps are prominent across every
aural landsca e.
Lesley Gore
"It's My Party'
Phil Spector almost had this track, but it slipped
right out of his hands. The plan was to nab it from
songwriters Gold, Gluck and Weiner and record it
with his proteges. the Crystals. Unfortunately for
Spector. the song had already been selected by 16-
year-old Lesley Gore and her partner, a then up
and-coming producer named Quincy Jones, for her
debut album. While the Crystals gave us some of
the greatest girl-group tunes of all time, there's no
doubt in my mind that Lesley Gore was born to sing
"It's My Party, - and she nails it. The song centers
on the narrator who, at her freaking birthday party
no less, finds her boyfriend hanging out and holding
hands with another girl. Judy (who shows her face
again in the follow-up single to "It's My Party,"
appropriately titled "Judy's Turn to Cry.") But this
song is no lamentation. Gore's girlish, nasally
nuanced voice turns the song into a celebration for
women: "It's my party / And I'll cry if I want to /
Cry if I want to / Cry if I want to." It's her party,
she's going to cry, and you aren't going to stop her.
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The song kicks-off, and ultimately ends with a
dynamic combination of horns. handclaps and
Gore's bursting vocal declaration of independence.
She takes a moment of teenage despair and flips the
grief into a hip-shaking, handclapping ode not only
for herself, but for every heartbroken teenage girl
out there.
The Supremes
"Where Did Our Love Go
The 1960 s was the decade of the handclap. No
doubt. I'd guesstimate that one out of every ten
songs released during the Motown-era features
handclapping or even foot-stomping. Well, luckily
for me, the Holland-Dozier-Holland-penned
"Where Did Our Love Go" is full of handclaps and
foot-stomps, both of which are maintained through
out the song. Foot-stQmper extraordinaire Mike
Valvano (who signed with Motown as a teenager
with his group Mike and the Modifiers and also
stomped on the Supremes' biggest hit, "Baby
Love,") lent his click-clacks to the track, and the
handclaps were later added the 45's single mix.
While the claps and the stomps double-dutch hack
and forth, Diana Ross' fragile coo weakens the
knees and Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson com
plement her breathy vocal with hushed background
chants of "baby-baby." While the handclaps are
prominent, they don't overshadow Ross' purring
query and Ballard and Wilson's buzzing in the back
ground, making for the perfect pop recipe.
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SAID
"Connection"
Elastica's "Connection," from their eponymous
debut record, is like a heroin injection: right from
the get-go it fills your veins, pushing and pumping
this dirty grungy pleasure through your body and
right into your unsuspecting little Britpop brain.
Lead singer Justine Frischmann's sassy sensual
growl and a catchy post-punk riff (lifted from
Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba," according to many
critics) catapulted "Connection" straight to the top
of the UK charts in 1994. Although the song is only
al
ittle over two minutes, the band is able to sneak
in some handclaps during the last fifteen seconds,
and they're synchronized perfectly with the drums,
keeping your attention long enough to make you
want to beg for more.
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The Rondelles
"T.V. Zombie'.
No, this isn't another girl group from the 19605.
Although the hand's name may give that impres
sion, the Rondelles are a modern-day garage band.
Guitarist Juliet S'w ango. bassist Yukiko Moynihan
and drummer/keyhoardist/background wailer
Oakley Munson began their descent into garage
pop-punk in the late 90s while still attending high
Elastica
Friday, February 24, 2006
school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Their sound is
raw, jerky and unique -- they combined simple gui
tar rhythms with Casio keyboard licks; their songs
are about the obvious teenage girl dilemmas: boys,
boys, boys and, urn, food fights. While the
Rondelles split up in 2001, "T.V Zombie" remains
one of their best. In 60s girl group fashion, spirited
handclaps open the song while Swango softly sings,
"I've got / A crush on a boy I know / He don't /
Know how I love him so." Those upbeat handclaps
combined with Munson's messy drumming style
and kiddy-keyboard lines and Swango's sing-along
lyrics create an infectious ode to teenage infatua
tion.
The Cure
"Close to Me"
"Close to Me" is probably one the most-recog
nized Cure songs besides their early 90s U.S. mod
ern rock hit "Friday I'm in Love." However, "Close
to Me," from 1985's The Head on the Door, is an
overlooked classic. Right from the track's opening,
frantic random handclaps, breathy background
moans and a joyous vibraphone counter Robert
Smith's sensual, soul-exposing lyrics grabs your
ears and pulls you in closer and closer until Smith
finally whispers to you: "I've waited hours for this /
I've made myself so sick / I wish I'd stayed asleep
today / I never thought that this day would end/ I
never thought that tonight could ever be / This close
to me." Soon, a fluttering flute solo flies around
Smith's vocal and, by the end of the song, hand
claps, heavy background breathing and Smith's
unintelligible mutterings are working in perfect uni-