Thank you very much for hosting dandy*, and for this theme, this was such an enjoyable edition to be a part of. I was excited from early on because I do have a history of listening quite a lot to various singer-songwriters, from Alanis to Stina Nordenstam to Tori Amos to Fiona Apple to Linda Perhacs to Joni Mitchell, etc. Not to mention the ones that nobody here has probably ever heard of haha. (Beth Waters and Sarah Slean, for example xo)

So yeah it was nice to come sit round the fire in the sharing of these songs ❤️

Oh and btw, whilst I did manipulate the voting order a bit - it really was incredibly close up until the final few hours when Leonard Cohen suddenly rocketed ahead, which was odd as after the news midweek I did half expect Dolly Parton to do that... there was definitely a trend of higher votes after the sad news but who knows whether that actually impacted or not? The song was good so I'm sure it would have done really well either way. But yes, the main reason the votes order a bit was actually to make more of you think you were in with a chance for a bit longer, in reality it became clear really quite quickly that we were going to end up with a Leonard/Melanie/Dolly top 3 in some order (with the only exception being early doors when Alanis was definitely keeping pace) and I was worried it would make nearly everyone tune out!

As I have well documented, I have had several hits in this contest which have come close - three 2nd places, two 3rds and a 4th - so I'm delighted that I'll finally receive that adorable jukebox widget! However to do so with the late great Leonard means a lot - there's a lot of his catalogue I've yet to delve into, and even this song continues to intrigue me as to everything that was behind it, but he always seemed to be one step ahead.

It's perhaps bittersweet that my entry may have denied Dolly a win - and I would say it's almost certainly unprecedented that such a hugely prominent and admired artist passes away during their appearance in the voting stage of a contest on Buzzjack, but as mentioned in my PM, I had already settled on my 10 points for 'Coat Of Many Colors' at that point, as I was captivated by the clarity and sincerity of the song - thank you Spiceboy for the discovery. Melanie's song was a great discovery too, well done dandy on a podium spot, and that is a great top 10 all round 💓

Thank you again to the 23 voters, and thanks dandy for the theme and your hosting! It will be my pleasure to host the 15th edition of this contest, sometime this autumn - now to think up a new theme!

Thanks dandy for this.

Congrats Jim, glad to see my favourite song won.

Also, I think I have @Riser to thank for my song discovery from some years ago he shared it in a 30 Day Song Challenge I think. Thanks for any support for Natalie.

33 minutes ago, Bror said:

They're just my trademark x

(ask @blacksquare )

LOL omg just checked my notificiations and it is FULL of @blacksquare with shocked reactions! 😮😂

Hooray for late voters! That's definitely slightly less bad than it was looking earlier and I'm glad some people did see something in it, and it's not often I get wooden spoons these days so I'll take it to hang on my mantle x

That's a fantastic looking top 10 overall, especially with my 10 and 12 back to back and quite a few others I voted for, nice to see Exuma there as well. PJ Harvey deserved better though!

Thanks Dandy for the excellent hosting!

Oh one last thing I should mention is that Chez's entry actually left zero points earlier than my order showed - I didn't realise it had that effect until it was too late to turn back on the order... sorry Chez!

...but there was a track that I genuinely worried was going to end on zero - Matto's entry was on zero right up until the final day I think (or maybe final two) so I was really fearing potentially having another nil pointer, then it got a 12 out of nowhere!

Ok so catching up on other people's entry reveals that I wanted to comment on ~

- Not surprised at Jade being one of the people to dig back to the 60s and also not surprised at her bringing out a great hidden gem <3 liked this considerably more than the actual Kate Bush entry in this oop.

- Iris DeMent being Chez was another curveball, not the kind of music I am usually into (although I suppose Big Thief/Adrianne Lenker isn't too far off and I enjoy some of their music) but I came very close to giving it a point in the end, oops that it was on 0 as of your votes being announced but at least it did get a few fans in the end x

- Gorgeous entry from dhwe and very interesting backstory there so thanks for providing that context! My very first entry to this contest was actually kind of similar in that it was an older recording that was technically not actually released until the 21st century.

- Rollo of course being behind the one song that I knew well already (even if it turned out there was another song I had already heard and forgot about), great choice though. And stands to reason that if you weren't Fish then you would be one of the long songs instead, albeit not quite the longest as Laurie Anderson had Elvis beat.

- Speaking of Laurie, oof at her song being another to be in last place at the time of its unveiling - I wasn't too kind to it at the SyncTube listenthrough but I don't know what I was thinking after listening a second time, it all clicked with me way more then. Reminds me a bit of Animal Collective's 'Banshee Beat' which I gave high points to in BJSC!

- After a number of quite surprising song reveals at least we could count on Nine and Cow to end up actually being predictable hehe. (Both very respectable entries though, as I said before a bold choice to go with a non-English language song for a contest ostensibly focused on the lyrics - and ended up working out very well for Nine!)

Thrilled with a top 10 finish for Exuma - my second in a row in this contest which after a quick consult of the archive thread is something I have never managed before. The song certainly stood out as something quite special for me from my first listen but I had absolutely no idea if that would translate to anyone else, I knew it was likely to stand out from the rest of the field but didn't know if that'd be in a largely negative way or not haha! No golds in the end but 4 medals is a good haul, thanks to @CowTzy and @Dobbo for the silvers (and the latter for a bit of unexpected sort of winner hype x), @dhwe and @nine¾ for the bronzes and @dandy*, @King Rollo, @Chez Wombat, @Herbs (!), @Jade, @Julian_, @Popchartfreak, @jimwatts and @matto for the rest of the points! Not sure I'd agree actually about it being the most obscure song in the contest, it does have a 9 figure stream count on Spotify and as I mentioned in my votes the parent album has a pretty sizeable cult following on the RateYourMusic circles of the interwebs, I've certainly dug far deeper for song contest entries before! But I don't think anyone mentioned having already heard it so still rather satisfied to have provided a good discovery to so many x

I didn't vote for either of the top 2 in the end and only gave 1 point to the third place finisher whoops - obviously can't begrudge a good result for Dolly Parton here though and happy that Melanie held onto a good result. Great to see Scott Walker in the top 5 and Sibylle Baier and Laura Nyro making the top 10 as well! My 12 pointer Joan Osborne falling a bit short but still top half. Pretty disappointing results for Elvis Costello and PJ Harvey who I'd definitely have expected to do a bit better, and would have wanted better for Laurie Anderson as well but clearly not the most instant song which doesn't help. Poor brave Iris didn't deserve to come last either!

Thanks Dandy for the hosting, sorry for indirectly pressuring you to rush into results a day earlier than you planned ooops (although not as sorry for directly pressuring you to correct the scoreboard at the end hehe), was a lot of fun to read through / catch up with after I lost track a bit anyway! And shall very much be looking forward to Jim's hosting next time and what theme he may concoct. x

Congratualtions to @jimwatts - this song was really one which stood out for me.

Thanks to @dandy* for the great presentation of the results - this was really beautiful.

Thanks to all voters for PJ Harvey. Well, the topic was really not so much for me as I am no big fan of singer-songwriter music aka a man with his acoustic guitar. So it was not that easy for me to find something fitting. PJ Harvey came quicly to my mind as she is one of my favourite artists of the 90's. I initially submitted "Down By The Water", which would have fir perfectly to the topic. It reached only #38 in the UK charts and was initially eligible. Later on it became ineligible because it had too much streams in comparison to the other songs submitted. So I could keep PJ Harvey but had to choose another song. My choice was "50 ft Queenie", but I was unaware that this was from the time where PJ Harvey was a group and not PJ alone.

So if I could turn back time I would have gone for another artist - the french chansonnier George Brassens.

Congratulations @jimwatts for a brilliant win, well deserved! I love First We Take Manhattan, it was one of the few I had heard before the contest and was literally my 11th place song, so it really only just missed some votes, sorry! The nominations were such a high level of quality, thanks to everyone involved. Congratulations also to @Spiceboy and @dandy* for the podium places.

Special thanks to @dandy* for a great topic, excellent presentation and also for my first ever 12 points! Rufus Wainwright is the greatest songwriter of his generation IMO, so I always felt I’d like to choose one of his songs, and because the qualifying period was 20th Century it meant I had to pick from his debut album. April Fools is my favourite from that era, though I was a bit concerned about it being uptempo, and that it might not fit with everyone’s idea of a ‘singer songwriter song’. 18th is not bad though, so thanks to anyone who gave me votes, including @Spiceboy for 8!

Great fun all round, already looking forward to the next one, thanks guys!

What a great result again for myself! Glad this one worked out as I was really quite struggling with this theme and this entry was about the only one that struck me at all on a Spotify playlist I came across. Perhaps it being the earliest release here played to its advantage as it made it stand out an extra bit. In fact that's 3 of the last 4 entries of mine which were from the 60s (one of which was enforced of course) and all have finished in the top 10. Big thanks to the big supporters, you rock!

Super happy also that Leonard Cohen won, that song is an absolute belter and really sounds impressively contemporary even now. I know his vocals are often subject to criticism but that production was head and shoulders above everything else. Didn't expect that to landslide at all though, congrats jimwatts! Exuma top 10 we also love to see, I made my thoughts on that one clear already, best discovery here easily. Just a shame Youssou was a bit low for my liking, also stood out here and was incredibly catchy.

1 minute ago, Jaz13music said:

Congratulations @jimwatts for a brilliant win, well deserved! I love First We Take Manhattan, it was one of the few I had heard before the contest and was literally my 11th place song, so it really only just missed some votes, sorry! The nominations were such a high level of quality, thanks to everyone involved. Congratulations also to @Spiceboy and @dandy* for the podium places.

Special thanks to @dandy* for a great topic, excellent presentation and also for my first ever 12 points! Rufus Wainwright is the greatest songwriter of his generation IMO, so I always felt I’d like to choose one of his songs, and because the qualifying period was 20th Century it meant I had to pick from his debut album. April Fools is my favourite from that era, though I was a bit concerned about it being uptempo, and that it might not fit with everyone’s idea of a ‘singer songwriter song’. 18th is not bad though, so thanks to anyone who gave me votes, including @Spiceboy for 8!

Great fun all round, already looking forward to the next one, thanks guys!

I have to be honest, I am not a Rufus Wainwright fan at all but that song was so catchy, I enjoyed it a lot!

1 hour ago, DaTilt said:

...I was unaware that this was from the time where PJ Harvey was a group and not PJ alone.

Tbf, it's unusual to have a band name that's your own name, and then move on to be a solo artist with the same name! I was aware that her Dry and Rid of Me eras were officially a band, but I still tend to think of them as just PJ Harvey herself lol

--

As dandy* knows, I was very close to entering this Alanis song btw, I think it definitely would've done a lot better than 'Little Star' 🥲 I thought it could maybe even win 😆 I just felt like it would be too 'obvious' for me and I wanted to enter someone slightly lesser-known. Of course Alanis got my 12 anyway.

i got round to listening to the Jennifer Warnes version of Manhattan this morning and I must say, it left me thoroughly WHELMED.

Not me preferring a male vocal for once

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by Lee_J11

Tbh I had concerns that sibylle would get lost in the mix considering it’s a pretty understated folk song and it appears early in the running so ending up in 6th is such a pleasant surprise for me! I’m so glad it made that much of an impression to those who voted for it 💕 ty dandy for the wonderful hosting and congrats to Jim on the win! but of course I have to shout out matto for picking stina, she has such a wonderful, fragile voice, and I loved the song ❤️

Thanks for all the voters that gave Gabrielle a top 10 finish. This song lyrically is about a friend of Gabrielle’s coming to terms with being a lesbian. This song is not remembered for this message and charted poorly #23 after the huge success of Give Me A Little More Time.

The record company filmed a video to a daft punk remix which is not very good. This could be one of the reasons why it underperformed.

I know some members thought this song should have been vetoed , thanks to the mods it wasnt :). Some songs in this contest were hits in many countries…

As already mentioned the quality of this contest really stood out!

Congratulations @jimwatts

@dandy* amazing theme and hosting

@Herbs that Alanis song is likely to become one of my fav songs off all time!!

17 hours ago, King Rollo said:

I was fairly sure that Popchartfreak was Scott Walker. It was a good discovery from him with the same big orchestration that the Walker Brothers had on their hits.

I am quite the fan and could easily have opted for Scott but a lot of my fave tracks are covers 😮

17 hours ago, gooddelta said:

Thanks to the voters so far and apologies to those who had heard it before, I completely forgot that The Lion was sent to the BJSC 80s spin-off until Jade mentioned it! I did a site search too and couldn’t find mention of it. I know that sub forum is rather hidden away.

Shamefully I even voted high for it at the time so feel a bit silly now as I was really happy with this as a kind of leftfield entry for this theme, but now it just looks a bit uninspired! Memory issues…

Also just wanted to say huge props to Dandy and Jim, absolutely fantastic discoveries and it’s great to give my top points to songs doing so well.

I only knew two songs by Melanie too and this was such a revelation.

While I’ve never really been into Leonard Cohen at all, yet this is great and so is the song of his Tom Jones covered and is at No.1 on iTunes with which I only heard yesterday for the first time.

Well speaking for myself, I'm relieved to find its not just me who forgets whats been sent in before! Now I don't feel so alone....😄

Great to see melanie doing so well as I catch up. I had this track on a CD various artists compilation from the 80's but only really took note of it in 2020. She has loads of great tracks from the early 70's, and her big hit is not typical. The Leonard Cohen track I first got into via a Jennifer Warnes 80's cover of it which was the first time I'd really noticed Leonard Cohen, but a lot of friends are big fans.

17 hours ago, Chez Wombat said:

Oh my, am I about to join Jester in the 0 Points club?

This is quite an against type entry from me, I discovered it through being the theme song to The Leftovers (a show I was really enjoying, but sadly haven't been able to continue it because I don't have access to Sky anymore, maybe one day!) and I really liked the simple, string-laden composition and the lyrics, while fitting the show very well, also have a great faith-based theme of just letting some mysteries stay hidden and enjoy the time you have.

Saying that, I can't say I'm that surprised it's not doing that well, it's more of a grower than an instant standout and this was a very crowded field with some big names, I hope at least one person kind of liked it...!

Anyway, a wonderful entry from Jade, that was a great example of 60s experimental pop. That's also a great top 3 of which I voted for all of them (and Dolly was lovely too, Iit may have hit me a bit more than expected had I waited a few more days to vote!)

I bought an Iris Dement album after seeing a video for Our Town on MTV Country in the early 90's, and I rather like her so disappointing she's struggling for votes. The album was good and Our Town is still very good.

As Severin mentions, I hope everyone realised Kate's track is a comedy piss-take of Hollywood gifted to Comic Strip Presents....I thought it would make a change from what I was expecting to be a lot of down-beat entries 🙂

sorry I missed the live announcements, thought it was tonight oops! Thanks for the hosting dandy, very exciting and a great contest and top 3 thoroughly deserved the medals, well done Jim, condolences Spiceboy, and thanks to everyone bunging Kate some points especially her two maximum pointers 🥰I hope she's inspired to do another comedy show theme - my choice, Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, please Kate. Thanks!