Ronson & Mars score big with Uptown Funk

It looks like Bruno Mars has become the guy who can do no wrong. Just think, he has no new album out but he is still up there, on top of the Hot 100. The song is Uptown Funk!. It is the great earworm you have been hearing everywhere for weeks now. Nothing much in the lyrics. It is just boasting about being hot but it has one of the most irresistible beats ever heard. It goes like this.

“I’m too hot/ hot damn/ call the police and the fireman/ I’m too hot/ hot damn/ make a dragon wanna retire, man/ I’m too hot/ hot damn/ say my name you know who I am/ I’m too hot/ hot damn/ and my band ‘bout that money/ break it down.

“Girls hit your hallelujah (ooh) / coz uptown funk gon’ give it to ya/ ‘coz uptown funk gon’ give it to ya/ coz uptown funk gon’ give it to ya/ Saturday night and we in the spot/ don’t believe me just watch/ don’t believe me just watch/ don’t believe me just watch…”

And to what does Mars owe the new streak of success? It is all because he is one of the artists featured in Mark Ronson’s latest and big-selling album Uptown Special. Not that Mars could have refused the gig. Ronson, a Grammy winner three times over for Producer of the Year, is one of the hottest in the business. When he taps an artist to do something for one of his albums, nobody is likely to say no. Besides he really did an excellent job with Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox and I so loved his work on Locked Out Of Heaven and Gorilla. 

The stylish, very attractive Ronson is British. His stepfather is Mick Jones of the group Foreigner. He grew up privileged and attended private schools. A former DJ celebrated in elite circles, he is also a pop singer who won the Brit for Best Male Solo Artist in 2008. He has since then gone on to produce albums for Adele, Christina Aguilera, Robbie Williams and even Paul McCartney as well as himself. He was the producer of the Grammy-winning albums by Amy Winehouse, Rehab and Back To Black.

Uptown Special is light and funky, and also hip and lyrical with enchanting star turns by Stevie Wonder on his harmonica and several songs with words by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon. Ronson’s feel for the commercial is incredible and the new album is proof that being clever and innovative does not mean being complicated. After setting the mood with Wonder and Andrew Wyatt’s vocals in Uptown’s first finale, he simply breezed through one great single after another. 

The next single release from the album is Daffodils featuring Kevin Parker. Single or no single though the cuts in Uptown Special make for excellent listening. Also included are Summer Breaking feat. Kevin Parker; Feel Right feat.  Mystikal; I Can’t Lose feat. Keyone Starr; Crack In The Pearl feat. Andrew Wyatt; In Case Of Fire feat. Jeff Bhasker; Leaving Los Feliz feat. Kevin Parker; Heavy And Rolling feat. Andrew Wyatt; and Crack In The Pearl Pt. II again feat. Stevie and Bhasker, the Grammy-winning songwriter of We Are Young, Just Give Me A Reason and Locked Out Of Heaven.

And now to update music lovers on what is going on in the international music scene here are last week’s Top 20 big sellers from Billboard Magazine’s Top 200 Albums list:

Dark Sky Paradise by Big Sean; First Kiss by Kid Rock; Fifty Shades Of Grey, the motion picture soundtrack by Various Artists; If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late by Drake; 1989 by Taylor Swift; X by Ed Sheeran; Fan Of A Fan: The Album by Chris Brown and Tyga; In The Lonely Hour by Sam Smith; Smoke And Mirrors by Imagine Dragons; V by Maroon 5.

Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin; The Pink Print by Nicki Minaj; Title by Meghan Trainor; Of Beauty And Rage by Red; Hozier by Hozier; Uptown Special by Mark Ronson; Now 53 by Various Artists; American Beauty/ American Psycho by Fall Out Boy; Montevallo by Sam Hunt; and Just Kids by Mat Kearney.

The Top 20 singles in the Hot 100 hit list are the following: Uptown Funk! by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars; Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran; Sugar by Maroon 5; Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding; FourFiveSeconds by Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney; Take Me To Church by Hozier; Style by Taylor Swift; Blank Space also by Taylor Swift; Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) by The Weeknd; Time Of Our Lives by Pitbull and Ne-yo.

Lips Are Movin’ by Meghan Trainor; I Don’t Mind by Usher feat. Juicy; I’m Not The Only One by Sam Smith; Truffle Butter by Nicki Minaj feat. Drake and Lil Wayne; Centuries by Fall Out Boy; Trap Queen by Fetty Wap; I Want You To Know by Zedd feat. Selena Gomez; Only also by Nicki Minaj feat.  Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown; She Knows by Ne-Yo feat.  Juicy; and Jealous by Nick Jonas.