This is my husband’s birthday week, so I want everybody to send Positive Birthday Energy his way. I’m doing my part by making a two-fer starting with one of his favorites: “Happy Birthday” by Altered Images.
It’s tricky (to rock around and) build a playlist of birthday songs, because it seems like every musician ever saw how much money Mariah Carey has been raking in, and they want to corner the market on birthday greetings. Not all of them are solid, though.
My favorite has always been The Beatles’ version, but it’s kind of overplayed at this point. Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday” is a close second, but ever since I found out it’s in honor of Dr Martin Luther King, and not universal well wishes, it feels like appropriation. And The Sugarcubes’ “Birthday” is one of their best songs, but a large part of it is about a woman killing and connecting bugs and worms, so it doesn’t feel very festive.
I think K-Pop has delivered another banger, though: I only just found “Birthday” by Red Velvet, and this video has everything. The gang infiltrates some kind of private freakshow led by a Gingerbread Man and apparently consisting of the band Miike Snow from the “Animal” video, with a Yeti housekeeper, a giant cat, and a dragon.
Pop pop the champagne! Dream bigger, birthday party!
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