How many versions of marvins room

Remember " Need You Now "? It was our last really big hit about drunk dialing. A lot of people liked it a lot. It won four Grammys and is beloved among the sort of people who are impressed by multiple Grammys. And not just them--it's among the most downloaded songs in history. It's a hit, but it isn't a meme. The problem is, "Need You Now" is too pretty and too safe. Hillary Scott's drunk dialing seems like the product of a nice glass of red wine and a nice long stare out a nicely curtained window.

Even when Charles Kelley upgrades to whiskey, he doesn't sound like he's had very much. Because they've got such good spirits, it's no surprise when they start singing in celebratory unison, presumably get together and presumably get back together, possibly for good.

Scan the YouTube faces if you're skeptical. As critic Andy Hutchins wrote at the Village Voice , if you want a song to draw this sort of buzz, then adolescents have to identify with it. And many teens identify with binge drinking and confused thoughts.

And with the number of people involved dozens, if you count Drake's flings and the degree to which Drake's being a jackass, there are near-infinite ways to relate to this song and sing about it. Drake isn't the most compelling part of "Marvin's Room"--the one thing all the remakes have in common, after all, is that he's not in them.

Much more interesting is Noah "40" Shebib's production, as moody as anything he's ever done. It's the sound of sighing and of repeating the same thoughts over and over. It goes nowhere, and there's almost nothing to it. From a practical standpoint, this makes "Marvin's Room" easy to loop and remix , and from a performance standpoint, it means the track works no matter what or how much emoting a singer brings to it.

It's far enough into summer that stuff like the cheery, stupid " Party Rock Anthem " can hit No. Its confidence lies in its inebriety; its ultimate devolving and apology swirls as rapidly as the room does after one drink too many.

The chart statistics were already in his corner: he scored a No. But rather than come out firing, Drake opted for a ballad on top of synth-swimming, single bass drum-thumping production. Though 40 recalls insisting on the day of recording that the beat was a work in progress, Drake immediately heard the backing track as a final product.

I just started! Other perceived-as-unfinished components to the track made the final cut as well. Though he expected to later recreate the piece on a grand piano, he praises Drake for knowing only one take was needed. I am doing this for the people not your label.

We have to put it on the album. But the behind-the-scenes emotional decisions made about the track merely echo its content.

A drunken, late hours phone call to an ex is never an unblemished, elegantly-executed work of art. In alone, Lil Wayne , Chris Brown and JoJo all remixed the track, with countless others piling on in the ensuing years. Search term. Billboard Pro Subscribe Sign In. Top Artists.