I Have Seen The Rain is a bonus track on the album, written by and featuring Pink’s father, James T. Moore. He wrote it when he was a soldier in the Vietnam War, but according to Pink “it’s still relevant today. It’s a soldier’s cry.” She had always wanted to record it with him and learnt to harmonize with it. She said of its recording, “He was so nervous, it was the most adorable experience for a father and daughter to share.”
LYRICS (Click image for lyrics)
Pink performed the track, with Jim Moore, in New York at the Flashmob gig in April 2006.
On This Day in Pink History… 31st March 2009, Please Don’t Leave Me was released
Please Don’t Leave Me was released on mainstream airplay in North America on 31st March 2009.
It is the third single from Pink’s fifth album Funhouse, written by Pink and Max Martin, who handled the production as well for the track. It is one of four songs from the album produced by Max Martin, with the number one single So What being another of the four. The song is a mid-tempo track that details a love-hate relationship. Pink sings of someone having a bad effect on her, yet not being able to let go of the person. She insists during the chorus, “I always say how I don’t need you, but it’s always gonna come right back to this, please don’t leave me.” The song was one of the first three to be heard and performed from Funhouse, being performed along with So What and second single, Sober, live on Much Music, prior to the album’s release.
Digital Spy gave the song a positive review: “A really good video can make you realise a song’s better than you originally thought – a case in point being the new Pink single. Within the context of her Funhouse album, ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’ seemed like a quite good angsty break-up song – one of many quite good angsty break-up songs on there – but after watching the Misery-inspired promo it becomes something far more memorable. “I can be so mean when I wanna be, I am capable of really anything,” sings Pink here, one of several lines that resonate harder once you’ve seen her brandishing a golf club, chucking her invalid boyfriend out of his wheelchair and chasing him round the house with an axe. Still, entertaining as the video is, it’s Pink’s bruised vocals – which convey the combination of bitterness and regret in her lyrics perfectly – that leave the biggest impression”.
“Please Don’t Leave Me” made a #46 debut on the Australian ARIA Charts the chart week of 19 January 2010. On the Official Australian Airplay chart, the song debuted at #8, making it the second-highest debut song ever on the chart behind Delta Goodrem’s, “In This Life” which debuted at #6 in September, 2007. In its third week on the Airplay Chart it managed to peak at #1, making it Pink’s third consecutive single to do so, and making it the first song to peak at #1 in that many weeks. In the UK it debuted at 162 in November 2008 due to the downloads of the song from its parent album (Funhouse), which was newly released that week. In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 28 in February 2009, and has peaked at number 19. The song peaked at number one in Poland. In the United Kingdom the song re-entered the chart in March 2009 at 171 due to digital sales from ‘Funhouse’ and has since reached a peak of number #12, making it her 17th top twenty hit in the UK. “Please Don’t Leave Me” climbed relatively slowly after its release in the United States. But after weeks of release spent on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Chart, the song debuted on #66 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has peaked at #17, giving Pink her third top 20 hit from Funhouse, as well as her sixth consecutive top 20 on the chart. The song has sold well digitally, entering the Hot Digital Songs chart at #70 and rising 26 spots to #44 the following week.
The music video for “Please Don’t Leave Me” was shot in late 2008, leaked to the internet in January 2009, and officially premiered on Pink’s YouTube channel soon after. It was directed by Dave Meyers. The video draws influences from the 1990 Stephen King based film Misery, as well as other similar thrillers, including Cujo, The Shining and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. It utilizes both the horror/thriller genre, while also being interpretable as a dark comedy. In February the video was named Channel V’s ‘Ripe’ clip of the week. The male lead in the video was portrayed by actor Eric Lively. Brian Christensen served as stunt coordinator, Nikki Hester as stunt double for Pink, and Justin Sundquist as stunt double for Eric Lively.
The video begins inside Pink’s house, where after a fight with her boyfriend, she is shown trying to stop him from packing his stuff in preparation to leave. He exits the bedroom with his bags, and as he reaches the stairway Pink pleads with him to stay. He refuses and turns to leave. As he does so, he slips on some marbles on the floor and endures a rough fall down the stairs. He sees Pink coming towards him down the stairs, with an innocent expression on her face, and blacks out. He awakens, bruised and swollen in bed with Pink dressed in a nursing type of uniform, stitching up one of his wounds. She dances suggestively for him, while he tries to grasp for the telephone at the bedside, only to have Pink smash his kneecaps with a golf club (a direct imitation of one of the scenes from the aforementioned movie Misery).
Pink is then shown in the kitchen preparing a salad, rapidly and angrily chopping the vegetables with a large knife. Her boyfriend awakens in bed, and attempts to sneak out through the door, but Pink catches him at the doorway. She gives him a bewildered look while holding the bowl of salad, as he debates whether or not he can escape. He opens the door, only to be instantly attacked by one of Pink’s dogs. He is next shown opening his eyes to Pink’s face yet again, as she paints his face with clownish makeup, while he sits in a wheelchair. She is wearing another lavish outfit. His hands are tied, and he is bruised and battered almost beyond recognition. Pink grabs his wheelchair, spins it around a few times and pushes it off a high step, seeming to enjoy herself in the process. He flies out of the chair, into a room filled with carnival themed objects such as horses used in a merry go round and various dolls. Pink lies on top of him, acting completely innocent, and kissing his cheek.
He manages to crawl out from under and begins to attempt another escape. Pink chases him into the garage, where she grabs an axe and continues to stalk him through the house. He reaches the upstairs bathroom, and shuts the door just in time to block Pink charging psychotically down the hallway with the axe. The axe breaks through the wood, leaving a hole in the door. Pink looks in though the hole (a direct imitation from the Stephen King-based film The Shining), as the man grabs a spray can, spraying her in the eyes. Blinded, she flails backwards, and slips on the marbles from the beginning of the video, falling over the upstairs railing. The final scene shows the paramedics taking the man out on a stretcher, and Pink lying on the floor with her leg broken and the axe beside her. She gives him one final look of desperation not to leave as he is wheeled out, before blowing a kiss to the camera with a comically psychotic look on her face.
Conversations With My 13-Year-Old Self was written by Pink and Billy Mann.
Pink described track thirteen, Conversations with My 13 Year Old Self, as a “huge therapy session” that addresses her “pissed-off, complicated” younger self. She said of writing the song, “I needed a hug, and I get it … now. If I tried to hug my 13-year-old self, she’d try to kick my ass, and then she’d collapse and cry.”
On This Day in Pink History… 27th March 2001, Lady Marmalade was released
In 2001, Lady Marmalade was featured as part of a medley in the film Moulin Rouge!. For the film’s soundtrack album, Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa, and Pink recorded a cover version; it was released as the soundtrack’s first single in spring 2001. Produced by Missy Elliott and writing partner Rockwilder, it features an intro and outro from Elliott. A lyric was changed from the original version, with the song’s setting being transferred from New Orleans to the Paris nightclub Moulin Rouge. The song became a number-one hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for the second time, reaching number one in its eighth week and spending five weeks at the top of the chart. It was the third song in Billboard chart history (after Aaliyah’s 2000 single Try Again and Shaggy’s 2001 single Angel) to hit number one without being released in a major commercially available single format. Lady Marmalade was Aguilera’s fourth US number-one single and first-time number-ones for Kim, Pink, and Mýa in the US. For Aguilera, the song would be her last number one until 2011’s Moves Like Jagger collaboration with Maroon 5. It would be Pink’s only number-one hit until 2008, when her single So What reached the top. It remained in the top forty for seventeen weeks in the US, and topped the charts in fifteen different countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia. The song also holds the record for the longest reigning no.1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart for an all female collaboration, topping the chart for nine consecutive weeks. Lady Marmalade is the best-selling single for Lil’ Kim and Mýa. Lil’ Kim also held the record for having the longest number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 for a female rapper, with Lady Marmalade being on the top of the charts for 5 consecutive weeks, until Australian female rapper Iggy Azalea’s Fancy held on to the number one position for 7 weeks in 2014. Lady Marmalade was the top selling song of 2001 and has sold 5.2 million copies worldwide as of December 2001.
Allmusic’s Brand Kohlenstein praised the song by highlighting it, adding that the ladies “teamed up for a surefire hit with their naughtier version of Patti Labelle’s “Lady Marmalade.”” Slant Magazine editor praised the collaboration, too: “the track is simply an accolade to the performers’ various distinctive styles, with Lil’ Kim trashing it up and Aguilera caterwauling her way through the second half of the song.”
The music video, directed by Paul Hunter, features all four performers in lingerie (rapper Missy Elliott makes a couple of small appearances.) and was filmed at the end of March 2001 on sets (Los Angeles) built to resemble the actual Moulin Rouge night club around the turn of the century (1890–1910). The video won the MTV Video Music Award for “Best Video of the Year” and “Best Video from a Film”; it was also nominated for “Best Dance Video”, “Best Pop Video”, “Best Choreography” (Tina Landon), and “Best Art Direction”. The song won a 2002 Grammy Award in the category of “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals”.
Live in Europe is an amazing performance from the 2004 Try This tour. The concert is jam-packed with hits including “There You Go”, “Lady Marmalade”, “Don’t Let Me Get Me”, Get The Party Started”, a medley of Janis Joplin songs including “Summertime”, Me And Bobby McGee” and so much more!
Shot in High Definition, you will feel like you are in the front row of this amazing performance. Live in Europe is a spectacular show and will take you on a wild ride from beginning to end. This DVD also includes “On The Road With P!nk”, P!nk’s candid perspective of life on tour. P!nk brings you inside her mind, her thoughts and takes you on her journey. Enjoy the ride!
On This Day in Pink History... 