First, the holiday. Thanksgiving is most associated with turkey, so perhaps it's no coincidence that the latest offering from Ark Productions could be best described as a giant Thanksgiving bird. The man who gave the world Rebecca Black and the anti-hit "Friday," Patrice Wilson, has returned, this time with an 11-year-old girl named Nicole Westbrooke, who sings his song "It's Thanksgiving."
Wilson, who heads Ark Productions, specializes in writing songs and making videos for young girls who dream of being stars, and the parents willing to pay thousands of dollars for said video. It's a brilliant, if somewhat creepy, business plan that seems to take advantage of innocent dreams. But it did launch Black into (very temporary) stardom, and it has landed Westbrooke a TV appearance.
Warning: it's a terrible song by any standard, and the performance is pretty much what you'd expect from a sweet, sincere 11-year-old girl with perhaps a smidgen of talent and way too much makeup. But though it's only been posted since the beginning of November, it's already received nearly 9 million hits. Proof once again that radio is no longer relevant when it comes to music - YouTube is king.
The second song is performed by musical giants - Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, otherwise known as Steely Dan. This song is off their 1975 album "Katy Lied," and is called Black Friday.
The song is actually about a huckster who plans to scam a pile of money and flee to Australia, there to spend a life of luxury with his booty. But it's got the title of the post-Thanksgiving shopping spree, also called Black Friday, so it was an opportunity to balance the very bad performance of "It's Thanksgiving" with the musically razor-sharp Steely Dan.
Enjoy the double play. And enjoy your Sunday.
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