Monday September 20, 2021 “Hey Ya!” Outkast
Rolling Stone released their revised and updated list of the “500 Best Songs of All Time” recently and as with any list it has stirred significant controversy, many questions and started lots of conversations.
To create the new version of the RS 500 they convened a poll of more than 250 artists, musicians, and producers as well as figures from the music industry and leading critics and journalists. They each sent in a ranked list of their top 50 songs and from those lists of over 4,000 songs RS compiled their 500 Best Songs of All Time.
Let's take a look at six of the top ten on the RS list this week and see if you agree with their choices.
The number ten song is “Hey Ya!” by Outkast, actually Andre 3000 who you will note in the video is everyone, at least everyone in the band. To say this high energy first single from Outkast’s 2003 album Speakerboxxx was a huge hit would be understatement. It was number one for nine consecutive weeks and played on the radio in basically every broadcast format imaginable.
“Hey Ya!” was also the first song to achieve a million downloads way back when those downloads cost .99. It also won a grammy for Song of the Year. After Andre 3000 sang "Shake it like a Polaroid picture," Polaroid issued the statement warning, "Shaking or waving can actually damage the image." And when Andre 3000 was asked what the lyric meant he simply replied he didn’t know, it just came into his head.
This is definitely an earworm, I promise you will be hearing “shake it like a Polaroid picture” in your head all day long, your welcome.
Stay safe and well...and any time you need a boost of energy I recommend a mocha frappuccino while listening to “Hey Ya!” Not a plug for Starbucks.