Cee-Lo Green - 'Forget You'
Let's get the big thing out of the way first. This isn't really called 'Forget You'. It's called something far ruder. 'Forget You' is the version of the song you can play on the radio/to your gran. It's a song about telling someone to get the hecking chuff out of your face, forever more, and the most effective way of getting that point across is to uncork a bottle of swears.
This is because when you really want someone to go away because you cannot bear the sight of them, you WANT to be offensive. Sparing their finer feelings from the coarseness of your tongue is not a priority. It's not Cee-Lo's fault there's a lack of truly combative mild swear words he could have used instead.
It does, however, leave him with a problem. 'Forget You', in its original incarnation, is a brilliant song. A palpable hit. But a hit that you can't broadcast. Trouble is, editing out the offending word spoils the melody, and changing it entirely runs the risk of making the whole thing weird.
(. It's clean.)
In a lot of ways it's a shame this song wasn't written or recorded in the UK, because we've got a couple of possible replacements which still carry a little bit of venom. Not enough to get you banned or anything, and still no replacement for THE word, but still, we've got options. 'Stuff You', for example, would work pretty well. Or 'Eff You': people would think they were being cussed out by Russell Brand.
There again, it's really not in his interests to make 'Forget You' work as a song, because then it's like saying he could've left out the F-bomb from the start. And clearly, this is not the case.
So, profanity issues aside. Let's get back to the good news. Which is simply that this is an astonishing song, swears or no swears. An unashamed Motown revamp which is fit to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the very best of Motown songs. Which means it's up there with the best pop music that has EVER BEEN MADE.
In a way this is no surprise. Cee-Lo has that kind of voice. He's got the church and the dirty back alley in his throat, just like Marvin Gaye and Levi Stubbs and Smokey Robinson did. If he had done nothing but 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley, he'd be assured of pop immortality, but give him the Plan B production treatment and a song from Bruno Mars - a man who can do no wrong at the moment - and...and... is there anything better than pop immortality? He's that. Doubled. SQUARED. TIMES INFINITY. INFINITY SQUARED. PLUS ONE!
There is literally NOTHING wrong with it. From the testifying verses to the heavenly chorus to the theatrical breakdown and back, every second is crammed with perfect detail and each moment hits like an addictive kick in the ear. I'm kind of addicted to the bit where he sings "I pity the FOOOOOOOOOL who falls in love with you"...and the bit where the choir goes "AAAH" in the chorus...and the bit where he wails "WHYYYYY! WHYYYYY!"...
Basically, it's all brilliant. The clean version is brilliant, and the sweary version is brilliant plus one. Squared.
Download: Out now
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(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 6th Oct 2010, devilsadvocate wrote:Absolutley love this song... nigh on pop perfection in every possible way. From the very first note to the sign off at the end, the whole thing fits together perfectly.
Especially love singing this in the car at the minute though, I must admit, the dirty version is the best for this... Just something intoxicating about the juxtoposition of singing the invective laden chorus to the upbeat and feelgood tune...
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Comment number 2.
At 6th Oct 2010, Oliviaaa987 wrote:This is one of those songs that makes you feel defiant and happy, despite its less than happy subject.
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Comment number 3.
At 7th Oct 2010, spirit wrote:This is a HUGE single .
A fantastic vocal performance , lashings of melody , great subject matter , and strident commercial hooks .
Radio loves it , and millions of others love the original lyric .
The song will appeal to all generations due to it's classy touch .
If ever a song was gonna stop Robbie and Gary from being number 1 , it was gonna be one like this !
As pop singles go , this is almost as good as it gets .
This song should top 100,000 sales in it's first week .
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Comment number 4.
At 8th Oct 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:Despite me being a huge Tinie and Ellie fan, and they've both released some amazing songs this year...
This is the best song of 2010.
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Comment number 5.
At 12th Oct 2010, Haducon2 wrote:FINALLY! A number one that is actually half decent.
5 stars
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