Slow Down (Bobby Valentino song)

"Slow Down" is the debut single by American singer Bobby Valentino from his first self-titled album Bobby Valentino. Produced by Tim & Bob, it spent four consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and has since been certified Gold by the RIAA. The single also peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as number four in the United Kingdom. The music video was directed by Erik White. The official remix features rapper Nas. It is his most successful single to date. The album version contains a string sample of "A Way of Life" by Hans Zimmer, taken from the 2003 movie soundtrack "The Last Samurai". The International Remix Version was produced by Tim & Bob as well and contains an interpolation of Jodeci's 1994 hit "Cry For You".

Official versions

Charts

References

Slow Down (album)

Slow Down is the fourth studio album by the blues performer Keb' Mo' released in August 1998. In 1999, Slow Down won Keb' Mo' his second Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The album includes the song "Rainmaker" which shares its title with the album Rainmaker, made by Keb' Mo' under his birth name "Kevin Moore".

Track listing

Personnel

Boy Blue (Electric Light Orchestra song)

"Boy Blue" is a song written by Jeff Lynne and performed by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) which first appeared as track number 3 from their 1974 album Eldorado.

The album version of the song starts with a Baroque-style brass fanfare – reminiscent of Jeremiah Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March" (ca. 1700) — and then develops into a minimoog sequence before the song properly begins. The song includes a midway solo of the band's three string players. At the end of the song the string instruments quickly fade, immediately leading into the LP's fourth track "Laredo Tornado".

Bassist Mike de Albuquerque featured on the song but it is unknown just how many tracks he contributed to on the album as he left the band during the recording sessions.

"Mike de Albuquerque left the group after the recording session of Eldorado, on which his mighty voice could be heard for the last time on an E.L.O. record in the sixth verse of Boy Blue." — Patrik Guttenbacher, Marc Haines, & Alexander von Petersdorff (1996 Unexpected Messages).

Boy Blue (Cyndi Lauper song)

"Boy Blue" is a pop song written by Cyndi Lauper, Stephen Broughton Lunt, and Jeff Bova for Lauper's second album True Colors (1986).

It was released as the album's fourth single in 1987 (see 1987 in music). The single version is a remix (which cuts much of Lauper's more impressive vocal wailing, presumably in effort to make it more commercially accessible). Charting at #71 on the Hot 100, it was Lauper's first solo single that failed to make a real impact on the charts. Proceeds from the sale of the single were donated to AIDS organizations.

The official video was a live clip of the song in Paris, France and it was pulled from the concert video Cyndi Lauper in Paris. The video received heavy airplay on MTV when the single was released (during June and July 1987) and was rarely played after. A live version of "Boy Blue" was later released as the B-side of her single "Hole in My Heart (All the Way to China)".

Song information

Thematically like "True Colors" on the album, Lauper wrote this song for a friend who died of AIDS, and the title comes from a poem by Eugene Field called "Little Boy Blue". This poem is based on a kid's story:

Boy Blue (Fables)

Boy Blue is a major character in the Vertigo comic book series Fables. He is based on the nursery rhyme character Little Boy Blue. At the beginning of the series, he is portrayed as an efficient but meek office clerk helping Snow White run Fabletown; however, he has a colorful and violent history that is gradually revealed as the series goes on.

Appearance

Throughout Fables, Boy Blue is depicted as a young man in his mid-to-late teens with blue eyes and blond hair. In Fabletown, he has his hair cut short and wears modern clothes in his signature color. He usually has a modern, valved trumpet of some kind on or near his person. He wears Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

In flashbacks, notably "The Last Castle," Boy Blue is shown as a medieval squire or page in blue livery, with hair that touches his shoulders.

During "Homelands," Blue, when not transformed or in disguise, is drawn with a blue cloth mask tied over his hair and the top half of his face, matching the dark blue color of the Witching Cloak. He carries a blowing horn. When Blue takes the shape of an animal for travel or concealment, the color blue usually remains prominent in some way: he is shown once as a mouse with a blue traveling cloak and repeatedly as a bird with blue feathers. It is not revealed whether this is because of Blue's affinity for the color or an inherent trait of the Witching Cloak.