When lost gems find fresh sparkle
Miguel is from a long line of soul and R&B artists who can write and deliver great songs and anthems with ease.
Songs can get a resurgence through many different ways. I wrote last year about how many have done so through movies and tv ads. When I was a kid the classics of decades past got a new lease of life this way and it helped introduce me to some of my favourite artists. Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Dawn Penn and many others, enjoyed huge hits decades after they originally released some of these songs.
Other songs come back into pop culture through sampling and covers and there’s plenty of occasions where the original track gets superseded by the reworking. The purists may not like this but it’s always been the way, and some covers are simply just so good they can’t be denied. Aretha Franklin put her own spin on “Respect” by Otis Redding, turning it into a feminist anthem of empowerment, and it’s her version that is best known over 50 years on.
In hip-hop terms the Fugees gave “Killing me softly” a simple yet joyous update, and while the classic Roberta Flack version still remains iconic, it’s now lessor known than Lauryn Hills immaculate rendition in 2023. Ironically, Roberta herself covered the track, which has long, complicated and disputed origins, but which was originally recorded by Lori Lieberman 25 years before the Fugees hit. Flack and the Fugees have even performed it together. Similarly, Stevie Wonder put initial distaste for Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” aside and gave it his backing, and even performed the track with the rapper at the Billboard and Grammy awards. The track was a modern update of Stevie’s “Pastime Paradise” and became even better known that the original, from one of the greatest albums of all time, “Songs in the key of life”.
There are numerous other great stories of older tracks gained new audiences and in recent months I was impressed to hear by teenage daughter bopping to a big favourite of mine from 2010. I certainly had “Sure Thing” by Miguel in heavy rotation when it was out, and it comes from one of my favourite albums of the time, his debut. She was only a baby at the time and while she no doubt absorbed the great music that was always around, I’m gonna give tik-tok the credit for this new lease of life for a classic r&b cut. “Sure thing” has recently gone viral on the platform, and it’s so popular that Miguel has just re-released it with alternate versions, including sped-up and slowed mixes that reflect the various styles that youngsters digest this tune in over 12 years on.
Miguel has raced to a global viral hit and it’s his biggest success to date in a long and impressive career. He has embraced the resurgence head too; “I’m really excited for this song to be getting recognition. Thank you to everyone who’s supported on Tiktok and created new memories with the song. It’s all I could ever ask for”.
The song, which has always been an underground staple for me and my DJing sets, shows the power of not just the social media platform, but of great music. I don’t care of it’s sped up or slowed, (though I prefer the original), it’s still a great testament to Miguel as a songwriter and to the song itself, that kids are bumping it 12 years on. I’ve always said that people will like great music if they get exposed to it. This is the perfect example.
Radio and the music industry as a whole often plays it safe, and many great tracks and artists don’t get their full recognition because they don’t get exposed. Sometimes the timing isn’t right, and sometimes the marketing and image means more than the music. Sometimes the artists are simply too far ahead of the game, and this track, which ironically had a retro feel in 2011, sounds even better now. Many compared Miguel to r&b singer Jon B at the time, maybe now the younger generation will seek out this great artist too. Once you get into great music it often leads to an amazing journey that can go literally anywhere.
Miguel is from a long line of soul and r&b artists who can write and deliver great songs and anthems at ease, and he’s had numerous wonderful tunes over his career. He’s always willing to innovate too, and much of his work is quite experimental. The music industry has always been about youth culture since day one, and it’s really cool that the youngsters of 2022 and 2023 have spearheaded a situation where “Sure Thing” is finally getting the attention it deserved first time around!
