Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.
Perpetually No. 1 is a Billboard sequence that pays particular tribute to the not too long ago deceased artists who achieved the best honor our charts have to supply — a Billboard Sizzling 100 No. 1 single — by taking an prolonged look again on the chart-topping songs that made them a part of this unique membership. Right here, we honor the late Loopy City frontman Shifty Shellshock by taking a look at their lone No. 1 as a bunch: the surprisingly good and candy rap-rock staple “Butterfly.”
By 2001, rap-rock and nu-metal had lengthy since taken over the world. From the mid-’90s peak of Rage In opposition to the Machine and instruments-era Beastie Boys by way of the late-’90s takeover of KoRn and Limp Bizkit and the ultimately diamond-certified breakthrough of Linkin Park’s 2000 debut LP Hybrid Concept, bands mixing loud guitars with aggressive rhymes and copious record-scratching grew into a really huge piece of the music business. They contaminated TRL and dominated Woodstock ’99 and terrified your Backstreet-and-Britney-worshipping youthful siblings. However they didn’t get to No. 1 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 till Loopy City.
To some extent, that’s not shocking. The dawn-to-dusk of all the nu-metal period transpired when radio was nonetheless king on the charts, and prime 40 airplay particularly shaped the form of the Sizzling 100. Most of the style’s largest bands had been heavy and abrasive sufficient that they struggled to even safe common different rock airplay, let alongside crossover playlisting on the pop stations. These teams usually outsold the pop hitmakers on the prime of the Sizzling 100, however they weren’t a very imposing risk to their supremacy on the airwaves. That was notably true as a result of, not like within the hair metallic period of the late ’80s and early ’90s — the prior interval the place onerous rock performed an clearly central function in music’s mainstream — few, if any of those bands made room for energy ballads or love songs between their ragers, the type of songs that might broaden each their radio attain and their demographic enchantment. In different (extremely reductive) phrases, none of those bands of offended younger dudes wrote songs for ladies.
Loopy City did, although. Or no less than, they wrote one, for one girl: “Butterfly,” co-penned by group frontman Seth Binzer — identified professionally as Shifty Shellshock, who died this week at age 49 — was impressed by a brand new girlfriend who made him take a second have a look at his historically misogynistic lyrical content material. “I used to be in love [with her,] and she or he was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?’” Shellshock recalled to Fred Bronson in The Billboard E book of Quantity One Hits. “In order that made me give you the idea of writing a track to her. As an alternative of writing a male chauvinistic track, I used to be going to jot down one thing good and candy to a woman I cared about.”
The lyrics to “Butterfly” are certainly good and candy — notably in comparison with distinctly un-Hallmark prior Loopy City singles like “Poisonous” (“F–okay the critics, we depart them hanging like INXS”) and “Darkside” (“Unearthin’ untamed perversion/ My unhealthy mind’s workin’, circle-jerkin’”). Quite, “Butterfly” celebrates the titular love curiosity with a sequence of straightforwardly romantic and decently heartfelt verse tributes (“I used to assume that joyful endings had been solely within the books I learn/ However you made me really feel alive after I was virtually useless”) and a refrain hook (“You’re my butterfly, sugar child”) worthy of The Archies. A couple of questionable couplets, particularly one from co-lead Brett “Epic” Mazur evaluating him and his meant to storied punk lovers Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen — who died by murder-suicide on the former’s hand — invariably opened the track as much as Awesomely Dangerous-type ribbing. However so far as twenty first century mainstream rock love songs go, it’s really fairly touching.
Extra essential than the lyrics, although, was that the track sounded particularly good and candy. Whereas the overwhelming majority of signature nu-metal anthems had been confrontational head-bangers, the beat to “Butterfly” is a slow-and-low shuffle, with the record-scratching largely contained to a background flourish. And whereas nobody would mistake Shellshock’s rapped lead for one in every of 98 Levels, his come-ons properly hew nearer to mild invitation than yawped insistence; essentially the most putting vocals on all the track come by way of the complementary toneless backing whispers on the hook (“You make me go CRAZY….“)
However what actually offers “Butterfly” its wings is the Crimson Sizzling Chili Peppers pattern. In actual fact, by way of each inspiration and utility, you may make the case for it being one of many 10 most vital pop samples of all the twenty first century — it’s onerous to consider too many different hits this huge the place the elevate was this important to each the make-up of the track and the rationale for it withdrawing. Particularly as a result of its supply is directly each extremely apparent (a largely shirtless bunch of SoCal rap-rockers discovering kinship with an RHCP monitor, duh) and remarkably obscure: The percolating bass, weightless guitars and rising-sun horns of “Butterfly” are looped not from one of many Chili Peppers’ hits, however from a pre-crossover 1989 deep lower known as “Fairly Little Ditty,” a disorientingly attractive four-measure sample that briefly materializes mid-song and disappears for good instantly after.
Whereas the mini-groove was only a flash of divinity within the unique “Ditty,” it makes up the entire musical backbone of “Butterfly,” operating all through all the monitor. Mazur admitted to Bronson he by no means anticipated to get the pattern cleared, given the band’s conventional reticence for approving such recycling of their songs, saying, “If we needed to struggle to get it cleared or they didn’t prefer it, we’d have give you another music.” It’s totally not possible to think about any model of “Butterfly” with out the complete “Ditty” pattern, although — every little thing concerning the track’s specific alchemy relies upon not solely on the pattern’s melodies and sonics, however within the built-in (and lived-in) Chili Peppers reference level.
Nonetheless, with the heavenly pattern elevating Shellshock’s sealed-with-a-kiss mash notice lyrics — and an ideal accompanying visible within the lush, pleasantly psychedelic music video, co-starring his eventual spouse Melissa Clark — “Butterfly” flapped increased than even any RHCP hit. Whereas the latter band’s generational energy ballad “Underneath the Bridge” stalled at No. 2 on the Sizzling 100 (behind Kris Kross’ “Bounce”), Loopy City’s breakout smash bought all the best way to No. 1 on the chart dated March 24, 2001, changing Joe’s “Stutter” on prime. It then gave strategy to Shaggy and Rayvon’s “Angel” — one other romantic ode primarily based round a lovey-dovey-all-the-time rock elevate — earlier than reclaiming the highest spot, then ceding it for good to Janet Jackson’s seven-week No. 1 “All for You.”
“Butterfly” was not solely Loopy City’s solely go to to the Sizzling 100’s prime spot, it was their sole cameo on all the chart. Reward of Gab follow-up “Revolving Door” made the Official UK Singles Chart’s prime 40, and “Drowning” (from 2002 sophomore LP Darkhorse) earned some rock airplay, however the group was by no means concerned about trying one other “Butterfly,” and so they broke up shortly after Darkhorse. Shellshock had higher fortunes exterior of the group, scoring one other chic summery smash with the Paul Oakenfold-led dance-rock skate-along “Starry-Eyed Shock,” peaking simply exterior the Sizzling 100’s prime 40 and making the U.Ok.’s prime 10. He scored yet one more minor hit with the solo “Slide Alongside Aspect” (as simply Shifty), however his music profession was largely sidelined by substance abuse; when he returned to music tv within the late ’00s, it was as a solid member on VH1’s Superstar Rehab.
However even when “Butterfly” was the lone pillar of Shellshock’s musical legacy, it might nonetheless be a sturdy one. The track’s sun-drenched, genre-blending composition and unmistakably of-its-time sound and imaginative and prescient have made it an enduringly iconic snapshot of its period — additional helped by its in depth utilization in early-’00s comedies like Saving Silverman and Orange County and TV reveals like Daria and Undeclared. And whereas later smashes from Linkin Park, Evanescence and Staind all had been in a position to attain the highest 5 of the Billboard Sizzling 100, “Butterfly” stays unaccompanied on its perch, nonetheless the one nu-metal track to prime the chart in its historical past.