Encore: The Stories Behind The Songs You Love

BEHIND THE CHRISTMAS HITS WITH DREW SAVAGE: After getting kicked out of the studio during the sessions for one of the most revered Christmas albums ever, Brian Wilson would create a Christmas classic of his own. This is the story behind the Christmas hit 'Little Saint Nick' by The Beach Boys.

More Stories from Behind The Christmas Hits! Some of the most popular animated characters of the last 60 years actually debuted in a Christmas song! This is the story of The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)

BEHIND THE CHRISTMAS HITS: This week on Behind The Christmas Hits - Drew gives you a peek behind the curtain about what goes into making this podcast - and the story behind the Bryan Adams hit - Christmas Time! Bryan Joins to give the real story of the massively popular song - and Rob Thomas recalls how important the song is to him!  

BEHIND THE CHRISTMAS HITS with Drew Savage: Taylor Momsen joins Drew Savage for a special edition of behind the Christmas Hits to talk about her new EP Taylor Momsen's Pretty Reckless Christmas - including her all-new recording of Where Are You Christmas - Which features a duet with her 6 year old self! Taylor Momsen talks about 25 years of the 2000 Classic live action Grinch movie, and how many fond memories she has on set from those days as a child. Taylor Momsen talks about the tongue in cheek themes of 'Pretty Reckless Christmas' and reuniting with Jim Carrey at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame!

Formed in Vancouver by Trevor Guthrie, David Bowman and Ken Lewko, Indecision would sign with Universal Music and rebrand themselves as soulDecsion (lowercase S, uppercase D) in 1999 as to avoid conflict with an American band who had already squatted on the name. Styled and Marketed as a boyband for their year 2000 debut album ‘No One Does it Better’ soulDecision were absolutely not one when it came to their sound, or their overall musical ethos. This is the story of their massive hit 'Faded' with newly unearthed audio from the band themselves. Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio

Do you remember when days were like that? More specifically, do you remember Sugar Jones and their song “Days Like That”? If not, well, you are forgiven. Sugar Jones only existed for a couple years at the beginning of the millennium. But in that short stint they dropped what is widely considered an unforgettable, stone cold, Canadian R&B-pop classic.  Written by Cam Lindsay for iHeartRadio.

Pack Your Bags - We're going to the South Pacific to explore the sunniest Christmas Standard ever. This is the story of Mele Kalikimaka on Behind the Christmas Hits with Drew Savage

Last week on Encore - the CanConCore special edition - we focused on an absolutely absurd teeny-bopper anthem from the year 2000 - and a real crown jewel of obscure Canadian Pop Music - B4-4’s ‘Get Down’.  While it was a wild and wacky song (and video) in its own right - nobody would be rushing to defend it as ‘groundbreaking’ - the three super-tanned members of the group were very clearly chasing the sound of the boyband craze of the late 90s in to early 2000s that was just about to reach its peak. This week, we’re pulling a full 180 to talk about a song that upon its release in 1997, sounded nothing like anything on the radio waves in that era of music - and quite frankly, still sounds nothing like anything but… itself. While both super weird in hindsight - there couldn’t be anything more diametrically opposed to the sound of Get Down than this week’s hit: Bran Van 3000’s Drinking in LA. Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio.

Welcome to a special episode of Encore where we take a look at some of the iHeartRadio team’s favourite Canadian songs that you may have forgotten about. We’re calling it CanConCore… get it?  This week we have the story of B4-4’s “Get Down”! Remember the year 2000? If we weren’t worried about Y2K and the millennium bug bringing on the collapse of society we were likely just sitting in our rooms listening to all of the great boy bands that were topping the charts. Because 2000 was the year boy bands reigned supreme. *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, Westlife, O-Town… They were everywhere. And while it’s fair to say that most boy bands came from either the United States or the United Kingdom, I’d like to think Canada had a very memorable boy band of its own.  This is the story of B4-4's 'Get Down' with newly unearthed footage from the band themselves. Written by Cam Lindsay for iHeartRadio.

Ah the many faces of pop punk…  Here on Encore we’ve explored a wide range of songs that fall under the genre’s umbrella; from the sounds of Green Day’s Rock-Opera-Political thriller American Idiot to SUM 41’s metal-worshipping, Jackass-inspired Fat Lip, to Avril Lavigne’s quirky and jealousy ridden hand-clapping Girlfriend - Pop Punk is a big ol’ tree with a whole lotta branches.  In 2005, mainstream pop punk tied its wagon a lot closer to the traditional sounds of Rock N Roll, with heavy guitars and stadium-like bravado that kept the Rock-radio airwaves happy. Emo; the emotional side of pop-punk was usually relegated to the sounds of the underground.  The ‘scene’ was filled with bands across North America that were a little pop, a little punk, a little goth, and honestly, a little twee.  If you were a band having deep, overdramatic feelings about life, love, and fitting in, and treated music as if it was your own personal confessional for all of the above - that was fine - you’d probably find yourself a fanbase - but you certainly weren’t going to find yourself a hit. Coalescing with the rise of internet culture at the time - emo and screamo bands were massively popular on myspace - with filesharing doing a lot of the word of mouth heavy-lifting both virtually and in real life.  In a time where everyone was making CD mixtapes - you could easily sneak a (legally or otherwise obtained) mp3 of your favourite emo band on a custom-curated disc - and it started to influence culture at large. While a ton of emo bands eventually broke through, perhaps the very first of their kind was Fall Out Boy - and while they started off like many other subculture sweethearts of the era - in just a few short years - they would become one of the hottest bands in the world. This is the Story of Fall Out Boy's Sugar We're Goin' Down Written by Clayton Taylor for iHeartRadio