Encore: The Stories Behind The Songs You Love

Welcome to a special HEATED RIVALRY Edition of Encore, where we celebrate the most popular songs featured in the hit CRAVE Original Series! This week - we’ve got the story behind one of the most beloved songs in the series - Feist’s 2007 banger ‘My Moon My Man’ While the song has certainly taken the world by storm thanks to the pivotal and LONG scene in Episode 4 of Heated...

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 on...

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 Lin...

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...

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 soc...

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’ tr...

Céline Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On' is Arguably the most iconic ballad of the past 30 years. Despite everything Céline Dion has accomplished in her incredible career, which spans 45 years, if you can believe it, 'My Heart Will Go On' is without a doubt the song that everybody knows by her - and if you can believe it - it was recorded in one take. This is the story of Céline Di...

Success in the music industry is a funny thing isn’t it?  Whether you’re a Legendary Icon of the industry, or a One Hit Wonder, Pop Music truly feeds on a ‘what have you done for me lately’ model, where you’re almost always only as popular as your last hit. When you hit a certain level of success as an artist and it’s time to follow that successful project...

It’s beeeeennnn… one week since the last episode of Encore, and now here we are with another one. Our 79th episode in total - yes we counted.  Now, in music, novelty acts don’t tend to last very long. In fact, the average best before date of a novelty act lasts only about as long as a box of Kraft Dinner, sometimes less. Back when Barenaked Ladies first emerged from the dep...

There are few artists that truly define ‘pop’ music and popstardom like one Ariana Grande; One of the most streamed artists of all time. She is, after all the first female artist to have no less than 20 songs hit a billion streams a pop. Needless to say, this streaming success is not the only metric that defines Ariana Grande’s success - she’s sold an estimated 90 million+...

A great pop song can evoke a universal feeling that just about every listener out there feels. You can make a case for just about any song and any feeling, but has a song ever encapsulated the feeling of being a teenager as accurately as the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979”? When he wrote it, at the age of 28 mind you, frontman Billy Corgan was looking to express what he felt in his ado...

Nostalgia is one hell of a drug - and music is the best carrier of that magic elixir directly into our brains.  While pretty much any song can be propped up as a totem of days past - sometimes songs feel specifically engineered to bring us back to a place and time. While many songs that we’ve covered over the course of this podcast distill the feelings high school awkwardness and teenag...

There is no mistaking Alanis Morisette for anyone else. She is the one and only Alanis - Can you even think of anyone else out there named Alanis? Ms. Morissette also has one of the most recognizable singing voices of her generation, one that helped her sell more than 33 million copies of her album, Jagged Little Pill . Only Shania Twain’s Come On Over has sold more copies than Jagged Little...

This week on Encore, we're going to talk about a bonafide sleeper hit of an album, with bonafide sleeper hit singles; a charmingly upbeat and wholesome record by a guy who surfed his way into our hearts some 20 years ago; with songs that equally resonate as much with a trip to the grocery store as a trip to the beach. But like - in a good way. I am of course talking about Jack Johnson’s 2005...

For 15 years, (and up until recently) Oasis were officially not a band. In 2009, Noel quit just hours before they were set to play a festival in France. But back then, everyone just assumed Oasis would return the next week, hatchet buried, ready to pick up where they left off; If there’s one thing Oasis were known for it was regularly being on the brink of imploding. From the very start, Lia...

This week on Encore, Ruby Carr has chosen some of her favourite episodes from seasons 1-6 ft. Myles Galloway! Hear the stories behind 'Call Me Maybe' 'Hey Ya!' 'Steal My Sunshine' and 'Dancing on My Own'! New Episodes of Encore return August 7!

Check out our FULL Unedited interview with the wonderful Chuck Comeau of Simple Plan! Chuck and Ruby look back at the incredible period of time that was Simple Plan's 2003-2005 and the creation and success of 'Still Not Getting Any'. Chuck tells ruby stories about the album, it's hit single 'Welcome to My Life', working with Bob Rock, shooting the video for 'Welcome to My Life' and why Tom Delonge...

This episode of Encore is brought to you by All Your Friends Fest - June 28 and 29 in Burl's Creek, ON - Get Your Tickets Formed when they were just thirteen years old by lead vocalist and guitarist Pierre Bouvier and Drummer Chuck Comeau in 1993 - it’s hard to believe that just 8 short years later Simple Plan would be signed by Major Label Atlantic Records in late 2001 - and by early 2002,...

TLC are one of the most commercially successful GROUPS of all time.  TLC came from out of nowhere in the early ‘90s to dominate R&B, hip-hop and pop simultaneously. They won a bunch of Grammys, had multiple #1 hits, and completely changed music in the 1990s. But unfortunately, with all of that came A LOT of drama and heartbreaking tragedy.  This is the true story of TLC's No Sc...

If there’s one thing you learn about hit songs while doing this podcast it’s to ‘never underestimate the power of a good hook - at any cost’  From songs in our archive like LEN’s Steal My Sunshine, to Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend, and even songs we’ve covered this season like Backstreet Boys’ I want it That Way or Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen...

In early 1990, Nirvana were ready to start working on their second album. Their label Sub Pop recommended a producer named Butch Vig, who had produced heavier underground bands like Laughing Hyenas and Killdozer. They met up with Butch at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin to begin recording, laying down eight tracks before they had to head out on tour for six weeks. When they returned home,...

  You know, one hit wonders get a bad rap.  Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping , Crazy Town’s Butterfly , Snow’s Informer , - heck even Plain White Ts’ Hey There Delilah are just a few examples off the top of my head of gimmicky little songs that were the hottest songs in music for a number of weeks or months, from bands and artists that could have been all the rage - but...

How many Shanias do you know of? Is there such a thing as another Shania? Because when you say the name Shania, there really is just the one. Shania Twain is without a doubt the greatest Canadian country singer of all time and arguably the person responsible for helping country music cross over into the mainstream - but her journey was not an easy one - and... her name wasn't always even Shania! T...

Is there anything better than a song that pops up on the radio, a bar or a club - or even unexpectedly in a playlist, and it just makes you happy ? I mean, I know we’re in the business of documenting hit songs here on encore - but I’d argue that the first seconds - scratch that - milliseconds of Sean Paul’s super-hit Get Busy are some of the most euphoric moments in all of music....