White Houses (song)

Infobox Single
Name = White Houses


Artist = Vanessa Carlton
from Album = Harmonium
Released = August 30 2004 (U.S. radio) [ [http://gfa.radioandrecords.com/publishGFA/GFANextPage.asp?sDate=08/30/2004&Format=1 "Going For Adds - CHR/Top 40"] . "Radio & Records". Retrieved September 19 2006.]
October 13 2004 (Japan)
Format = Promo single, 5" CD single
[ Recorded = ]
Genre = Piano pop
Length = 3:42
Label = A&M (U.S.)
AMRR-11209-2
Universal Records (Japan)
UICS-5028
Writer = Vanessa Carlton, Stephan Jenkins
Producer = Stephan Jenkins
[ Certification = ]
Last single = "Big Yellow Taxi"
(2003)
This single = "White Houses"
(2004)
Next single = "Private Radio"
(2004)"White Houses" is a pop song written by American singer Vanessa Carlton and Stephan Jenkins (lead singer of Third Eye Blind), and recorded for Vanessa Carlton's second album "Harmonium" (2004). Produced by Jenkins, it was released as the album's first single in 2004 (see 2004 in music).

About the record

"White Houses" is structured around a 4/4 time signature which "Blender" magazine has described as "bright" and "un-girly", [Powers, Ann. [http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=2836 "Review — Vanessa Carlton: "Harmonium"] . "Blender". Retrieved June 10 2006.] and is backed by an orchestral arrangement that PopMatters magazine said "would make Jim Steinman blush".Horan, Mark. [http://popmatters.com/music/reviews/c/carltonvanessa-harmonium.shtml "Vanessa Carlton — "Harmonium"] . PopMatters. March 1 2005. Retrieved June 10 2006.] Carlton said of the song: "It's about jealousy, it's about losing your virginity, it's about living on your own. It's a story that most people can relate to ... It's really the journey of one girl and her perception of her environment and how she starts out as a wide-eyed person, but everyone gets hardened by life, but not necessarily to the point where you can't feel anymore". She has also said it is about "rites of passage". [ [http://www.teenpeople.com/teenpeople/25hottest/cg2/print/0,20255,614157,00.html People.com : The #1 Celebrity Site on the Web ] ] "White Houses" was the first song Carlton and Jenkins wrote together, and Lindsey Buckingham of the band Fleetwood Mac played acoustic guitar on the track after Jenkins met Buckingham, who was recording in the same building as Carlton, and invited him to listen to the song. Carlton said, "he just came in, played this great riff, recorded it and then he left. It all happened very fast, and turned out amazing". The song provided the inspiration for a charity project, [http://www.athousandroses.org/ Building White Houses] . It began on November 9 2004 and ended on December 31 2005, and its aim was to raise money for Habitat for Humanity International.

"Rolling Stone" compared the song to Carlton's debut single "A Thousand Miles" (2002), defining "White Houses" as "another spazzy, arpeggiated single ... which is not about the real White House but does kind of conjure the Bush twins jamming in a drop-top". [Sinagra, Laura. [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/6587676 "Vanessa Carlton — "Harmonium"] . "Rolling Stone". November 25 2004. Retrieved June 10 2006.] A critic for "Billboard" magazine said of the song: "it bears the do-it-my-way signature of a singer/songwriter who relies on piano; a meandering, storytelling lyrical style; and deceptively sweet vocals that underlie an intellectual bent ... The result is a highly original composition that makes you really want to listen and understand — and then sing along." [CT. [http://www.fleetwoodmac-uk.com/stillgoinginsane/news.html "Vanessa Carlton — 'White Houses'"] . "Billboard". August 21 2004. Retrieved June 10 2006.] PopMatters magazine presented a much more negative summary of the song, by saying that it "basically sums up everything that's wrong with ["Harmonium"] : An overly familiar vocal melody, juvenile "Dear Diary" lyrics ... and a bombastic backing arrangement". Billboard critic Jonathon Newan describes White Houses as "beautifully humble and amazingly crafted. The in-depth lyrics which almost any nomad can relate to on a person level gives it an extraordinary inner-meaning, and the spectacular background arrangement is something that most pop songs lack. It's profound. It should be Carlton's next hit".

"White Houses" describes a young woman losing her virginity after making a foolish, regrettable mistake. As it says in the song, "He's my first mistake." "We're going way too fast." "I put myself in his hands." "My first time, hard to explain, rush of blood and a little bit of pain, on a cloudy day." The lyrics would cause the music video to be banned from major music television channels, greatly hindering its popularity.

The single reached number eighty-six on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, though it peaked within the top forty on Billboard's Top 40 Mainstream and Adult Top 40 charts. It also reached the top twenty of the non-Billboard chart ARC Weekly Top 40, and was the chart's seventy-sixth most successful single of the year. "Slant" magazine named it the sixth best single of 2004, writing: " [it's] the kind of song that truly cements a career ... poignant, bloody, fleeting, and beautiful, much like adolescence". [Cinquemani, Sal. [http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/features/2004yearinmusic.asp "Best of 2004"] . "Slant". Retrieved June 10 2006.] "Blender" magazine ranked "White Houses" at number forty-three on its "100 Best Songs of 2004" list. [ [http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1326 "The 100 Best Songs of 2004"] . "Blender". December 2004. Retrieved June 10 2006.] The song failed to chart in Japan, and in Taiwan "Private Radio" was the album's first single.

Anti-folk singer Kimya Dawson performed a cover of "White Houses" during a live concert at Falmouth, Maine in May 2005. [Parker, Aaron. [http://www.archive.org/details/kimya2005-05-19.flac16 "Kimya Dawson Live at The Bike Barn on 2005-05-19 (May 19, 2005)"] . May 19 2005. Retrieved June 10 2005.] Carlton had previously contributed backing vocals to a track on Dawson's 2004 album "Hidden Vagenda".

Controversy and "Punk'd"

The single's video was directed by Sophie Muller, and features two versions of Carlton: one plays the piano while the other dances across the room. Carlton appeared to world-premiere the video on MTV's "Total Request Live" in the U.S. on August 11 2004, and it debuted on VH1 on August 26. [ [http://www.popfusion.net/records/recaparchive/2004_08.html "The TRL Archive - August 2004"] . Popfusion. Retrieved September 24 2006.] [ [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/08-25-2004/0002238717&EDATE= "VH1's Music Radar"] . PR Newswire. August 25 2004. Retrieved September 24 2006.] MTV, VH1 and some radio stations censored the song because of its lyrics. Carlton later described the situation as "just, you know, frustrating sometimes because they can pick and choose, which I don't think is fair if you want to make a statement." [Kuo, Iris. [http://www.utdmercury.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=b33f47e7-f97f-4277-a494-4f51b12911c2 "Q&A with Vanessa Carlton and the Ying Yang Twins"] . "The UTD Mercury". April 18 2005. Retrieved June 10 2006.] She attributed the censoring of the song to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy involving Janet Jackson which had occurred earlier that year. [Dionne, Bethany. [http://www.quchronicle.com/news/2005/04/06/Artsentertainment/Not-Just.An.ordinary.Night.With.Vanessa.Carlton-913428.shtml "Not just an 'ordinary night' with Vanessa Carlton"] . "Quinnipiac Chronicle". April 6 2005. Retrieved June 10 2006.]

"White Houses" became the subject of a prank that Ashton Kutcher pulled on Carlton for the MTV television show "Punk'd". During Carlton's rehearsal for a scheduled performance on "The Tonight Show" in November 2004, Kutcher's "Punk'd" crewmembers (disguised as staff from "The Tonight Show") said Carlton needed to change both the bridge of the song and the line "I'm too thin" (in light of the publicity surrounding Mary-Kate Olsen's bout of anorexia nervosa). Upon realisation that it was a trick, Carlton told Kutcher, "All I have to say is 'thank the fucking Lord'". (She performed the original version of the song on "The Tonight Show" on November 18 2004, and the "Punk'd" episode was aired in May 2005.)

Credits

*Lead vocals by Vanessa Carlton
*Backing vocals by Vanessa Carlton and Stephan Jenkins
*Mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent at Olympic Studio, London, UK
*Piano by Vanessa Carlton
*Bass by Arion Salazar
*Acoustic guitar by Lindsey Buckingham
*Electric guitar by Arion Salazar and Jesse Tobias
*Drums by Abe Laboriel Jr.
*Strings arranged and conducted by Ron Fair
*Percussion by Stephan Jenkins

Track listings

*Japanese 5" CD single
#"White Houses"
#"C'est la Vie" (live)
#"Papa" (live)

Charts

Notes

References

*Kenny, Hayley. [http://www.synthesis.net/music/story.php?type=band&id=2819 "From Pandemonium to "Harmonium"] . "Synthesis". Retrieved June 10 2006.
*Vineyard, Jennifer and Marino, Kelly. [http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1489578/07202004/carlton_vanessa.jhtml "Sick Of Sitting Down, Vanessa Carlton Gets Up And Dances"] . MTV News. July 20 2004. Retrieved June 10 2006.
*Ives, Brian and Bottomley, C. [http://www.vh1.com/artists/interview/1495066/12202004/carlton_vanessa.jhtml "Vanessa Carlton: Cast Your Fate To The Wind"] . VH1. December 20 2004. Retrieved June 10 2006.
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:o9byxdfb3olg~T51 "Vanessa Carlton: "Billboard" Singles"] . "Allmusic". Retrieved June 10 2006.
* [http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2004/topsongs.htm "Top Pop Songs of 2004: 1—100"] "Rock on the Net". Retrieved June 10 2006.
* [http://www.oricon.co.jp/artists/296001/ "Vanessa Carlton"] . "Oricon". Retrieved June 10 2006.
*Sanneh, Kelefa. [http://www.vanessacarlton.info/articles/media/2004/vanessa-carlton-squared.html "Vanessa Carlton Squared"] . "The New York Times". Late Edition — Final, Section 2, pg. 23, Column 1, August 22 2004.

External links

* [http://www.nessaholics.com/lyrics.php?s_id=12 Lyrics]