Ten Great Songs From One Great Week
The songs the radio played this week in history

October 8-14, 2000

The USS Cole Attack - On October 12, 2000, while at anchor in the Yemeni port of Aden, the Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, who sailed a small boat near the destroyer and detonated explosive charges. The blast created a hole in the port side of the ship about 40 feet in diameter, killing 17 crewmembers and injuring 39. The ship was under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold. Eleven Sailors, 2 women and 9 men, seriously injured, were evacuated to various hospitals in Aden by French Air Force C-160 Transalls from the French Forces of Djibouti (FFDJ). French forces were mobilized to treat the wounded. They were evacuated by a USAF McDonnell Douglas C-9 thereafter.

The Cole was returned to the United States aboard the Norwegian heavy-lift vessel MV Blue Marlin owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway. The ship was off-loaded December 13 from Blue Marlin in a pre-dredged deep-water facility at the Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. On January 14, 2001, it was was moved from the floating dry dock at Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding to the land facility in order to fully begin its restoration process. The Cole's movement over land was accomplished by a system of electrically-powered cars that traveled over rails. Cole was moved to a construction bay near where the ship was originally built five years before. On 1 July 1, 2001, still under repair, it was transferred to Carrier Group 2, led by Harry S. Truman.

The U.S. government offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest of people who committed or aided in the attack on the Cole. Al-Qaeda was suspected of targeting the Cole because of the failure of a January 3, 2000 attack on USS The Sullivans, one of the 2000 millennium attack plots. On November 4, 2002, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, a suspected al-Qaeda operative, who is believed to have planned the Cole attack, was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator drone.

The Cole deployed to the Middle East on June 8, 2006, for the first time since the bombing. While passing the port city of Aden the crew manned the rails to honor the crewmembers killed in the bombing. She returned to her homeport of Norfolk six months later, again without incident.

On August 21 of that year, the Associated Press reported that the Cole's commanding officer at the time of the bombing, Commander Kirk Lippold, was denied promotion to the rank of Captain. 18 months later, the Cole was sent to take station off Lebanon's coast, the first of an anticipated three-ship flotilla.

Music Charts:

#1 Single -- "Music" by Madonna
#1 Album -- "Music" by Madonna

Other Events:

1492 – Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached India.
1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
1810 – First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1915 – British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
1953 – "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York.
1960 – Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe.
1979 – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.

She Bangs -- Ricky Martin



Martin claims this song is not about sex. The title is a play on the big bang theory - it is a metaphor for the universe. This became much more apparent when Martin came out as gay in 2010. The song was written and produced by Desmond Child, who has written hits for many groups, including Bon Jovi, Cher, and Aerosmith. Child also wrote Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca." In our interview with Desmond, he said of working with Martin, "I brought all of my experience with Aerosmith and Bon Jovi and Kiss, Alice Cooper and Joan Jett, to the table creating arena rock songs with a Latin flavor."

Breathless -- The Corrs



The Corrs are a family group formed in Dundalk, Ireland in 1990 by Andrea (lead vocals), Sharon (violin), Caroline (drums) and Jim Corr (guitar/keyboards). They blend the music of their Irish background with contemporary Pop/Rock. Their popularity was restricted to Ireland until 1994, when the American ambassador to the country invited the band to perform at the 1994 World Cup in Boston. This led to a support slot on Celine Dion's 1996 tour, which the group joined just after an appearance at that year's Olympic Games in Atlanta. Their album Talk On Corners became the biggest-selling Irish album in the UK and was the top selling album in 1998 in Britain. This was the first single released from In Blue, and it became their only UK chart topper and biggest hit in the US.

Crazy For This Girl -- Evan and Jaron



Evan Mitchell Lowenstein and Jaron David Lowenstein are identical twin brothers who performed as Evan and Jaron. They've recorded three studio albums and charted three singles on the Pop Songs charts. In 2000, the duo released Evan and Jaron for Columbia Records. The album included hit singles "Crazy for This Girl", "From My Head to My Heart", and "The Distance." At the height of their success, Evan started a family and the touring ceased. Their most recent album, Half Dozen, offered more of an Americana/country sound and included six songs as well as three additional bonus tracks.

Here With Me -- Dido



This was the theme song to the WB television show Roswell. P. Gabriel is listed as a writer on this, but it's not Peter Gabriel, but Pascal Gabriel. This was Dido's first single. It did well on college radio stations, but was not a hit. Two videos were made. The first cost $500,000 to make, but MTV did not play it. After Dido became popular in the US, a new video was shot which aired on VH1. Dido wrote this the day after meeting her boyfriend, a lawyer named Bob Page, at a London nightclub in 1995. They got engaged in 2001.

Hemorrhage -- Fuel



Fuel is an American band formed by guitarist/songwriter Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie in 1989. Originally known as Small the Joy, they changed the group's name to Fuel sometime in 1994. released as the first single from their second album Something Like Human. The single spent twelve weeks at number one on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart and is the band's most successful song to date. An acoustic version is a bonus track on the special edition. Chris Daughtry performed this song on American Idol as a contestant in early 2006, which was during the period after longtime singer/guitarist Brett Scallions had left the group, prompting Abercrombie and Bell to publicly ask Daughtry to be their new lead singer on the television show Extra. On the show Abercrombie stated "Chris, if you are watching, we've talked about this before, and if you want to entertain it again we'll take it and go..." Daughtry, although flattered, eventually declined the offer, opting to form his own band, Daughtry, instead

With Arms Wide Open -- Creed



Lead singer Scott Stapp wrote this song after finding out he was going to be a father. He had a son named Jagger. Once he found out that he was going to have a son, Stapp wrote this song because he didn't want his child facing the same problems he faced while growing up. Stapp was from a very strict, very devout Christian household and he didn't want his son to grow up questioning himself and his faith just like his father did. He didn't like his own father when he was growing up and even tried to run away during high school. The title became the name of a foundation set up by Stapp to help children and families. To launch the With Arms Wide Open Foundation, the band released a limited edition "enhanced-package single" in September 2000, with proceeds going to the charity. The single contained an orchestrated version, a rock version, an acoustic reading, and the music video.

Beautiful Day -- U2



The lyrics were inspired by Bono's experience with Jubilee 2000, a benefit urging politicians to drop the Third World Debt. Bono describes the song as about "a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has." U2 wrote this in stages. It changed drastically when Bono came up with the "Beautiful Day" lyric and the idea for the backing vocals. They knew it was a hit when their label boss Jimmy Iovine told them so. As Iovine tells it, the group was disappointed with their 1997 album Pop, and told Jimmy they didn't want to release another album until he told them they had a hit single. Iovine, who produced their Rattle and Hum album, make frequent trips to Europe to check in on U2 while they were recording the album, and when they played him "Beautiful Day," he declared it the hit. It was released as the first track and first single on All That You Can't Leave Behind, which fared much better than Pop.

Californication -- Red Hot Chili Peppers



A song about the deterioration of society, this reflects how the world is becoming very superficial and plastic, much like California. The Red Hot Chili Peppers formed in Hollywood and are quite familiar with the quirky nature of life in Los Angeles. The lyrics, "Cobain can you hear the spheres singing songs off station to station and Alderaan's not far away, it's Californication" get in a few pop-culture references - Kurt Cobain, David Bowie's album Station To Station, and Alderaan - the planet princess Leia was from in Star Wars. Alderaan was destroyed by The Empire, implying that the world is being destroyed.

It's My Life -- Bon Jovi



This was Bon Jovi's first release since 1995. Jon Bon Jovi released a solo album in 1997, but this was the first release by the band in 5 years. This song was the first single from the album. The line "For Tommy and Gina, who never backed down," is a reference to their 1986 hit "Livin' On A Prayer," which featured Tommy and Gina as young people trying to get by in tough times. The line "Like Frankie Said, I did it my way" is a reference to Frank Sinatra, who sang "My Way." Sinatra was from New Jersey, just like Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora used a talkbox to create the odd vocal effects. The device gave him a distinct stage presence, since he needed to place a tube in his mouth to use it. When the band performed this on VH1 Storytellers, Sambora had one microphone for his talkbox and another for backing vocals. Their 1986 hit, "Livin' On A Prayer" also featured a talkbox. Peter Frampton builds all of Richie Sambora's talkboxes for him.

Kryptonite -- 3 Doors Down



3 Doors Down lead singer/songwriter Brad Arnold was 15 years old, sitting in math class bored out of his skull, when he begins tapping on his desk. The tapping turns into drumming, and pretty soon he's unknowingly written the first monster hit for his future band. He laughs at the memory: "Thank God for the little dude that sat in front of me, that dude deserves credit on the album! I was so bad in math. So bad. But my teacher knew I was not good, not paying attention, but he just kind of let me go. I believe I wrote the lyrics to some other songs in that same class. I wrote probably about half of that Better Life album sitting in that math class." This song is also, according to Arnold, only the 3rd or 4th song he'd ever written, period. "The skippy little drumbeat in the song was just me beating on my desk. It's almost exactly the beat we played to, just kind of drumming, just skipping along with it."

BONUS TRACK

Who Let The Dogs Out -- Baha Men



This was written by Anslem Douglas, a musician from Trinidad who wrote it 2 years before The Baha Men recorded it. Various versions were hits in the Caribbean, but The Baha Men toned down the Calypso rhythm to make it more appealing to American listeners. The lyrics are about disrespectful men who hit on women at a party. The chorus is: "woof, woof, woof, woof, woof." Desmond Child helped produce this. He is a prolific hitmaker who had worked with many artists, including Bon Jovi, Cher, Kelly Clarkson, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper and Joan Jett. His slick production helped make this accessable to a mainstream audience.