As you all know (hopefully), there’s a section on my blog titled: Collabs, ft. LP’s collaborations with various artists that include her backing vocals. However, online, you can find songs that were written and sang by LP in the period 2006-2009, but haven’t yielded any record. I was wondering what to do with those, and decided to create a separate post. But first, ‘few’ words of explanation.
LP said about herself in 2008: “I’m all about contradiction. That’s a part of art.” This was also the most difficult part when trying to break out as a solo artist. Each record label wanted her ‘labeled’, to define her as a singer and artist. And that’s where they failed her. To me, LP is above all that. She, in herself, is a form of art; original and unique.
No one should try to place her into a specific ‘genre’, but instead simply let her be as true to herself as she can be, because that’s when she creates a real magic with her voice, lyrics and music. She proved this with her latest album, and I am sure, her next record will be even better. Frankly, she ‘proved’ herself much, much earlier; but that’s a whole different story.
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| print screen of video to LP – “Good With You/Cling To Me” – click on pic to be redirected |
First, let’s travel back in time to 2006, LP appears at the music festival & conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin and sparks a bidding war amongst major music labels, eventually being signed by music executive L.A. Reid to his Island Def Jam Music Group, part of the Universal Music Group. However, due to artistic differences LP leaves that contract.
After article from 2008 “Not a tomboy in a dress“: Musically, LP says, Island was “taking a little tomboy and putting her in a fucking dress.” Or more specifically, “All of a sudden it’s like, ‘You’re going to go in the rock direction, [then] you’re going to go in the pop direction–maybe you should go with R&B.’ I wrote 65 songs while I was there. It wasn’t the right place, obviously.”
After less than a year in 2007, LP signs with SoBe Entertainment, an independent record label, with the album tracks she had written at the previous major label. LP is being promised a record, to be released in January 2009. There are severals interviews from 2008, showing LP in the studio working on that particular record. But again, similar pattern is being repeated.
LP for 1883 Magazine: “I wrote about 140 songs. None of them were used apart from one which was picked up by the Backstreet Boys. After this I was offered a publishing deal, and began to write songs for other artists. I thought I would only be a songwriter”. The track mentioned above, titled “Love Will Keep You Up All Night”, LP had written with Billy Mann in August of 2006.
LP for Chicago Pride ‘Singer LP talks about Cher and ‘Orange is the New Black’: “Ironically I wrote it [“Love Will Keep You Up All Night”] on the day my father died, which is insane. I never really thought about that. That launched me into a songwriter career. I was making a living with a songwriting career. Who knew??”. This song was released in late 2007 on the Backstreet Boys album, Unbreakable.
More from Vogue interview ‘How Singer LP Went From Writing Pop Hits To Being A Sell-Out Star’: LP describes her music as “indie with a little bit of pop”, but she began experimenting with dance pop, urban, and R&B. “I kind of just dropped my ego with that. I wanted to write hit songs and that was it. It’s like when you have kids, you stop thinking about yourself… It was a real growth period for me.”
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| print screen of video to LP – “Good With You/Cling To Me” – click on pic to be redirected |
That’s how (at that time) LP ended up with portfolio full of songs (most of those will never see the light of day) but not a single record. And now here’s a list of songs that were recorded, with links where you can find them online. Some of those were released by Unconventional Music Licensing in 2012.
- ‘Good With U’ – written by LP/Billy Steinberg/Josh Alexander. Click here.
- ‘Cling To Me’. Click here.
+ video to ‘Good with You/Cling to Me’, directed by Salzy. Premiered on 1st July 2008. Additional videos (like making of & behind the scenes) were released via LPSobe’s youtube channel. You will find those by clicking here. - ‘Seventeen’ – written by LP/Rob Fusari. Click here.
- ‘The Power’ – written by LP/Desmond Child. Click here. Live version sang by LP, click here.
- ‘Let Me Kill The Pain’. Click here. Snippet of live performance, click here.
- ‘Stupid Muthafucka’. Click here. I call it LP’s ‘musical joke’. This song is great when you simply need to smile and nothing else works.
- ‘Damage Is Done’ by LP, featured in MTV’s ‘The Hills’ episode & released on iTunes in 2009. Click here.
- ‘Last Star’, recorded live during interview from Circle House Studios in Miami FL in August 2008. Click here.
- ‘You’re Wonderful’ (unconfirmed title) – this song (studio version) can be heard in the background of LP’s interview mentioned above. Snippet of live performance of this song can be found here.
- ‘Love Will Keep You Up All Night’ written by Billy Mann/LP. For demo of the song with LP’s vocals click here. Live version of this song by LP, click here. My kind thank to you to LP Pleasures for this discovery.
UPDATED WITH MORE SONGS released in 2019 by Unconventional Music Licensing.
I believe those were also recorded around 2006-2007, since the company belongs to Marvin Howell who (according to this source), discovered “LP” and signed her to her first publishing deal and provided her with her first major recording contract with LA Reid.
11. ‘Why Don’t You Run’ written by LP. Click here.
12. ‘Lonliest Girl’ written by LP/Bernd Burgdorf. Click here.
13. ‘Get A Life’ written by LP/The Pharmacy. Click here.
14. ‘Give It Back’ written by LP/Raine/Chantal. Click here.
15. ‘Loud & Clear’ written by LP/Ron Aniello. Click here.
16. ‘Ready To Be’ written by? Click here.
17. ‘High Roller’ written by LP/Tim Armstrong. Click here.
Two additional interviews from 2008:
1. One recorded in August, when LP was working on her record in the studio. Click here.
2. And one recorded around September for social network KiwiBox. Click here.
Additional song:
1. ‘Cheers (Drink to That)’ [Demo with LP’s vocals]. Released by Rihanna in 2010.
The song was written by Andrew Harr, Jermaine Jackson, Stacy Barthe, LP, Corey Gibson, Chris Ivery, Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards, Avril Lavigne and Scott Spock. The song also contains samples from Lavigne’s song “I’m with You,” which is featured on her debut album Let Go (2002).
Background story about this song, after Independent interview: LP ‘On Beyonce, ex-girlfriends, and her surprise hit song ‘Lost on You’:
“Getting a Rihanna song was nuts… I was invited to a session by my friend, we wrote the song in a few hours… I feel like emotional content is the most important of any song, for any artist. Every artist wants to connect with the listener. But it’s a daunting task to walk into a room full of strangers and write something from the heart.”
She was thrilled with the final version of “Cheers (Drink to That)”, saying while Rihanna added some of her “Rihanna-isms” at certain points, the result was essentially the same as the demo she recorded, “and that made me feel really good about it. Being involved in all these other artists’ careers, you get this heightened sense of appreciation.”
