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Forums > All about Katharine > Katharine Chat
Subject: Was Over It a mistake?
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Username: sjwolves
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05/09/2007 5:02 PM Alert 

I've been thinking about this one lately.  And someone mentioned this in a different thread so I thought I'd make one dedicated to this question.

Was choosing Over It as the first single a mistake?

Now...the choices they presented us on Promosquad were Over It, Each Other and Open Toes.  Of those three songs I think you had to choose OI as the first single.  EO is kind of boring, OT is too out there for single #1.

In retrospect, I think the first single should have been something more exciting.  Something uptempo & fun...something that celebrates this new sound Katharine was talking about in all the promo.  Instead they chose "the only real pop song" (Katharine's words) on the album.  It's almost like she made this album one way and then RCA decides to sell it another way.

I believe the first single should have been Love Story or Not Ur Girl.  I don't think I've seen anyone around here ever say that Over It was their favorite song on the CD.  But there's lots of love for Not Ur Girl, Neglected, I know LS is popular in some camps, lots of you love Home, Ordinary World, etc, etc.  Does anyone like Over It best?

Just curious what everyone else thinks.  Over It is just not the kind of song that's going to get people to spend $10 on a CD.  It's a nice song....but when everyone says it sounds "just like that JoJo song" that's a problem.
"I saw Katharine McPhee when there were about 12 contestants left on American Idol. She blew me away. I loved her grace, her style, her poise, her voice and her hair! I wanted her to be the face of Sexy Hair because she represented everything that I had in my head for the brand: youth, beauty, talent, class, a young sophistication, and sexiness." -- Jim Morrison, CEO of Sexy Hair Products.
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05/09/2007 5:04 PM Alert 
i say NO considering it has sold over 300k in downloads.
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05/09/2007 5:27 PM Alert 

I don't think Over It was a mistake. 

Let me preface my comments by making clear, personally, I never cared for the song, from Promosquad on,  and the reason was I always felt that the vocal was Katharine singing like the "Demo Girl" and not really a Katharine McPhee vocal, it  really was, of course, but in name only,  not in style.  And clearly, the song  has  proved  hard to sing live and eventually Katharine handled it well.

Given what  Katharine performed on  American Idol,  I think Over It was a nice transition and first step into Pop radio for her, it has a good sound to it and is different enough to make people notice without taking offense.

I don't think Over It was ever intended to be pushed by RCA to the top of the charts.  It was right on the cusp of breaking the TOP20 when RCA diffused the songs momentum with remixes and stopped buying the commercial/spins on OHP.  That tells me that they decided to move on and not that the song was a mistake or a dud.   I suspect that it may have been slower  to catch on than RCA planned and it simply ran out of time, perhaps, they have plans for the end of May.

Is Love Story a better song or,  more to the point,  a promising radio performer  Time will tell, but, let's hope we aren't starting,  "Love Story What In The Heck Were They Thinking"  threads in four months.

 

 

 
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05/09/2007 5:39 PM Alert 
definitely not a mistake. it was just the sound that was needed to cross over to the top 40 charts. now that people know she's doing something more contemporary than SOTR etc. then they will listen to her other songs. over it was a great first single.
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05/09/2007 5:39 PM Alert 
The only way I see Over It as a mistake was in the production of the song. From day 1 I have vehemently been stating that there is no such thing as overproduction on this album. Well....my bad. Over It was crafted in such a way, it was brutal for her to sing live and more often than not, she missed notes and sometimes was off key making her look like less of the great singer than she is. Releasing Over It as a single was a good move for the reasons CRB stated (good song to ease people into Kat's new music). I personally don't care for Love Story, but I will support Katharine's efforts and I hope this time she has a hit.
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05/09/2007 6:08 PM Alert 
OI is too lame for Mcphee.

Her CD was the most anticpated among AI5. People were all excited about her vocals and style.

Then comes OI which isn't strong or powerful and sounded like a song for pre-teens. It kinda alienated the people who were rooting for her in AI because of her great vocals.

WHY????????? When some people were hoping that she's the next Kelly Clarkson, it's really disappointing to hear a song like OI which is just like what would Randy say "I dont know dude, it's just an ok song".

Ok, I know that she wants to show a different personality in this cd. Well, people wasn't thrilled after hearing OI.

If you wanna be a superstar, you come out with a bang! Is Jojo a superstar? Jojo who? You gotta be edgy with an attitude. Pop star songs have a wow factor, whether its a dumb song or not.That's the difference between Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez.

OI was a pure waste and underestimation of the real talent of McPhee. It must be an RCA decision. Coz why would McPhee sing Me and Mary Jane when she really wants to sing a Jojo song? I'm confused.
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05/09/2007 6:10 PM Alert 
I know where all sides are coming from on this issue... definitely relate to all of these posts... having said that, I remain optimistic that McPhee will be a superstar... even if it's not until her next CD (which she had best do true to her roots).
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05/09/2007 6:41 PM Alert 
Posted By zzyzx on 05/09/2007 5:39 PM
The only way I see Over It as a mistake was in the production of the song. From day 1 I have vehemently been stating that there is no such thing as overproduction on this album. Well....my bad. Over It was crafted in such a way, it was brutal for her to sing live and more often than not, she missed notes and sometimes was off key making her look like less of the great singer than she is. Releasing Over It as a single was a good move for the reasons CRB stated (good song to ease people into Kat's new music). I personally don't care for Love Story, but I will support Katharine's efforts and I hope this time she has a hit.


I totally agree zzyzx, except that I don't dislike Love Story. It's not one of my favorites on the CD but it's probably radio friendly and she performs it a lot better live than she does Over It. She just seems to enjoy singing it and gets way more animated when she does. I'd still love to see Home, Neglected, Everywhere I Go or Better Off Alone be released first. Even Each Other would be a good choice for a next single.
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05/09/2007 7:20 PM Alert 
Posted By Mc_Fantastic on 05/09/2007 6:08 PM
When some people were hoping that she's the next Kelly Clarkson, it's really disappointing to hear a song like OI which is just like what would Randy say "I dont know dude, it's just an ok song" If you wanna be a superstar, you come out with a bang! Is Jojo a superstar? Jojo who? You gotta be edgy with an attitude. Pop star songs have a wow factor, whether its a dumb song or not.That's the difference between Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez.

Since you brought up Clarkson I decided to listen to some stuff I haven't heard for awhile and Youtubed Miss Independent and Since U Been Gone. God, she gives me flashbacks to Janis Joplin sometimes... which is neither here nor there, except that I'm wondering what there is on this album that Katharine could realistically come out with a bang with. What kind of attitude did the songwriters provide her with? I know, some of it got cut and we can't know what that was, but we know they had initial concerns about "how urban [they could] realistically take her," so just how edgy can we go with a girl who keeps changing the lyrics because she thinks they're too racy? I know she can grab a microphone and charge into a Meatloaf impersonation, but could she do that for real, as herself? I'm not sure. I think the way K. provides the wow factor (without the visuals) was the way she did it on OTR, and to me, the songs where that emotion comes out are the ones that are the least commercially viable in the pop market. So what are you gonna do? Maybe just what they did.
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05/09/2007 11:13 PM Alert 
Was Over It a mistake?  I don't think so.
I agree with those that said OI was a part of RCA's masterplan to introduce the 'new' Kat to her fans. Now it's time to roll out the heavy artillary and bag some new fans. OI was never meant to do that, only to act as a transition for her fanbase. That's possibly why Kat hasn't appeared on AI yet. They never wanted her to perform OI there, but rather introduce her new second single.
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05/10/2007 2:03 AM Alert 

Over It was no mistake. It's a grower, a slow burner that has established Kat with the teen crowd along with the likes of Hilary, Ashley, etc. It's sold a total of 380K this week and will likely go gold in about 8-10 weeks. Even discounting for say, 50K multiple downloads by us die-hard Kat fans, that's still more than 330K new fans. What more can you ask of a "transition" single that was probably never expected to reach the Top 20?

Personally, I like it now more than ever. I think it might hang around for a couple of months more in the Digital sales chart even when Love Story has been released.

I also don't see any other song in the album they could've released in its place, except maybe Love Story. But for some reason that wasn't a Promosquad song -- I guess it wasn't finished yet at that time, or they just didn't feel it was a winter song. Sure, any of the 3 pure ballads could've been released, and just maybe album sales would've been higher because the older part of her AI fanbase would've bought it right away. But they wanted to get away from AC-sounding songs (for now), so I think Over It was the only choice, really.

Now, the trick is how to keep the ball rolling with the next single. It seems the plan is to not make any risky moves and just go with singles that nudge her sound and her image every so slowly to an R&B sound. Following this thinking, I can now understand why they released LS next instead of Open Toes.
Who knows, Nickelback and the Pussycat Dolls have now released 6 singles off their albums. For albums that have enough singles material like this one, I think we may see this become a more common practice in the industry.
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05/10/2007 2:39 AM Alert 
At 1st i THOUGHT it WAS, but then, watching how it's doing every single day,i know that's a very good plan of RCA for Kat's album. OVER IT is #1 for 5 weeks in ASIA!! Was that a mistake? Absolutely Not. It's kind of song which will stuck quickly in our head, but *Sorry if i've to be honest*, it also can b forgotten easily. Let's Hope Love Story will do Better. Thou' OT n NUG are my Top picks.
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05/10/2007 3:14 AM Alert 
'Over It' is an interesting song--because it seems to have its earworm buried under the surface somewhere. Strange how many couldn't connect with it at first (I didn't initially)--and now realize that it's a good song when executed right. Even Kat realized this herself. She's said that she didn't care for it immediately either. Then, when you get under the notes--there's something there that makes it a satisfying pop song. I think it has a lot to do with how the lyrics are conveyed and if the chords/harmonies are played just right. Those early live performances with Kat not meshing with the backup singers may have harmed its marketability at the beginning. Thankfully, she amended that later--despite that chorus harmony sometimes still getting thrown off during live shows. Of course, we know this proves Kat's singing greatness when she did the backups herself on the CD. Other people who know nothing about music, though, wouldn't understand that. Live performances are a huge judge for some people.

So, I think it was as good a choice as possible. The slow response to it obviously has something to do with what I said above. It's a weird, slow wake-up call to Kat the pop artist.

'Love Story' is more in-your-face when it comes to its earworm. That'll help it catch fire right away. And, it seems the most sensible corollary of releasing first-time singles is that the second one will always do better and help take you to the next level. As I've said before, there's something about 'LS' that people also like (it's STILL #2 to 'OI' on Rhapsody) and will help Kat carve her artistic identity a little faster.

I'm in agreement, though, that maybe Kat should have a change of songwriters on the next album. Many of us have said that a Kat/Babyface collab would be brilliant. I predict that'll be her next move--and that'll be the album that will hopefully satisfy Kat's extremely diverse demographic. I just hope Babyface doesn't bring in the candles and turn up the heat in the studio again though. That's all we need is to hear about Babyface burning down the studio while Kat makes her second album. That's about as worse as breaking your foot or losing your voice.
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05/10/2007 8:28 AM Alert 
I don't think you can say "OVER IT" was a mistake?It is going to Gold, it has served it's purpose as introducing KAT to a new style of Katharine's talents.
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05/10/2007 4:25 PM Alert 
its doing pretty good, but not as good as a lot of songs, so i think love story will do better =] fear not!
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05/10/2007 4:35 PM Alert 
Posted By Amanda on 05/10/2007 8:28 AM
I don't think you can say "OVER IT" was a mistake?It is going to Gold, it has served it's purpose as introducing KAT to a new style of Katharine's talents.


Exactly!  AND the video now has surpassed 1 million hits.
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05/10/2007 4:44 PM Alert 

OK...well, I know what all of you are saying.  And I understand why they chose OI as the first single.  But here's my problems with it:

1) It's a hard song for her to do anything with live.  And when you are out there selling your album on a new TV show every day...and then you saw her sing LS for the first time on Regis and it was like