September 22nd, 2023
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Cake frontman John McCrea combines quirky lyrics with a vibraslap rattle as he describes his ideal partner: "a girl with a mind like a diamond."

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Appearing as the fourth track from Cake's 2001 album Comfort Eagle, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" is a song "about prosperity and depression," songwriter McCrea told CNN in 2001.

"It's really just about... what happens to the human mating ritual when you have population booms and then things start to lag in every way," he said. "So I was not really writing about a woman in short skirt/long jacket as much I was writing about humans and how strange our behavior is."

He sings, "I want a girl with a mind like a diamond / I want a girl who knows what's best / I want a girl with shoes that cut / And eyes that burn like cigarettes."

He also reveals that he prefers a girl who plays with her jewelry, enjoys uninterrupted prosperity and uses a machete to cut through red tape.

The video for "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" earned a nomination for Breakthrough Video at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards. The Platinum-certified single sold more than one million copies and the Comfort Eagle album earned a Gold certification with more than a half-million albums sold.

Last Friday, the band reissued Comfort Eagle on vinyl — in both black and Coke-bottle green varieties.

The song features McCrea playing a vibraslap, a percussion instrument consisting of a piece of stiff wire that connects a wooden ball to a hollow box of wood filled with metal “teeth.” When the wooden ball is struck with the palm of the hand, the device emits a prolonged rattlesnake sound.

Founded in Sacramento, CA, in 1991, Cake is classified as an alternative rock band, but many critics would rather put Cake in a class of its own due to the group's wide range of musical influences, off-beat lyrics and deadpan delivery.

The key to the band's unique sound, joked guitarist Xan McCurdy, is old, cheap guitars.

"We never get the exact same tone twice," he told songfacts.com.

Trivia: "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" was used as the opening theme to Chuck, an action comedy/spy drama that ran on NBC for five seasons starting in 2007.

Please check out the audio track of "Short Skirt/Long Jacket." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…

"Short Skirt/Long Jacket"
Written by John McCrea. Performed by Cake.

I want a girl with a mind like a diamond
I want a girl who knows what's best
I want a girl with shoes that cut
And eyes that burn like cigarettes

I want a girl with the right allocations
Who's fast, and thorough, and sharp as a tack
She's playing with her jewelry
She's putting up her hair
She's touring the facilities
And picking up slack
I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket.

I want a girl who gets up early
I want a girl who stays up late
I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
Who uses a machete, to cut through red tape

With fingernails that shine like justice
And a voice that is dark like tinted glass
She is fast, thorough, and sharp as a tack
She is touring the facilities and picking up slack
I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket

I want a girl with a smooth liquidation
I want a girl with good dividends
At Citibank we will meet accidentally
We'll start to talk when she borrows my pen

She wants a car with a cup holder armrest
She wants a car that will get her there
She is changing her name
From Kitty to Karen
She's trading her MG for a white Chrysler LeBaron
I want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket



Credit: Photo by Jay Adan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
September 21st, 2023
For 37 years until its closing in 2020, Rio Tinto’s Argyle Mine in Australia produced between 90% and 95% of the world’s pink and red diamonds. Since diamond mines exist all over the world, scientists struggled to understand why nearly all of the blush diamonds were concentrated in one location.

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Well, now researchers at Perth-based Curtin University believe they have the answer. And it all comes down to a mix of three key factors. Sure, you need diamond's key element — carbon — along with the massive force and heat generated by colliding tectonic plates. But the secret ingredient is continental "stretching."

Lead researcher Dr. Hugo Olierook from Curtin University's John de Laeter Centre said the "stretching" of landmasses created gaps in the Earth’s crust through which diamond-carrying magma could rise to the surface. What's more, the "stretching" also altered the diamond's lattice structure deep within the Earth.

Unlike yellow or blue diamonds that owe their color to the presence of nitrogen or boron in their chemical makeup, pink and red diamonds owe their color to the effects of intense pressure, heat and twisting. These factors caused distortions in the diamond’s crystal lattice that influence the way the gem absorbs green light, thus reflecting a pink or red hue.

As The New York Times explained, "The color comes from the warping of the gem’s crystal lattice under intense pressure. While all diamonds form under pressure, even more force turns once-clear diamonds colorful. A slight extra squeeze turns a diamond pink, and a hard squash turns it brown."

“By using laser beams smaller than the width of a human hair on rocks supplied by Rio Tinto, we found Argyle to be 1.3 billion years old, which is 100 million years older than previously thought, meaning it would likely have formed as a result of an ancient supercontinent breaking apart,” Dr. Olierook said.

Olierook identified Argyle as the point where the Kimberley region and the rest of northern Australia smashed together.

"And that sort of collision creates a damaged area or ‘scar’ in the land that will never fully heal," he added. "While the continent that would become Australia didn’t break up, the area where Argyle is situated was stretched, including along the scar, which created gaps in the Earth’s crust for magma to shoot up through to the surface, bringing with it pink diamonds."

Having identified the special ingredients that create pink and red diamonds, Dr. Olierook and his team believe it will be be possible — yet still very challenging — to find the "next Argyle" in the global hunt for new deposits.

“Most diamond deposits have been found in the middle of ancient continents because their host volcanoes tend to be exposed at the surface for explorers to find,” Dr. Olierook said. "Argyle is at the suture of two of these ancient continents, and these edges are often covered by sand and soil, leaving the possibility that similar pink diamond-bearing volcanoes still sit undiscovered, including in Australia.”

The team's findings were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Credit: Photo by Murray Rayner, Rio Tinto.
September 20th, 2023
The largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction is set to headline Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on November 7. Weighing an astounding 17.61 carats, the perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped "Bleu Royal" carries a presale estimate of $35 million to $50 million.

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If it achieves the high estimate, the "Bleu Royal" will take its place just behind the record-setting 14.62-carat “Oppenheimer Blue” (Christie's 2016, $57.5 million) and the 15.10-carat “De Beers Blue” (Sotheby's 2022, $57.47 million).

Christie's noted that Bleu Royal has been part of an important private collection for the past 50 years and that this is the first time the stone has been offered at auction.

“This is a true miracle of nature,” commended Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Christie’s Jewels. “Over our 257-year history, Christie’s has had the privilege of offering the world’s rarest gems at auction, and Bleu Royal continues this tradition. We are proud to offer collectors the opportunity to own a diamond fit for royalty.”

Blue diamonds larger than 10 carats are exceptionally rare. It is believed that only five have ever come to auction and two will be offered this fall: The "Bleu Royal" and the 11.28-carat “Infinite Blue,” which will be the subject of a single-lot event at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on October 5. The cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut fancy vivid blue stunner has a pre-sale estimate of $26 million to $37 million.

Christie's explained that, due to collector demand and an increasingly limited supply, prices for top-quality colored diamonds have increased exponentially in recent years.

Blue diamonds are considered one of the rarest colors of all diamonds. A fabulous fluke of nature, a blue diamond owes its color to the random presence of boron within the diamond’s carbon structure. The Infinite Blue is categorized as a Type IIb diamond, a quality level that includes less than 0.5% of all diamonds.

Scientists believe that blue diamonds form about 400 miles below the surface, four times deeper than about 99 percent of all other diamonds.

Credits: Image courtesy of Christie's.
September 19th, 2023
The real-life love story of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall has been celebrated as one of the great romances of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The couple met in 1944 on the set of To Have and Have Not, and despite an age difference of 25 years, they fell madly in love.

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On Friday, the heart-shaped locket on which Bogart proclaimed his love for Bacall sold for $57,150 at Los Angeles-based Julien’s Auctions. The winning bid was nearly three times the auction house’s pre-sale high estimate of $20,000.

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Julien’s noted that the gold locket, which is set with a faceted heart-shaped simulated garnet, is inscribed with the phrase, “Baby / here’s my heart / Bogie.” The piece measures 1 inch x 2 inches, weighs 20 grams and opens to reveal two photo compartments.

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It’s not clear whether Bogart gifted this piece before or after the couple exchanged vows in May of 1945. The 45-year-old Bogart was already a Hollywood headliner at the time, having starred in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). The up-and-coming model-turned-actress was just 20 years old.

Naysayers predicted that the relationship would be short-lived, but they were wrong. Bacall and Bogart would go on to celebrate a 12-year storybook marriage — one that would be cut short only after he succumbed to cancer in 1957.

In her memoir, Bacall wrote, "No one has ever written a romance better than we lived it."

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Also featured at Julien’s Auctions Hollywood Legends & Royalty sale were the couple’s matching 14-karat gold wedding bands. Described as "articulated curb link bands," the pair was sold as a single lot and fetched $190,500 — just shy of the pre-sale high estimate of $200,000. His ring is size 9 and hers is size 7.25. Both are 7 mm wide.

In all, the A-list couple starred in four movies together, including the aforementioned To Have or Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948).  

Credits: Jewelry images via Julien’s Auctions. Bogart and Bacall photo by National Motion Picture Council, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
September 15th, 2023
Welcome to Music Friday when we often bring you classic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today we flash back to the summer of 1965 — a time of hippies, bell bottoms, flower power and a chart-topping duo named Sonny & Cher singing “I Got You Babe.”

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In this love song about a young couple willing to challenge societal norms, Cher famously assures Sonny, “So let them say your hair’s too long / ‘Cause I don’t care, with you I can’t go wrong.” In the jewelry reference, Sonny serenades, “I got flowers in the spring. I got you to wear my ring.”

Written by Sonny Bono, “I Got You Babe” was the duo’s biggest single and signature song. It ascended to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and charted in 18 countries, including Singapore, Switzerland and Zimbabwe.

Sonny revealed in a 1966 interview that the song was inspired by first-hand experiences.

“I know what it is like to be kicked around because you dress differently,” Sonny told Musical Express. “I know what it is like to see the girl you love hurt because a hotel refuses you admission because of your dress. I know what it is like to have that one person stand by you. There are a lot of other people who have experienced these things and I’m trying to put our feelings into words for everyone.”

Despite being named one of the greatest duets of all times by both Billboard and Rolling Stone magazines, “I Got You Babe” was nearly thrown on the scrap heap.

Apparently, Ahmet Ertegun, the head of Atco Records, didn’t really care for the song, and was planning to relegate it to the “B” side of Sonny & Cher’s single, “It’s Gonna Rain.”

Even Cher admitted that she was hardly enthusiastic when she sang it for the first time. Sonny agreed to change the key in the bridge to suit Cher’s range and then she loved it.

Sonny was sure they had a hit, but Ertegun was still not convinced. Sonny pitched the song to the program director of Los Angeles radio station KHJ. He made a deal that allowed the station to have the song exclusively if they played it once an hour.

The station’s listeners couldn’t get enough of “I Got You Babe” and Ertegun finally agreed to publish it as the “A” side.

“I Got You Babe” had a key role in the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day, as Bill Murray, playing an arrogant TV weatherman, finds himself reliving February 2 in a perpetual time loop. Every morning at exactly six o’clock Murray wakes to the clock-radio playing the Sonny & Cher ditty.

Check out the video of Sonny & Cher performing “I Got You Babe.” The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…

“I Got You Babe”
Written by Sonny Bono. Performed by Sonny & Cher.

Cher: They say we’re young and we don’t know
We won’t find out until we grow
Sonny: Well I don’t know if all that’s true
‘Cause you got me, and baby I got you

Sonny: Babe
BOTH: I got you babe, I got you babe

Cher: They say our love won’t pay the rent
Before it’s earned, our money’s all been spent
Sonny: I guess that’s so, we don’t have a pot
But at least I’m sure of all the things we got

Sonny: Babe
BOTH: I got you babe, I got you babe

Sonny: I got flowers in the spring, I got you to wear my ring
Cher: And when I’m sad, you’re a clown
And if I get scared, you’re always around
Cher: So let them say your hair’s too long
‘Cause I don’t care, with you I can’t go wrong
Sonny: Then put your little hand in mine
There ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb

Sonny: Babe
BOTH: I got you babe I got you babe

Sonny: I got you to hold my hand
Cher: I got you to understand
Sonny: I got you to walk with me
Cher: I got you to talk with me
Sonny: I got you to kiss goodnight
Cher: I got you to hold me tight
Sonny: I got you, I won’t let go
Cher: I got you to love me so

BOTH: I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe
I got you babe


Credit: Image by CBS Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
September 14th, 2023
A 51-year-old novice metal detectorist recently discovered a cache of gold treasure on the private Norwegian island of Rennesøy. Dating back to the 6th century, the nine coin-like gold pendants, 10 gold beads and three gold rings weigh a total of 100 grams (3.5 oz).

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“This is the find of the century in Norway,” said Ole Madsen, the Director of the Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger. "Discovering such a significant amount of gold at once is extremely rare.”

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According to a University of Stavanger press release, Erlend Bore had purchased his first metal detector before the summer, partly to embark on treasure hunts but mostly to engage in a hobby that would get him off the sofa.

With the permission of the landowner, Bore started his exploration at the Rennesøy shore, but then decided to take his search inland after finding only scrap metal and a small coin.

"So, I decided to explore higher ground, and the metal detector immediately started beeping,” explained Bore.

The clump of earth that he scooped with his hands seemed to contain gold coins.

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“At first, I thought I had found chocolate coins or plastic pirate treasure. It was surreal,” Bore said. But then his heart started to race when he realized the magnitude of his discovery.

In Norway, finders of cultural artifacts may not keep the pieces, but are entitled to a finder's fee, which is to be shared equally with the landowner. The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage has yet to announce what the finder's fee will be for the Rennesøy cache. (Norwegian law dictates that all objects dating before 1537 and coins older than 1650 are considered state property and must be reported.)

Associate Professor Håkon Reiersen at the Museum of Archaeology, noted that the gold pendants unearthed by Bore date from about AD 500, during the Migration Period in Norway. These gold pendants, known as “bracteates,” resemble gold coins but were used primarily as jewelry, not legal tender.

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“The nine bracteates and the gold beads would have formed an exceptionally splendid necklace, which was crafted by skilled goldsmiths and worn by the most powerful individuals in society," stated Reiersen. "Finding so many bracteates together is exceedingly rare. This is the first such find in Norway since the 1800s."

The associate professor explained that many of Scandinavia’s major bracteate finds were buried during the mid-500s — a period marked by crop failures, worsening climate and plagues.

"The numerous abandoned farms in Rogaland from this era suggest that the crisis hit this region particularly hard,” Reiersen explained. “Based on the location of the discovery and findings from similar contexts, these were most likely either hidden valuables or offerings to the gods during that dramatic time.”

Credits: Excavation photos by Erlend Bore / University of Stavanger. Coin pendant by Annette Græsli Øvrelid, Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger. Reconstruction of necklace by archaeologist Theo Eli Gil Bell / University of Stavanger.
September 13th, 2023
Good Trouble star Cierra Ramirez's 2.9 million Instagram followers got an unexpected thrill Sunday when the self-described "luckiest girl in the world" shared pics of her surprise engagement to musician OTHRSYDE. The 28-year-old showed off her new rectangular cushion-cut diamond engagement ring in two of the six carousel shots.

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OTHRSYDE, whose actual name is Jonathan Zallez, proposed on bended knee in a lush backyard decorated with white candles and bouquets of white roses. A string ensemble played in the background as Ramirez covered her mouth in surprise. More than 30 of their closest friends and family were on hand to share in the special moment.

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Ramirez's cushion-cut diamond appears to be prong-set on a dainty diamond-accented yellow gold band.

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In the couple's joint Instagram post, the actress wrote, "Spoiler alert: I said YES! I prayed for a love like yours @othrsyde. I also couldn’t have dreamt up a better proposal if I tried… in my hometown with everyone I love! You are the most thoughtful person & I can’t wait to annoy you for the rest of my life hehehe I’m the luckiest girl in the world."

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She punctuated her post with an Engagement Ring emoji and two White Heart emojis.

She also acknowledged the friends who helped organize the celebration and those who flew to Houston to surprise her.

"…You made one of the best days of my life THAT much more memorable," she wrote.

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She concluded the post with the phrase, "Wow. Pinch meeeee" followed by a Six Horizontal Line emoji (symbolizing love, warmth, caring and affection), and a final White Heart emoji.

Ramirez is best known for her breakout performance as Mariana Adams Foster in the Freeform television series The Fosters, and her spin-off series, Good Trouble. OTHRSYDE, 27, is a musician, Instagram model and influencer.

Priscilla Quintana, who has the recurring role of Isabella on Good Trouble, commented on Instagram, "That ring is EVERYTHING… Congrats you both."

Ramirez and OTHRSYDE have been a couple since August 2019, most recently celebrating their four-year anniversary together with a romantic trip to Spain and France.

Credits: Images via Instagram / cierraramirez.
September 12th, 2023
A 390.7-carat diamond unearthed at the Mayat mine in the Anabar region of Yakutia, near the Arctic Circle, is the second-largest diamond ever found on Russian territory and the largest in a decade.

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Russian mining giant Alrosa reported on Sunday that the transparent "crystal has a non-standard shape and is bordered by a yellowish-brown halo." Alrosa credited the find to its subsidiary, Almazy Anabara, which scored the the massive gem during the night-time washing of the diamond sands at the Ebelyakh portion of the deposit.

Anabar, in the northernmost part of Yakutia, is said to be the coldest inhabited region in the world, where the average temperature in January reaches a high of -25°F and a low of -39°F. The basin of the Anabar river is has one of the largest concentration of diamond deposits in the world.

In a statement, Alrosa noted that the "combination of mass, shape and color makes the stone unique."

“The discovery of one of the largest diamonds in Russian history is undoubtedly an unprecedented event and an excellent finale to the 2023 mining season,” noted Alrosa CEO Pavel Marinychev. “Experts have yet to study in detail and evaluate the potential of the mined diamond and its characteristics, but, without a doubt, this is a record holder both for our company and for the country’s diamond industry.”

To the casual observer, the fractured edges of the gem hint that this specimen was once part of a larger stone that could have been crushed during the sorting process.

The miner added that a colorless 37.7-carat diamond with a more traditional octahedron shape was recovered at the same time.

According to Wikipedia's "List of the Largest Rough Diamonds," the Mayat-sourced gem now rates #52, while the slightly larger 401-carat Russian record-holder stands at #50. At the top of the list is the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905.

Despite being one of the largest producers of diamonds in the world by volume — with deposits located in the Arkhangelsk region and the Siberian republic of Yakutia — Alrosa rarely reports super-large specimens.

Bloomberg noted that sanctions imposed against the state-controlled Alrosa due to the war in Ukraine could hamper a potential sale of the newly recovered stone.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Alrosa.
September 11th, 2023
In 1926, American tycoon Harrison Williams married Mona Bush, a divorcée 24 years his junior. Aboard his 250-foot yacht, the Warrior, the couple embarked on a year-long, around-the-world honeymoon, and during a stopover in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), the 53-year-old public utilities mogul picked up a beautiful cornflower blue sapphire for his new bride.

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That 98.57-carat cushion-cut gem, which is now known as the Bismarck Sapphire, is one of the world’s finest examples of September’s official birthstone. Visitors to the Gem Gallery at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, will see the Bismarck Sapphire Necklace prominently displayed alongside two other famous sapphire pieces, the Hall Sapphire and Diamond Necklace and the Logan Sapphire.

Originally set horizontally in a necklace designed by Cartier in 1927, the Bismarck Sapphire was rotated into a vertical position when Mona had the necklace updated in 1959. The necklace on display in Washington, D.C., is accented with eight square-cut blue sapphires and 312 baguette and round brilliant-cut diamonds.

Gem experts believe that the Bismarck Sapphire was originally much larger than 98.57 carats and that it was likely recut by Cartier to attain optimum clarity and brilliance after returning to the states from Sri Lanka. Traditionally, Sri Lankan cutters favored carat weight over ideal proportions.

When Williams set off on his year-long honeymoon he was considered one of the richest men in America. His fortune was estimated at $680 million (equivalent to about $11.2 billion today).

The stock market crash of 1929 took a heavy toll on their fortune, but still, the Williamses maintained their ritzy lifestyle and, by 1933, Mona had earned the distinction of becoming the first American voted the “Best Dressed Woman in the World.”

Harrison Williams died in 1953, and two years later Mona would marry the German Count Eduard von Bismarck. At this point, the American socialite became known as Countess Mona von Bismarck. In 1967, at the age of 70, the Countess donated her beloved necklace to the Smithsonian. Mona died in 1983 at the age of 86.

Historically, the finest and most vibrant gem-quality sapphires have come from Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma) and the Kashmir region of India. According to the Smithsonian, sapphires from Sri Lanka are typically light to medium blue and are commonly referred to as “Ceylon Sapphires.”

All sapphires are made of the mineral corundum (crystalline aluminum oxide). In its pure state, the corundum is colorless, but when trace elements are naturally introduced to the chemical composition, all the magic happens.

Blue sapphires occur, for instance, when aluminum atoms are displaced with those of titanium and iron in the gem’s crystal lattice structure. Corundum has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale, compared to a diamond, which has a hardness of 10.

Sapphires are seen in many colors, including pink, purple, green, orange and yellow. Ruby is the red variety of corundum.

Credit: Bismarck necklace photo by Chip Clark/Smithsonian, digitally enhanced by SquareMoose.
September 8th, 2023
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you hit songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Canadian songstress Amanda Marshall throws caution to the wind while wearing a very special locket in her 1995 chart-topper, “Dark Horse.”

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In the song she co-wrote with Dean McTaggart and David Tyson, Marshall tells the story of a 19-year-old girl who enters into a whirlwind relationship with the new guy in town. The locals criticize her for being a crazy, romantic fool, but Marshall’s heart tells her that this could be “the lucky one.” Despite the long odds, she’s willing to put her money on this “dark horse.”

She sings, “I wear your locket, our picture’s inside / Inscription says ‘The joy’s in the ride’ / And I believe / That something so sacred / Is something worth this kind of fight / Cause love knows no patience / You can’t please everyone all the time.”

“Dark Horse” was the fifth single released from Marshall’s successful self-titled debut album, which sold more than one million copies in Canada alone. The single peaked at #5 on Canada’s RPM Top Singles chart and #1 on RPM‘s Adult Contemporary chart.

Interestingly, while appearing on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1995, Elton John commented that he was listening to Marshall’s just-released album and that “Dark Horse” would be a “guaranteed hit.”

Born in Toronto in 1972, Amanda Meta Marshall immersed herself in music as a child. She studied intensively, and her talents yielded her a spot at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. While performing on the Queen Street West bar scene in her teens, she met Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist Jeff Healey, who was impressed by her powerful voice. She eventually toured with Healey and then released her debut album a few years later. It was a monumental work that spawned six Top 40 hits.

A year later, in 1996, her song “This Could Take All Night” was included in the original soundtrack of the motion picture Tin Cup. One year later, Marshall’s “I’ll Be Okay” was featured on the original soundtrack of My Best Friend’s Wedding. She was nominated as Best Songwriter at the 2000 Juno Awards.

Marshall took a long break from the recording business as she worked through a dispute with her record label. In June of 2023, the 51-year-old Marshall finally returned to the music scene with the release of a new album, Heavy Lifting, supported by a Canada-wide tour.

Please check out the official video for Marshall’s “Dark Horse.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along.

“Dark Horse”
Written by Dean McTaggart, David Tyson and Amanda Marshall. Performed by Amanda Marshall.

Indian summer
Abilene
You were new in town, I was 19
And sparks flew

They called us crazy behind our backs
“Romantic fools” we just let them laugh
Because we knew

It may be a long shot
We may get lonely down the line
But love knows no reason
And I won’t let ’em make up my mind

My money’s riding on this dark horse, baby
My heart is sayin' it’s the lucky one
And its true color’s gonna shine through someday
If we let this, let this dark horse run

The stars are brighter in the desert sky
No need to wonder or justify
Where this will lead

I wear your locket, our picture’s inside
Inscription says, "The joy’s in the ride"
And I believe
That something so sacred
Is something worth this kind of fight
Cause love knows no patience, no
You can’t please everyone all the time

My money’s riding on this dark horse, baby
My heart is saying it’s the lucky one
And its true color’s gonna shine through someday
If we let this, let this dark horse run

So rare
So sweet
Together baby, I know
We can
Disappear
Be free

Ohh, my money’s riding on this dark horse, baby
My heart is saying it’s the lucky one
And its true color’s gonna shine through someday
If we let this, let this dark horse run

My money’s riding on this dark horse, baby
My heart is saying it’s the lucky one
And its true color’s gonna shine through someday
If we let this, let this dark horse run

Indian summer
Abilene
You were new in town, I was 19



Credit: Photo by Allen McGregor from Brampton, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.