This marks the third Song of the Day appearance for a composition by veritable Swedish hit machine and possible computer algorithm Max Martin, the others being Kelly Clarkson’s version of Since U Been Gone, and I Want it That Way, as performed by the Backstreet Boys. Curiously, and ill-advisedly, Pink had passed on Since U Been Gone, before Clarkson jumped all over it and made it one of the most memorable power pop hits of the new millennium. Given the chance to record the structurally similar Who Knew?, she didn’t make the same mistake. She really sank her teeth into it, and had an up-tempo power pop hit of her own (though it took a while to catch on, and peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 – go figure). That Max Martin, boy howdy, he really can crank out an irresistible ear worm, can’t he? Pink got a co-writing credit on this one, and certainly deserves tons of praise for her performance, but musically, at least, Who Knew? has Martin’s golden fingerprints all over it.
I like Pink, more as a person than a performer. She’s got her wits about her. Her head’s screwed on right, you know, she’s been through some things, taken her share of hard knocks, and knows the score. I remember being struck years ago by an interview she gave to Vogue, or Vanity Fair, or some such glossy magazine, in which she offered one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard; I can’t find it any more, so I can’t give it to you verbatim, but it went like this: Always have your walking-away money. Earn that first, and put it aside. Never allow yourself to wind up in a position where you can’t just tell everybody to go f#@k themselves, and quit for good. Damn, girl. I mean, damn. Absolutely goddam right. Words to live by, if you can. She could, and plainly was. You knew she was. Pink wasn’t here to mess around.
Besides which, she doesn’t just look like she could kick the living crap out of you, she actually could. She’d punch your lights out, buddy, but good. That woman could drop a six-and-a-half-foot longshoreman in his tracks, and he’d wake up whimpering for his mother.
Lyrically, Who Knew? isn’t just another gripe from a woman scorned, though that’s how it might sound at first blush (I wonder if Pink earned her co-writing credit by authoring the words?). It’s obviously about romance gone sour, but I’ve always felt it might just as well be describing the fragility of all relationships, including the friendships you once assumed to be everlasting, and how even the most powerful connections between people, romantic or not, can vanish overnight, or fade quietly away over time while you’re not paying attention. One day, you’re taken aback to realize you’re all alone. It’s nothing you saw coming. You’d have said it wasn’t possible. But here you are.
When someone said count your blessings now
‘Fore they’re long gone
I guess I just didn’t know how
I was all wrong
But they knew better, still you said forever, and ever
Who knew?
She’s not angry, not really. She’s brought up short, bitterly disappointed, and terribly sad, and that’s really quite poignant, isn’t it? Who Knew? may come off to some like a glossy, slickly-produced slice of carefully calibrated chart bait, but not to me. Underneath all that, it’s got soul, and boy, does Pink ever bring it out.
the needlefish 