One Hit Wondering – Willa Ford
One Hit Wondering is a series of columns where I listen to the album of a one hit wonder, and find three songs, other than the hit, that people should hear. The TRL era gave us a barrage of blonde pop stars – Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore – but in April of 2001 someone just a little bit different came along, and her name was Willa Ford. In a world of squeaky clean pop princesses (it wouldn’t be until over a year later that Christina gave us “Dirrty”), Willa announced her arrival with the song “I Wanna Be Bad.” Featuring a guest verse from hip-hop artist Royce da 5’9’’, “I Wanna Be Bad” immediately positioned Willa as the “bad girl” alternative, the one who seemed like she might get you into trouble, but it would be totally worth it. Personally, hearing Royce da 5’9’’ on the song was a jolt, because I knew of him from his Bad Meets Evil project with Eminem, and I had the “Nuttin’ To Do” / “Scary Movies” maxi single in my collection. When I heard “I
