Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Malcolm Kelly and Tony Oller (better known as MKTO) perform “Classic,” a 2013 feel-good anthem that pays tribute to "old school chic."
In the song, the duo serenades a girl who is way out of their league. Her style is reminiscent of a bygone era — a time when Hollywood starlets lit up the silver screen.
The opening line sets the scene: “Ooh girl you’re shining / Like a 5th Avenue diamond.”
Oller told MTV News that the song is about natural beauty. As the lyrics affirm, in a "world gone plastic" this girl is "classic."
The pop/hip-hop duo’s “Classic” charted in 16 countries, including a #14 position on the US Billboard Top 100 chart. It was also nominated for “Catchiest New Song” at the 2014 Radio Disney Music Awards.
Both accomplished child actors, Kelly and Oller met as teenagers in 2010 on the set of the Nickelodeon series Gigantic and decided to form a band. Their YouTube covers caught the attention of bigwigs at Columbia records and MKTO scored a record deal.
While MKTO clearly stands for the combined initials of Malcolm Kelly and Tony Oller, the artists insisted that their group name meant much more. Oller told IvoryMusic.org, “It also stands for what our album kind of is: Misfit Kids and Total Outcasts – just like the kids we were in high school.”
Established in 2010, MKTO had a successful run until March of 2017, when Oller posted news via social media that the band had broken up. Fans rejoiced when the pair announced a reconciliation in June of 2018. Then, a little more than three years later, Oller reported that he and Kelly had parted ways.
Please check out the video of MKTO performing “Classic.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“Classic”
Written by Lindy Robbins, Andrew Maxwell Goldstein, Emanuel Kiriakou and Evan Bogart. Performed by MKTO.
Hey! Where’s the drum?
Ooh girl you’re shining
Like a 5th Avenue diamond
And they don’t make you like they used to
You’re never going out of style
Ooh pretty baby
This world might have gone crazy
The way you saved me,
Who could blame me
When I just wanna make you smile
I wanna thrill you like Michael
I wanna kiss you like Prince
Let’s get it on like Marvin Gaye
Like Hathaway write a song for you like this
You’re over my head
I’m out of my mind
Thinking I was born in the wrong time
One of a kind, living in a world gone plastic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you,
Baby you’re so classic
Four dozen of roses
Anything for you to notice
All the way to serenade you
Doing it Sinatra style
Ima pick you up in a Cadillac
Like a gentleman bringin’ glamor back
Keep it real to real in the way I feel
I could walk you down the aisle
I wanna thrill you like Michael
I wanna kiss you like Prince
Let’s get it on like Marvin Gaye
Like Hathaway write a song for you like this
You’re over my head
I’m out of my mind
Thinking I was born in the wrong time
Let’s start the rewind, everything is so throwback age (I kinda like it like it)
Out of my league
Old school chic
Like a movie star
From the silver screen
One of a kind living in a world gone plastic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you’re class and baby you’re sick
I never met a girl like you ever til we met
A star in the 40’s, centerfold in the 50’s
Got me tripping out like the sixties
Hippies Queen of the discotheque
A 70’s dream and an 80’s best
Hepburn, Beyoncé, Marilyn Manson
Girl you’re timeless, just so classic
You’re over my head I’m out of my mind
Thinking I was born in the wrong time
Let’s start the rewind, everything is so throwback age (I kinda like it like it)
Out of my league
Old school chic
Like a movie star
From the silver screen
You’re one of a kind living in a world gone plastic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you’re so classic
Baby you’re so classic
Credit: Screen capture via Youtube.com / MKTO Band.