Dare Me

"Dare Me" is a 1985 song originally recorded by The Pointer Sisters on the RCA label.

The Pointer Sisters version

Background

"Dare Me" was written by Nashville-based songwriters Sam Lorber and Dave Innis in 1984. Innis, who shortly afterwards became a founding member of Restless Heart, was then a staff writer for Warner Bros. music publishing division, and recalls that "Dare Me" was written with the Pointer Sisters in mind, adding: "typically [staff writers] look at who's [recording] now and what kind of material are they looking for, and we would tailor a song for a particular artist and pitch it"..."Sam Lorber and I...did try to put ourselves in the place of what a gal might be thinking...not specifically trying to be a Pointer Sister, but a song written from a female perspective, for sure. There are certain things that are more gender specific and gender appropriate...certain things that a woman can say that a guy's not going to be able to get away with saying."

Featuring a lead vocal by June Pointer, "Dare Me" was issued as the lead single from the Pointer Sisters' platinum-selling album Contact: peaking at#11 on the Hot 100 in Billboard magazine, "Dare Me" did afford the Pointer Sisters a final Top Ten hit on the magazine's R&B chart peaking at #6 and also became the only Pointer Sisters' track to reach #1 on Billboard's Dance Club chart. "Dare Me" afforded the Pointer Sisters their final Top 40 hit in the British Isles with peaks of #7 in Ireland and #17 in the UK: other international chart peaks for "Dare Me" were #10 in Australia, #22 in Austria, #20 in Belgium (the Flemish chart), #26 in Finland, #45 in the Netherlands, #27 in New Zealand, and #11 in Sweden.

Megan Abbott

Megan Abbott (born 1971) is an American author of crime fiction and a non-fiction analysis of hardboiled crime fiction. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing, with a female twist.

Biography

Abbott grew up in suburban Detroit and graduated from the University of Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in English and American literature from New York University, and has taught at NYU, the State University of New York and the New School University. In 2013-2014, she served as the John Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi.

Influences

Abbott was influenced by film noir, classic noir fiction, and Jeffrey Eugenides's novel The Virgin Suicides. Two of her novels reference notorious crimes. The Song Is You (2007) is based around the disappearance of Jean Spangler in 1949, and Bury Me Deep (2009) on the 1931 case of Winnie Ruth Judd, dubbed "the Trunk Murderess".

Reception and Awards

Abbott has won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for outstanding fiction. Time named her one of the "23 Authors That We Admire" in 2011.Publishers Weekly gave her 2011 novel The End of Everything a starred review.

Dare Me (novel)

Dare Me is a book by an American author Megan Abbott. Dare Me is Abbott's sixth novel, and is centered on American cheerleading, and an ambiguous death that takes place in the first few pages. The book explores themes of friendship, obsession and power. This is expressed through not only the events of the novel, but also the relationship between the protagonist, Addy Hanlon, and her best friend, Beth Cassidy.

Plot

The story is based on the world of American cheerleading. The main characters are Addy, the 16-year-old narrator, her friend Beth and the cheerleading Coach.

The friendship between Addy and Beth goes back to their childhood. Beth is manipulative and often cruel, she has always been the leader with Addy her faithful lieutenant. A new Coach arrives, things change very quickly and very soon she and Beth engage in a battle of wills. Addy adores Coach and is always willing to do her bidding, which in turn fuels Beth's jealousy; when the other team members gather at Coach's house for drinking sessions, Beth does not go there, but always watches, waiting for her moment. The girls are pushed to physical and psychological extremes as they vie for the best position on the team. Injury is just one wobble away. Then one dark night Addy is drawn into a nightmare.