It’s the Fs and Gs this time, and we start with the theme tune for a show I never watched a single second of! Auf Weidersehen Pet was about a group of builders in Germany and had a pretty stellar cast who went on to, amongst other things, Inspector Morse, Harry Potter and chart topping hits. Anyway, the most played side, That’s Livin’ Alright, sung by Joe Fagin was the archetypal 80s theme tune, and a close cousin of the theme tunes for Minder and Boon. What can I say? I love a theme tune you can belt out! Next, a tune from something I did watch! Axel F from Harold Faltermeyer has echoes of the stunning score from Assault on Precinct 13 by John Carpenter, but is a much more upbeat use of a synthesiser, perfectly suiting the brilliant film it came from. Beverly Hills Cop was something of a phenomenon amongst me and my friends at the time and a film I saw more than once on the big screen.
Continuing the film and TV theme, we have two singles from occasional chart entrants, The Firm. Their first hit single, Arthur Daley e’s Alright mined Chas and Dave territory, and we’ve already alluded to my affection for Rockney! It was a song made up of catchphrases from the show, Minder, and reached a respectable Number 14 in the charts in 1982. Massive success followed 5 years later with UK chart topping single Star Trekkin’ based on the original series with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura and Scotty being the subject of the verses, which become increasingly frenetic. I remember it chiefly for it’s role in a parade my venture unit took part in. We had constructed a float featuring the USS Enterprise and we took part in the parade with Star Trekkin’ blasting out of the speakers of a massive boom box, on a loop for 90 minutes! Just to complete the picture, I was sporting a pair of very uncomfortable Vulcan ears made of cardboard! Let’s just say that it was a long time before I could listen to that song again!
Every so often, I come across a single that baffles me, and Rain or Shine by Five Star, a group I never liked at the time or afterwards, definitely fits into that category. I can only assume that it was when I was DJing for a party and felt that I needed to have it. For those who don’t know the group .. keep it that way!
In complete contrast, the next single is one of my favourite tracks of all time, and the first summer song I became totally obsessed by. Beach Baby by First Class is quite simply perfect, and in the summer of 1974 seemed to be on the radio every hour or so. Despite all this airplay it only reached Number 13 in the charts when it should have been absolutely massive. It is a song that takes the Beach Boys template and setting and mixes it with brass, full orchestra and harmonies that the Beach Boys themselves would have been proud of. It is a magnificent pop record that needs some sort of Tik Tok visibility to turn it into the Top 5 record it should have been.
A couple of 80s tracks to finish off with that fall into the category of ‘I haven’t heard that in ages’. First of all, a group more famous for the lead singer’s hairstyle, which was a visual joke in the Adam Sandler film ‘The Wedding Singer’ made in 1998. The fact that the bulk of the audience would have got the joke indicates what a visual impact they made in a relatively short lived pop career. Anyone who might only know them because of the haircut should listen to Wishing (If I had a Photograph of You) to hear what a good band they were. The Flying Pickets are, of course, best known in the UK for their monster Christmas Number 1 of 1983, an acapella version of Only You (which I have on 12″ single) but the follow-up When You’re Young and in Love is, in my opinion, the superior song. They had a Top 10 with this absolutely gorgeous arrangement that you really must check out if you haven’t heard it.
The next octet of singles features a couple of tracks that were barely off of my record player from the time I bought them. First up, though, is a hit from the end of 1985 that I thought was headed Top 10 if not all the way to Number 1. Not for the first time I was way out of synch with the record buying public who didn’t buy Tender Love by Force MDs in any real numbers. A top five hit in the US, it staggered to 23 in the UK charts before heading back down again. It was an undeserved fate for a song that is a stunning ballad that easily matches, if not surpasses, the next song, I Want to know what love is by Foreigner which was a huge Number 1 both sides of the Atlantic and featured, I found out today, Tom Bailey of The Thompson Twins on keyboards. There’s a question for a pop quiz! It is a good song, but in an era when big ballads were ten a penny, perhaps not as amazing as the chart positions might have you believe. That said, the gospel choir are brilliant and lift it from good to monster hit when they are singing. Old Gold again for the next song, a perennial favourite of mine from The Four Seasons, the euphoric December 63 (Oh What a Night). It was Number 1 in 1976 and I absolutely loved it. When I bought it I was transported back to the mid 70s straight away and I played it again and again to take me back to happier, less complicated times. Freeez were responsible for one of the most memorable tracks of 1983 with the catchy club inflected I.O.U. It was perhaps the first club record that ever caught my ear and it reached Number 2 in the UK and Number 1 in the US Billboard Dance Chart. Back to Beverly Hills Cop for the next track, the inspired The Heat is On by Glenn Frey of The Eagles. It is without doubt one of my favourite songs on any film soundtrack and proves, if proof were needed, that the 80s were the highwater mark of film music especially as far as the charts were concerned.
One of my all time favourite records is next, but baffling to see that it’s the only Fun Boy Three single I ever bought. Oh well, if you’re only going to have one, then it’s got to be Tunnel of Love. What brilliant lyrics, what a fantastic tune. It’s pure pop perfection and a track I will never tire of. I could pick any line at random and it would be brilliant, but the one I always think of is ‘The trial separation worked’! If you want an encapsulation of Terry Hall’s genius, it’s those four words of cynical detachment.
A couple of Peter Gabriel singles next. Sledgehammer was famous for an iconic video. Although the song itself is good, it doesn’t have the same impact without the visuals, at least not in my opinion. The duet with Kate Bush, Don’t Give Up, benefitted from both Bush’s ethereal vocals and one of the most hard hitting lyrics of the 80s dealing with the mental impact of unemployment. It is heart rending and, sadly, as relevant now as it was then.
What can I say about the next record, Bright Eyes? It was the theme for Watership Down, a frankly horrific watch that is ingrained in the memory of anyone who ever saw it. It was Art Garfunkel’s biggest ever record in the UK, reaching Number 1 and staying there for 6 weeks. It was yet another hit for the genius songwriter Mike Batt, but bafflingly his only UK Number 1 ever. Oh, and its absolutely gorgeous even if it is about death. Genesis were a group who were always on the edge of my musical affections, but the first record of theirs I bought, That’s All, has an irresistible tune and still sounds as fresh as a daisy 40 years on. The other one I bought was Invisible Touch Live which was released in 1992 and so was one of the last 7″ singles I ever bought. It may be heretical to say so, but I think Phil Collins as a solo performer was better than the group itself.
On to Godley and Creme of 10CC who released two stunning singles in quick succession. Under Your Thumb was atmospheric and unsettling with its depiction of an abusive relationship and a deeply disturbing twist in the tail that sent shivers down my spine the first time I heard it. From the perspective of today it can be seen to be a troubling track, but I think it is simply brave and brilliant. The follow up, Wedding Bells was more traditional, but no less catchy, telling the story of a commitment phobic man who doesn’t want to marry his girlfriend! OK, another questionable choice I suppose, but I still enjoy Seven Tears by The Goombay Dance Band. It’s so catchy and so corny that it makes the journey from kitsch to irresistible for me. Go West were a duo who had a decent run of success in the 80s and Don’t Look Down was the single of theirs which really hit the spot for me.
Finally, you have the genius of TV themes, Ron Grainer, with Doctor Who and Tales of the Unexpected, two of the best examples of the whole genre. However, it is the B Side of the Doctor Who single that is my absolute favourite. It’s not widely known, it’s not from a TV programme, but Reg is one of the finest piece of early electronica you could ever wish to hear. It was going to be the final track in my Spotify list to go with this set of singles, but it isn’t on the platform or on YouTube! It’s brilliant, and I really urge you to search for it and listen to it.
So, on to the Hs next. What is in store for us next? Even I’m not sure!
Anyway, I have my Spotify Playlist here if you are interested
It almost looks like I’m getting the most questionable singles out of the way first in this part of the journey through my singles collection. That said, I would happily defend Doctor and the Medics version of Spirit in the Sky. It’s catchy, well delivered and has a real happy energy to it, and I really like it to this day. The second single, I cannot defend either to you or to Ultravox! There were no excuses then or now. Yes, I was one of those misguided record buyers who sent Joe Dolce to Number 1 so I will Shaddap My Face!! The two Jason Donovan singles I have are his remakes of Sealed With a Kiss and As Time Goes By. Tarred as he was with the ex soap actor brush, I genuinely think he has not been given the credit he deserves for what is a really fine voice. Too Many Broken Hearts is absent from this collection because I bought the cassette for Janet, but that is just an excellent song, full stop. Double were a one hit wonder in the UK, but what a hit. The Captain of her Heart is one of the loveliest ballads of the 80s in a very crowded field. Every time you hear it, it just takes you back to the end of the night, either when you’re out or at home. It’s one of those musical time capsules, as is the next one, the simply sublime Life in a Northern Town by Dream Academy. I would put this alongside Souvenir by OMD as one of the most stunning pieces of music I have ever heard. It was so different and so beautiful and to this day it still sounds amazing. The Drifters were childhood favourites of mine, so when I was flicking through the Old Gold section in a record shop and saw my favourite song of theirs, Kissin in the Back Row of the Movies I simply had to buy it. Their smooth style and their vignettes of teenage life were utterly irresistible to me as a kid, and they still are. Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy was one of those artists who came into view for me with a record I loved, Kiss Me in his case, then completely disappeared from my consciousness thereafter. It is a part of a singles buyer’s mentality that you truly are only as good as your last track. Yes, there were some artists who I knew would appeal to me with whatever they released, but even if an artist only impressed me with one record, they were there for ever in my musical consciousness. Wrapping up the first picture it’s Duran Duran. I was a big fan of theirs, but I never really got their tracks as singles because I had started collecting compilations and they were very likely to appear on them. Wild Boys, apart from being my favourite of theirs, was the theme song of the first flight I was put in when I got to RAF Swinderby for recruit training. As you can imagine, when I was injured and eventually given a medical discharge, it became a very difficult one to listen to in the years immediately afterwards, but even when it made me wince with bad memories I still thought it was brilliant. The other Duran Duran single in my collection is one of the best Bond themes ever for my money. It’s a great track with a very funny tongue in cheek video and it has everything you’d want from a theme tune.
This is an interesting set. It includes singles from some huge artists, many of which were released after their ‘Imperial period’. In case you haven’t come across the term, it refers to the time, however long or short, where everything you release is successful. It doesn’t necessarily refer to an artist’s creative peak, although the two might be in sync, but to their popularity peak. The phrase was coined by Neil Tennant, to reflect on the time when the Pet Shop Boys in 87 – 88 became the biggest band in the UK. Whilst not an exact science, it is a very handy concept to keep in mind.
ELO were a group that I loved listening to in the 70s, with the gorgeous Telephone Line being my favourite of theirs. The two singles I have of theirs come from the 80s. Rock ‘n’ Roll is King is from 1983 where it was something of a summer staple. Throughout July it stayed in the Top 20 and got quite a lot of radio play. It was a very different style of song from those in their 70s heyday, a more back to basics rocker that perhaps showed the way the charts had changed. Things needed to be punchy and more immediate in charts dominated by New Romantics so that’s what Jeff Lynne gave the singles buyers. The even better, in my opinion, Calling America came out in March 1986, the year I went over to be the International Scout on a summer camp in Florida. As such, it became something of a theme song for me at the time, and for a few months afterwards. It only just crept into the Top 30, however, with its orchestral sensibilities never far from the surface and perhaps seemingly old hat. Take a listen to either of these now and I think you will hear two high quality records that deserved a better fate.
The King is in the singles building! Elvis, even more than The Beatles, was my ‘oldies’ territory. Elvis 40 Golden Greats on pink vinyl was the first vinyl album I bought for myself, with The Beatles 62 – 66 being the second. I knew most of his classic tunes, and his was the first celebrity death that genuinely affected me. At the end of 1977, the year he died, My Way was released, but it was the B Side I really liked, the song America the Beautiful. Similarly, the song Way Down, which was catapulted to Number One following his death in August 1977 was a good track, and the A Side on the single I bought soon afterwards from the oldies rack, but his previous release which reached Number 6 in the charts under its own steam was the superior Moody Blue, the B Side here, which pointed the way to a later career renaissance which sadly never materialised. Though not as egregiously bad as Joe Dolce, the ‘laughing’ version of Are You Lonesome Tonight? is cringeworthy to listen to, and I really don’t know what I was thinking!
The two Erasure singles I have are the stunning breakthrough hit, Sometimes, one of the best songs of the latter half of the 80s, and the Crackers International EP featuring Stop. These tracks were two of their three highpoints for me. The other was Ship of Fools, but I already had the cassette so I didn’t buy the single. As with a number of artists, I am surprised I don’t have more of their singles. Finally, in this section I have two later career successes by 70s heart throb David Essex, one of the best singers of his era. Tahiti was from his musical Bounty and is an excellent track, but it pales alongside A Winter’s Tale, one of the finest songs of Mike Batt’s career, and that is a very, very crowded field. It was written at a time when Batt thought a relationship was over when the woman he loved moved back to Australia. It is gorgeous, melancholy, brilliantly sung and one of the best Number 2 records ever released. From the time I first heard it to now, it has always been in my own personal Top 10, and will always remain there.
We finish off Part 5 with some Es! What a collection of singles in this picture. Starting off with rock favourites, the Swedish band, Europe who had huge success with Final Countdown then followed it up with another two really good tracks from the same album. Their ubiquitous chart topper doesn’t need any introduction, but the other two probably do. Rock the Night, which reached Number 12, was another driving rock track. Carrie, which stalled just outside the Top 20, is a hugely underrated rock ballad that was brilliantly sung by Joey Tempest.
The Eurythmics are simply one of the best British groups ever. The quartet of singles I have for them probably reflect every side of their output. First, their second Top 10 single, Sweet Dreams, the instantly recognisable driving synth track is one of the signature tracks of the decade. Even now it sounds absolutely up to date and it’s one of those which will never age. The second single is the Top 10 from early 1984, Here Comes the Rain Again. The raindrop effect on the synth captured my imagination from the first time I heard it, but one of my friends was far less impressed and dubbed it ‘Here Comes the Same Again’! Now on to my favourite track of theirs, the outstanding Thorn in my Side, with its angry defiant lyrics and Annie Lennox on top form vocally. I was blown away by it and, as great as the rest of their output was, it will always have pride of place for me. Finally, Angel is a gorgeous emotional ballad that showcases the style Lennox would adopt during her solo career. Prior to, and subsequent to, I Don’t Want to Talk About It I can’t remember anything else that Everything But the Girl released, but that single is one of the best cover versions ever with Tracey Thorn’s vocals out of this world.
Part 6 sees me move on with some Fs and Gs, and there are some gems and some rubbish as ever! If you are interested in Part 2 of my Spotify playlist, it’s here https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2cLcCsVRsilEZB88mZuVzq?si=71d31b8dde5747d5
My history with this book.
A few weeks back I found a copy of this book on eBay. I had been searching for a copy for a couple of months before taking the plunge on one that was in quite exceptional condition given its age. So, why this book? Well, it had a set of emotional memories connected with it. Let me explain. In the winter of 1971 I was in Guy’s Hospital in London waiting to have my tonsils and adenoids removed. This was common practice at the time for someone who had tonsillitis as badly as I did, but at 6 years old I really didn’t have much of a clue what I was facing, which was quite fortunate. The children’s ward was quite busy at the time, and we were all of similar ages, so prior to the operation it was something of an adventure. Post operation, it was altogether more of a battle as my throat was too sore to eat anything more than ice cream, and even that hurt. Well, just after the operation, my Uncle Ken (honorary rather than family) came to visit me as he was in London. It was great to see him because he wasn’t the type to let you be miserable. I remember laughing, which was painful, which I often did when he was around, and then being given a present. I eagerly tore off the wrapping paper and there was The Victor Book for Boys 1972. Part of the excitement was that I had never had an annual before Christmas before, and this was November! It was like being in my own TARDIS! The other part was that Ken had hit upon one of the comics that I had rarely read, but whose covers I loved in the paper shop. It kept me entertained during the rigours of recovery, both in the hospital and at home. It was often a book I returned to as a kind of comfort read even though I knew most of the stories word for word. So, my six year old self was gripped by it, but what about my older self, and what do its pages tell us about our changing times and attitudes over the last 50 years?
The social changes
When you look at the front cover, it is an RAF flying boat locked in combat with Luftwaffe planes, the former clearly damaged, but having destroyed one of the three attackers. The World War II theme recurs throughout the annual, which may seem strange to modern eyes, particularly those eyes which are younger than mine. However, you have to remember that the war had only ended 26 years earlier. Not only was it within living memory, but its youngest participants were still in their 40s so they were looking back with largely undimmed memories. On TV Dad’s Army was very popular and the TV channels had a regular diet of war films, documentaries and interviews. This was back in the days when there was no doubt in people’s minds that it had been a just war fought fairly against an enemy that was purely evil. It’s hardly surprising then that the Victor Book for Boys reflected this. Six of the picture stories dealt directly with the war as did the inside covers and three of the features.
Representation was, shall we say, patchy! Again, this was quite in keeping with the times. Non English speaking people were portrayed as reliant on the Empire, which was still unambiguously a good thing, illiterate in one case leading to ‘humorous’ consequences or, in the case of those we fought in the war, irredeemably awful. Now, this would be quite difficult for the modern reader to understand, but then it was almost unquestioned except amongst ‘troublemakers’ that ‘to be born English was to win first prize in the lottery of life’ as Cecil Rhodes opined. What about women? There is not a single female character in the entire annual with any kind of role in the narratives. In fact, I can only find four frames with female characters in them in the 120 plus pages! That was to be expected by boys of the time, because only the occasional ‘tomboy’ was worth even bothering with if you were under the age of 10! A sub-plot of a World War II story revolves around the dressing up of a boy as a girl to evade the Germans who will be looking for a family with two boys. The horror of being treated like a girl for this character comes through loud and clear.
On the positive side, the central message of each story is that you will win out if you play fair and if you don’t it will catch up with you. The moral stance of this annual, and society in general at the time, was unambiguous. If you cheated or used violence in the wrong cause you were unacceptable in the eyes of right thinking society. Every hero wins out by being morally correct in everything and every villain’s cheating will be in vain. It may have been a message that had more than a little wishful thinking attached, but it meant that the morally ambiguous hero of today was not acceptable. Shades of grey were out. You either wore a white hat or a black hat!
The longer form stories, and even the comic strips to some extent, reflected the expectations that society had when it came to children. The vocabulary was, for a six year old, challenging to say the least, with stories that required a lot of guessing from context or trips to the bookcase to look words up in a dictionary. It is something that comes up time after time in books and TV shows of the era. In school, the lessons were fast paced and there was little time to quiz the teacher about new words, so you wrote the words in a little book, checked them in the dictionary and then wrote the definition. It is not unlike the approach that you take when learning a foreign language! Now, I am not subscribing to the view that all we do is spoon feed children these days, far from it, but there was less support in class especially as a primary school pupil and we were expected to be much more independent in the days when children were seen and rarely heard, even in classrooms!
So, I have set out the context. How did my adult self react to this piece of history from my childhood? Come with me as I board my TARDIS once again and return to 1971.
The comic strips
There are nine comic strips in this book, and I had extremely clear memories of three and vague memories of three more, which is not bad after so many years. The drawings range from the extremely realistic to the caricatured, but the sheer level of detail in those completely hand drawn frames is incredible. Battle scenes were full of action, sporting scenes were full of character and even the more sedate scenes had a huge amount of life. I’d love to able to give due recognition to these talented cartoonists, but their names don’t appear anywhere in the annual.
(The website http://www.victorhornetcomics.co.uk/index.html has a lot of background information that may help this process, and it is a fascinating resource in its own right.)
Anyway, the comic strip I have chosen is one that I recognised immediately, called The Manxman Returns. It is set on the Isle of Man in World War II and features an archaeological dig that uncovered a statue of King Orry, a King Arthur like figure who stood ready to protect his home island in times of oppression. A Japanese invasion taking place at that very moment provides the backdrop to a story that combines resistance fighting, one of the archaeologists putting on the helmet of King Orry and being imbued with his spirit and a supernatural twist. Reading it now, what really impressed me was the way that the story sped along without missing out on the little details that gave it a time and place. Yes, the characters were broad brush, but there was a real essence of humanity there, both good and bad. It was a real treat revisiting the Manxman, my favourite character and story in 1971 and 2023.
The longer stories revolved around the goldrush, the Wild West, an attempted hijack and a boxer on the comeback trail. It is the last of these that I have chosen to deal with in more detail. The Fight of Forgotten Punches is red in tooth and claw with violence at its heart, both inside and outside the ring. The part of the story that dealt with the attack on a young pretender by associates of the champion boxer determined to keep his title is still genuinely shocking. It is a story of redemption, of the use of force for good and evil and the way that your bad deeds will find you out. The language is spare but effective, especially in the more visceral passages and it is a story that could easily get the most reluctant of readers interested.
Finally, you have the features which are short introductions to conflict, sport and history. The one I have chosen to look at is The Trail-Blazers which looks at the history of exploration from Greek sailor Pytheas, who discovered Britain, to Neil Armstrong, who had been the first person to walk on the moon a couple of years earlier. These little pen portraits were a jumping off point for me at the time as I became fascinated by explorers and their achievements. Even in these more questioning times, the stories of these people who fought against so many odds are still amazing.
So, there you go. If you wanted to dive in yourself, there are copies for sale on eBay at a variety of prices and in a variety of conditions, but I’m keeping hold of the Victor Book for Boys 1972 this time!
So, we start the 4th part of this look at my singles by polishing off the Cs. The gorgeous voice of Randy Crawford was often one I enjoyed listening to, but it was only Almaz that I bought because of it’s gorgeous, aching chorus. It is only through looking back at these singles that I realise how certain songs captured my imagination before fading into the back of my mind. Almaz was definitely one of them and it’s like being reunited with an old friend. Next is a song from the 60s which came back into the wider public consciousness thanks to An American Werewolf in London’s ground breaking transformation scene. Credence Clearwater Revival were a classic rock group who produced a strong body of work, but Bad Moon Rising will always be my favourite. Crosby, Stills and Nash come next with Teach Your Children, a slice of 60s melancholy that has become part of my musical landscape over the years. It is simple yet profound and a song that reflects the passing of time in a powerful way.
In 1985, there was a dreadful fire at Valley Parade, the ground of Bradford City, which killed 56 people and injured over 200 others. The Crowd’s You’ll Never Walk Alone was the first charity record I can really remember and it set the template for many others. Led by Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers, who became the first person to reach Number One with two versions of the same song, You’ll Never Walk Alone raised money for the new Bradford Royal Infirmary burns unit. The voice and look of Boy George were twin emblems of the early 80s and Karma Chameleon was, and remains, one of the catchiest records made during that era. It’s a record that has transcended its time to become a favourite of music lovers of all ages. The final C is, to put it very mildly, aural Marmite! Billy Ray Cyrus would later become far more well known for appearing with daughter Miley in Hannah Montana, but he had one Top 10 hit with the insanely catchy or incredibly irritating (delete as appropriate!) Achy Breaky Heart! Let’s be honest, even if you hated it, that tune is now going round in your head isn’t it?!
On to the Ds and I start off with the one single every non-Damned fan bought! They passed me by in their punk days, purely because I wasn’t yet ready for that type of music. Eloise, however, was a gem of a remake that had the advantage of being a great singalong track and a showcase for Dave Vanian’s marvellous voice. It may have been an anomaly in their output, but what an anomaly! Next is another of the records I picked up from Kidderminster Town Hall’s occasional jumble sales. Darts were a doo-wop group who ploughed a different furrow to the smoother Showaddywaddy with chaotic performances and a revolving cast of lead singers. The track Come Back My Love was my favourite of theirs and still rewards the odd listen, always bringing a smile to my face. It’s Hard to be Humble by Mac Davis is a humorous record in the vein of Ray Stevens that reflects the trials of a man who is ‘perfect in every way’! He bemoans the fact that people cannot understand how much of a burden it is. I originally bought it for my Dad as a birthday present because it was him to a tee! I know he found it funny and appreciated the tongue in cheek compliment. It is 28 years since he died, but this song brings his larger than life personality back every time.
Dead or Alive were perhaps the most atypical act in Stock, Aitken and Waterman’s entire history, so it is odd that it was this band that gave the label their first Number One single. The combination of the unique showmanship of Pete Burns and the SAW ear for a tune made this a nailed on chart topper from the first few notes and set the trio off on their run of success, whether people liked it or not! Of all their artists, Hazell Dean was my absolute favourite. How her first two tracks, Searchin’ and Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go) failed to follow Dead or Alive to Number One will remain, to me, one of the great mysteries of the 80s charts. These two tracks were great to listen to, great to sing to, great to dance to and practically perfect in every way. The sheer cheek of SAW taking the tune for Blue Monday and layering Hi-NRG pop on top of it was amazing. In these more litigious days it would be impossible to get away with! The third of her trio of tracks, Back in my Arms Once Again was another belter. If you have forgotten how good Hazell Dean was, I urge you to take another listen to her. As with the first set of songs above, I have ended up with another love it or hate it track. I spent the whole of summer in 1986 in Florida as an International Scout at Camp Shands. As a result, I had a number of tracks to catch up with on my return. Lady in Red was one of them, and possibly because I hadn’t heard it week after week during August in its long run in the top 10, I came to it as a fresh song and loved it. I still do, so it can’t be all bad in my view!
Chris De Burgh’s other Top 10 hit came a couple of years later with the rather lovely Missing You. If you just listen to the song and somehow separate it from any views on De Burgh himself, I feel confident that you will agree with me. Three Depeche Mode singles are next in view, with See You being my favourite ever track of theirs. It is a gorgeous love song with just a hint of an uncomfortable edge when you listen to some of the lyrics, but it is the track that had me heading down to Strood Record Centre on the Saturday morning after I first heard it. My favourite album of theirs is Some Great Reward from 1984 and from that album comes one of the finest Double A Sides imaginable. Either ‘Somebody’ or ‘Blasphemous Rumours’ on their own would have made a really good single, but the two together had me rushing out to buy the cassette. The 7″ EP version I have includes live versions of Everything Counts and Told You So and it is four tracks of genius. I have the album on CD, and at some point I hope to find it on vinyl in a charity shop or record shop, to play it as it was meant to be played! It’s Called a Heart is another radio friendly track with great synth work that in some ways bridges the gap between their poppier music and the increasingly darker turn their music took that was hinted at in Some Great Reward.
What can I say about the summer hit of 1982, apart from the fact that it is one of the finest floor fillers ever recorded. I hear Come on Eileen and want to get on the dance floor, reliving my teenage years, every single time. Given that I haven’t danced in public for 6 or 7 years and that my ‘dancing’ at home is of the tapping my feet variety, the sheer rush of euphoria that this track gives me is incredible. Now on to three records that are Diamonds in their own right! The first two, by Jim of that ilk, are a welcome reminder of one of the most individual voices of that era. I Should Have Known Better is a gorgeous song, full of regrets and pathos but his piercing falsetto style tones add another layer to it and make it a puzzle that it’s a somewhat overlooked ballad these days. The second of his songs, by contrast is a rocking TV theme clearly inspired by Dennis Waterman’s I Could Be So Good for You. Hi Ho Silver has much less recognition these days, but it’s a decent track, once again raised to a different level by Jim Diamond’s delivery. The final Diamond is Neil, and it’s not that one! It is the tune from the Jazz Singer, which he starred in, called Love on the Rocks. His voice is, in its own way, just as recognisable as Jim’s, but it is a much more mainstream voice. That’s not damning with faint praise by the way, because in the type of company he kept in US singing at the time, the fact that you recognise him after a couple of notes is testament to the quality he has.
Finally, we come on to two of my favourite artists. Barbara Dickson is quite simply the possessor of one of the finest voices in music. She can sing folk, pop, rock, showtunes and ballads to make you stop in your tracks. The two examples here are Answer Me from the 70s and January February from the 80s. Both are excellent songs in their own right, both Top 10 hits and both delivered with breath taking quality. I saw Barbara Dickson live in 2019 and she was still incredible, as my review attests to https://www.subba-cultcha.com/reviews/2599
Dire Straits, who I never saw live, much to my disappointment were, of course, famous for their 1980s album Brothers in Arms. I had first discovered their music a few years previously via the fantastic Romeo and Juliet from their Making Movies album. It is a song of class and insouciant style, delivered with panache by the brilliant Mark Knopfler. From Brothers in Arms, my favourite song was the first track and first single So Far Away, a reflection on being split up from those you love that I returned to many times during solitude in Japan and Saudi Arabia when I didn’t have my family with me. Did it make me feel any better? Probably not! Did it make me feel as though someone else understood? Most definitely! Money for Nothing was a massive favourite on MTV during the afore mentioned summer of 1986 and is one of the tunes that takes me right back there. The final single that I bought from that album, Walk of Life, is noteworthy for one main reason. It was also the B Side of So Far Away!! D’oh as Homer might say!
See you next time when we’re sorted for Ds and Es!
Welcome to Part 3 of this trawl through my singles. Straight out of the blocks we have two singles from early 80s soundtrack royalty, Irene Cara, who followed up Number One hit Fame with another Top 5 hit in Flashdance (What a feeling). Rather like other US singers who were chiefly associated with the movies, her non-film songs met with far less success over here. Fame in 1982 and Flashdance in 1983 (which was kept off of the top spot by Baby Jane by Rod Stewart) sandwiched Out here on my own tonight which got to Number 58 and lasted just 3 weeks in the Top 75! Nothing else she released got into the Top 75. It always fascinates me when you see an artist who has massive success but is then ignored. Anthemic chart topper Heaven is a place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle still sounds great today and, to my surprise, turns out to be the only single of hers that I bought. Drive by The Cars was a song that I bought purely because of Live Aid where it memorably soundtracked the harrowing footage of the famine in Ethiopia. The counter point of the song and the images are still burned on my mind and will no doubt be burned on the mind of anyone who saw Live Aid. It was an incredible day of music, even if it lost its way, to my mind, when it started off over in America, a concert that sounded like an oldies music station, with Madonna and Run DMC being the only real nod to the creativity of young artists.
Next up is perhaps the best ballad from an 80s film. Yes, I’m aware that it is a crowded field, and a number of you may disagree, but Peter Cetera, the voice of Chicago, struck gold with the outstanding Glory of Love from Karate Kid II. It is a superb vocal performance and the chorus is a real lighters in the air moment! From the sublime to the Cor Blimey with the rather wonderful Chas and Dave. Although I bought and thoroughly enjoyed Gertcha and Rabbit, it was Ain’t No Pleasing You that was their high point. A superb, aching ballad with the strings lifting an already good song even higher, I guarantee that if it had been sung by a more fashionable artist it would have been considered a classic track and would still be incredibly well regarded. Take another listen, or indeed a first listen, and lose yourself in a marvellous and very sad song about a love gone sour.
Back in 1984, I was a committed armchair fan of Chelsea, so of course I bought Back on the Ball which celebrated their return to the top division as Champions of the old Second division. What can I say? It’s a record made by a football team, and it’s not a patch on their early 70s classic Blue is the Colour, one of the best football records ever. Despite Cher’s long and illustrious career, she only appears once in 7 inch form, but it is with the rather marvellous Shoop Shoop Song from Mermaids. There follows three classic tracks from Chicago. If You Leave Me Now was from another oldies rack and it is one that I remembered well from its original release when it made Number One. I thought, and still think, that Peter Cetera had one of the best voices in music, and no one could put across a ballad like he did. They came back in the early 80s with Hard to Say I’m Sorry which is another cracking song. Now, I was convinced that I had Hard Habit to Break as a single, but obviously not! I checked when it was released and the reason became clear. It was released just before I went into the RAF in November 1984, and, as you can imagine, singles were very much at the back of my mind for six weeks! As some of you may have seen on another post, the last of my Musical History posts, my RAF career was not one that went entirely to plan! I ended up snapping my Achilles tendon, and got a medical discharge in February 1986. I did, however buy the lovely follow up You’re the Inspiration. Finally, in this little section is a trio of top quality tracks from the largely forgotten synth wizards China Crisis who produced singles with real quality and never really got the success that quality deserved. The beautiful Wishful Thinking was their only Top 10 hit and it only made the Top 10 for one week. Black Man Ray and King in a Catholic Style were tracks that crept into the Top 20 but again deserved more. If you take another listen to China Crisis I think you will agree that they are well overdue a renaissance.
When I look at the late 80s and early 90s, one of the trends that becomes clear is the pointless remix! These are songs that the record companies decided to re-release with a slightly different sound or a slightly different tempo. What they all had in common was an ability to make the track far less memorable. It’s a shame, therefore, that my only Hot Chocolate single – and for reasons best known to my younger self they are filed under C for Chocolate! – is this insipid but entirely representative example of the pointless remake. The Clash famously would not go on Top of the Pops, keeping themselves away from the mainstream pigeon holing they wanted to avoid, and they passed me by at the time because I was too young to appreciate punk rock first time round. Anyway, along came a Levi’s advert and they had their first Number One and their only appearance in my singles collection! I had quite forgotten buying Is it a Dream by Classix Nouveaux, and was convinced I didn’t take to it at the time. A little mental detective work gave me my answer. For over two years in the early 90s I worked at the Town Hall in Kidderminster because no one would give me a teaching post. It was one of my favourite jobs ever. Pretty much every day was different, I saw plays, pantomimes, classical and pop concerts and I got to meet a whole range of different people. I loved it! Luckily for me, the occasional jumble sale (as they were called at the time) required a fair bit of setting up and I got first choice of anything I found on the record table! As perks go it may seem like a minor one to you but to me it was like being a teenager at Strood Record Centre again! Suffice to say that other gaps in my collection were filled at the time when singles and albums were being chucked out in the dash to CD. Now on to two generations of a singing dynasty, with the father and daughter Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole. When I first heard Miss You Like Crazy, I had no idea that Natalie was the daughter of singing genius Nat, but it didn’t matter because she produced a ballad that stood out even in an era when they proliferated. I loved her voice then and I love it now, but it was her Dad’s song that captured a proper place in my heart. When I Fall in Love was the 1987 Christmas single from Rick Astley which looked likely to grab the coveted Number One spot from Always on my Mind by the Pet Shop Boys. EMI, who were the label that the Pet Shop Boys were signed to, gave their act the vital advantage in the race with a stroke of genius. They re-released the original! When record buyers heard the definitive version they switched in their droves to the superior original and slowed down sales of Rick Astley’s otherwise very creditable stab at the classic song. I was one of those, and I helped to make Always on my Mind the Number One on the day Janet and I had our first date. Over 35 years later it’s still our song. When I Fall in Love had a similarly significant role in our lives when we chose it as our first dance at our wedding just under three years later. Finally, for this entry, we have a trio of tracks from the sometimes unfairly derided singer/songwriter Phil Collins. During the 80s I would argue that he didn’t put out a weak track and I could have bought all of them as singles if it hadn’t been for the Now compilations. The three solo tracks of his I did buy were all belters with You Can’t Hurry Love being the track that really caught my imagination and turned me into a committed fan, Sussudio an overlooked 80s classic and One More Night, an aching ballad that sounds better every time you listen to it. For what it’s worth, I think that his best track of the decade was Against All Odds, but that appeared on Now 4 so I didn’t need to have that in my singles box.
Next time, I finish the Cs and move on to the Ds, but don’t forget my first accompanying playlist on Spotify which is now complete and contains 30 superb tracks. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FjFIa3zqlRGgTqpT5swkj?si=e639a316881f40ac
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 