Holly Johnson: "Americanos" / Swing Out Sister: "You on My Mind"

22 March 1989

Welcome to yet another in an on-again, off-again series of pop groups reviewing the singles in Smash Hits and failing to agree on a favourite. We have previously looked at "reviews" from The Communards, Bros and Brother Beyond and now it's the turn of the then-husband and wife pair at the heart of rockers T'Pau, Carol Decker and Ronnie Rogers. The group had been commercially strong in 1987 and '88 with hits like "Heart and Soul" and "China in Your Hands" but their success had begun to taper off more recently. Nevertheless, they were still relevant enough and not quite as down the dumper as they'd eventually be (joining, among others, Bros and Brother Beyond) at the time, with the scruffy Rogers being the butt of some ver Hits "hilarity". With guest reviewers being much more geared towards the pop "bent", it makes for a welcome change to have a rock 'n' roll duo to shake things up. But is that what they managed to accomplish? Were they trying to accomplish anything beyond keeping their names in the kiddy pop mags so as not to tumble off the giddy carousel of pop? In any case, props to Decker and Rodgers for being pop fans first and foremost, rather than tragically pathetic rock 'n' rollers. It's something I've noticed from a lot of the guest reviewers who are closer to the rock end of the scale: a lot of these axe-wielding, scruffy longhairs were much more open-minded than us pop kids would have thought. 

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"This is very much in the same groove as "Love Train". See, what I like is variation — to release a fast one then a slow one."

— Carol Decker

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a lesson in how to be an earth-shakingly huge pop star courtesy of Carol Decker. "Release a fast one then a slow one": I hear that's what George Martin instructed The Beatles to do after "Please Please Me" hit big. The Fab Four went on to follow this 'fast-slow' pattern with "From Me to You", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and so forth. (John Lennon, the heart and soul — see what I did there? — rocker handled the fast stuff while that big girl's blouse McCartney did all those weepie slow songs. Our Carol sure learned from the best.

Kidding aside, Decker has a point. Holly Johnson was a great pop star but one of dubious talents. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's run of chart topping singles — "Relax", "Two Tribes" and "The Power of Love" — remains unassailable but otherwise there's not much else of note. His solo return was a pretty big deal in the early part of 1989 and "Love Train" and "Americanos" were both big hits but the rot would soon reveal itself. I remember that summer getting the latest issue of Smash Hits that had the lyrics to third single "Atomic City" which I still hadn't heard. It didn't take my sister and I long to work out how it would go. And the slower numbers on his solo debut Blast! weren't fooling anyone ("Heaven's Here" was the album's fourth single and it deservedly flopped). Johnson was capable of one type of pop song and that's where it began and ended. (While I quite like "The Power of Love", there are plenty who don't even rate it and it's by far Holly's best attempt at a weepie ballad)

America. (Essex girls called 'Amer-eee-ca') Bloody hell, the British were obsessed with America back in 1989, even though I'm sure plenty of Brits would deny it now. Living in the UK, we were always bemused by how a country with all this great music and literature and musicals and beautiful villages would ever envy the crass Americans but that is precisely the "Great" Britain that we were living in the middle of. Sure, Canada had a feeble culture and a pitiful sense of national self-esteem but what excuse did the British have? When I think back to sad American-themed restaurants, English youths who were into the NFL, stars of Dallas and Dynasty being fawned upon by talk show hosts and a nation that couldn't stop going on about the US I still shudder. The last thing I needed was a pop song that delved into all this nonsense.

"Americanos" (this was before the term came to mean an espresso with hot water added; I live in South Korea where for some reason it is a much more popular drink than a cup of brewed coffee) celebrates Britain's infatuation with the superpower across the water while also sending it up. The video makes it clear that we're dealing with irony here but if you were only listening to it on the radio and/or watching Holly Johnson mime to it on Top of the Pops, it might have been lost on your average listener. I was still just eleven-years-old and I figured he meant every word. I had enjoyed predecessor single "Love Train" but I was naturally cooler towards this one.

In a Britain so enamoured with all things America, we're meant to think that Johnson's lyrics are a celebration of the USA but are they? "Coke, Pepsi and Oreos": a line that sounds awkward set to music and one that kind of gives away the game. Coke and Pepsi are available everywhere and if these admittedly delicious beverages (I'm more of a Pepsi man myself but I wouldn't turn down a Coke) are supposed to be America at its best than it may not be quite as wonderful as we've been led to believe. "Need it or not, that's what you got" takes aim at mass consumerism and the real kicker is the song's best line, "everything's organized from crime to leisure time". 

So, "Americanos" has humour but not quite enough to save it. Johnson had turned himself into much more of a family-friendly entertainer after his provocative Frankie Goes to Hollywood years and he always had an underrated voice but the results are grim. Try as he might, he wasn't able to transcend the tediousness of the British and how they licked the boots of those Yanks. It only made me want to be back in Canada where we loved to hate the Americans better than anyone.

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"I predict it will go to number 14. It's got a number 14 feel to it."

— Ronnie Rogers

Well, how about 28 instead, Ronnie Boy?

So, "Americanos" is all right but nothing like this would-be classic from Swing Out Sister. They had previously found chart fame and fortune with "Breakout", a catchy and stylish record that nicked from "West End Girls". This theft gave people the false impression that they were the next big synth-pop act but their hearts were in classy Bachrach & David numbers, with a bit of Continental pop sprinkled in. Thus, they managed to find a home alongside the likes of Everything but the Girl and The Style Council in what would eventually come to be known as sophisti-pop.

It was a genre that was popular but the rate of success from one group to the next could vary widely. A cynic might suggest that the more accomplished they were, the worse they'd end up doing and they wouldn't be wrong much of the time. Wet Wet Wet, Johnny Hates Jazz and Breathe did well on the charts despite an awful lot of subpar material while critical favourites like Prefab Sprout and Scritti Politti often struggled. But with "Breakout" and fellow Top 10 hit "Surrender" and a number one album It's Better to Travel, Swing Out Sister looked to be a rare sophisti-pop group that crafted quality music that also sold. Instead of becoming the next Pet Shop Boys, they started to look more like the next ABC. And they had a pretty sweet single they were about to unveil that was sure to turn heads.

Yeah, about that: "You on My Mind" has all the components of a great pop record yet smacks of being too effortless. I wrote last week about Madonna's "Like a Prayer" being too much of a throwback to sixties' gospel and soul to fit in with the dance trends of '89. This was no bad thing and no one complained at the time but that didn't stop Ms. Ciccone from rewriting history when she came to include a dramatically remixed version of the hit on her greatest hits a year later. Swing Out Sister approached their follow-up to It's Better to Travel in much the same way — albeit without them going back on it later on. A simple yet propulsive bass guides "You on My Mind" and when the horns come in, they're luxuriating in a bygone world of Scott Walker, Françoise Hardy and socialites kicking back on the Mediterranean. The late-eighties had a lot of time for the sixties but only for the hippies; the chic side of the decade that swung could forget it.

The British didn't purchase enough copies to take it to 14 (personally, I reckon it deserved to get to number 7) but the newly two-piece Swing Out Sister of Corinne Drewery and Andy Connell had recorded a firecracker single. Yes, it's middle-of-the-road but what does that matter when you're listening to it and you know full-well that you'll be playing it a second time. Try to get sick of Drewery's pitch perfect vocal delivery or those lush, warming horns. Try not to envy the pair for composing something simple but so effective, the type of thing any budding songwriter would kill to have crafted themselves.

While "Americanos" pretended to be a tribute to the US, "You on My Mind" is much closer to something that pays real homage to the States. It brings to mind the great songwriting teams — in addition to Bachrach and David, there's also Goffin and King and Holland-Dozier-Holland — and those wonderful in-house studio groups in New York, LA, Detroit, Memphis and Muscle Shoals. "You on My Mind" could even have been a part of the Great American Songbook. It passed me by back in 1989 — as singles that only get to 28 will sometimes do — but I have made up for it more recently. I could never be without it.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Transvision Vamp: "Baby I Don't Care"

Decker and Rodgers could have taken up their allotted space here by ripping into Wendy James but they admirably take the high road. They admire her and quite like some of ver Vamp's other stuff but they aren't fussed about what would become their biggest hit and signature number. I respectfully disagree but I'm impressed that they were keen to judge them (and by 'them', I mean 'her') on their (her) musical merits. They don't even bother knocking her lousy voice and to those that do, don't be so misguided. As Decker diplomatically notes, James doesn't have a "vocalist's voice" and I'd say she puts its limits to good use on "Baby I Don't Care". Appropriately, she doesn't give a toss if she sounds strained and the song's message would end up getting lost if Decker herself or a Wilson sister from Heart tried to record it. The best use of bad singing since "With a Little Help from My Friends" — and a killer tune to boot.

Blue Mercedes: "Love Is the Gun"

15 July 1988

"It's by far the most singable swingaway tune to have been released for centuries (well, the last two weeks anyway), even though the lyrics are teetering on the pervesque and we'll never quite know why love is the "gun", but such is the way of this thing they call pop..."

— Alex Kadis

Like all genres and sub-genres, synth-pop has its superstars. The members of Kraftwerk are its founding fathers and Gary Numan its Bowie-esque overlord that all most subsequent acts looked up to. Groups like The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark emerged out of post-punk while New Order and Sparks evolved out of guitars and into electronics. Pet Shop Boys and Erasure brought top-level songwriting. Depeche Mode were the indie darlings and every North American junior high school's outsider band of choice. These groups all became highly successful and are even admired and/or liked by listeners who identify far more with supposed 'real ale' rock.

But what of the also-rans? The D.I.Y. approach of punk encouraged youths to form their own bands out of the core of guitar, bass and drums. Keyboards and synths weren't required and, if anything, demanded a technical proficiency that went against the spirit of the age. Synth singles and albums were popular but none managed to pull a Velvet Underground: Brian Eno never observed that there was an obscure electro-pop record that inspired everyone who bought it to form bands and invest in a fairlight. The inspiration that the big acts provided wasn't even restricted to those noodling on synths: Numan and Depeche Mode ended up being godfathers to nineties industrial rock by the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Linkin Park.

The synth-pop gene pool wasn't deep. One of the few groups to come along that largely didn't register with the masses was Blue Mercedes. While they did have a Top 30 hit with "I Want to Be Your Property", it would prove a one-and-done scenario. They did do better on the dance charts and that's where their work belongs, especially if they had come along about five years earlier. Sure, a bit of acid house squelching helps to put it squarely in 1988 but this isn't enough to expose it as dated even at that time,

"Love Is the Gun" is a product of the dance clubs and is not unlike earlier Singles of the Fortnight from Bobby O and Sylvester, only not quite as good. The production/engineering team of Phil Harding and Ian Curnow (who also happened to be Stock Aitken Waterman's "B" squad at their Hit Factory studios, which goes someway to explaining why their names were all over the credits of the bulk of late-eighties' UK pop albums and singles) provide an ecstatic atmosphere but it isn't enough to hide the thinness of the material. SAW's work from this period could vary from excellent (Mel & Kim, some Bananarama) to pitiful (Sabrina, Mandy Smith) but their writing tended to be relatable, even only on a superficial level. Alex Kadis detects some perviness and that could very well be but it isn't the kind favoured by Prince. Seldom has sex sounded so unsexy.

Though far from a selection packed with quality, there are at least two vastly superior records on offer this fortnight. Either INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart" or Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" ought to have been named SOTF. Kadis has praise for both but instead opts for "Love Is the Gun" for its sheer catchiness. Fair enough but Blue Mercedes only manage to succeed at exposing the limitations of synth-based pop. INXS weren't doing anything fundamentally new on their hugely popular album Kick but they were a surprisingly tight sextet and they were anything but dinosaurs in spite of Michael Hutchence refusing to hide how much he yearned to be Jim Morrison. Public Enemy were paving the way for a hip hop revolution and their lineup of an angry rapper (Chuck D), humourous rapper (Flavor Flav) and DJ (Terminator X) was much more D.I.Y. than anything that had ever come out of punk. One group looked to the past for a creative spark, the other was all about the future: better either of those than the present.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Transvision Vamp: "I Want Your Love"

Kadis concludes by stating that the latest single from Transvision Vamp will "probably be a flop as well". Far from it though. The critics never took to the Vamps but the public loved them enough to give them a number one album in 1989. "I Want Your Love" is the first of two singles with Wendy James singing on them that people of a certain age and from certain regions are likely to know. Again, there was something of the 'we can do this too' mentality to the pop metal here. James was such a compelling figure because she was such a composite: glamourous but in a trashy, working class way, a tough, outspoken feminist yet someone who might just as soon get their kit off at a moment's notice. Not the best singer but a good focal point of the band. Anyway, "I Want Your Love" is stupid but just try not singing along. Can't do it, can you?