The Human League: "The Sound of the Crowd"

30 April 1981

"I see it now...the year is 2000! Revivalist groups are trying to reconstruct the genuine sound of the synthesiser. This they achieve by banging a hammer on a corrugated iron roof in time to an assortment of for-horns, humming kettles and finely-tuned cake tins."

— Mark Ellen

The eighties revival would indeed occur. Grunge, MTV Unplugged and rockist notions that the guitar was all that mattered weren't able to make it out of the nineties. The "decade that taste forgot" (wasn't that also they would describe the seventies?) would be back in retro nights at clubs. We would ironically enjoy the music of Journey and Toto. Groundbreaking eighties' videos from the likes of A-ha, Michael Jackson and Dire Straits made us long for a time when promos were an event in themselves. The nineties had been all about authenticity but it only succeeded in making us want to have more artifice than ever. But "The Sound of the Crowd" would soundtrack very few retro parties and revivalists weren't seeking it out. It would be a Human League single from the end of the year that would provide the basis of their legacy.

The Human League had been toiling away for four years and had become leaders of Sheffield's music scene. On a national level, however, interest in them had been minimal. A potentially fatal schism over the group's direction led to the departures of founding members Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, leaving the duo of Philip Oakey (who was always more a singer than musician) and Adrian Wright (then still in the very un-muso role of 'film technician') to figure out the group's next move. A lot has been made of the recruitment of teenage girls Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley but keyboardists Ian Burden and Jo Callis joining up was just as important. Now a sextet, it was time for them to start performing and recording.

Sulley has said that her and Catherall were resented by "blokes" on their first tour and it's likely that calls of "sell out" were directed at them. Nevertheless, their concerts were well-received and the singer felt that they had "turned the corner". Yet, this new incarnation of the League was still clouded in uncertainty. The typically avant garde single "Boys and Girls" (performed by the duo of Oakey and Wright) appeared and only just missed the Top 40, a sign that perhaps their time was coming. The critics, however, weren't impressed with David Hepworth expressing doubt that the group had any intention of ever crafting a hit record.

As if heeding Heps' warning to "shape up", Burden and Callis were signed up (the former initially on a trial basis around the same time that Catherall and Sulley turned up). Oakey and Wright had been determined to make it as DIY as possible, the compliance of machines being favoured over the potential hassles of session musicians. Then, the pair did an about face, one that was so abrupt it ended up being chronicled by Ian Cranna in the May 14 issue of Smash Hits (they commenced the interview still determined to go about it themselves, took a meeting with record company execs and producer Martin Rushent and returned to Cranna suddenly embracing the concept of proper musicians).

All this led to their next move, the charts. "The Sound of the Crowd" is a terrific dance record that has 1981 pop trends written all over it. On the other hand, there's a distinct harshness to it as well, a quality that had been retained from the Marsh-Ware era of "Being Boiled" and "Empire State Human". That said, even The Human League's most radical works were still grounded in pop music values (for all of its avant garde qualities, The Dignity of Labour, their EP dedicated to Soviet space exploration, has its moments of pure catchiness, particularly its irresistible third part). If new members were signing on and new approaches were being considered, the very essence of The Human League seemed to be intact. The synths could've been smoothed over and the impressionist lyrics could've been reconsidered if they were really trying to bend over backwards to get that elusive hit single.

The pace of their trajectory suddenly seems startlingly fast. It is the spring of '81 and they were still trying to figure out where they would be heading next. Eight months later they would have the UK Christmas Number One and LP Dare would be the consensus album of the year. It's easy to look at "The Sound of the Crowd" as an odd choice for the first single — surely any one of "Love Action (I Believe in Love)", "Open Your Heart" or "Don't You Want Me" would've been stronger if they had really been serious about finally cracking the Top 40 — but this ignores the fact their future hadn't been set that April. "The Sound of the Crowd" had to be their next single since there was nothing else at hand.

When fans complain that their favourite group has "sold out" they seldom consider the context. It seems Oakey and Wright were out to prove that they could keep The Human League going in spite of the Marsh and Ware having left. They then attempted to work out what they were capable of and then looked to Catherall, Sulley, Burden and Callis for help. Their finest single yet resulted and from there the floodgates would open. Things had been looking up but success wasn't guaranteed. The attractive girls Oakey had recruited weren't being exploited and it would be a while before they would become the focal point of the band (the same May 14 edition of ver Hits includes the lyrics to "The Sound of the Crowd" with an accompanying photo of Oakey, Wright and Callis; the girls did feature in a snap on the second page of the Cranna interview albeit in pre-pinup mode). Meanwhile, Marsh and Ware were busy with their B.E.F. pet project and they would soon form Heaven 17: any longtime Human League fans who wished to take the self-righteous high ground about selling out would've been disappointed by the direction of the much more serious faction of their beloved group.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Japan: "The Art of Parties" / "Life Without Buildings"

Like ver League, Japan had been putting out a string of singles for years that hadn't managed to catch on but they looked to be finding their way with the modest Top 50 success of "The Art of Parties". Ellen calls it a "safety shot" which probably seemed a lot more apparent at the time then it does more than forty years later. For sure there's this melange of Scary Monsters-era Bowie, Talking Heads energy, the atmospherics of late-period Roxy Music and horns that evoke white boy soul but this hardly seems like the safest hand to play — or if this is an example of them capitulating to commercial pressures then they managed to sell out with as much of their integrity as possible. The Human League had turned the corner and so too had Japan. (The two songs are listed as a double A-side but that appears to be a mistake on the part of either Smash Hits or the group's PR. "Life Without Buildings" is a fine work in its own right but there's no way it would've been considered for single status. David Sylvian barely being on it doesn't help)

Lonnie Gordon: "Happenin' All Over Again"

24 January 1990

"Hold on to your trousers! It's time for disco fun!"

— William Shaw

The week of March 12, 1989 may have been the apogee of the Stock Aitken Waterman production/songwriting team. Sure, four singles in the Top 40 was just a routine showing for them but they all occupied places in the upper half of the chart and were all of significance. Three of the top four spots were SAW compositions and/or productions. Jason Donovan was enjoying a second week at number one with "Too Many Broken Hearts", an exuberant bit of pop fluff in which the Neighbours star just about manages to sing his way through without cracking. Two places below was Bananarama's charity cover of The Beatles' "Help" along with comedians Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke which was that year's Comic Relief single. One notch down from it was "This Time I Know It's for Real" by disco legend Donna Summer.

What's amazing about this is that SAW had three potential number ones in competition with each other. Donovan's singing career started slowly with the poor "Nothing Can Divide Us" the previous September (still a Top 5 smash) but his star was on the rise, especially after the chart topping success of "Especially for You" alongside fellow Australian Kylie Minogue just after Christmas. The 'Narns had come up short of the top spot a couple times and "Help!" was widely tipped to be their first chart topper, especially since they had the charity single advantage. Summer hadn't been at the top of the UK charts in a dozen years but her offering was the best of the lot and might have stood a chance of equaling "I Feel Love" under the right circumstances.

The fourth SAW record on that week's top 40 is probably the most influential. At number twelve (and soon to be in the top 10) was "I'd Rather Jack" by The Reynolds Girls. Having been ignored by voters at that year's Brit Awards, the trio resolved to put out the most feeble protest song imaginable in response. It didn't matter that their sales were way in front of everyone else in pop at the time, the critics didn't like them and DJ's weren't playing them (both over-simplifications mind you) and that just wouldn't do. As if proving their detractors' point that SAW could put out any old crap sung by a pair of no-names and still have a hit with it, "I'd Rather Jack" did well. It struck a chord with kids who felt that a mind-numbingly boring single like "Belfast Child" by Simple Minds had no business being number one hit, even if absolutely no one bought their attempt to align themselves with the burgeoning house music scene.

It is the legacy of "I'd Rather Jack" that is the most troubling. As I stated above, The Reynolds Girls were nobodies. Liverpool sisters Linda and Aisling Reynolds sent mogul Pete Waterman a demo and the wheels were in motion. They were meant to represent the average pop fan in the late-eighties as they railed against "Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, it's not our music, it's out of date". They weren't plucked from an Aussie soap like Kylie and Jason, they weren't groomed for stardom like Rick Astley, they weren't an established pop act like Bananarama, they weren't even a struggling band in need of a hit like Brother Beyond: they were a pair of girls having a laugh and this seemed reason enough to make them into stars. As the year progressed, Astley, the 'Narns and the Yond all began to walk away from the SAW stable. Their replacements were the likes of Sonia and Big Fun who were very cut from the same cloth as the Reynolds Girls (Neil Tennant even commented that if the Reynolds Girls could be combined into one person the result would be Sonia). Your average person could seemingly be a star and this was something that would carry over into Pop Idol and The X Factor in the future. Pop music has never fully recovered.

SAW looked to continue their dominance into the nineties. Though some of their name acts were in the midst of moving on, they still had a strong selection of stars to work with. The had risen to the challenge of collaborating with Donna Summer and it was hoped more hits would be on the way. A planned second album would end up being nixed after the singer was unable to return to the UK. This would have to be considered a huge missed opportunity for SAW. Not only did they lose out on the finest vocalist they ever worked with, they also missed the boat in terms of other American acts they could've helped revive. The expectation was on Summer coming to them but why didn't they travel across the Atlantic in order to record her? Setting up shop in Los Angeles would have then allowed them easier access to Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick and a host of aging talents in need of some chart action.

But, then, why would they come to any of their acts when their acts could come to them? If Summer wasn't available then why not recruit a would-be diva who was? This amounts to how they ended up gifting "Happenin' All Over Again" to Lonnie Gordon when it was meant for the Queen of Disco.

Obviously Summer would've made more of it but Gordon does all right herself. Borrowing from Italian house, her voice is manipulated not unlike Black Box's massive "Ride on Time". Indeed, there's a strong Eurodisco vibe which suggests SAW were subtly trying to change up the formula for a new decade. In any event, the vocalist present is in fine form which just about hides the fact that the songwriting team was running on fumes. William Shaw's enthusiastic review mentions Summer's hit from a year earlier and how this is a return to that pumping sound of old. True but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Neither is the line early in the song about how the antagonist put his "hand upon [his] heart" which is a callback to Kylie's hit from the previous year. Referencing earlier material, using a little-known vocalist in place of a superstar, borrowing tricks from house music: perhaps SAW were losing their sharpness.

None of this mattered at the time as "Happenin' All Over Again" went top 5. In spite of the new bells and whistles, this was the SAW of old and that was good enough. The shiny, glorious pop of "Showing Out", "Love in the First Degree", "Never Gonna Give You Up", "I Should Be So Lucky" and, yes, "This Time I Know It's for Real" was back and it was set to happen all over again. Unless, of course, SAW were about to dry up. At least they had one big star left for them to funnel all their remaining great songs through. What had Kylie been up to?

~~~~~

Also of some cop

Everything but the Girl: "Driving"

My god, what a poor crop of singles we have this fortnight. I don't have much of an issue with Shaw's choice of SOTF because the rest of the competition is so dismal. Coming in second is the latest from Everything but the Girl. There's a lot of the late-eighties to "Driving" (slick production, loads of sax) but Tracey Thorn can overcome a lot with her voice. It would definitely have been better had her and Ben Watt kept things simple with acoustic guitar strumming and maybe a delicate piano as backing. Something they might want to return to if they ever get round to recording together again.

Salt 'N' Pepa: "Expression"

10 January 1990

"I think it's a great song, I love it, but it's not an incredibly strong single. But it was great."

— Matt Goss

The Chart Music podcast team, and show regular Taylor Parkes in particular, often speak about the so-called 'eighventies', a vague period of time in which the seventies and eighties blended into one another. One decade, it would seem, was keen to get started prior to it even beginning while the other desired carrying on well past its time running out. I was just three-and-a-half when the seventies gave way to the eighties so remnants of the 'eighventies' are difficult for me to spot but I am aware of a similar occurance known as the 'neighnties'. No one spoke of the neighnties at the time and it only really seemed to be a curiosity in retrospect. It's odd to think, for example, that the Pixies existed before Roxette or that there was still pop metal as late as 1992 but these weren't remarked upon then.

With the nineties just over a week old, it would have been little too much to expect the past decade to be rid of completely so early on. Instead, we have a very late-eighties pop star reviewing the new releases (all of which would have been written, recorded and cut in the eighties) with his pick for Single of the Fortnight being a very late-eighties rap combo who were looking to shake the tag of having one megahit to hold their hats on. It was going to take a while for the eighties to be extricated completely from the nineties.

Matt Goss last appeared in this space just a few months' ago. Bros had been at the forefront of British consciousness in 1988 but their star had gradually begun to wane over the course of the following year. Craig 'Ken' Logan took a leave of absence (he wasn't on stage with the Goss brothers at their Wembley Arena show in mid-January, much to the bitter disappointment of my sister) before officially departing in the spring. Having been all over the place a year earlier, the public was sick to death of them and their legion of Brosettes was diminishing as allegiances were transferred over to Jason Donovan and New Kids on the Block. Now a duo of Matt and twin brother Luke, they wanted to tell everyone of how serious they were and that they'd be around for years. Yeah, about that...

Bros' attempt at reviewing the singles in Smash Hits in September of 1988 is poor even by the modest standards of guest pop star critics. They recommended poor records and, worse, they made the whole thing all about them. Taking on the task alone this time, I am pleased to report that Matt Goss handles it much better the second time round. He tries a little too hard to prove what catholic tastes he has ("I do like rock — I love Journey") but at least he sticks to giving his thoughts on the music he's been given. That said, he makes a bit of an arse of himself when he knocks the New Kids for being "white boys...trying to sound black and not succeeding". Oh the irony.

Salt 'N' Pepa were another trio that rose to fame in 1988. "Push It" had been a near number one but it is now far more beloved than the song it was stuck behind (Glenn Medeiros' "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You"). Bros' first hit single that year ("When Will I Be Famous") also released the runner-up spot and it led to a further four Top 5 smashes; Salt 'N' Pepa's breakthrough success only led to modest performances subsequently. "Shake Your Thang (It's Your Thing)" rode its predecessor to a Top 30 spot but good luck finding anyone who remembers it today. A fun cover "Twist and Shout" returned them to the upper echelons but, again, when did you last hear it?

The group had a quiet 1989 but at least they managed to get out of it without anyone jumping ship. DJ Spinderella, Salt 'N' Pepa's very own Ken (admittedly it was difficult to accept that an outfit with two people in the group name would be a trio), would be a mainstay until being abruptly terminated in 2019. Much of the year was spent working on their second album and "Expression" was to be the first single. Fans expecting another "Push It" weren't going to be disappointed.

In spite of Goss' odd recommendation (see the quote above), "Expression" would ultimately end up being held off until finally being released that April. (It appears in the ALSO RELEASED THIS FORTNIGHT sidebar, reviewer Sian Pattenden having a much tougher selection of singles to sift through as the neighnties really began to heat up) This postponement may have contributed to its shockingly poor chart record as it only just crawled into the bottom of the Top 40. Any worries that they were heading down the dumper would quickly be reversed when follow-ups "Do You Want Me" and "Let's Talk About Sex" made them relevant all over again.

Goss points out that their singing in the chorus makes for a nice change and he's right. Doing tough comedy rap was only going to take them so far and working out a new approach turned out to be the right move. The other big change "Expression" marks is an embrace of feminism. They aren't explicit with this message but just who were these young women trying to encourage if not teenage girls? When they first arrived they seemed horny and up for a laugh but now they were trying to go deeper and mostly pulling it off. I don't suppose this is the "message" that rap fans of the time would allude to but it's a message all the same and one that your Public Enemies and NWA's weren't interested in pushing into their material.

What's missing is originality. With an oft-repeated chorus imploring listeners to "express yourself..." they were either knowingly or unknowlingly inviting Madonna comparisons. "Express Yourself" had been a global hit for Madge only six months' earlier and it couldn't have helped the chances of Salt 'N' Pepa's comeback. Why it was chosen to mark their return is anyone's guess even if it's a well-intended effort. I don't imagine they meant to copy Madonna but that's not how it would've been taken. For his part, Goss doesn't bring this up and it's possible no one noticed.

The first Single of the Fortnight of the nineties, "Expression" ushered in a period of hip hop becoming much more critically acceptable in the pages of Smash Hits. And, for once, they weren't being lauded for not boasting about themselves as previous wags had gone out of their way to give props to the likes of Run-DMC, De La Soul and Redhead Kingpin. Hip hop could finally be taken as hip hop and there would be plenty of room for the braggarts, do-gooders, gangstas and hippies. Salt 'N' Pepa would carry on and continue to do well throughout the decade ahead. As for Bros, well...

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Deacon Blue: "Queen of the New Year"

"Ha-Hoo-Ha!" Timing, as they say, is everything. Ver Blue's second album When the World Knows Your Name had come out about nine months' earlier. I got it for my twelfth birthday and I have always associated it with the hot summer of '89 as a result. Sure, there was this song about the New Year that opened it (as well as two further numbers that mention Christmas) but the big choruses and drums and all that yodeling made for fun listening on warm evenings as well as car trips around the south of England. Jump ahead to the start of 1990 and "Queen of the New Year" suddenly made sense and became my favourite song on an album that was now all about snow and ice and staying in. An LP for all seasons even if the cool kids weren't having any of it.

The Clash: "The Magnificent Seven"

16 April 1981

"The working man's 9 to 5 (or rather 8 to 5) — clocking in, knocking out, bussing home, dossing down — brought to you in startling Clash-O-Scope." 

— Fred Dellar

Of all the major groups in the rock 'n' roll era The Clash have to be one of the least important. They racked up strong sales but it isn't as if they enjoyed an imperial phase of chart dominance. The critics rightly praised them but they were just as quick to slam them when the occasion called for it. They had a loyal legion of fans albeit one that seemed to get cross with them if they were ever suspected of — heaven forfend — selling out. They were the 'only band that mattered' yet a not insignificant chunk of their discography is of little consequence.

On their seminal 1979 album London Calling, bassist Paul Simonon took the unprecedented step of contributing a song of his own. The pairing of Mick Jones and Joe Strummer had done all the songwriting up until this point but the group's third LP was a two disc set and there happened to be space for the sullen badass in the rhythm section to earn some royalties. As debut compositions go, "The Guns of Brixton" is a triumph. Unsurprisingly, the bass dominates and it is one of their most effective attempts at reggae. It also hints at hip hop (though I would say that given that I was more familiar with Beats International's "Dub Be Good to Me" when I first heard London Calling). A highlight of what is arguably their finest album, it manages to undermine the much more conventional contributions of the main songwriters while holding its own up against the likes of the mighty "Rudie Can't Fail" and "Spanish Bombs".

It must've been something of a shock, then, for Strummer and Jones to embrace some of the same qualities, though from a more American perspective, a little over a year later. Simonon introduced this new element to the group and now it was being usurped by his bandmates. To make matters worse, "The Magnificent Seven" was done without his involvement, the memorable if repetitive bass line being courtesy of Norman Watt-Roy of Ian Dury's Blockheads. (The use of a multitude of session musicians contributes to then-current album Sandinista! being less their White Album and more their Exile on Main Street) There was little to no Jamaican influence with this being them at their most New York.

"The Magnificent Seven" isn't as potent as "The Guns of Brixton" but it is an impressive work nonetheless. American and British groups who also tried incorporating the sounds of the New York streets into their recordings were often successful but their efforts often seem much more contrived. The Rolling Stones' Miss You from their startling 1978 album Some Girls managed to twist Studio 54 idealism into the menacing reality of Son of Sam-era paranoia but it's studied and mannered as if this was their bet to remain relevant. Blondie's hip hop dalliance "Rapture" is typically great even if it is ruined by Debby Harry's laughably bad rapping. By contrast, was Strummer really even trying to rap on "The Magnificent Seven"? He was never much of a singer and his angry, sputtering drawl is very much on the same continuum as "I'm So Bored with the USA", "Safe European Home" and "Clampdown". Perhaps Joe Strummer always rapped.

Very much an albums act, Clash singles had been underperforming both in terms of quality and sales for at least a couple years. "The Magnificent Seven" only did modestly on the charts but it ended up being their best 7" since "London Calling". The backlash against Sandinista's length and almost schiztophrenic variety of styles ended up being such that even something as enthralling as this failed to interest many. Few even bothered to think of picking apart the three disc set in order to focus on their favourites. Potential newcomers weren't interested either and it would only be with the hook-laden "Rock the Casbah" a year later that they managed to have a commercial second wind.

The Clash hadn't made a punk album since their brilliant self-titled debut but the label had proven to be difficult to shake in the years ahead. Beyond fans wishing they'd never moved away from the sound of '77, perhaps the biggest reason for this is that they never lost the essence of being The Clash. Those distinctive vocals of Strummer in particular and the giant beast of a band with attitude and talent to spare never altered. Rather than flocking to different styles, it was as if genres and sub-genres came looking for them. They couldn't have sold out since they never stopped being The Clash.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Carl Wilson: "Heaven"

Never the compositional genius nor the bronzed surf heartthrob that brothers Brian and Dennis were, Carl Wilson had to rely on his beautiful voice and stellar guitar playing to make his mark on The Beach Boys (with the odd gem like "Feel Flows" and "The Trader" as creative peaks thrown in). With Brian and Mike Love reclaiming control of the group, Dennis had already gone off and put out a brilliant solo album of his own, the now highly regarded Pacific Ocean Blue. Carl's push for independence seems like too little, too late with the emotional turmoil of the group's late-seventies' nadir having taken its toll. Dellar isn't overly impressed by "Heaven" and certainly there's not much to it beyond once again showcasing that astonishing voice at the centre of it all. Lovingly made but empty, it proved that Carl might just have been creatively bankrupt enough to belong back in The Beach Boys.

Neneh Cherry: "Inna City Mama"

13 December 1989

"Dark, brooding, funky and utterly fabulous re-mix from her "Raw Like Sushi" LP in which Neneh smoulders through a tragic tale of inner city blues and "mamas"."

— Lola Borg

And so the eighties come to a close.

It's appropriate that the final Single of the Fortnight of the decade would be by an individual who had been one of the most arresting acts of the year and looked set to be the future of pop music in the nineties. The final issue of Smash Hits of '89 even featured a prominent photo of a smiling Neneh Cherry alongside pics of Jason Donovan, Bros, Soul II Soul's Jazzie B, New Kids on the Block and Axel Rose of Guns 'N Roses. It's a round-up of the past year but clearly these were people to keep an eye on for the next twelve months — and, indeed, well into the future. Suffice it to say the nineties didn't belong to any of them.

Neneh Cherry's four British singles from Raw Like Sushi all represented something different. "Buffalo Stance" grabbed people's attention, "Manchild" convinced any remaining doubters as to her artistic cred, "Kisses on the Wind" proved she could do late-eighties' pop with the best of 'em and, finally, "Inna City Mama" was meant to to place her in a much more serious context.

Being in North America, however, this narrative didn't apply. "Manchild" had been just a deep cut on the other side of the Atlantic as it got passed over in favour of the more radio-friendly "Kisses" and "Inna City Mama" was similarly ignored, this time to the so-so "Heart", another pop number that didn't do much. She may have still been the future of pop in Europe but her standing across the water was already in decline.

The title is a clear nod to "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", the outstanding closing track from Marvin Gaye's influential 1971 album What's Going On. The version on Raw Like Sushi opens with the same "New York, just like I pictured it..." bit from Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" from his equally important album Innervisions. This suggests she'd been exploring vintage Motown at the time but any further influence isn't apparent. Rather than aping a pair of soul music legends, perhaps she was simply trying to place herself in the same rarefied air.

Remixes as a justification for a fourth, fifth and even sixth single from an album was becoming all-too common at around this time. Often the changes made would be subtle, a gentle sprucing up of the sound in order to stem the tide of the law of decreasing returns. I'm sure there's some of that spirit here but this is far more than your standard producer adding and/or removing samples or putting greater emphasis on the bass part. For one thing, Cherry seems to have given her vocal a complete redo. Her aggressive reading on the album version is replaced with a more restrained performance on the single. There's also less of the pretense of trying to do something hardcore. The verses and chorus are fairly laid back and it is only at the rap in the bridge where she shows some intensity. (The remix does a poor job transitioning from the two parts which is its only big drawback compared to the album version) 

The remix/re-record of "Inna City Mama" proved to be mostly effective but it failed to stem the downward trajectory of her singles and it only managed to limp into the lower reaches of the Top 40 (and this was during the annual January chart lull). Cherry would return to the hit parade later in 1990 with a strong cover of the Cole Porter classic "I've Got You Under My Skin" from the Red Hot + Blue charity album. She would continue to enjoy success but she would never again be the figure she had been for much of 1989. Nineties wouldn't end up belonging to Neneh Cherry but I'm sure she was fine with not achieving what she never set out to accomplish.

~~~~~

Also of some cop

Electronic: "Getting Away with It"

Lola Borg mentions the blight of seventies' rock 'n' roll supergroups and draws a direct line to this mash-up of New Order, Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths that was Electronic. I'd like to say she's wrong to be disappointed but I can't. Yes, it does sound like a "mardy New Order LP track" and it doesn't approach the best work of Johnny Marr, Bernard Sumner and Neil Tennant. It does, however, point to New Order's eventual pop direction nearly four years later as well as the Pet Shops' gradual acceptance of the guitar as an instrument to not necessarily avoid like the plague in their recordings. Again, they'd put them to better use in their day jobs in the future (as opposed to Marr who no longer had a permanent band to fall back on). To their credit though, they soldiered on and subsequent singles "Get the Message" and "Disappointed" proved to be a lot better. Still less than the sum of their parts but worthy nonetheless.

Redhead Kingpin & The FBI: "Superbad, Superslick"

29 November 1989

"Look, He's got a CD round his neck."

— Ben

"I like that brring bit."

— Nick

"Energy without violence is just great too."

— Julian

"We'll all choose different records from this as our favourites but this is the one we all agree on."

— Migi

Over the last several months I have looked at bands doing guest spots as Smash Hits singles reviewers. Wet Wet Wet were the first group in some time to take on the task together (and certainly the first quartet to do so), with lead singers or prominent musicians handling said duties for the most part. The Scottish foursome came to a consensus, as did fellow Caledonians Hue & Cry a few months later. Erasure and Aswad also managed to agree on a Single of the Fortnight but this harmonious situation changed when Communards Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles went with separate picks. Members of Bros, Brother Beyond and T'Pau followed suit. None seemed interested in compromising.

But that is what the members of Curiosity Killed the Cat have done in this issue of ver Hits. As drummer Miguel "Migi" Drummond says above, they each have their own personal faves but they decided to present a solitary SOTF in a show of unity. I have included my thoughts on each of their individual picks before I get to the one they all agreed on.

~~~~~

Kate Bush: "This Woman's Work"

Julian, the "Kate Bush authority", opts for the dramatic second single from the highly anticipated The Sensual World LP. He makes the faux pas of referring to her as 'Katie' but he's bang on in every other respect. A Top 30 hit though it deserved to do better but I suppose Katie's thirtysomething fanbase had all been happy to snap up the album instead. Nevertheless, "This Woman's Work" is outstanding. Also features a captivating video starring British actor Tim McInnerny, who played Lord Percy and Captain Darling in Blackadder, as Katie's devoted but brokenhearted husband. He even touched her once.

~~~~~

Glen Goldsmith: "One Life"

Easily the worst of the individual picks. Ben doesn't exactly come right out and say it but it's either this or the hopeless new single from Curiosity Killed the Cat and we're not going to go there. Sounds like generic R&B pop from about three years earlier and its chart prospects were even bleaker than the hopeless new single from Curiosity Killed the Cat.

~~~~~

Van Morrison with Cliff Richard: "Whenever God Shines His Light"

A clear Christmas number one contender pretender. Nick is very taken with it and Ben is right there with him but, tellingly, the other two don't bother to chime in. I thought it was lame Jesus nonsense as a youth but now I just find it a bore. Van was capable of much better and, indeed, so was Cliff. Amazingly, it was Van's biggest Top 40 hit since all the way back in 1965 when he was a grumpy young man in Ulster group Them.

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Soul II Soul: "Get a Life"

They last had a hit with Single of the Year "Back to Life" and followed it up with "Get a Life" — what the hell was Jazzie B playing at? (I'm still waiting for their cover of Opus' "Live Is Life") Not as immediate as their earlier hits but but the kids chanting "what's the meaning" and the (possibly) sampled flute sticks with the listener. The Bee's raps on Club Classics Vol.1 were a bit more effortless but this is easily the most commercial thing featuring his voice. A near Christmas number one that was only held off by some charity wretchedness and a horrific Jive Bunny megamix. Soul II Soul had managed to tap into the zeitgeist earlier in the year but their luster was soon to slip a bit.

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As for "Superbad, Superslick", it's a solid compromise choice. I wasn't fussed by Redhead Kingpin's "Do the Right Thing" that I covered on this blog a while back but this is a marked improvement. As I think I have said before, hip hop artists could get caught up in the "message" of their records that they'd often forget about trivialities like hooks and melodies and, you know, crafting a sturdy song. It was easy at the time to be down on boastful rappers but nine times out of ten they bested the irritating positive types.

Relying heavily on an organ part that may or may not have been played by David "Redhead" Guppy and a stuttering guitar part in the chorus, "Superbad, Superslick" is largely free of rap cliches. Even the use of a James Brown sample towards the end is a little used "get into it" bit and not one of the Godfather's grunts nor that "Funky Drummer" part that was absolutely everywhere at the time. The Ginger even raps more forcefully on this. His style isn't particularly unique but he's a more than adequate rapper.

The single is superior to its predecessor is every way but this made little difference to the British public as it had a two-week stay in the lower reaches of the charts at the end of 1989. Happily, there was a new form of hip hop that had been emerging over the course of the year and it was soon to really take off. Redhead Kingpin & The FBI might've found a home in this subgenre of jazzy, quirky hippies who opted out of either boasting about themselves or the plight of the streets. I am very much looking forward to the Daisy Age as this blog moves into the nineties.

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Also of some cop

Jason Donovan: "When You Come Back to Me"

With three number one singles and an album that was massive, 1989 was Jason Donovan's year. (His records spent just under seventy percent of the year on the Top 40 but I was expecting it to be higher) His fortunes were to fall off somewhat the following year and "When You Come Back to Me" gives a taste of his imperial period drawing to a close. Not only did it fail to hit number one (which Jase made up for by appearing on Xmas chart topper "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid II) but it's duff even by his standards. The members of Curiosity despise it but they do admit to a bias due to their overall distaste for Stock Aitken Waterman. Well, I loved SAW at the time and still like some of their records and I can confirm that this is beyond horrible. Jason sounded lost on debut single "Nothing Can Divide Us" but he's probably the best thing about this. Kylie would be going strong for some time but Jason's fans wouldn't be coming back to him for much longer.

Fischer-Z: "Marliese"

2 April 1981

"Just when I'd consigned them to my personal list of no-hopers, Fischer-Z spring out of nowhere with a minor belter of a 45, a small epic that takes much of the competition to the cleaners."

— David Hepworth

John Watts' Fischer-Z last appeared in this space just over two years ago. I had just begun the blog's second phase with fortnightly posts covering the early, pre-Single of the Fortnight era of the Smash Hits singles reviews. I had only recently completed the dispiriting batch of 1984 records and I was beginning to feel as though I needed something to rinse the aftertaste of the mid-eighties out of my mouth. I went back to the start of 1979, a time of incredible disco records, a punk scene that hadn't quite dried up, new wave at its height and flourishing indie labels happy to promote local obscurities with brilliant curios. What I failed to anticipate was how stagnant much of it would soon become. The eighties had to happen because the seventies had given up.

Bands who carried on into the next decade had to change. All the best British groups that had arisen as a result of punk were those who suddenly seemed to have no connection to the antecedent genre. Some bands embraced synthesizers while others rediscovered their love for soul but groups who wanted to remain tied to the traditional rock faced stagnation. While the likes of Scouse bands Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes went in the direction of sixties' acid rock and Scots Big Country and Simple Minds gradually pursued stadium rock, none were so forward as to channel hard rock and even metal.

David Hepworth is pleasantly surprised to see that "no-hopers" Fischer-Z were suddenly doing something that he considered to be worthwhile and not stuck in indie obscurity. He is so taken with "Marliese" that he think it would be a sure fire hit single if it had been "the work of The Jam or some band of similar standing". Too right. Paul Weller's trio were imperial in the early eighties with all their intended singles from "The Eton Rifles" all the way through to grand finale "Beat Surrender" having been megahits. (The only reason "That's Entertainment" and "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero" didn't fare quite as well was because they were imports that still managed to make the charts) Same went for The Police and Adam & The Ants. Had any of them written and recorded "Marliese" it would've been a sizable hit.

But would they have done a song like "Marliese"? Adam Ant was all for going over the top but he was never this histrionic with his vocals. Weller could deadpan with the best of them but there was a lot of passion in his work but he never over-emoted anywhere near this much. Sting could be as serious as anyone in pop but rarely was he this humourless. Watts sounds like he'd been tripping on a strict diet of Ozzy Osbourne and other leading lights of British metal. In the context of the times, this may not have seemed like such a crazy idea. With groups like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard on the rise, it wouldn't have hurt to have been associated with such a scene. Roger Daltry may have also been an influence and The Who's ear-splitting concerts were a major influence on those very same headbangers.

You will read into this review that I'm not especially fussed by "Marliese" but I do hear strains of a good tune hidden in there somewhere. The bass playing is stellar and the organ holds up its end effectively as well. The lack of subtlety in its piledriver production and Watt's throat-shredding vocal are what really drive me away but there could easily be a more digestible piece of new wave rock to be unleashed had they sought to find it.

Rock music had devolved into many sub-genres by the start of the eighties but by decade's end it appeared the splinter acts were beginning to find their way back to each other. The 'poodle-metal' bands like Motley Crue and Poison saw themselves at least as much as the inheritors of The Sex Pistols as Kiss. Older rock groups were finding success with metallish recordings. British record label Stylus began putting out a series of compilations called Soft Metal, Precious Metal, Pure Soft Metal and Molten Metal which proved very popular. Their mandate appeared to be one that brought as much as possible under the metal umbrella rather than narrowing it down to its purist form. Non-metal acts such as The Stranglers, Marillion, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Toto and even Spandau Ballet appeared on these LPs. Were it the work of one of these groups, this high tension item would have been immortalized on one of these Metal comps — loved and remembered by people who like this sort of thing.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Bucks Fizz: "Making Your Mind Up"

I'm a North American music fan who doesn't follow Eurovision. I don't care about it either out of genuine interest or (much worse) for the purposes of irony. Nevertheless, I do know of three winners in its long and storied history. France Gall won 1965 for "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", ABBA famously had a star-making win in '74 with "Waterloo" and Bucks Fizz took the title in '81 with the "deeply moronic" "Making Your Mind Up". (I am also aware that Celine Dion and Katrina & The Waves won the contest though I couldn't tell you what either of them performed) A pretty big step down from the first two, sure, but at least I know about it. No doubt very few brain cells were strained in the creation of it but what does it matter? It's insanely catchy and that just about makes up for (a) its stupidity and (b) the cringe factor. There isn't as much interest anymore in people having 'guilty pleasures' but I'd argue that this song is precisely why they're still needed. Hepworth accurately predicts the outcome of the song contest but I dare say he wasn't chuffed about doing so.