— Michael
"The Indian vocals are brilliant as well."
— Hylton
"I reckon loads of people are going to be putting out records with that sound on it."
— Wayne
The group behind this Single of the Fortnight and the band putting it forth as one have their similarities. No, the Anglo-Indian dance pop of the former and the funk-pop-reggae of the latter have little in common but they were both trios with fleeting stints of chart success. They're remembered, if at all, for just one Top 20 hit apiece. Both must have seemed like they had bright futures ahead of them but it doesn't always work out that way.
And Why Not? were highly thought of enough to get themselves on the cover of Smash Hits as their second single "The Face" was climbing the charts. Not exactly a proven commodity but their cheerful grins probably made for a more salable product than the dour Sinead O'Connor, who was sitting at number one with "Nothing Compares 2 U". It's always possible that the late Richard Lowe got a bollocking for choosing these relative unknowns over the singer behind the most popular song in the country but hopefully the good folk at EMap understood his decision. In truth, having them headline an issue of ver Hits only seems odd in retrospect since their chart fortunes were beginning to fade. By the time I encountered them on Canadian video channel MuchMusic at the end of the year, they were pretty much done.
Sheila Chandra had been a teenage actress and singer when Monsoon were formed. She was already known to the public for playing the character of Sudhamani Patel on the long running TV series Grange Hill. Still working on her A levels at the time (in "English, History and Geography" according to a 1982 Bitz feature in Smash Hits), she had made the jump into the pop charts with "Ever So Lonely", a single that peaked at number twelve during a seven week residency in the Top 40. A fine performance for a first try and with a seventeen-year-old singer but follow-up "Shaki (The Meaning of Withing)" (it "shines on into a Karmic cascade" reckons at least one humble blogger) just missed and their promise soon faded. A brave but on-the-nose cover of The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" continued the downward trend.
And, yet, interest in Monsoon's one hit single remained, albeit mainly on the fringes. Early-eighties' pop may not have been ready for them but club and house music at the end of the decade had much more time for exotic sounds. Ben Chapman was a young DJ who was just establishing himself in 1990. His tastes were catholic enough for him to remix soul group The Christians and indie faves Jesus Jones. He was also respectful of the music he was tasked with revamping. Where others would drown a pop song in samples until it became a near-clone of current techno records, his remixes serviced the strengths of the acts. You could listen to this version of "Ever So Lonely" and easily assume that it was an organic work that hadn't been touched up in a studio.
Of course, it had been touched up just not to a level approaching tastelessness (see below). The members of And Why Not? remember the original but they can tell that this version has an upside to it. Actually, it's a little surprising just how fresh this eight-year-old single is in their minds, especially given that this was well before the YouTube era. But I suppose an effective revamp of a popular song should try bring about feelings of old while managing to touch modern listeners. It's hard to say if many were listening in 1990 since Chapman's remix failed to chart but it may have gained a whole new life in the clubs.
Speaking of which, "Ever So Lonely" would be revived once again in 2002 by DJ Dave Lee under the moniker Jakatta. This time it managed to make the UK Top 10. I don't think it quite measures up to either Monsoon's original or this Chapman makeover but it has its charms all the same. Monsoon's one hit has managed to endure in a way that And Why Not?'s hasn't. All it would take for is a modern day DJ to remix "The Face" in a manner that captures its groovy lightness while placing it in the setting of EDM values. How difficult could that be?
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
ABC: "The Look of Love (1990 remix)"
"Reissue, repackage, repackage," a certain curmudgeonly singer once sang. New tracks on greatest hits/best of's are a mixed bag but they're generally preferable to remixes to promote a compilation. Chapman remixed "Ever So Lonely" in a loving manner but this Paul Staveley O'Duffy mix of ABC's classic from recent compilation Absolutely is a train wreck — and one that ABC members past and present were keen to distance themselves from (while label Phonogram issued it as a single without their approval, it's hard to believe the group could have even allowed it to go on their first greatest hits album). Comparing the two records, Wayne from And Why Not? says, "Monsoon works but this is all over the place". Well quite.
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