This was a bit of a crossover for the band as their previous albums were more hard rock so this was a lot more easier to play on radio stations and it caught on with the listeners who got it into the charts. The single was the second from the album 4 and reached number 8 in the UK. It also featured Thomas Dolby on keyboards just before he started his solo career. Also this single spent 10 weeks stuck at number 2 in the American charts having two other singles jump over this track to get to number 1. The follow up singles never dented the UK top 40 which is a shame as they are great tracks from a really great album too. Here's the single
Monday, 27 January 2014
Foreigner - Waiting For A Girl Like You
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Giorgio - From Here To Eternity
The track isn't really remembered that much, I hardly ever hear of people talking about it but it seems the album it came off (named after the single) seems to have been such an influential album in late 70's electronic music. It was one of the first electronic tracks I had heard (along with I Feel Love, Kraftwerk's Autobahn and Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene) and it is what really got me into the sounds of synths and electronic music, that is why I still really love this single. Try and listen to it if you can! Here's the scan of the single
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
Toyah - It's A Mystery
The single hit the charts and peaked in the UK at number 4 of 1981 and came from the album Anthem and having a hit album and single, gave her the boost she needed and began several years of successful releases in the UK. At this time, there wasn't always a video released with chart singles so she would appear on Top Of The Pops to promote this single, but her later singles all came with good videos. Here's the single cover
Sunday, 12 January 2014
The Human League - Dare
The original line up of The Human League, split up in late 1980 (the other 2 members went to form Heaven 17) and with Phil Oakey guiding the band wanted to be more of a pop band than the electronic group the old band was. Virgin wanted hits from the band so they recruited Suzanne Sully & Joanne Catherall to salvage a European tour. Virgin put them with producer Martin Rushent and the result was Sound Of The Crowd which was a decent hit reaching 12 in the UK charts, Virgin were happy and making the album went ahead.
Love Action was released in the summer of 1981 and climbed to number 3, Open Your Heart reached number 6 and was used to market the albums following release. Dare went straight to number 1 in the album charts and at the end of 1981 Don't You Want Me was released. This song ended up being the biggest selling single in the UK in 1981 and also the Christmas number one of that year too! Not bad for a song that Phil Oakey didn't think was a hit, they even put it at the end of the album as they didn't think of it that much, it ended up being a worldwide smash!
The Human League rode the success of the album well, but came the day they had to follow it up. Not many bands can follow such a successful album and they realised that. I remember watching an interview with Martin Rushent and he said it was an album of the time, one that just came together. When it came to record the follow up they struggled as they didn't know how they came up with Dare, it just happened! Martin Rushent was working on remastering Dare and rumours of extra unreleased tracks that were recorded for the album were getting sorted, but Martin died before the project was sorted and I read that his son was concidering taking on the project, fingers crossed he does! Here is the classic album sleeve, an idea taken from Vogue magazine!
Saturday, 11 January 2014
The Playlist
Randy Crawford - One Day I'll Fly Away
Here's the single
Friday, 10 January 2014
Spandau Ballet - To Cut A Long Story Short
Spandau were making waves in the music biz and after a record company bidding war, they signed to Chrysalis Records, who gave them their own label, Reformation. The single To Cut A Long Story Short was released in November 1980 and climbed to number 5 within a couple of weeks of release. The video was a band performance and gave many a view of what the New Romantics was all about, smart clothes, guys in make up and a catchy tune.
This single helped the band have a long and worldwide successful career up to the breakup in 1990. They since got back together in 2009 for reunion shows of which the first London show sold out in 20 minutes and had to add extra dates!
Here's the single