Kate Bush - Wow

OK, I wasn't going to put another Kate Bush single on here for a while but after yesterday's news (Friday 21st March) that she has announced she is going to play live for the first time in 35 years, it needed celebrating! Wow was released in March 1979 and came off her second album Lionheart. The album Lionheart was released in late 1978 and people say it was rush released and more or less had tracks left off from recording the first album. The first single Hammer Horror missed the top 40 so relief was all around when this charted. The song managed to get to number 14 and around this time she played live for the first time calling the tour, The Tour Of Life.

Part of the lyrics for Wow were about an aging gay actor and had a pretty good video to go with the single, much in the vein of the last few videos, when released on the compilation video, they made a compilation video of bits from the live tour for Wow. Kate's success I believe is mainly here in the UK and Ireland and I think she is more of a cult artist in America and Europe. A lot of artists around today say that Kate has been a huge influence and hopefully after this tour she just might release a new album and her back catalogue is in need of a re-master and a new compilation DVD would be great too!

Here's several shots of the single I've collected over the years starting with the UK release

Here's the Italian pressing

And Finally a rare Canadian pressing in yellow vinyl!

Queen - Seven Seas Of Rhye

At the height of Glam Rock, Queen's second single, Seven Seas Of Rhye was rushed released after the band's first ever appearance on Top Of The Pops and pushed the band into the spotlight and captured the public imagination. After the disappointment of the first single, Keep Yourself Alive not being a hit (not picked up by radio as they thought the intro was too long), this single was released in February 1974 came from the band's second album Queen II and climbed to number 10 in the UK charts.

Originally it started life at the end of the debut album Queen as a minute long instrumental but the band must have thought the track has a lot going for it and they developed it for the new album they were recording. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and recorded in August of 1973 it set the group up to become one of the worlds biggest bands.

I can remember seeing them on Top Of The Pops and thought it was a great single, to me at that time they reminded me of the direction that Sweet were trying to go. All of a sudden Freddie and they boys were in all the music papers and people began to notice that Freddie was to become a fantastic frontman. To me, Queen have always been around and I have grown up with Queen as one of my fave bands, so it is really hard to think that this single is 40 years old next year! Here's the single

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

In celebration of Kate receiving her C.B.E from the Queen today I thought I'd post probably her most well known single here today. Released in January 1978 this single slowly climbed the UK charts and got to Number 1 early March and was there for 4 weeks. This was the first number 1 single by a female to be sung and written by the same person. Originally the record company wanted her to release another track as the first single but Kate insisted it was to be Wuthering Heights and luckily for her, an EMI engineer came into the meeting and said how good Wuthering Heights was and it should be the first single. It was released in a small run in a picture cover and it is worth about £30!

The single is based on the book by Emily Bronte but it was the film she watched first, then read the book afterwards. The single had 2 videos (still a new thing in those days) the first and most well known was the studio dancing video with the smoke and film effects, the other was shot out doors with a similar dance routine but this was used for America but has been shown here. The song came off her first album The Kick Inside which hit number 3 of 1978. At the time of release, you either liked her or hated her, I didn't like the single first off, I couldn't get into it until it was dropping out of the charts, then I suddenly got it and thought it was an amazing track, so different to anything around at that time. Here's the single, in the classic EMI bag!

Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

This feel good Christmas song originally was released in 1973 and reached number 4 for 4 weeks, Slade has taken the coveted number 1 spot with their single and Elton John's Step Into Christmas stalled at a lower number 24 with his Xmas offering.

Wizzard's track was written and produced by Roy Wood and originally had been recorded in the hot summer of 1973, with Roy and the engineer making a Christmassy theme feeling in the studio to create the right mood for the song. School children from Birmingham were brought down to London for the recording of the choir. When the band performed the song on Top Of The Pops, the school kids were to sing on the track, but were replaced with school children from a London stage school instead. There was also a video for the single with Roy's daughter featured in the video.

The single was released in a mock Christmas card picture cover and although the single came on Harvest records (owned by EMI) the promo copies were released on Warner Brothers records as the band had signed to them when it was discovered that EMI were still owed a single, so they released it.

Here is my copy of the single, released in 1981 which managed to get to number 41. Over the years it has managed to get onto the single charts and even in the years of downloads only still manages a placing on the charts. To me it is one of the best Christmas songs ever, a Christmas card turned into song!

Queen - We Are The Champions - We Will Rock You

A huge hit for Queen, this power ballad and stomping anthem single was released in October 1977 as a double A Side. These tracks came off the album News Of The World which was released shortly after the single came out.

We Are The Champions was written by Freddie Mercury and has become one of the most played songs in the world, is one of the most played sporting anthems too. The idea of the song came from audience participation, having a live crowd chanting and waving arms to a song. The video of the song was the first one to use fans from the fan club as the audience to a ''live'' show of the band playing the new track. At the end of the video shoot, the fans were then treated to a real live show by the band and a copy of the new single. The band were to use the fans in videos of future releases!

We Will Rock You is also one of the most well known songs ever and also is often used in sporting arenas, A backing track of claps and stomping with the band singing on top, was such a simple idea and the classic Brian May guitar solo at the end finished an awesome track. The video to this track was recorded on a very cold snowy day in October in the back of Roger Taylor's garden. You can see just how cold the band were as they mimed the track.

The single reached number 2 in the UK and went gold, the single got into top 10 charts around the world too. We Will Rock You is the first track on the album with Champions following along, in America they still play both tracks as one from the album!

Here is the cover and label from the single

The Beatles - Love Me Do

The 5th of October 1962 is a date that just about changed the world, musically and more importatnt people's lives. Although it would take a couple of years for the full impact to hit, The Beatles had arrived on the music scene and over the next few years of the sixties would cause a revolution that changed the world forever. Love Me Do was released and got to number 17 in the UK charts. Beatlemania was just around the corner and the fab four would be screamed at with every concert they played.

We all know what went on to happen with the Beatles, together and apart over the next few years but EMI were to celebrate again in 1982 when the single got a 20th anniversary release and the single was re-released in a picture cover and picture disc and this time it got to number 4 in 1982, and after that all the Beatles singles got the 20th anniversary reissue treatment.

Shoot forward to October 2012 and the single is now 50 years old, many things have changed, vinyl is no longer a populat format, EMI has been bought out and really isn't a giant like it was back in the old day, Universal (who now own EMI) decided to release Love Me Do as a limited single originally set for October 5th 2012 but the company issued the wrong version onto the single. Andy White was a session drummer brought in on one of the recordings of the single but the Ringo Starr track was used as the original single. EMI pressed the White session onto the anniversary single and realised, they withdrew the single but around 200 copies got out and now changing hands on Ebay for a lot of money. So the single was reissued a few weeks later missing the anniversary and coming out towards the end of October instead. Also on the reissue, the catalogue number on the B Side is wrong to the A Side and also the publisher of the song is MPL Communications which is McCartney's publishing company.

Here is the 50th anniversary single, plus the picture disc and a scan of an original red Parlophone Love Me Do single from 1962

Tom Robinson Band - 2 - 4 - 6 - 8 Motorway

Tom Robinson formed the band in 1976 and within a few months of gigging and riding the current wave of Punk music, the band were spotted by EMI Records and within a few short months of forming, they had a record deal and 2-4-6-8 Motorway was the band's debut single. It was released in October 1977 and managed to climb up to number 5 and earn the band a silver disc. It is one of those singles with the chug along beat and singalong chorus that still makes the single a great listen today and is featured on many of the driving compilation cd's that get released every so often. They released several singles afterwards, but nothing was successful as this one, the debut album was a hit but never contained the single, they managed another album before the band split in 1979.

My memory of this single was of a late Saturday night listening to the very missed Radio Luxembourg, with a mono earpiece connected to a radio. I shared my bedroom with my younger brother and couldn't listen to the radio until he had gone to sleep, then I had my chance to listen to the stations chart, which I heard this gem on, as the frequency kept drifting in and out, something you no longer get in this age of digital broadcasting!

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill

This single was released in 1985 and got to number 3 which was an amazing feat seeing the last single she had released in 1982 had flopped. The Dreaming which was the album from 1982 was a strange album, some said it was her "she's finally lost it" album. So it was to be 3 years before any new product and this ended up being her biggest hit since her debut single Wuthering Heights back in 1978. Originally it was to be called A Deal With God but EMI said that if she wanted to have a worldwide hit she couldn't have any reference to God as religious countries just wouldn't have played it. Seeing the problems she had with the last album she had to agree with them and decide on the title Running Up That Hill.

It came off the album Hounds Of Love which to me is an amazing album, one I still play a lot and enjoy every listen to!

Up to the release of this single, I was never a big Kate Bush fan, I liked the odd single but for some reason I bought this without ever hearing the track, think it might have been the hype of the new release that interested me. I remember I had been out for a drink the night before so when I went and got the single I was still hungover, went home and put the single on and the first play was all I needed, well I remember playing it over and over that day! Since then I bought every thing she had released and became a huge fan. The song was remixed recently to be included in the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and got to number 6 on downloads.