The Sounds - Painted By Numbers

This track should have been a huge hit here in the UK, but for some reason it was more or less ignored, a real shame. The Sounds are a Swedish group who have been around for over 10 years. The band have done a lot of touring around the world as support act and headliners and grown a steady following. Painted By Numbers comes from the album Dying To Say This To You and I first saw the single being played on MTV and thought it was a great single. Very much sounding New Wave, very much sounding like Blondie and I guess similar looking, certainly for the video with the black and white theme (aka Parallel Lines). The single was released in the UK in 2007 but a few months after I first saw it on MTV, maybe the rotation of the video helped get it released here but I feel was a little too late for them. It never charted and it disappeared without trace. Have a listen to it, it is a great tune that should have been bigger and everyone should have heard! Here's the cover

The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

A fantastic pop song from 1979, was originally from an album released in 1978 by Woolley & the Camera Club called English Garden. Written by Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes & Bruce Woolley this synthpop classic is about nostalgia and technology, about a radio star who's career is cut short by television. Released on Island Records in September 1979 the single climbed to number 1 in November of that year. Although the song was from 1979 is has been featured on many 80's compilations. Surprised at the single's success the band had to rush back into the studio to record a follow up single and came up with The Plastic Age and the album The Age Of Plastic, although the single hit the charts nothing came close to the success of Video!

When MTV started in America in August 1981 Video Killed The Radio Star was the first video to be shown on the new station, very much true to the single's title! The band released another album but split up, Horn and Downes joined Yes for a while and Trevor Horn became a top producer in the first half of the 80's to work with the likes of ABC, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Dollar! Here's the single which still is a classic and still sounds great!