Philip Lynott - Yellow Pearl

Here is a great track from the late great Thin Lizzy leader. Back in 1980 Phil released a solo album, Solo In Soho and had a couple of reasonable hits for him. When Midge Ure was a temporary replacement for Gary Moore during Thin Lizzy's tour, between rehearsals and sound checks for the shows, Midge would often try to write the basic Yellow Pearl tune on the keyboards. When Phil was recording his album, he remembered the tune and asked Midge if they could work on it to make it a proper track. The song isn't about much apart from making a thought about the technology that was beginning to hit the west in the early 80's with a lot of it coming from Japan. Phil made the lyrics up as he sang and they basically are a load of lyrics that rhymed but nothing more that that, no hidden messages. It was released as a single in early 1981 and managed to reach number 56. It's release in clear vinyl managed to push it so far but not enough to reach the top 40.

In 1981 Top Of The Pops which had been a must watch TV show every Thursday night, was caught in the middle of a strike at the BBC which meant many shows were off air for the weeks of the strike. During this time, they had decided that the format of the show need updating to follow the trends of the new 1980's. The show complete with a new title sequence needed a new and exciting theme tune, as it had previously used Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. The producer of the show had liked Yellow Pearl and asked Phil to write a new theme tune for the show. Phil had asked what would they like and the reply was something like Yellow Pearl, so Phil replied "so why don't you use that?" The instrumental track was remixed by Midge and also featured his Ultravox band mate Chris Cross and Midge's old band drummer Rusty Egan (who were all involved with the New Romantic sound that was current in 1981). The single was remixed and reissued in a new sleeve which stated it was the theme to the show and reached a more respectable number 14 in the UK charts.

I love this track, it is such exciting electronic track and always manages to get on my playlists. I love electronic music anyhow and no doubt many a track since has been influenced by this single! I've included the remix version on my Spotify playlist as it is so much more full of life than the original track, although that is a great song in itself! Check out the Spotify link here http://open.spotify.com/user/1158943663/playlist/5Jn1HAojaqM3cPMko6MN4b

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