Post by ROBERTLEE on Sept 15, 2011 20:21:46 GMT 1
9TH AUGUST- SO MACHO- Sinitta (2 weeks)
Sometimes the story of a song is far more interesting than the song itself- "So Macho" is one of those songs. Of course Sinitta was at the time girlfriend of one Simon Cowell, and the hit was the first big hit for the Fanfare Label that gave Cowell his break in the music business. Sinitta meanwhile had been in Hot Gossip (the dancers on the Kenny Everatt Show), as well as an entrant in song for europe (though she failed to get to the Eurovision Song contest and had pretty much been a failed popstar since 1983 (as an aside she also appears in the video for Forrest's 1983 top 10 hit "Rock The Boat") so that's where we're at come 1986.
Now Cowell approached writer George Hargreaves to write a record for Sinitta and "So Macho" was the result. What is interesting in watching Sinitta perform this at TOTP is the about face that appears to have taken place in the UK between 1984 and 1986- this, I conjecture, is due to AIDS. Witness the line "Or a boy who thinks he's a girl" Sinitta does the famous "Limp Wristed" movement which, as we all know for our childhood days, is the universal sign for a gayer. From the gay friendly, and obviously gay anthems of 84 we seem now to have done a full 180 degree about face- now it is heterosexual sex which has reclaimed the centre place, promiscuity, straight culture (and whilst never exactly being out of fashion) is now re-asserting it's muscle on the pop landscape, it mocks the stars and the themes of only 24 months earlier. Hargreaves, the writer, is now a religious minister and political spokesman for the christian Party (UK) and has made rather outspoken negative remarks on the subject on hiomosexuality during the 00s.
"So Macho" is therefore a record of deep contradictions, it's HI-Energy (A medium associated with gay clubs), it clearly references the Village People's "Macho Man" from 1978, and considering Sinitta's future productions with S/A/W for the remainder of the 80s, it was from the gay market that she sustained much of her career, but in 1986 it was perfectly acceptable to mock homosexuality in a place like TOTP that only recently was a showcase for it's talent, and what allowed that was the emergence of AIDS, stright culture's ultimate revenge on gay culture (or at least that's how it was seen back in 1986)
For all those reasons "So Macho" is a much more interesting record than I ever deemed it to be, of course as a song it's a piece of camp fun, throwaway pop that is unashamed of what it is, and for that I can't fault it, but all is not what it appears!
In theme "So Macho" is not that distant from "It's Raining Men" for example, same theme (sexual avarice and promiscuity) same medium (Hi- Energy) and both sung by female acts, but don't you notice that deep difference down under the surface? In the year of Sam Fox's Chart emergance also, sexual promiscuity, provided it's straight, is the now back in the camp of the righteous....
I never saw So Macho that way before and noticed its contradictions. Although i heard the lyrics i was never one to study them, just appreciated the music.
As for the song, at the time i loved it and was even the very first No.1 on my personal chart (from memory as i don't have the data from the 1st 2 years).
Still has retro appeal to me but it's just a bit of a fun pop. Nothing more nothing less (hmmm isn't there another PWL song with that line).
If I remember rightly there was an interesting story behind this record's charts sales.
It was a hit first in the Northern Soul Clubs and started selling big in the North of England which accounted for most of its sales at the beginning of its chart run - it gradually spread throughout the country so that during the second half of its career the majority of the sales were in the south the north having dried up.
Had it sold uniformly it would surely have been a number 1.