vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 6, 2016 22:16:21 GMT 1
"S-S-S-Single Bed" used to get occasoianl and surreal namechecks in Viz.
Noosha Fox was the inspiration for another great almost-forgotten hit...
Clare Grogan in a French maid's outfit. I think I need some me time.
OK, back. My favourite Fox track was one that wasn't even a hit; the uncannily staccato theme to the Kenny Everett Television Show.
Odd fact of the day: Dr Ben Goldacre of Bad Science column fame is Noosha's son.
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Post by thehitparade on Dec 6, 2016 22:35:22 GMT 1
Well, if we're talking about songs written by Kenny Young, how many people know the first version of this famous song to make the UK Top 40?
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 15, 2016 23:39:12 GMT 1
Their biggest hit in the US was scandalously barely a top 30 entry here...
Who would have thought that the band to put bhangra together with baggy would be Siouxsie & The Banshees? Never knowingly conventional, this is very close to being an actual pop song. And is sumptuously sublime.
Tribute to Jayne Mansfield, of course, often thought to have been decapitated in an horrendous road accident when her convertible went under a lorry, but apparently her head stayed on - only her wig came off. The result was fatal whatever the case, and in the States it is now compulsory for lorries to have "Mansfield bars".
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 24, 2016 23:39:55 GMT 1
There was a brief attempt by the London Media to find a local rival for Merseybeat. They called it the Tottenham Sound, after the locale of the Dave Clark Five, and was distinguished by a hard beat that drove danceclub owners spare because of the damage done to the floor.
This hit is certainly germane to said movement.
First hit for Chris Andrews, which topped the chart in several European countries, albeit not the UK. Then again, he had already been a chart-topper here; he wrote "Long Live Love" for Sandie Shaw.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 5, 2017 21:48:31 GMT 1
Anyone remember this one hit wonder from the States?
Jump 'N The Saddle Band's tribute to The Three Stooges. Gained a local following and somewhat unexpectedly made it to the top 20. I remember seeing the video played on a Saturday morning show (probably Superstore) but otherwise I don't think it had any impact over here at all.
It is however a good song to illustrate just how toxic the inclusion of airplay in a chart is. Cashbox had this peak at number 9, six places higher than Billboard. Whereas Variety, which compiled its charts I think exclusively from sales - albeit from a small sample - had this go all the way to being a Christmas number 2, only kept off the top by the abyssally appalling "Say Say Say".
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 11, 2017 0:20:20 GMT 1
When I listen to this one, an uplifting, effervescent, joyous one-take live recording...
...and then compare it to the complete, total and utter sh*t that passes for popular music, one wants to weep.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 14, 2017 1:00:57 GMT 1
Four reasons why this one is nearly forgotten.
1. The Piglets never existed. Basically session musicians and singers. Typical of the bubblegum era (c.f. White Plains, Edison Lighthouse). Lead singer was session veteran Barbara Kay, who was in her forties, despite rumours from the production team that it was Patty Coombs. But it meant they never appeared on TOTP; instead there was this clip which must go down as one of the very first pop promo clips.
2. It screamed up the charts rapidly, so did not linger long in the imagination. Despite reaching no. 3 it was only entitled to two TOTP performances - when entering at 19 and when peaking. Then it started dropping. I'm not sure when it was on; it might indeed have been on when it was at no. 7 on its way up.
3. It's complete crap.
4. It's a Jonathan King production. So the chances of it being revived, even for ironic purposes, are remote...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 22, 2017 19:16:19 GMT 1
Got to no. 2 in 1975 and has it been played since? An unusual origin, in that Roger Whittaker had a radio show for which he invited listeners to send in poems to which he would set to music. This was one of them, the lyrics written by a silversmith in Birmingham.
Also unusual in that it was originally a 1971 album track. So its success as a single four years later came a bit out of the blue. And its original success was in the US, as a radio exec wife had heard it on a holiday here and begged her husband to get it played. That little germ saw it pushed as a single, top the Adult Contemporary Charts, and get it released as a single here.
Generates two splendid chart facts.
1. It was kept off no. 1 by "Sailing" - the only time the top two positions have belonged to naval records.
2. The only song to be a hit for both Elvis Presley and a naval orchestra.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 24, 2017 21:28:35 GMT 1
The Creme Brulee of Eurovision finalists. Very few non-winning songs have top tenned here unless they're by acts from GB and RoI. This one did. Which suggests that there might have been something more for the Dutch duo had it not been for Abba stealing their thunder. How history could have changed; had Abba won the Swedish eliminations with "Ring Ring", "Waterloo" would never have had the Eurovision impact...
Also it's not their only forgotten hit. They had already had a no. 1 in their homeland, with a song that made the top 10 in the States...
Listening to these, it seems to me that they inadvertently paved the way for Pussycat...
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Post by vastar iner on Jan 29, 2017 17:48:15 GMT 1
Alas not the Latin orator set to music, but David Cicero, an American-born Scot who caught the Pet Shop Boys' ears (perhaps their eyes too) and they pitched in to produce an album for release on their Spaghetti label. Quite a jaunty tune and I was surprised it wasn't a bigger hit at the time.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2017 14:18:39 GMT 1
Maggie MacNeal also represented the Netherlands at Eurovision again with fantastic "Amsterdam" in 1980.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Feb 2, 2017 9:27:10 GMT 1
Normally being number 1 ensures immortality; at least until the 1990s when the top spot became nothing more than a hyped marketing tool for record company knob-showing. I bet Fatman Scoop wouldn't be recognized at a Scoop family reunion. And Avery Storm, Laza Morgan, Nayer, Sak Noel, Storm Queen and GoonRock are surely candidates for Pointless.
But in the days when being number 1 actually mattered, and was in some way merited, the hits normally got themselves onto the nostalgia scene without much of a problem. Yet when was the last time you heard this one? No reason why it should have got so forgotten, it's a rather ambitious single for an act marketed as a boyband, unusual funereal opening and nice singalong chorus. Perhaps it's because Midge Ure became so successful with his later acts that his uncharacteristic heartthrob opening gets overlooked. Or maybe it is because it is 1976, an atrocious year for number 1 hits.
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Feb 9, 2017 21:34:29 GMT 1
It's almost a trope these days how documentaries and retro programmes and so on make a point that the sixties was not all Beatles and Stones, but also Englebert Humperdink and Ken Dodd.
Which means that one of the most consistently successful singles acts gets overlooked. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (no Oxford comma) spent more weeks on chart than anyone else in 1966. The week "Hold Tight" dropped out of the top 30, "Hideaway" entered it; less than a month after the latter left the charts, "Bend It" replaced it. And the week after "Bend It" fell out of the 50, "Save Me" came into it. But for the utterly pointless and blatant cash-in of scraping the Jim Reeves barrel, they would have scored a number 1 hit.
But their best single is perhaps this one, which has been overlooked despite its adventurous aspect. DDDBMT seemed to specialize in concept singles, with stories about the wild west, the ocean wave, deepest and darkest Soho and bullfighting in their repertoire. This one was very Burundi beat...
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Post by raliverpool on Feb 9, 2017 21:52:59 GMT 1
^ I rate their only chart topper "The Legend Of Xanadu" as their best song.....
Engelbert Humperdinck is most famous for his breakout single "Release Me" stopping arguably The Beatles best ever single "Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane" from reaching the chart summit.
But I've heard Stuart Maconie, Bob Stanley & Paul Gambaccini argue that his second number one "The Last Waltz" kept an even better track at #2 (whilst The Small Faces "Itchycoo Park" was blocked at #3; & The Supremes "Reflections" at #5) by effectively a one hit wonder, but what a record .....
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Feb 11, 2017 21:56:44 GMT 1
One of the problems with having instrumental hits is that people can't sing along to them. And so their titles don't stick in the mind. So it's easy to forget them. And how can you then ask for it? Imagine wanting this number 1 hit played. "It's by The Shadows, and it's got a lead twangy guitar..." Let's face it, the only instrumentals by the Shads that get played these days are "Apache", "Wonderful Land" and "Foot Tapper". And maybe something from Thunderbirds.
It's one of those oddities that The Shadows were doing some cutting edge material at the same time as they were backing the most godawful drek from Cliff Richard, who had gone the Tommy Steele route of abandoning rock as soon as he could get into acting.
It's also easy to forget that after rock and roll had blown apart the fifties sh*te, nobody knew what the next big thing would be. The rock instrumental - Duane Eddy, The Shadows, The Ventures, The Tornados, Link Wray et al - looked like it could take over. Then some lairy las went to Germany for a stint...
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Post by vastar iner on Feb 19, 2017 0:37:10 GMT 1
There was a bit of a sudden rush of female indieish pop-rock around the mid-90s: 4 Non Blondes, Jill Sobule, Joan Osborne, and of course Alanis Morrisette. I think Soph had the best of all their singles with this paean to sexual confusion. Perhaps had she used the subjunctive in the title it would have gone top ten. One of the few CD singles I ever brought. Still an exciting and enticing rush, with that slowed down silent bridge jarring against the crescendo, before the triumphant finish. Sophisticated and magnificent. Still. We now have Ed Sheeran.
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 17, 2017 20:52:45 GMT 1
Different direction for Toyah, but a stunning, stunning single, hints of Clannad in there, and perhaps a pinch of Kate Bush and Siouxsie. Wonder whether it was one of those singles hurt by not having the title in the lyrics.
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Post by TheThorne on Mar 18, 2017 10:46:04 GMT 1
There was a bit of a sudden rush of female indieish pop-rock around the mid-90s: 4 Non Blondes, Jill Sobule, Joan Osborne, and of course Alanis Morrisette. I think Soph had the best of all their singles with this paean to sexual confusion. Perhaps had she used the subjunctive in the title it would have gone top ten. One of the few CD singles I ever brought. Still an exciting and enticing rush, with that slowed down silent bridge jarring against the crescendo, before the triumphant finish. Sophisticated and magnificent. Still. We now have Ed Sheeran. Not forgotten at all its considered a pop classic especially in the US, she still has retro indie cred there where she featured in an episode of Community a few years ago www.imdb.com/title/tt2777464/
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 26, 2017 22:51:18 GMT 1
They Might Be Giants. 14 regular albums, 5 children's albums, 2 Johns and 1 top ten single.
One of those that everyone seems to have forgotten, but when you remind them of it, they go "ohhh yeah!" and smile.
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Post by greendemon on Mar 27, 2017 20:24:29 GMT 1
The Banderas were the Bananarama to The Communards' Fun Boy Three. Meanwhile, better red than dead... Scarlet: Rediscovered this recently - I had indeed forgotten all about it Stunning song!
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