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Post by Shireblogger on Mar 5, 2016 10:26:53 GMT 1
The origins of this 1982 hit go back to pre-World War II South Africa. It was the subject of a long running dispute over who should earn songwriter royalties. It had been a hit 3 times in the UK (as "Wimoweh") before Tight Fit's version was released. The vocal performers on the track were different to the models who appeared as Tight Fit on television and in its horribly cheesy video. So there are plenty of reasons not to be a fan of this track.
But, on the other hand, it topped the UK charts for 3 weeks, has sold over a million copies, has an infectious rhythm and considered sufficiently enjoyable to have made its way into several films.
Please give us your opinion, along with a score between 0 (very bad) and 10 (very good). You must write a minimum of 5 words and a maximum of 5 paragraphs for your score to count, and scores outside the range of 0-10 will not be included.
Scores: 3 : Last Dreamer 0 : raliverpool 1 : Smurfie 6 : whitneyfan 6 : Thorney 7 : vya 1 : vastariner 0 : smokeyb 6 : kingpin 6 : Lee Taub 5 : Earl Purple 4 : Andy 9 : Shireblogger 8 : meister 3 : daz 2 : borneoman
4.2 AVERAGE from 16 judges
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2016 13:55:11 GMT 1
3/10 Their worst single, Tight Fit were much better as "ABBA-copycats" "Fantasy Island" obviously is their 10/10 moment.
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Post by raliverpool on Mar 5, 2016 15:32:41 GMT 1
Horrific cover of a borderline novelty song. Fantasy Island = now that was a Abbatastic cheesy guilty pleasure.
0/10
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Post by Smurfie on Mar 5, 2016 16:34:21 GMT 1
I was going to give this a middle to low score until the video showed someone in a rubbish lion costume. Pantomime horses are acceptable, rubbish lions are not. 4 out of ten for effort, though an 6 year old me would have scored this an 9 (I played Frankie on loop for example). A nowadays 1.
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Post by Smurfie on Mar 5, 2016 16:36:15 GMT 1
Love these threads, Shireblogger, by the way.
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Post by suedehead on Mar 5, 2016 16:41:05 GMT 1
I was going to give this a middle to low score until the video showed someone in a rubbish lion costume. Pantomime horses are acceptable, rubbish lions are not. 4 out of ten for effort, though an 6 year old me would have scored this an 9 (I played Frankie on loop for example). A nowadays 1. Pantomime horses can definitely be more than just acceptable
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Post by Smurfie on Mar 5, 2016 16:55:41 GMT 1
Oh, I knew that one was coming the minute I said it!
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Post by suedehead on Mar 5, 2016 17:06:00 GMT 1
Oh, I knew that one was coming the minute I said it! I wouldn't want to disappoint
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Post by Whitneyfan on Mar 5, 2016 17:31:55 GMT 1
I can remember absolutely loving this at the time, although I was very young. It still sounds quite good in a novelty nostalgic kind of way so I'll give it 6/10.
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TheThorne
Member
*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
Posts: 27,514
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Post by TheThorne on Mar 5, 2016 19:00:35 GMT 1
It was one of my favourite songs at the time but like many others I was young just 10. It is total cheese but fun 6/10
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vya
Member
Posts: 8,776
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Post by vya on Mar 6, 2016 2:36:40 GMT 1
I was six at the time and found it insistently catchy and rather good fun. It's a bit cheap, but does what it does pretty well. In a word, fun, no more no less. (And, yes, "Fantasy Island" was in an entirely different league - but then again the Tight Fit of that single bore little resemblance to the Tight Fit of this one...). 7/10 I think
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vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,427
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Post by vastar iner on Mar 6, 2016 8:57:39 GMT 1
So much of this was fake. They weren't the same Tight Fit as had had a chart smattering the previous year. The people fronting the single weren't the people on it. Which was obvious because they had two girls when there plainly wasn't a female voice on it. And of course the original songwriters were more stiffed than a Mafia victim. Which makes the entire operation repellent.
It was pretty decent as a pop song. It's just that if someone had decided to re-issue The Tokens' original hit - and it ought to be a law that, whenever some sh*t like W***life do a cover version, every time a radio station plays it, it has to follow the original - then perhaps its inexorable chart rise would have been shown to have been based on no intellectual or creative input whatsoever.
I would give The Tokens' version 7, which means, as TF was a blatant rip-off and morally repugnant cash-in, it gets a 1. For making me aware of an original that I would not otherwise have known.
Of course, Karl Denver's mentalist version blows both into the weeds.
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Post by smokeyb on Mar 6, 2016 12:32:15 GMT 1
A nod to the original, but this version by Tight Fit was unnecessary,pointless drivel.
I wasn't a kid when this was released so I could quite clearly see it for what it was at the time.
0/10
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Post by Kingpin on Mar 6, 2016 20:21:16 GMT 1
I don't think it's stood the test of time particularly well but I've got lots of fond memories of this song. The video's naff but then again it was the early 80s! Like most others I much preferred Fantasy Island, maybe it's benefitted from not being as overplayed and overexposed as The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
6/10
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LT
Member
Posts: 15,779
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Post by LT on Mar 6, 2016 20:50:26 GMT 1
I sang this song once at school this is cheesetastic! 6/10
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Post by Earl Purple on Mar 11, 2016 2:25:40 GMT 1
It was difficult to identify who "Tight Fit" actually were, as their first hit "Back To The Sixties" joined in the medley craze at a time when medleys were often of "covers" and was done by a production team in a studio with session musicians.
But "Back To The Sixties" was shown on Top of the Pops without Legs & Co and instead had some mimers on stage, and the next "Tight Fit" hit was a straightforward cover version of a song that was popular in the early 1960s when the Tokens (Neil Sedaka's former group) had had a hit with it (after Neil Sedaka had left) although of course their version also wasn't the original.
Once again there were people on stage on TOTP miming to it but then those 3 people actually did record the vocals on the next Tight Fit hit "Fantasy Island", a song written by the Dutch producers who had worked with Jaap Eggermont of Starsound and first recorded by Dutch vocal group The Millionaires.
Then that was pretty much it.
However it was good to see two pretty woman on Top of the Pops so I'll give it a 5 out of 10.
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Post by o on Mar 18, 2016 15:52:57 GMT 1
Inoffensive gimmicky pop, probably liked it at the time, and then it probably grated after repetitive airplay, but even though I'm much older now, I'm still going to give it a 4/10.
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Post by Shireblogger on Mar 19, 2016 9:28:49 GMT 1
It's just great fun. Pop music doesn't always have to be po-faced, reverential and/or serious. In fact this type of song in the chart mixes things up nicely. It is well produced, catchy, and still brings a smile to my face when I hear it. 9/10 from me.
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meister
Member
*Toy Soldier*
Posts: 1,336
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Post by meister on Apr 13, 2016 17:14:18 GMT 1
We had the Tight Fit cassette knocking about the house growing up. I like their version and it does add a bit of updated 80s-ness to the original, which isn't always a bad thing. 8/10
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Apr 18, 2016 12:13:20 GMT 1
pretty much what andy said, certainly was a song I heard a lot as a kid but now I think id try my best to avoid it
3/10
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