- Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
- Mike + The Mechanics: The Living Years
- Roy Orbison: You Got It
- Roachford: Cuddly Toy
- Holly Johnson: Love Train
- Fine Young Cannibals: She Drives Me Crazy
- Kylie & Jason: Especially for You
- Ten City: That's the Way Love Is
- Erasure: Crackers International
- Robert Howard & Kym Mazell: Wait
- Will to Power: Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird
- Neneh Cherry: Buffalo Stance
- Then Jerico: Big Area
- Brother Beyond: Be My Twin
- Boy Meets Girl: Waiting for a Star to Fall
- Milli Vanilli: Baby Don't Forget My Number
- Adeva: Respect
- Bobby Brown: My Prerogative
- Inner City: Good Life
- Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock: Get on the Dance Floor
- Mica Paris & Will Downing: Where Is the Love?
- Simply Red: It's Only Love
- Sheena Easton: The Lover in Me
- Michael Ball: Love Changes Everything
- Level 42: Tracie
- Natalie Cole: I Live for Your Love
- Yazz: Fine Time
- Raze: Break 4 Love
- Samantha Fox: I Only Wanna Be with You
- Kim Wilde: Four Letter Word
- Hue & Cry: Looking for Linda
- The Waterboys: Fisherman's Blues
- The Stranglers: Grip '89
- The Four Tops: Loco in Acapulco
- Angry Anderson: Suddenly
- Luther Vandross: She Won't Talk to Me
- Monie Love: I Can Do This
- Debbie Gibson: Lost in Your Eyes
- Big Country: Peace in Our Time
- Freiheit: Keeping the Dream Alive
~~~~~
One of the unexpected side effects of keeping this blog is that I frequently find myself enjoying songs that I never thought much of when I was younger. Many of these fall into the unfashionable category. I've already heaped undue praise on Marc Almond's duet with Gene Pitney at the top of the chart but it isn't difficult to find another less than hip hit single. The runner-up this week is The Living Years by Mike + The Mechanics, a part-time group led by Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford. It was a song I didn't pay much attention to at the time - save for my cynical but hilarious dismissal of the "when my father passed away" line in which I accused of them of just trying to make a buck - but now find rather touching. A part of the video which seems to sum up my change of heart is when Mike stands with his son at his father's grave. The boy looks for a sec and then wanders off while his dad remains motionless: I used to be the boy but now I'm the man. Unloved and unlistened to as it was by many of my generation, it was still a pretty big hit and remains a staple of dentist offices and lite rock radio stations. Plenty were obviously affected by its pathos and I'm now one of them.
The generation gap described in The Living Years, however, doesn't seem present on the charts at this time. Finishing off the Top 3 is Roy Orbison's catchy You Got It. Having passed away unexpectedly back in December, his stock was high and this undoubtedly helped the single do as well as it did. Nevertheless, it was something I quite liked and I suspect a lot of other young listeners at the time felt the same way. (Bear in mind this is long before it became cool to listen to older music) Orbison's death may have helped it get on the charts but the record itself made it go up.
Elsewhere, we have Baby Boomers and Generation X (not that we were called that at the time; Nirvana, plaid shirts and generational angst seemed a long way off) continuing to come together. Then Jerico's Big Area is the sort of storming rocker of the time that had the requisite bite to appeal to young listeners with a delivery that was sufficiently MOR for parents not to demand their kids shut off that bloody racket. The presence of synths and a very eighties big production should render it dated but it still sounds good to me. It's no wonder they were tipped for big things that never materialized.
We were off to Ipswich this week to attend a production of Ten Little Indians. Our negative experience at The Secret of Sherlock Holmes a couple weeks earlier having not quite ruined the theatre for us and a good thing too since it was brilliant. The play was that evening but we arrived at midday for some shopping. My dad shook his head as I picked out yet another tape to add to my collection - this time it was the double collection The Hits Album - but he must have known he was asking for trouble when I began browsing. It was around this time that I began making a habit of finding a way to flip through records and tapes wherever we went. No doubt it helped that I could do so in a bookstore (W.H. Smith), a chemist (Boots) and a catch-all retail outfit (Woolworths) that could be found in every town and city in the British Isles. (Amazing, too, when you consider that today we barely have any record stores around, let alone shops that specialize in other goods that also happen to carry records) Browsing the racks of singles and albums soon became as enjoyable as buying them and it's something I enjoy to this day.
It was also in Ipswich that I bought a pair of jeans for myself for the first time. We visited Ipswich market - who really ought to update their webpage - and I picked out a choice pair of acid wash nut-huggers that immediately became the most prized piece of my wardrobe, even more than my Coca-Cola jean jacket. I'd always been a jogging pants kid but this was a bit of a sartorial turning point. And I sure wore the life out of those jeans: they're present in just about every picture taken of me (until the May heat wave at which point I reverted to my beloved clam diggers) and they got particularly worn upon our return to Canada when I was back at a school without a uniform. You'd think I would've invested in a second - not to mention a third - pair of jeans but there were far too many tapes for me to buy.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Love Train
older Paul's retro pick: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
The generation gap described in The Living Years, however, doesn't seem present on the charts at this time. Finishing off the Top 3 is Roy Orbison's catchy You Got It. Having passed away unexpectedly back in December, his stock was high and this undoubtedly helped the single do as well as it did. Nevertheless, it was something I quite liked and I suspect a lot of other young listeners at the time felt the same way. (Bear in mind this is long before it became cool to listen to older music) Orbison's death may have helped it get on the charts but the record itself made it go up.
Elsewhere, we have Baby Boomers and Generation X (not that we were called that at the time; Nirvana, plaid shirts and generational angst seemed a long way off) continuing to come together. Then Jerico's Big Area is the sort of storming rocker of the time that had the requisite bite to appeal to young listeners with a delivery that was sufficiently MOR for parents not to demand their kids shut off that bloody racket. The presence of synths and a very eighties big production should render it dated but it still sounds good to me. It's no wonder they were tipped for big things that never materialized.
We were off to Ipswich this week to attend a production of Ten Little Indians. Our negative experience at The Secret of Sherlock Holmes a couple weeks earlier having not quite ruined the theatre for us and a good thing too since it was brilliant. The play was that evening but we arrived at midday for some shopping. My dad shook his head as I picked out yet another tape to add to my collection - this time it was the double collection The Hits Album - but he must have known he was asking for trouble when I began browsing. It was around this time that I began making a habit of finding a way to flip through records and tapes wherever we went. No doubt it helped that I could do so in a bookstore (W.H. Smith), a chemist (Boots) and a catch-all retail outfit (Woolworths) that could be found in every town and city in the British Isles. (Amazing, too, when you consider that today we barely have any record stores around, let alone shops that specialize in other goods that also happen to carry records) Browsing the racks of singles and albums soon became as enjoyable as buying them and it's something I enjoy to this day.
It was also in Ipswich that I bought a pair of jeans for myself for the first time. We visited Ipswich market - who really ought to update their webpage - and I picked out a choice pair of acid wash nut-huggers that immediately became the most prized piece of my wardrobe, even more than my Coca-Cola jean jacket. I'd always been a jogging pants kid but this was a bit of a sartorial turning point. And I sure wore the life out of those jeans: they're present in just about every picture taken of me (until the May heat wave at which point I reverted to my beloved clam diggers) and they got particularly worn upon our return to Canada when I was back at a school without a uniform. You'd think I would've invested in a second - not to mention a third - pair of jeans but there were far too many tapes for me to buy.
~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Love Train
older Paul's retro pick: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
