22 January 1989: You Can Whistle as Well as You Hear

1. Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart
2. Mike + The Mechanics: The Living Years
3. Kylie & Jason: Especially for You
4. Roy Orbison: You Got It
5. Fine Young Cannibals: She Drives Me Crazy
6. Erasure: Crackers International
7. Roachford: Cuddly Toy
8. Neneh Cherry: Buffalo Stance
9. Will to Power: Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird
10. Holly Johnson: Love Train
11. Boy Meets Girl: Waiting for a Star to Fall
12. Inner City: Good Life
13. Robert Howard & Kym Mazell: Wait
14. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock: Get on the Dance Floor
15. Brother Beyond: Be My Twin
16. Milli Vanilli: Baby Don't Forget My Number
17. Ten City: That's the Way Love Is
18. Kim Wilde: Four Letter Word
19. Mica Paris & Will Downing: Where Is the Love?
20. Adeva: Respect
21. Then Jerico: Big Area
22. The Four Tops: Loco in Acapulco
23. Natalie Cole: I Live for Your Love
24. Freiheit: Keeping the Dream Alive
25. Angry Anderson: Suddenly
26. Duran Duran: All She Wants Is
27. Bobby Brown: My Prerogative
28. Level 42: Tracie
29. Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine: Rhythm Is Gonna Get You
30. Raze: Break 4 Love
31. New Model Army: Stupid Question
32. a-ha: You Are the One [remix]
33. Cookie Crew: Born This Way (Let's Dance)
34. Sheena Easton: The Lover in Me
35. The Stranglers: Grip '89
36. The Darling Buds: Hit the Ground
37. Gary Moore: After the War
38. Simply Red: It's Only Love
39. Samantha Fox: I Only Wanna Be with You
40. The Waterboys: Fisherman's Blues

~~~~~

I've transcribed about twenty-five charts up until now and, at last, we have a number one that I consider to be genuinely thrilling. That's right, thrilling. Beau Koo Jack thrilling. Louie Louie thrilling. Wuthering Heights thrilling. Tell all your friends, pull out a bottle of booze and let the melodies wash all over you, bloody thrilling.

Why the love for Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart? Well, first and foremost, it is a vocalist's masterclass. Marc Almond and Gene Pitney pull out all the stops yet still keep their eyes on economy. It probably helps that they're performing a duet that was meant for a soloist. For the purpose of this blog I've been listening to Pitney's original take from 1967, Almond's solo turn on his 1988 album The Stars We Are and Nick Cave's rendition from around the same time. All are good but lacking something. Pitney's version is a bit unsure of itself, lacking the dramatics that make a number like Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa such a treat. Almond's (as well as Cave's) manages to tap into the song's melancholic dark side but it lacks Pitney's control. Getting a second shot at it,  the veteran delivers the goods and then some and the upstart more than holds his own. Though he'll chiefly be remembered for Tainted Love, Almond's performance here is a reminder of what a major player he always threatened to be. (Freaky Trigger's Tom Ewing even posits that it set the pace for the cross-generational duet that took off in the nineties, so it does have that to answer for. Natalie Cole singing with her long-deceased father and those lame duets albums: cheers, Marc and Gene)

Still, the appeal of this outstanding hit was largely lost on me at the time. I was otherwise occupied by Kim Wilde's Four Letter Word which had begun to enchant me around Christmas time. By now it was slipping down the charts which meant its airplay was nil but I maintained my loyalty. I also did my best to like Fine Young Cannibals and their hit She Drives Me Crazy. Catchy and with traces of Prince and metal and a drum machine to keep time, it's the sort of all-over-the-place mess that ought to have appealed but, instead, left me indifferent - and these feelings of malaise towards it remain. It was the sort of thing that everyone around me seemed to like: it was probably the most popular song of the period among friends at school and there was even a snippet on an old cassette.

It was Friday night and John and Debbie and their young daughter Aimee had just come down for the weekend. Making up for the fact that I never had a younger brother or sister and being young enough that I could still enjoy playing with toys, I bonded with Aimee. Remembering a silly phone-in show routine that I used to do with my sister ("This is Dr Ruth at 222-22222222222..." was a phrase of Julie's that I found hysterically funny for some reason), I got out the sad little tape recorder/radio we kept in our room, popped in the one blank tape I had and began to record a similar bit. Aimee was quickly giggling as I copied my sister's ghastly German accent. This went on for a while but then, at one point, in the background, you could hear my mum singing "She drives me crazy!" as she was fixing dinner. (A pity I no longer have the tape)

The next day we were off to London to visit Harrow. It was only back in September that I found myself in fearful awe of Mayflower and its many three and four story buildings, multiple gymnasiums, vast rugby and cricket pitches, swimming pool and two cafeterias but this was something altogether different. This place was huge, I could only imagine how frightened and intimidated I would have been had I been a young Harrovian at the time. While Billericay had a comfy, middle class-ness about it, Harrow exuded exclusivity. Many Old Harrovians had carved their names into the walls of one room. We were shown Winston Churhill's name though I forgot to look for Jawaharlal Nehru and Alain de Botton. I came away impressed but far from envying the average Harrow student. Sure, most of them are probably lawyers or captains of industry or in a cushy, mid-level position they didn't earn but are they happy? Have they really lived?

Returning to Laindon by train, we disembarked and headed back to our place. As the train pulled away some yobs shouted angrily at me. They must have been West Ham supporters unhappy about the Spurs scarf I was wearing. See what you're missing, Old Harrovians?

~~~~~
young Paul's favourite: Four Letter Word
older Paul's retro pick: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart