'Just another broken heart' was released in 1981 as the first single from Sheena Easton's second album 'You could have been with me'. The album was produced by Christopher Neil.
At the height of his fame, in 1984, Michael Jackson still had time to help his siblings with their career. Rebbie Jackson was his eldest sister, and also the eldest child of the Jackson family. At 34, she released her debut album 'Centipede'.
Although Dingetje was always good in making parodies of wellknown pop songs in Dutch, this single is almost a direct translation of Bob Geldof's 'Great song of indifference', and that works less well. Entitled 'Het maakt me niks meer uit' ('It doesn't matter to me'), Dingetje released this single within weeks of the release of Bob Geldof's original.
Although Prefab Sprout's fifth album 'Jordan: the comeback' had a running time of 63 minutes, it was released on a single vinyl disc, with each side running just over 30 minutes. With 19 tracks, it was a real treat for fans, but a broader audience was also attracted to it, making this the second album by Prefab Sprout to reach the UK albums top 10.
The single 'Hypnotise' by Scritti Politti was released in 1984, at a time when extended versions always used to be longer versions of existing tracks instead of totally overhauled tracks with only fractions of the original track in them.
'The only one' was the second single from Transvision Vamp's second album 'Velveteen'. The sleeve design was similar to that of the previous single 'Baby I don't care', this time featuring the band against a panelled backdrop printed with a large photo of Marilyn Monroe.
Released as a single from Fay Lovsky's 1985 album 'Cinema', 'Goodnight Galileo' was another unsuccessful release for her. Throughout her career, only one single managed to reach (the lower regions of) the Dutch Top 40, and although many more singles were released, none of them met with commercial success.
The title track of Chris Rea's 1991 album 'Auberge' was released as a single in early 1991. The album as well as the title song was mostly notable for the association of the Caterham Super Seven that Chris Rea owned, in which he called it the 'Blue Seven'. That car appeared on the album cover, illustrated in oil by renowned motoring artist Alan Fearnley.
'When love takes over you' was the fourth single taken from Donna Summer's 1989 album 'Another place and time'. The album was produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman. The track was remixed before its single release, but the single was only released in Europe and the UK.
David van Day and Thereza Bazar formed Dollar in 1977 after leaving the group they joined at 17. At first, only Van Day quit the band to embark on a solo career, while Bazar could continue with Guys n' Dolls to earn a living for them both. The group's management were unhappy with the situation and sacked Bazar with the reasoning that a six-piece group consisting of three couples would now look odd with five members.
Although this single was released in 1975, it still sounds rather modern. But that's only because Joy Fleming uses the same repulsive singing techniques people like Mariah Carey and Leona Lewis still employ these days: singing like there's a kidney stone in your gut.
The second single by the Dutch girl trio Luv' was not able to reach the Dutch Top 40. I was about nine years old when I heard the track (two years after its release) and even back then I concluded that the song was too 'sad' to be a hit. The fortunes of Luv' changed when they started recording consistently happy music.
A request by one of the readers of this blog: 'Let's go crazy' as released in 1985 as a single from Price's hugely successful album 'Purple rain'. I bought this single although I was never too wild about this track 25 years ago. Now I quite like it, I have to admit.
'Englishman in New York' was originally a track on Sting's second album 'Nothing like the sun'. When it was released as a single from that album in 1988, it was moderately successful.
It's interesting how Five Star went from supergroup to virtually unknown during the first five years of their career. While their first few albums were immensely popular, the album 'Rock the world', released in 1988, was ignored by the record-buying audience.
The American progressive rock band Kansas was formed in 1970 by Dave Hope, Phil Ehart, Kerry Livgren, Lynn Meredith, Don Montre, Dan Wright and Larry Baker. They released their self-titled debut album in 1974, From then on, they released an album every year, until 1978's 'Point of know return' came out. This album featured the track 'Dust in the wind'.
The Stray Cats formed in 1980 in New York. Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom based their style upon the sounds of Sun Records artists and other artists from the Fifties. When they heard rumor that there was a revival of the Fifties Teddy Boy youth subculture in England, the band moved to the UK.
Released in 1989, 'La luna' ('The moon') was the second single from Belinda Carlisle's album 'Runaway horses'. The track was written by Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley and produced by Nowels - as most of her output up until then.
Although most people remember Audrey Landers as the pouting blonde that played Afton Cooper in the American series 'Dallas', she also has a lengthy musical career under her belt. Starting out as early as 1978, she had her biggest hit in Europe with 1983's 'Manuel goodbye'. After this, she released ten albums and a few dozen singles.
'The way old friends do' was originally a live recording by Abba, included as the last track on their 1980 album 'Super trouper'. The song was written by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson.
'The next time I fall' was written by Bobby Caldwell and Paul Gordon, recorded as a duet by Peter Cetera and Amy Grant for Cetera's 1986 album 'Solitude/Solitaire'.
Although the single 'Before' by the Pet Shop Boys was not released on 7" vinyl, the record company had not abandoned the vinyl format altogether: 12" singles by the Pet Shop Boys continued to be released all through their career. And 'Before' was released in a plethora of different 12" singles. The promotional 12" singles with penises on the front cover were perhaps the most notorious ones, but this box set was the best item overall.
So I have the 7" single and the 12" single of Fox the fox's 'Precious little diamond' - what else could there be? As it turns out, this 1984 single was re-released in 1986 in a remix made by Shep Pettibone.
When the internet was still a new phenomenon in my life (i.e. some 14 years ago) I knew a young man in Canada, with whom I regularly swapped cassettes (yes, we still had those back then) with music. I sent him some Dutch stuff, and he came up with things like Amy Grant and E.G. Daily. These tapes really interested me, and most of the stuff he sent me ended up in my record collection.
The one-off collaboration between Midge Ure and Mick Karn, 'After a fashion', was released in 1983. I had a hard time finding the 7" single, but when I did, I thought I had it all. That is, of course, until I found this 12" single today. I didn't know a 12" single existed, but I'm glad I was able to buy it right away.
Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn created many albums together as Everything but the girl. Although these days, Tracey Thorn is active as a solo artist (her third solo album is due out soon), they are still together as a couple with their three children.
Now that I'm hunting for singles again, I sometimes find 7" singles that I never thought were even released. And this one is a good example. 'The silence in my heart' was released as a 1-track cd-single in 1992. Around that time, most Dutch record shops weren't stocking 7" singles anymore, and the one address I still visited regularly never had this single.
Although they were not credited, 'Unconditional love' by Donna Summer also features vocals by the British reggae act Musical Youth, who had a hit a few months before the release of this single with 'Pass the Dutchie'.
I wonder how many viewers of the American series 'Dallas' knew that Larry Hagman, who played J.R. in it, actually recorded a single. 'My favourite sins' stays true to the evil character he plays, while not taking it all too seriously. The result is a rather strange recording that is still a footnote in Hagman's career.
Released as the follow-up to their debut single 'Break it up', 'One night stand' was Lois Lane's second single, and the second and last one of their five singles released by WEA records to not reach the Dutch Top 40.
Chris Rea's 'The road to hell' was written about the frustrations of driving on the M25 during rush hour. It's strange how such a boring subject can lead to such a great song. It was the title track of his 1989 album, which featured two parts of the track.
At his best, Dingetje can be called the Weird Al Yankovic of the Netherlands. And this single represents one of his best parodies, which I have to admit didn't know existed. 'Een nacht in Mokum' translates as 'One night in Amsterdam', and is a parody of the Murray Head single 'One night in Bangkok', written by Tim Rice with Benny and Bjorn of Abba.
Fra Lippo Lippi released three singles from their 1985 album 'Songs', of which 'Every time I see you' was the last. The track was remixed before it was released as a single, but the single version and the version on this 12" single are the same.
'Looking for the summer' was a track on Chris Rea's 1990 album 'Auberge'. The album reached number 1 in the UK albums chart, however the three singles taken from the album wouldn't meet a similar fate in the singles chart.
'Sex & drugs & rock & roll' was written by Ian Dury and Chas Jankel in Dury's flat in Oval Mansions, London. According to Chas, he would be repeatedly given the lyric for the song by Dury but Jankel kept rejecting the song only for it to be at the top of the pile again the next time - only to be rejected again. This went on until Dury sung the song's guitar riff to Chas and sang the song's title in time with it.
The nicest feature of this single is the sleeve: the label which carries a photograph of flowers is visible through a larger hole at the front, whereas the back cover is entirely brown and doesn't have a hole in it.
Released as the first single from the Jacksons' album 'Triumph', 'Lovely one' was the followup to their 1979 hit, 'Shak your body (down to the ground)'. Lead vocals in this song were performed by Michael Jackson, while his brothers Jackie, Tito, Randy and Marlon performed backing vocals.
'Say it isn't so' was released as one of two new tracks on their greatest hits album 'Rock 'n' Soul part 1'. The song is about a love gone wrong and a fellow who asks his girl to "Say it isn't so".
'What's going on' was written by Renaldo 'Obie' Benson, Al Cleveland, and Marvin Gaye. It was the title track of Gaye's groundbreaking 1971 album. A meditation on the troubles and problems of the world, the song was released as a single to worldwide success.
Roger Troutman was well known for his use of the talkbox, a device that is connected to an instrument (frequently a keyboard) to create different vocal effects.After scoring a hit with 'I want to be your man' in 1987, he collaborated with Green Gartside from Scritti Politti on the single 'Boom! There she was'.
Taken from the soundtrack for the movie 'The falcon and the snowman', 'This is not America' was a collaboration between David Bowie and the jazz fusion band the Pat Metheny Group.
Although the label on this single claims that 'Paradise by the dashboard light' has a running time of 7 minutes and 55 seconds, it is actually only 5 minutes and 25 seconds - which means it is a single edit of the epic album version, excluding the lengthy baseball commentary and some minor musical bits. I would regret this if I was actually planning on listening to this song ever again - which I won't for another decade or two.
The Dutch band De Dijk ('The Dike') released the single 'Bloedend hart' ('Bleeding heart') in the summer of 1982. The amusing tale of the Christian broadcaster NCRV always stuck with me: they took offence to the line 'Ik kijk wat door de ramen / en ik krab wat aan mijn kont' ('I'm looking through the windows / and I'm scratching my ass') and through some clever manipulation they managed to change the line to '...en ik krab wat aan mijn hond' ('...and I'm scratching my dog'). Personally, I think scratching your dog is a lot nastier than scratching your own ass.
The production process of making 7" vinyl singles has been successful for millions of copies: you take a piece of vinyl, press the grooves on it, cut off the edges to make a round piece of vinyl and punch a hole in the middle. But sometimes, things go wrong. My copy of 'As long as you follow' by Fleetwood Mac had a hole in the middle, but it was not exactly in the middle. As a result, the sides were unlistenable.
I never went back to the shop with the single, but I did buy a promotional copy of it, made in Spain, seven years later. This copy featured 'As long as you follow' on both sides. For this blog, I used my original copy to record the B-side. It's a matter of putting the record on the right spot on the record player. I think the recording still turned out alright!
The album 'Running in the family' by Level 42 was a big success, and part of the success was the singles that kept entering the charts. 'To be with you again' was the third single from the album and it was just as successful as the previous two.
'Last days of summer' was released in the summer of 1985 as a single by Imagination. Their last hit was 1984's 'Thank you my love', and this new single would be the second in a long line of singles that would be unsuccessful in all territories.
