Joan Armatrading released her seventh studio album 'Walk under ladders' in 1981. From the album came this single, 'I'm lucky'. The track was made with the help of Thomas Dolby on synthesizer. The single reached number 46 in the UK singles chart.
Elvis Costello announced the breakup of Elvis Costello and the Attractions shortly before the release of their eighth album together, 'Goodbye cruel world' (1984). He also announced his retirement, but that proved to be shortlived.
Thomas Dolby released his second album 'The flat earth' in 1984. The single 'I scare myself' was taken from that album. As young as I was, I immediately recognised this work of genius. It is an ingenious track, mixing modern sounds with latin-inspired brass work.
Sally Herbert and Caroline Buckley formed Banderas in 1991, after Herbert had been working as a backing vocalist with the Communards. Their debut single was 'This is your life', a track in which they sound quite like Madonna. The single reached number 16 in the UK singles chart and number 19 in the Netherlands.
Motown gave a good example in 1984 of what will probably happen in the next few months and years to come. Spurred on by the success of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller', they excavated their archives and came up with a whole album of previously unreleased material entitled 'Farewell my summer love', recorded between 1973 and 1975. To make the album sound contemporary, the songs were remixed.
'Close to perfection' was the title track of the 1985 album by Miquel Brown and released as its first single. It was only a minor hit in the UK, peaking at number 63, but in the Netherlands it reached a very respectable number 13. It was also regularly heard on the radio during that year and included in many remixes by DJ's like Ben Liebrand.
'Give in to me' was released as the sixth single from Michael Jackson's album 'Dangerous'. It featured a guitar solo by Guns 'n Roses guitarist Slash. It was not the first time that Jackson used a famous guitarist: for 'Dirty Diana' (1988) he hired Steve Stevens and on 'Beat it' (1983) you can hear Eddie Van Halen.
'Rocky' was originally written by Jay Stevens in 1975 and performed by two different American artists: Austin Roberts, who recorded it as a pop song and Dickey Lee, who had a hit in the country charts with it.
Timmy Thomas was born on November 13, 1944 in Evansville, Indiana (USA), and is best known for his 1972 hit 'Why can't we live together'. The song is notable for its sparse production, featuring only a Hammond organ, percussion from an early rhythm machine and Thomas's passionate, soulful vocal.
I always perceived La Toya Jackson as Michael Jackson's weird sister. She was born on May 29, 1956 and only made her debut after her little brother hit it big with 'Off the wall'. Her self-titled debut came out in 1981. The first single from that album was 'If you feel the funk', a rather run-of-the-mill dance track in that day and age. It was a hit in the Netherlands, peaking at number 13.
'Too low for zero' was the title track of Elton John's 17th studio album, released in 1983. All the lyrics on the album were written by Bernie Taupin. At the insistence of Taupin, Elton decided to go back to basics and returned to working with Taupin full time.
'Ben' was written by Don Black and Walter Scharf. The song was originally written for Donny Osmond, but he was on tour and unavailable when it was time to record the single, so the song was offered to Michael Jackson. He recorded it, while he was just 14 years old, for the Motown label in 1972.
'Beg, steal or borrow' was performed by the New Seekers during the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest. The song was composed and written by Tony Cole, Steve Wolfe and Graeme Hall.
The album 'Concorde' by Jo Lemaire, released in 1983, contained one side in English and one side in French. This single was taken from the album and contains two French-language tracks. Just like earlier single 'Parfum de rêve', I bought this single because of the beautiful sleeve, and again I was not disappointed: the single is a perfect example of Belgian melodious synthpop.
'The living daylights' was the final James Bond film to date to be scored by composer John Barry. The soundtrack is notable for its introduction of sequenced electronic rhythm tracks overdubbed with the orchestra, which at the time was a relatively new thing.
Sheila Escovedo was born on December 12, 1957 in Oakland, California (USA). She is the daughter of percussionist Pete Escovedo. She became a drummer and percussionist herself and made her debut in 1976 with jazz bassist Alphonso Johnson on 'Yesterday's dream'. Sheila met Prince in the early Eighties, when she was performing with her father. He enlisted her for his band and she played during the recording sessions for 'Purple rain' (1984).
When All about Eve released the single 'Road to your soul', some record company executives must have thought that the song was too long for the radio. At more than 5 minutes, there may well have been some reluctance by DJ's to play the song. And so they got to work: a DJ promo with the song was made, including an exclusive 'radio edit'.
Another single from The The's 1989 album 'Mind bomb', 'Armageddon days are here (again)' was an odd choice because of its explosive political content. A lyric like 'Islam is rising / The Christians mobilising' implies a lot of things. The single only managed a number 70 placing in the UK singles chart during a two week run.
The Knack released their debut single 'My Sharona' in 1979. According to lead singer/guitarist Doug Fieger, he met Sharona Alperin (who was 16 at the time) and she inspired a two-month-long run of songwriting. 'It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat; I fell in love with her instantly. And when that happened, it sparked something and I started writing a lot of songs feverishly in a short amount of time.' The main riff of 'My Sharona' was written by the band's guitarist, Berton Averre, long before he ever joined The Knack.
When EMI released the compilation album 'Natural history' in 1990, the record company was also re-releasing lots of old Talk Talk singles. For some strange reason, EMI France decided to re-release the band's early single 'Talk Talk'. Not that it had been a hit in 1982, when it was originally released. And sure enough, the second time around it didn't chart either.
