While in the UK the Thompson Twins released a special single version of 'Sister of Mercy', the German record company decided that the album track 'The gap' was the better single choice. It was also released in the USA, where it reached number 69.
I actually have no idea whether Feargal Sharkey's 'Cry like a rainy day' was released as a single commercially. My copy of the single is made for promotion, with a peculiar catalogue number 'HEY MR DJ 1'. The single features two tracks from his 1991 album 'After the mardi gras'.
The fourth single from Kim Appleby's self-titled debut album was also released on 12" single. This 12" single contains three remixes of the track. The remix on the A-side was made by Pete Schwier and George DeAngelis, while the two on the B-side were made by Ben Chapman.
'Diamonds and pearls' is the title track from Prince's 1991 album, recorded with the New Power Generation and featuring the powerful vocals of band member Rosie Gaines. The repeated lyric 'If I gave U diamonds and pearls, would U be a happy boy or a girl?' echoes the lyrics 'I'll buy U diamonds and pearls only if U're a good girl' from Prince's 1982 song, 'International lover'.
Shakespear's sister released 'Stay' as the second single from their second album 'Hormonally yours' in early 1992. It became the duo's biggest hit, reaching number 1 in the UK singles chart for eight weeks, making it one of the longest running UK number ones in chart history.
'Call me' was originally recorded as the main theme of the movie 'American Gigolo'. Producer Giorgio Moroder originally asked Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac to make a song for the soundtrack, but they declined. Moroder then turned to Debbie Harry and Blondie. The song was recorded by the band, with Moroder producing.
Max Q was formed by Michael Hutchence and Ollie Olsen who were accompanied by key members of the Melbourne post-punk scene, most of whom had previously collaborated with Olsen. The project followed on from Hutchence and Olsen's work on the film 'Dogs in space', where they met.
The lyric of 'Don't you want me' was, according to lead singer Phil Oakey from the Human League, inspired by a story in "a trashy tabloid". Musicians Jo Callis and Philip Adrian Wright created a synthesizer score to accompany the lyrics which was much harsher than the version that was actually released. Oakey disliked the remixed and remodelled version of the song so much that it was relegated to the last track on the album 'Dare'.
The last single from Ten Sharp's debut album 'Under the waterline' was 'Rich man', released in March 1992. Amazingly, it sold a lot better than the two previous singles, reaching a respectable number 16 in the Dutch Top 40.
The Adventures released their most successful album 'The sea of love' in 1988. It reached number 30 in the UK albums chart and remained in that chart for 10 week. It was certified silver (for 60,000 copies sold) a year after its release.
Kylie Minogue teamed up with American R&B singer Keith Washington for the single 'If you were with me now', a track traken from Kylie's fourth album 'Let's get to it' (1991). The single reached number 4 in the UK singles chart, but did not chart in the Netherlands.
'Thru' these walls' was released as the first single from Phil Collins' second solo album 'Hello, I must be going!'. It was an unusual choice: a slow ballad interspersed with hard drum beats that sounded a lot like the drums from his debut solo single, 'In the air tonight'. The song is about a man listening through the wall to his neighbours who are enjoying the nightlife, so to speak.
'I would do for you' was a 1989 single by UB40. As they continued to make music well into the Nineties and Noughties, the band became increasingly uninspired, and personally I think this is one of their last great songs.
The British and the Irish have a strange relationship with alcohol: for some reason they always seem to have to overdo it. And then there's musicians, who are also prone to drinking too much. Put it together and you have Irish and British musicians. Stephen Gately, an Irish musician, died two days ago, according to the latest rumours, as a result of excessive drinking. His ex-boyfriend was on Dutch television tonight, saying that Stephen never drank much. Yeah, right.
I bought the German version of '19' this year, but I've had the original since 1990. The story remains the same: '19' featured television narrator Peter Thomas talking about Vietnam war veterans.
Abba never officially disbanded, but when they stopped recording together in 1983, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus concentrated on writing musicals for a while. One of them was 'Chess', created together with Tim Rice. The choruses were sung by Anders Glenmark while the verses, spoken raps by Murray Head, are a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek denunciation of the city's moral corruption and comparative glorification of the intellectual purity of chess: 'The queens we use would not excite you.'
In the song 'Cold', Roland Orzabal included some references to former associates of Tears for fears. Business manager Paul King is mentioned in the line: 'King got caught with his fingers in the till. Where's your calculator, did you leave it in your will?', after alleged discrepancies were discovered in King's prior management of the band's financial affairs. The line 'Listened to my old friend Nockles, hoped that it would warm the cockles' is a reference to former Tears for fears keyboardist and co-writer Nicky Holland, whose nickname was 'Nockles'.
Buying this single was a gamble. I liked the track 'Rockit' and assumed that the second single from the album 'Future shock' would be similarly interesting. To be blunt: it wasn't, really. It is an instrumental track that seems to go on without a point or clue.
The song 'The Buddha of Suburbia' was a song by David Bowie, made for the BBC TV series of the same name. It features Lenny Kravitz on guitar, performing quite a great solo. Interestingly, the song caused minor controversies on both sides of the Atlantic, with Radio 1 making an airplay edit to cover up the word 'bullshit' in the lyric, and US networks re-editing the video to remove shots where Bowie was smoking a cigarette.
When 'Kiss from a rose' was released as the second single from Seal's self-titled second album in July 1994, it did not make much of a chart impact. It did reach number 20 in the UK singles chart, but that was about it.
