'Heaven' was the second single from Chris Rea's 1990 album 'Auberge', released in early 1991. After the UK top 20 hit 'Auberge', 'Heaven' was a relative disappointment, peaking at number 57 in the UK singles chart.
A slight correction on the earlier post about Janet Jackson's 1990 single 'Alright': I thought the B-side of the Dutch edition was 'Come back to me', but this copy of the single proves that it is actually a remix of 'Alright'. Two versions of the track on one single: if you like remixes, this is a good deal.
'The soul cages' was released in 1991 as Sting's third solo album. The album was written as a concept album, focused on the death of Sting's father. Most of the songs have motifs related to sailing or the seas (Sting's father, according to Sting's autobiography, 'Broken music', had always regretted not becoming a sailor). There are also references to Newcastle, the part of England where Sting grew up.
'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.
