'Love is an ocean' was another single taken from Earth & Fire's 1981 album 'Andromeda girl'. The song was written by Bert Ruiter and lead singer Jerney Kaagman.
'Treat me like a lady' was recorded in Five Star's new high-tech studio in the grounds of their family home, Stone Court in Ascot, Berkshire. The studio reportedly cost them £2.5 million. It was their first single for their new record label, Epic.
When Daryl Hall & John Oates released the compilation album 'Rock 'n Soul part 1' in 1984, 'Adult education' was a new track on that album, and released as a single to promote the compilation.
The song 'I want to break free' is more famous for its music video than for its music. Directed by David Mallet, the video was a parody of the northern British soap opera 'Coronation Street'. In it, the band members of Queen dressed in drag, as mildly similar characters found in the soap at the time. The video also featured a ballet piece with the Royal Ballet.
The lyric of 'Rag doll' was primarily written by Steven Tyler and Jim Vallance. The song was originally titled 'Rag time' but when Holly Knight was called in to help change the lyric, she suggested 'Rag doll'. This was actually another title Steven and Jim thought of, but Holly ended up getting credits just for two words. Steven was horrified about this and often complained to his manager.
'Baggy trousers' was included on Madness' 1980 album 'Absolutely' and released as a single in September 1980. Written by lead singer Suggs, the lyric of the song reminisces on school days. The band first began performing the song at live shows in April 1980.
Heaven 17 recorded 'Tempation' in 1983 on their album 'The luxury gap'. Carol Kenyon provided backing vocals on this track as well as lead vocals in the bridge and chorus. The song also featured an orchestra, arranged and conducted by John Wesley Barker.
I guess you could call this the Find Of The Day: during a record fair I found this single today, and it is one that I was aware of, but never found until now. 'Brave new world' was the third single taken from Jeff Wayne's impressive 'War of the worlds' album, released in the autumn of 1978.
The second single from Maarten Peters' third and most successful album 'White horses in the snow' was the ballad 'Heart of stone (Leave me alone)'. Although the single did not chart, it certainly gave him some exposure, as he played in many television shows at the time.
'Here we are' was the third single from the album 'Cuts both ways' by Gloria Estefan. It was one of her successful ballads that followed the fomula of previous ballads and was rewarded with the same amount of commercial success.
I hated the song 'Nikita' by Elton John. I thought it was a sentimental piece of drivel with a much too repetitive chorus. This made it hard to like 'Cry to heaven', released a few months later. Still, I did buy the single a few years later, realising that this song actually had an interesting melody.
'I wish it would rain down' was released in 1989 as the second single from Phil Collins' album 'But seriously'. Phil Collins commented that it was as close as he had ever gotten at the time to writing a blues song. He asked Eric Clapton to provide the guitar playing throughout the song. As Collins recalls, 'I said 'Eric, have I never asked you to play? Come on, I've got a song right up your street'.
From the information I could gather online, the Tiptops were a Belgian group. This single, 'Ducks', was their first release in the summer of 1962. I bought this single in Denmark on the strength of the title: I am not a duckophile for nothing.
Not to be confused with the Madonna track that was released four years later, 'Who's that girl' was released by the Eurythmics in 1983. The music video featured Annie Lennox appearing in a male and female version. She appeared as a nightclub singer performing the song and also as a man who is a member of the audience. The video features cameo appearances by Bananarama, Cheryl Baker and Jay Aston of Bucks Fizz, Kiki Dee, Hazel O'Connor, Kate Garner of Haysi Fantayzee, Thereza Bazar of Dollar and Marilyn. In the end of the clip, the female-Lennox is shown kissing the male-Lennox.
'How am I supposed to live without you' was originally recorded in 1983 by Laura Branigan. The song was written by Michael Bolton. He wrote several songs for various artists, during a gap of seven years in which he didn't release records of his own. His first two albums, 'Michael Bolton' (1975) and 'Everyday of my life' (1976) had failed to chart, but after he wrote some hit singles for others, his own career started once more from 1983 onwards.
In 1986 Frank Boeijen and his group left his old record company Telstar to sign with BMG. Around that time, the old label decided to released the fourth and final single from the fifth album 'Foto van een mooie dag'.
Black faced the 'difficult second album' syndrome in 1988. After a very successful 1987, it was time to come up with a second album that would match the success of his debut 'Wonderful life'. 'Comedy' certainly met all the artistic demands, but commercially it was less fortunate.
'The dreaming' was released in July 1982 as the second single from Kate Bush's fourth album of the same name. The first single, 'Sat in your lap', had been released thirteen months earlier, but was still included on the album as well. The song is about the destruction of Aboriginal homelands by white Australians in their quest for weapons-grade uranium. Musical guest Rolf Harris plays the didgeridoo on the recording. Bird impersonator Percy Edwards provided sheep noises.
Clouseau were already big in their native Belgium, but their international career took off in early 1990 when they released 'Daar gaat ze' ('There she goes') as a single from their debut album 'Hoezo'. It rocketed up the charts in the Netherlands, peaking at number 2 in the Dutch Top 40 in March. From then on, they became almost as popular in the Netherlands as they already were in Belgium.
'One vision' was released as the first single from Queen's 1986 album 'A kind of magic', released in 1985. Queen were inspired to write and record this song because of the euphoric feeling that came from their performance at Live Aid. The track contains mysterious and distorted beginning vocals, most prominently the vocals retained in the single version. The reversed vocals at the start of the song relay new lyrics when played forwards—they say, 'God works in mysterious ways... mysterious ways...'.