Released in July 1980, 'Doin' la bamba' was to be the last top 10 hit for Pussycat in the Netherlands. The single peaked at number 6 in August. In subsequent years, the group slowly lost its members until only a quartet was left in 1983. The group fell apart in 1985.
I don't have much Pussycat singles, because most of their early material doesn't really interest me. This is a strong enough track, although it always amazes me that a Dutch group would sing about Latin American fiestas.
My collection: 7" single no. 1451
Found: All that music, Leiden, June 15, 1991
Cost: 3 guilders
Tracks: 'Doin' la bamba' / 'On the corner of my life'
Having already written about the 12" single of 'Answers to nothing', there's not so much to add here. Except this: the 7" single contains the original version of the track, which is the same as the album version. And a limited edition was available on clear vinyl. I'd already bought the normal version when I found the clear vinyl pressing. Obviously, I bought that one as well.
Michael Cretu was born on May 18, 1957 in Bucharest, Romania. In the Seventies he started his music career playing keyboards and producing for German producer Frank Farian. In the Eighties, he played keyboards during Arabesque's live shows. This is how he met Sandra, whose albums he started to produce once she went solo in 1985. The couple got married in 1988.
A year before that, he teamed up with producer Manfred Thiers to form 'Cretu & Thiers'. Their debut single was a poppy cover of Alice Cooper's 'School's out'. Although this single didn't become a hit, the B-side 'Collage' was a first peek at what was to come: in 1990 Cretu started his Enigma project, which sounds a lot like this track.
Ivo Watts-Russell had founded the record label 4AD in 1980, and it quickly established itself as one of the key labels in the British post-punk movement. One of the label's earliest signings was Modern English. In 1983, Watts-Russell suggested that the band re-record two of their earliest songs, 'Sixteen days' and 'Gathering dust', as a medley. At the time, the band was closing their sets with this medley, and Watts-Russell felt it was strong enough to warrant a re-recording. When the band rebuffed the idea, Watts-Russell decided to assemble a group of musicians to record the medley: Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins; Gordon Sharp of Cindytalk; and a few members of Modern English. An EP, Sixteen Days/Gathering Dust, resulted from these sessions. Recorded as a b-side for the EP was a cover of Tim Buckley's 'Song to the siren', performed by Fraser and Guthrie alone. Pleased with the result, Watts-Russell decided to make this the A-side of the 7" single version of the EP, and the song quickly became a hit, peaking at number 66 in the UK and number 29 in the Netherlnads. The band subsequently recorded three albums, until the name was retired in 1991.
My collection: 7" single no. 666
Found: Disco Market, Den Haag, 1988
Cost: 3,5 guilders
Track: 'Song to the siren' / 'Sixteen days (reprise)'
Guy Chadwick, Terry Bickers, Andrea Heukamp, Chris Groothuizen and Pete Evans formed The House of Love in 1986 in Camberwell, London. They released three singles and a debut album while signed to Creation records. After this, they switched to Fontana records and released their second album, which was, like the first, untitled. Three singles were released from this album, of which 'The Beatles and the Stones' was the third. It reached number 36 in the UK singles chart.
This limited edition release included a poster and a foldout sleeve. I bought it mainly because of this, since I wasn't that impressed with the track at the time. Now, almost two decades later, I actually think it's a great track.
'Trapped' was Colonel Abrams' biggest hit in 1985, just after he signed a contract with MCA Records. So much so, that it was re-released in remixed form in 1997 and 2005. This is the original single, which peaked at number 3 in the UK. Colonel Abrams (his real name, incidentally!) never matched this success in later years.
Producers Stock Aitken and Waterman, who had created Rick Astley's 'Never gonna give you up' in 1987, were accused of lifting key elements of Abrams' single for their own music, however there was no successful lawsuit regarding this claim.
It's not so strange that the Netherlands didn't get through to the final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest with the so-called Toppers. The song was too wordy, the lyric was full of platitudes, the three fat men looked ridiculous in their suits and the whole thing was just too bad for words.
I do wonder how I would have felt about Teach-In back in 1975 if I'd been older. The lyric of this song isn't exactly highbrow and the music was pretty much the same as any popsong at the time. These days, we only know it as the last song that won Eurovision for the Netherlands. The fact that it's 34 years ago makes it rather painful. We hear this song every damn year! But still, it's essential to have in my Eurovision collection, which is why I bought it. And I'm very glad this copy is in excellent condition.
My collection: 7" single no. 3709
Found: Marktplaats.nl, received May 13, 2009
Cost: 3,5 euro
Tracks: 'Dinge-dong' / 'Ik heb geen geld voor de trein'
Released in July 1980, 'Doin' la bamba' was to be the last top 10 hit for Pussycat in the Netherlands. The single peaked at number 6 in August. In subsequent years, the group slowly lost its members until only a quartet was left in 1983. The group fell apart in 1985.
