King without a crown - ABC

'King without a crown' was released as the third single from ABC's 1987 album 'Alphabet city'. It was, in my opinion, also the best of the three single releases from the album. The whole atmosphere of the song, the arrangement and the pure, straightforward pop was a relief compared to the cluttered sound of the previous two singles.

Unfortunately my opinion differered once again from that of the general public. In the UK the single peaked at number 44, in the Netherlands at number 31, making it the worst selling single of the three. After this single, ABC's career once again took a nosedive with ABC's next disastrous album, which ironically was titled 'Up'.

My collection: 7" single no. 752
Found: V&D, Den Haag, February 17, 1989
Cost: 2 guilders
Tracks: 'King without a crown' / 'The look of love (live in Boston)'

Hi! Hi! Hi! - Sandra

Released as the second single from Sandra's second album 'Mirrors', 'Hi! Hi! Hi!' was an upbeat track written by Michael Cretu and Hubert Kemmler. The latter was making a name for himself in Germany as Hubert Kah.

Released in the autumn of 1986, the single was a top 20 hit in Austria, France, Israel, Italy and Switzerland.

My collection: 7" single no. 1965

Found: Record fair, Amsterdam, September 25, 1993

Cost: 2 guilders

Tracks: 'Hi! Hi! Hi!' / 'You'll be mine'

Alles geprobeerd - Het Goede Doel

'Alles geprobeerd' ('Tried everything') was one of my favourite tracks of 1986. Even if you don't understand Dutch, you should be able to appreciate the lengthy musical piece at the second half of this track. At 6 minutes and 22 seconds, this was another long single by het Goede Doel, taken from their album 'Mooi en onverslijtbaar'.

The band usually performed this track with an even longer instrumental piece, which caused the track to last for anything between 10 and 20 minutes.

My collection: 7" single no. 447

Found: Free Record Shop, Den Haag, August 9, 1986

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Alles geprobeerd' / 'Alles geprobeerd (instrumentaal)'

Viva sport - Dafna

The song that represented Israel during the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest was about that most useless of all pastimes, 'Viva sport', or 'Ze rak sport' in Hebrew. And because there are a lot of people in Europe who think that this pastime is not useless, the song was rewarded with a sixth place in the ranking. Of course, they are wrong.

The song was performed by Dafna Dekel, who was born on May 7, 1966 in Ashdod, Israel. In 1999, when the Contest was hosted in Israel, she presented the programme together with Yigal Ravid and Sigal Shachmon.

My collection: 7" single no. 1655

Found: Melody Maker, Den Haag, May 16, 1992

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Viva sport' / 'Ze rak sport'

Manhattan skyline - A-ha

A day at the record company's office

'So we're going to release a third single from A-ha's album 'Scoundrel days''.

- 'Oh? Which one?'

'I think we should take 'Manhattan skyline.'

- 'Really? You do know it's almost five minutes long, don't you?'

'I know. We should make an edit.'

- 'An edit? How in God's name would you do that?'

'Well, you start by cutting the intro'.

- 'Okay, done. Now what?'

'There's bound to be some repetitive bits in that song. Aren't there?'

- 'Well, there are. But should we really edit them all out?'

'Yeah, no problem. No-one's paying attention to that stuff, it fills up the album nicely but on the single you need to keep up the pace.'

- 'Well if you say so... it's a waste, but okay... done. Now what?'

'What's the running time now?'

- 'We're down to 4 minutes 15 seconds.'

'Okay, good enough. We don't have to spend too much time on this.'

- 'B-side? What do we stick on the B-side?'

'Oh, just take a live track or something.'

- 'A live track? I do have a few, but they all sound horrible.'

'Doesn't matter, no-one ever plays the B-side anyway. Are we done?'

- 'Well, I guess so...'

My collection: 7" single no. 510

Found: Free Record Shop, Den Haag, 1987

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Manhattan skyline [edit]' / 'We're looking for the whales (live version)'

Dreamboat Annie - Heart

'Dreamboat Annie' was the title track and a recurring theme on Heart's debut album. Originally divided in three parts scattered on the album, the single version was a mixture of all three and did not appear on the album in this form.

The B-side 'Sing child' was taken from the album and foreshadowed the later singles of the band. They would be stuck in a middle of the road rock phase for a couple of years.

My collection: 7" single no. 1567

Found: All that music, Leiden, January 2, 1992

Cost: 2 guilders

Tracks: 'Dreamboat Annie' / 'Sing child'

Martha's harbour - All about Eve

All about Eve's success was slowly rising, until this single was released. 'Martha's harbour', a rather uncharacteristic ballad by the band, was their first and last top 10 hit in the UK, peaking at number 10.

On its creation, Julianne Regan commented: 'This song happened by accident when we were recording the first album. It was one of those things when we had the day off and we were sat in this very idyllic setting beneath a willow tree besides a stream by this beautiful residential recording studio and it just came out so naturally. It was a miracle of a little song and its very dear to us because of that, because it was very pure, a really happy accident. Everybody went to the pub and we put it down and by the time they got back Martha's Harbour was committed to tape. Martha's Harbour is a fictitious backdrop for this happening.'

My collection: 7" single no. 649

Found: Melody Maker, August 25, 1988

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Martha's harbour' / 'Another door'