Abacab - Genesis

If you're wondering what 'Abacab' means: you're not alone. In an interview, Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford explained in an interview that the band labeled various sections of the song with letters of the alphabet, and at one point the sections were ordered A-B-A-C-A-B. Rutherford commented that the completed song no longer followed this format, but the name was kept nevertheless.

The song was the title track of the 1981 album by Genesis. It was released as a single in August 1981. It peaked at number 26 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, number 9 in the UK singles chart and number 26 in the Dutch Top 40.

My collection: 7" single no. 978
Found: Disco Market, Den Haag, August 29, 1989
Cost: 1 guilder
Tracks: 'Abacab' / 'Another record'

Junger Tag - Gitte

As bad as this year's Dutch entry for the Eurovision Song Contest is, there is still hope, as history tells us there have been many dreadful songs competing. Although for the really embarrassing ones you would have to go back a decade or three. Take for instance Gitte, the pride of Germany in 1973.

Gitte Hænning was born on June 29, 1946 and quickly rose to fame as a child star in Fifties. After she moved to Sweden, she had a hit with 'Tror du jag ljuger' in 1961. A year later she tried to enter the Eurovision Song Contest for Denmark, but she was disqualified because the composer Sejr Volmer-Sørensen had whistled the song in the canteen of the DR. In 1973 she competed for Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Junger Tag'. As nondescript as the song was, it still finished eighth in a field of 17 competitors.

My collection: 7" single no. 4456
Found: Fun Records, Berlin, received January 28, 2010
Cost: 4 euro
Tracks: 'Junger Tag' / 'Hallo, wie geht es Robert'

Ever fallen in love - Fine Young Cannibals

'Ever fallen in love' was written in 1978 by Pete Shelley and recorded by his group the Buzzcocks. It was a fastpaced, urgent song which reached number 12 in the UK singles chart when it was released.

The Fine Young Cannibals recorded a cover version of the track for the soundtrac kof the movie 'Something wild' in 1986. Their version reached number 9 in the UK singles chart and number 35 in the Dutch Top 40 (where the Buzzcocks version hadn't charted at all).

My collection: 7" single no. 909
Found: Parkpop, Den Haag, June 25, 1989
Cost: 2 guilders
Tracks: 'Ever fallen in love' / 'Couldn't care more'

Let me be the one - Five Star

'Let Me Be the One' was the fourth single taken from Five Star's debut album 'Luxury of life', released in the summer of 1985.

It became the group's second UK Top 20 single of the year, peaking at number 18. It also reached number 11 in the Dutch Top 40 that autumn.

My collection: 7" single no. 1723
Found: Disco Market, Den Haag, October 3, 1992
Cost: 1 guilder
Tracks: 'Let me be the one' / 'Beat 47'

Money for nothing - Dire Straits

Bizarrely, Mark Knopfler from the Dire Straits wrote 'Money for nothing' during a visit at a New York appliance store. At the back of the store, there was a wall of TV's which were all tuned to MTV. A man working there, dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt was watching them. As he was standing there, Knopfler remembers the man coming up with classic lines such as 'what are those, Hawaiian noises? That ain't workin'' etc. Knopfler asked for a pen to write some of these lines down and then eventually put those words to music. According to Knopfler: 'He's singing the song. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real...'

Sting contributed backing vocals to the track, and the classic line 'I want my MTV'. Knopfler modelled his guitar sound for the recorded track after ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons' trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top's music videos were already on heavy rotattion on MTV. Gibbons later told an interviewer in 1986 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons on how to replicate the tone, adding, 'He didn't do a half-bad job, considering that I didn't tell him a thing!'.

'Money for nothing' was not a hit in the Netherlands (which is quite remarkable in fact!) but reached number 4 in the UK singles chart and was a number 1 hit in Canada and the USA.

My collection: 7" single no. 320
Found: LP Top 100, Den Haag, 1985
Cost: 6 guilders
Tracks: 'Money for nothing' / 'Love over gold (live)'

Fantasie - Frank Boeijen Groep

For a long time, I didn't even know this single existed. It didn't chart and no mention of it was made in any of the music publications at the time. It must have been bad promotion, then, that caused this single to go down so badly.

'Fantasie' ('Fantasy') is an unusually light-weight pop song for the Frank Boeijen Groep, urging the listener to use his fantasy to make life a little less difficult. The B-side is a bit more gloomy, about love in the then-separated city of Berlin. Both tracks were taken from the band's second album 'Twee' ('Two').

My collection: 7" single no. 1225
Found: Record fair, Den Haag, April 22, 1990
Cost: 5 guilders
Tracks: 'Fantasie' / 'Liebling'

The biggest fool of all - Cock Robin

You could wonder if it's a good idea to re-release a song that was not successful the first time around, years later on the occasion of a compilation album, but without any promotion or even any new tracks or remixes to go with it. But that's exactly what happened with this single. 'The biggest fool of all' was originally released in 1987 as the second single from Cock Robin's second album 'After here through midland', but it flopped in most territories.

When the record company released 'The best of Cock Robin' in 1992, the track was re-released - and failed to chart yet again.

My collection: 7" single no. 1652
Found: Melody Maker, Den Haag, May 9, 1992
Cost: 6,5 guilders
Tracks: 'The biggest fool of all' / 'Coward's courage'