As the Eighties drew to a close, the career of Spandau Ballet was also seemingly coming to an end. The album 'Heart like a sky' did not meet the expectations commercially speaking, and the singles taken from the album also had little success in the charts.
'Empty spaces' was the third single from 'Heart like a sky', and stalled at number 94 in the UK singles chart. In other territories, the single did not chart at all.
My collection: 7" single no. 1142 Found: Melody Maker, Den Haag, January 13, 1990 Cost: 6,5 guilders Tracks: 'Empty spaces' / 'Fight for ourselves (live)'
'That's the way love goes' was written and produced by Janet Jackson with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Jackson came up with the title, inspired by the downbeat tone of the music created by Jam and Lewis.
Although the record company wanted to have 'If' as the first single from Janet's new album in 1993, Jam and Lewis argued that 'That's the way love goes' would be the better choice. They were right: it was a number 1 hit in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, also reaching number 5 in the Dutch Top 40 and number 2 in the UK singles chart.
My collection: 7" single no. 2003 Found: HMV, London, October 18, 1993 Cost: 2 pounds Tracks: 'That's the way love goes' / 'That's the way love goes (instrumental)'
Metallica's James Hetfield wrote this song while on the phone with his girlfriend. Since he held the phone with one hand, he plucked the four open strings with the other, which eventually made up the first two bars of the song. The lyrics were also dedicated to his girlfriend, which talk about being 'so close, no matter how far', indicating the bond they shared even when Hetfield was on tour. Initially, the song wasn't meant to go on the album, and Hetfield had written it for himself, but when drummer Lars Ulrich heard it, it was recorded for the album anyway.
The single reached number 5 in the Dutch Top 40 and number 6 in the UK singles chart. The band re-recorded the track with a full orchestra in 1999 for the album 'S&M'.
My collection: 7" single no. 1816 Found: Melody Maker, Den Haag, January 9, 1993 Cost: 6,5 guilders Tracks: 'Nothing else matters' / 'Enter sandman (live)'
Elpida Karayiannopoulou was born October 1, 1950 in Spercheiada, Greece. At 14, she moved to Athens with her two older brothers to study. After this, she started a career in music when she became a singer of an orchestra, eventually recording an album with them and then forging her own career.
She became internationally known when she represented Greece during the 1979 Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Socrates'. She finished eighth out of 19 competitors. She returned to the contest in 1986, representing Cyprus with the song 'Tora zo'.
My collection: 7" single no. 4570 Found: Marktplaats.nl, received February 20, 2010 Cost: 2 euro Tracks: 'Socrates' / 'Pou na ise agapi'
Written by Susanna Hoffs with Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, 'Eternal flame' was inspired by two eternal flames: one for Elvis Presley that Michael Steele saw when the band was at Graceland, and one at a local synagogue in Palm Springs which Steinberg attended as a child. Steinberg: 'Susanna was talking about The Bangles having visited Graceland, and she said there was some type of shrine to Elvis that included some kind of eternal flame. As soon as those words were mentioned, I immediately thought of the synagogue in the town of Palm Springs, California where I grew up. I remember during our Sunday school class they would walk us through the sanctuary. There was one little red light and they told us it was called the eternal flame.'
Released as a single from the Bangles' 1988 album 'Everything', it reached number 1 in the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Ireland, Norway and Sweden.
My collection: 7" single no. 734 Found: Melody Maker, Den Haag, February 7, 1989 Cost: 6,5 guilders Tracks: 'Eternal flame' / 'What I meant to say'
American-born Dutch singer Lori Spee released her third album 'Intuition' in 1983. The single 'Sugar' was taken from this album in January 1984. Supported by a concert tour in the Netherlands, the single still didn't manage to conquer a place in the Dutch Top 40.
It is actually a nice song, although it was maybe a bit too 'middle of the road' in this synthpop-dominated era in music.
My collection: 7" single no. 1236 Found: Disco Market, Den Haag, May 25, 1990 Cost: 1 guilder Tracks: 'Sugar' / 'Time alone'
Personally, I think the best Police track is 'Synchronicity II', as it displays an amount of aggression that is not equalled in any other piece of music I know. The title refers to Carl Jung's theory of Synchronicity. It tells the story of an emasculated husband and harried father whose home, work life, and environment are terrible and depressing. One of the best lines in the track is 'every single meeting with his so-called superior/is a humiliating kick in the crotch', as the visual image underlines the music so well.
According to Sting: 'Jung believed there was a large pattern to life, that it wasn't just chaos. Our song 'Synchronicity II' is about two parallel events that aren't connected logically or causally, but symbolically.'
I have two copies of this single: the regular UK single featuring the B-side 'Once upon a daydream', and a Brazilian copy, which features the earlier single 'Wrapped around your finger' on the B-side. 'Synchronicity II' reached number 17 in the UK singles chart.
My collection: 7" single no. 1166 / no. 3247 Found: Record fair, 1990 / London, October 20, 2000 Cost: 5 guilders / 1 pound Tracks (no. 1166): 'Synchronicity II' / 'Wrapped around your finger' Tracks (no. 3247): 'Synchronicity II' / 'Once upon a daydream'
As the Eighties drew to a close, the career of Spandau Ballet was also seemingly coming to an end. The album 'Heart like a sky' did not meet the expectations commercially speaking, and the singles taken from the album also had little success in the charts.
