Released in September 1982,'Chances' was a single taken from Hot Chocolate's album 'Mystery'. As usual, the tracks on this single were produced by Mickie Most and written by frontman Errol Brown.
In 1982, 'The height of the fighting' was released as the fourth and final single from Heaven 17's debut album 'Penthouse and pavement', and their only single of that year. The song that featured a repetitive chorus and not much in the way of a verse, turned out to be a commercial disaster: it failed to reach the UK singles chart.
'My girl' first made its way into the Madness's set when they were performing as The Invaders. The first performance of the song came in July 1978, when it was still titled 'New song'. Mike Barson, who wrote the song about his girlfriend at the time, originally performed lead vocals and even sang on the demo for the song. However, Suggs took over the vocal duties before long, and sang the album version of the song.
In October 1991, Everything but the girl released their sixth album 'Worldwide'. 'Old friends' was released as a single from that album, featuring a live recording of the 1988 track 'Apron strings', recorded live in Minneapolis/St. Paul in June 1990.
Spandau Ballet debuted in 1980 with the single 'To cut a long story short'. According to the blurb on the back of the sleeve of the Spanish pressing: ''To cut a long story short' es un tema de fuerte ritmo en el que destaca especialmente la voz de su solista y el trabajo de la guitarra y la percusión. Pero es realmente toto el equipo de Spandau Ballet el que consigue que su nombre se haya catapultado hacia el estrellato en solamente unas cuantas semanas.' Which probably means the song is quite good.
I bought both the UK and Spanish pressings in one go, mainly because the Spanish version had such an interesting sleeve. Since I bought quite a few singles, I got a discount, which basically means I got it for free.
The 1960 Harry Locklin song 'Send me the pillow that you dream on' has been covered by many artists, Such as Johnny Tillotson and Marty Wilde. A Dutch version was recorded by the sisters Hepie & Hepie in the Netherlands. In 1980, their 'Ik lig op m'n kussen stil te dromen' reached number 13 in the Dutch Top 40.
Released in October 1962, 'Ever since you said goodbye' would turn out to be Marty Wilde's last chart hit in the UK. It reached number 31 during a 7 week chart run.