Thunderchild - Jeff Wayne

Two weeks ago I went to a Dutch theatre production of Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds', the legendary soundtrack-without-a-film, retelling the H.G. Wells story in music. It was a pretty good performance despite the lack of spectacular effects. It inspired me to re-inspect my collection of 'War of the worlds' singles. It turned out that one single was still missing.

Mind you, I do have the biggest hits, 'The eve of the war', 'Forever autumn' and even 'Brave new world' - you can find them all here - but 'Thunderchild' was also released as a single and I didn't have that one yet. I quickly ordered my copy and now I have it. It's an interesting single version too!

My collection: 7" single no. 5906
Found: Discogs.com, received June 27, 2018
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Thunderchild' / 'Dead London'

Once we might have known - Cock Robin

Cock Robin became very successful in Europe when they released 'The promise you made' - a number 1 hit in the Netherlands. Other singles didn't fare as well, but I still have a pretty complete collection of their singles and albums nonetheless.

This one, however, was missing. It was a single that only appeared in the USA. There are two versions: the commercial 7" single, and this promotional 7" single. This single features the single edit of 'Once we might have known' on both sides. It is a nice song, but not the best track from the band's debut album.

My collection: 7" single no. 5905
Found: Discogs.com, received June 22, 2018
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Once we might have known' / 'Once we might have known'

Golden boy - Kylie

A surprise find during the record fair last Saturday. A dealer specialized in hardrock had a box of Record Store Day releases, and among a lot of very loud stuff, there was this single called 'Golden boy' by a certain Kylie. The dealer had little faith that he could sell this one, as the price had gone down from ten euros to a mere six.

The single confused me, because I'd never heard of a track called 'Golden boy' before. I looked it up online and it turns out this single represents the only physical release of that track. I was pretty chuffed to find this single, even if I didn't know about its existence. It was released in 2014, just after the album 'Kiss me once', in a limiited run of a 1000 copies. The B-side contains an etching, but no music.

My collection: 7" single no. 5904
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 14, 2018
Cost: 6 euro
Track: 'Golden boy'

Tear up this town - Keane

Keane's most recent single release was 'Tear up this town', a track for the feature film 'A monster calls'. This picture disc single was released on Record Store Day in 2017, a few months after its digital release in September 2016. The picture disc only has one track; the B-side is blank.

It looks like this single is the last one Keane has released, as they went their separate ways. Singer Tom Chaplin went solo, while Tim Rice-Oxley started the project Mt. Desolation together with fellow Keane band member Jesse Quin.

My collection: 7" single no. 5903
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 14, 2018
Cost: 8 euro
Track: 'Tear up this town'

Boom bang-a-bang (spanish version) - Lulu

In 1969, four artists won the Eurovision Song Contest. This was due to there being not enough rules in case of a draw. Since then, the rules - and the voting system! - have changed so this is not likely to ever happen again.

One of the winners that year was Lulu with her song 'Boom bang-a-bang'. Such was the success, that she recorded the song in German, Italian, French and Spanish. Wikipedia casts some doubts about the existance of a Spanish version sung by Lulu, but I think the listener has to decide whether this is Lulu or not. She certainly pronounces her Spanish very bueno!

My collection: 7" single no. 5901
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 14, 2018
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Boom bang-a-bang (cantado en espanol)' / 'Morning dew'

Jesus he knows me - Genesis

Genesis had a good run of hit singles after the release of 'We can't dance', their last album with Phil Collins. The album was a far cry from their experimental-folkrock-psych beginnings, sounding more poppier than they ever had.

'Jesus he knows me' was the fourth single from the album, a satire of televangelism as performed by people like Jimmy Swaggart, Robert Tilton and Jim Bakker. It was a hit in most countries where it was released, peaking at number 20 in the UK, number 23 in the USA and number 11 in the Dutch Top 40.

My collection: 7" single no. 5900
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 14, 2018
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'Jesus he knows me' / 'Hearts on fire'

C30 C60 C90 go - Bow wow wow

This is the debut single of Bow wow wow, released in July 1980. Initially it was only released as a cassette single (the world's first ever cassette single, in fact), but a few weeks later this single appeared. With a black label and the lyrics of the song on the sleeve it was an attractive design but pretty anonymous.Who were these people?

The band was put together by Malcolm McLaren, after persuading Matthew Ashman, David Barbarossa and Leigh Gorman to leave Adam & the Ants. 13-year-old Annabella Lwin was recruited as the band's singer. The band's debut single reached number 34 in the UK singles chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 5899
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 14, 2018
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'C30 C60 C90 go' / 'Sun sea and piracy'