Down down - Status Quo

There are a few songs that are obvious candidates for a funeral: 'Shake your body down to the ground' and Status Quo's 'Down down'. I didn't have the latter yet, so I was glad to finally find a copy recently.


Written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young and produced by Status Quo, it was Status Quo's only number 1 single in the UK singles chart. The single spent a week at the top of the chart in January 1975. The album version lasts 5 minutes and 24 seconds and the single version 3 minutes and 49 seconds.

My collection: 7" single no. 5905
Found: Voorburg, April 27, 2018
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'Down down' / 'Nightride'

Ooh aah... Just a little bit - Gina G

Last year I bought a copy of Ooh aah... Just a little bit on vinyl. It was the jukebox copy presumably from the UK. When I found out about that version, I also found out about this American pressing. Normally I wouldn't collect just any old artist's different pressings of the same single, but this single actually contains a different track. The 'Eurovision Song Contest version' appears on the B-side instead of the 'Motiv8 extended vocal mix'.

Of course, this is also a Eurovision single and Eurovision singles have a special place in my collection.

My collection: 7" single no. 5907
Found: Discogs.com, received July 4, 2018
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Ooh aah… Just a little bit (Motiv8 radio edit)' / 'Ooh aah… Just a little bit (Eurovision Song Contest version)'

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'