Happy Birthday Captain Columbus - The Philistines Jr.

Adam Pierce, Leon Dewan, Peter Katis and Tarquin Katis formed the Philistines Jr. and released this short history lesson on music in 1992. The 7" single was pressed on red vinyl, but also contained a novely: the B-side contains two tracks. To hear them, you need to use the Balance knob on your amplifier. You guessed it: I had to do a little cutting and pasting in order to provide neat-ish sound files. Neat-ish, because the channels are actually leaking. I bought this single, obviously, for yet another cover version of 'Kids in America', but you can hear the other track, 'I'll Stop The World And Melt With You' in the background - and vice versa. It's a shame because the guitar solo at the end of 'Kids In America' is actually quite nice, and creative too. 

My collection: 7" single no. 6342
Found: Discogs.com, recevied 13 January 2021
Cost: 1,5 pound
Tracks: 'Happy Birthday Captain Columbus' / 'Kids in America' & 'I'll Stop The World And Melt With You'

Tubular Bells - Champs Boys

Buying cover versions is always a gamble, but an amusing one. You never know what you might end up with. In this particular case, it's a Seventies disco version of 'Tubular Bells', performed by an orchestra conducted by Hervé Roy. He was a French singer, arranger, songwriter and orchestra leader who was born in 1943 and died in 2009. 

Attentive listeners will recognize Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love' as well as Mike Oldfield's instrumental masterpiece. And the string arrangement is borrowed from any contemporary disco track. An amusing piece of music.

My collection: 7" single no. 6341
Found: Discogs.com, received 13 January 2021
Cost: 2 pounds
Tracks: 'Tubular Bells' / 'Fleur'

When the lights go out - Naked Eyes

The single 'When the lights go out' was only released in Canada and the USA, and this copy is the promotional 7" single, made in the USA. Instead of the album track 'Low life' on the B-side, this single plays the same song on both sides, which is not unusual for promotional 7" singles. 

Naked Eyes had a very distinctive sound, made possible by the extraordinary producer Tony Mansfield, who had previously created those great New Musik singles and albums. I've been playing those albums a lot lately, and so it was no wonder that I went to search for related singles recently. Here I was thinking that I had all the Naked Eyes singles - but I didn't. 

It's an appropriate title to end this year with. Let's put out the lights on 2020, it's time to enter 2021. Hopefully it will be a better year for all of us.

My collection: 7" single no. 6340
Found: Discogs.com, received 30 December 2020
Cost: 2 pounds
Tracks: 'When the lights go out' / 'When the lights go out'

Someone's in love - Leapy Lee

Leapy Lee was born on 2 July 1939 as Graham Pulleyblank, but later changed his name to Lee Graham. He's best known for his 1968 single 'Little Arrows', which reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart.He only had one other hit in the UK, 1970's 'Good Morning'. 

This single, 1969's 'Someone's In Love', was written by Ronnie Scott and Marty Wilde, which would explain my interest in this track. But to be honest, the B-side 'Best to Forget' is an equally charming track.

My collection: 7" single no. 6336
Found: Discogs.com, received 29 December 2020
Cost: 2 pounds
Tracks: 'Someone's in love' / 'Best to forget'

Scarlet - All about Eve

The British band All about Eve has few equals. Born from the goth scene they managed to cross over to the mainstream with their first and second albums, only to triumph artistically if not commercially with their third and fourth album. 

'Scarlet' was the third single from their second album 'Scarlet and Other Stories', released near the end of the Eighties. The B-side features a live version of one of their earliest tracks, 'Our Summer'. This promotional 7" single features a slightly edited version of 'Scarlet', chopping off 20 seconds without doing the kind of damage some other single edits can do. Still, this edit does not appear anywhere else, which makes this single a bit of a rarity.

My collection: 7" single no. 6335
Found: Discogs.com, received 29 December 2020
Cost: 2 pounds
Tracks: 'Scarlet [edit]' / 'Our Summer (live)'

All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey's high-pitched warble may be appealing to some, but personally I've given up on her decades ago when her vocal excesses became increasingly annoying. One song escaped this madness over time, the Christmas classic 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'. I didn't really like this song at first but it gradually grew on me, much like Wham's 'Last Christmas' which I felt was a bit too fluffy for my taste when it came out. 

This is the fate of Christmas songs: they are re-released annually and played on the radio incessantly. Some will annoy you ('Merry Xmas Everybody' by Slade comes to my mind) and others will never go out of style. When 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' was re-released last year, there was also a 7" single in a pop-up gatefold sleeve. I received it in January this year, too late to post it on this blog. But I'm glad this single now fits the annual tradition of a Christmas song on this blog at Christmas - because this is actually the one and only Christmas single that I can post on here; I didn't buy any others. 

 

My collection: 7" single no. 6228
Found: Mariah Carey European webstore, 2 January 2020
Cost: 10 euro
Tracks: 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' / 'Sugar Plum Fairy Introlude', 'Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (Anniversary Mix)'

Paperlate - Genesis

Part of a larger mail order - and I'm glad it escaped the UK before the borders were closed! - this single of Genesis was a steal at just a few pence. I vaguely recalled 'Paperlate' from back when it was in the charts in 1982, and I was quite surprised that it wasn't already in my collection. But these strange omissions turn up from time to time.

'Paperlate' was actually part of an EP that clocks in at over 15 minutes of music. They were part of a session for the album 'Abacab' but according to the blurb on the back of the sleeve they didn't fit on the album - remember when LP's forced artists to stick to a maximum of 45 minutes? 

My collection: 7" single no. 6333
Found: Discogs.com, received 23 December 2020
Cost: 50p
Tracks: 'Paperlate', 'You might recall' / 'Me and Virgil'