Piove - Domenico Modugno

I already bought a clear vinyl copy of Domenico Modugno's 'Piove' five years ago, but I was pretty surprised to find another version recently online. It was also pressed on clear vinyl, but this time the disc featured four tracks and a picture sleeve. It looks like this EP was produced in 1959, the year of Modugno's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song.

The three tracks accompanying 'Piove' on this EP are a nice representation of Italian music at the end of the 1950's. It's oldfashioned but still quite attractive. Especially 'Farfalle' is a catchy tune.

My collection: 7" single no. 7130
Found: Discogs.com, received 28 March 2024
Tracks: 'Piove', 'Farfalle' / 'Io', 'Come prima'

The girls are back in town - Risqué

Probably for the last time I can please this blog's reader and avid Risqué-fan Jos with a record by the Dutch girl group Risqué. This record represents the last one that I still needed to complete the collection - and it is actually their debut single, in 12" format.

'The girls are back in town' was remixed to make it a six minute epic - and what's nice about this 12" single is that the B-side was also remixed and extended. This one was pressed in Canada, as I was ordering some records from over there anyway. No picture sleeve, alas, but the music remains the same as on other pressings.

My collection: 12" single [unnumbered]
Found: Discogs.com, received 9 March 2024
Tracks: 'The girls are back in town [extended]' / 'Risqué Disco [extended]'

Volare - Explosivo

When you buy a record from the other end of the world - in this case, Canada - it would be stupid not to buy more than one record. And so I went searching for a little bit more. Being still in a Eurovision mood, it was a no-brainer to get this 12" single: a version of the legendary 'Volare', but in a dsico guise.

Explosivo was a short-lived outfit, having released just this one 7" and 12" single back in 1981. I found out later that the 7" single contains exactly the same tracks, but the A-side, 'Volare', is edited on the 7" single. So it's good to get this full length version, going on for over five minutes. For some reason, the verses are omitted in this cover version, so you get a few repetitions of the chorus - with a disco beat, of course.

My collection: 12" single [unnumbered]
Found: Discogs.com, received 9 March 2024
Tracks: 'Volare' / 'Latin express'

Michael Caine - Madness

Such is the shake-up of my record collection that all of the Madness singles except 'Driving in my car' have been binned. Most of them looked pretty tattered anyway and I have a cd with all of those hits which makes the singles somehow superfluous.

Of course, there are exceptions. Poster sleeves and picture discs are always interesting, and so I am introducing this double single featuring 'Michael Caine' and a picture disc of 'The sun and the rain' almost at the same time. The song is about an informant during the Troubles, and the lyrics suggest a state of paranoia and mental disintegration. It is named after English actor Michael Caine and includes his vocal samples, recorded specifically for this song. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7128
Found: Discogs.com, received 21 March 2024
Tracks: 'Michael Caine' / 'If you think there's something' // 'The sun and the rain' / 'Fireball XL5'

I'm a wonderful thing (baby) - Kid Creole & the Coconuts

'I'm a wonderful thing baby' appears on the B-side of this single of 'Stool pigeon', but it was also released as a single in its own right. And, to make matters even more interesting, it was pressed on red vinyl in the Netherlands. It was the first single released from the album Tropical Gangsters and their first major hit reaching a peak of number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. In the Netherlands it got to number 21 in the Dutch Top 40.

In 1993, the single was remixed by Brothers in Rhythm and released as a single to promote the compilation album Cre~Olé: The Best of Kid Creole & the Coconuts.

My collection: 7" single no. 7127
Found: Discogs.com, received 21 March 2024
Tracks: 'I'm a wonderful thing (baby)' / 'Table manners'

 

 

Hey you - Chris Rea

One of Chris Rea's lesser known singles is 'Hey you', taken from his fifth studio album Water sign, which yielded the hit single 'I can hear your heart beat'.

According to the sleeve notes in the 2019 deluxe version of Shamrock Diaries, the record company would not fund Water Sign, "forcing [Rea] to use tracks that had been intended as demos". As a result, Rea plays most instruments on the album, and – unusually – drum machines feature. In an interview, Chris Rea said: "I turned in the Water Sign tapes as demos. And they said, that's it, put them out. And it looked like once they'd released that album they were gonna drop us." At that time he was ready to throw in the towel, quit the music business and open an Italian restaurant. "Then a guy from Ireland phoned Magnet Records and said, 'I really like Water Sign. Will Chris come over and do a concert?' Then it all started to come good in Ireland. I went over there, it was like Beatlemania! So I stayed there a while, did a large tour." 

My collection: 7" single no. 7126
Found: Discogs.com, received 21 March 2024
Tracks: 'Hey you' / 'Love to love'

Love is life - Hot Chocolate

It's always great to find a Hot Chocolate single. They released a lot of them in the Seventies, driven by music mogul Mickie Most and his RAK Records label, which demanded hit records from all the artists they signed. 

'Love is life' was the band's first chart success back in 1970. It peaked at number 6 in the UK singles chart during a chart run of 12 weeks. After this, they had two hits every year on average, right until 1983! In the Netherlands their success was more limited; 'Love is life' didn't chart and they only had 13 hits in the same period.

My collection: 7" single no. 7125
Found: Discogs.com, received 20 March 2024
Tracks: 'Love is life' / 'Pretty girls'