Wonderful life - Black

I can't claim to have had a deep personal relationship with Colin Vearncombe, the man behind Black, but still his death in January 2016 hit me harder than any other musician's death ever did. And speaking of death: his 'Wonderful life' will probably end up being played when my funeral comes up. And you never know when that is.

'Wonderful life' was originally released in 1986 on the Ugly Man label. It was on the strength of this release and its indie chart success that Black ended up being signed on A&M Records. This song was their third single release on A&M and that version ended up being a worldwide hit. When you listen to the version of this 12" single, from 1986, you can hear subtle differences. The B-side contains the track 'Birthday night' which was never re-recorded, and an early version of 'Everything's coming up roses', which ended up being re-recorded and released as Black's first single for A&M. I was not even that keen on buying the 12" single when I did some 25 years ago - after all, I already had the double 7" single version - but now I'm very glad to own it.

My collection: 12" single [unnumbered]
Found: early 1990's
Cost: unknown
Tracks: 'Wonderful life' / 'Birthday night', 'Everything's coming up roses'