Mothers little soldier - Fra Lippo Lippi

Just like 'Love is a lonely harbour', 'Mothers little soldier' is a single taken from Fra Lippo Lippi's 1989 album 'The colour album'. Adding this one to my collection means that I'll only need 'Count on me' to make the set complete - but I am waiting until the price of that one comes down.

Although the melody of this song is as strong as anything they've release, the single didn't manage to chart in Europe. Perhaps it did in Norway, but I couldn't find any chart data from that country.

My collection: 7" single no. 6313
Found: Discogs.com, received July 31, 2020
Cost: 4 euro
Tracks: 'Mothers little soldier' / 'Under the same sun'

Marianne - Cliff Richard

I do read the comments on this blog, although there aren't that many. My recent entry about Sergio Endrigo's 'Marianne' caused a friendly reader to let me know that Cliff Richard, who also took part in the 1968 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, actually covered this song. I really didn't know that! But when I found out, I thought it would be great to actually own a copy of that version, since I also collect Eurovision cover versions (well, within some reason - I don't actually need 100 versions of 'Volare' to be honest).

I think it's suitable that I found an Italian copy of the single. The great thing about Cliff Richard's version is that it is translated into English, and my English is a lot better than my Italian. The single actually was a hit in several countries, peaking at number 22 in the UK and number 15 in Ireland.

My collection: 7" single no. 6312
Found: Discogs.com, received July 31, 2020
Cost: 3 euro
Tracks: 'Marianne' / 'Mister Nice'

Mothers talk - Tears for fears

This single by Tears for fears is an interesting one: it was released in April 1986 in the USA, after the 'Songs from the big chair' campaign had already ended in the rest of the world. I never knew that the so-called 'US remix' of 'Mothers talk' had actually been a single, but here you go. Although labeled as a "remix", this version of the song is actually a complete re-recording, done by the band after their 'Big Chair' tour had ended. It was mixed by the award-winning producer Bob Clearmountain, who would go on to mix the band's next album with them.

The single managed to peak at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The sleeve is almost identical to a UK 12" single from 1984.

My collection: 7" single no. 6310
Found: Discogs.com, received July 27, 2020
Cost: $3
Tracks: 'Mothers talk' / 'Sea song'

Never as good as the first time - Sade

I could buy a lot of singles by Sade just for the artwork. There have been a lot of different sleeves in different territories, and they usually look stunning, because their frontwoman is rather photogenic. Still, I haven't actively collected their singles, buying them is often just a case of adding them to a stack of singles I'm buying from a dealer at a record fair, or in this case, an online order.

'Never as good as the first time' came in this great sleeve in America. I was actually buying a rare promotional cd by Happy Rhodes - you won't find her in this blog because she never released any 7" singles unfortunately - but the same dealer had a few rather interesting singles to go with it. The sleeve is very different from this one and this one, and so I decided to get it without much doubt.

My collection: 7" single no. 6311
Found: Discogs.com, received July 27, 2020
Cost: $2
Tracks: 'Never as good as the first time (remix edit)' / 'Keep hanging on (live instrumental)'

Bring me to life (Synthesis) - Evanescence

Evanescence's exercise of fusing their hardrock tracks with a symphonic orchestra on the album 'Synthesis' has created one of the best albums of recent years, in my opinion. This picture disc single was released in a limited edition of 499 copies (one might wonder where number 500 went), distributed with the German rock magazine Sonic Seducer.

When I ordered that magazine last year it came with a cd-single, but for some reason the online shop recently carried a version that also included this picture disc 7". Oh well, I had to buy it - albeit grudgingly.

My collection: 7" single no. 6309
Found: Sonic Seducer webshop, received July 29, 2020
Cost: 10 euro
Tracks: 'Bring me to life (Synthesis)' / 'Bring me to life (Synthesis) (instrumental)'

You'll always find me in the kitchen at parties - Jona Lewie

During holidays I make a point of visiting local record shops, which this year was a bit of a challenge since the small town of Dahn in Germany didn't have any and I only had a few hours to visit the inner city of Worms, where one record shop was located. But I did get there, so I had a chance to check it out.

Unfortunately the shop only had one box of 7" singles, and they were all Record Store Day releases too. You know, Record Store Day is the annual event that causes record companies to release horribly expensive items that are unavailable to the real fans of artists who are then forced to buy the items at inflated prices via Ebay. What's left in shops are usually the discs that only a few people are after. And so it was in this case. However, I did find one copy of this single, pressed on green vinyl for Record Store Day 2016. It is a re-edition of Jona Lewie's single from 1980. Interestingly, the B-side of this edition is 'Hallelujah Europa', which was released as a single in 1978.

My collection: 7" single no. 6307
Found: Heaven Records, Worms (Germany)
Cost: 5 euro
Tracks: 'You'll always find me in the kitches at parties' / 'Hallelujah Europa'

Five miles out - Mike Oldfield

You might wonder why I bought this single, when I've already got a copy of Mike Oldfield's Five miles out. The answer is quite simple: this is a picture disc - and picture discs are always great to have, especially when they come quite cheap. In this case, I ordered it together with a couple of cd's.

Musically, this is a confusing piece, and certainly not 'hit material', although it did reach number 43 in the UK singles chart and number 42 in the German singles chart.


My collection: 7" single no. 6306
Found: Discogs.com, received July 15, 2020
Cost: 2 euro
Tracks: 'Five miles out' / 'Live punkadiddle'

Your friend - George McCurn

George McCurn was born on January 21, 1920 in Chicago. He was a bass singer who started off singing gospel and switched to pop in the Sixties. He had a hit in 1963 with 'I'm just a country boy'. His album 'Country boy goes to town' followed soon after. In 1964, he released this single, 'Your friend', a song written by Marty Wilde. That song was also recorded by Mal Ryder & The Spirits, The Nightriders and The Roemans the same year, so quite who came first is now unknown.

McCurn's version is by far the most accomplished one, with the beautiful vocals and the laidback musical backing.

McCurn died in Los Angeles in September 1985, aged 65.

My collection: 7" single no. 6305
Found: Discogs.com, received July 13, 2020
Cost: 5 euro
Tracks: 'Your friend' / 'While the bloom is on the rose'