'Paranoimia' was released as a single by the group Art of Noise in 1986. The track featured the computer generated television personality Max Headroom on vocals. The original version of the track (without Max Headroom) features on the album 'In visible silence'.
Released as the third single from Squeeze's 1981 album 'East Side Story', 'Labelled with love' was the third and last single by Squeeze to reach the UK top 10, peaking at number 4 (the other two being 'Cool for cats' and 'Up the junction', both peaking at number 2 in 1979).
'Lenny' was another single that did not chart in the UK, but... lo and behold... it did in the Netherlands. It entered the Dutch Top 40 in April 1982 and peaked at number 23 during its five week chart run.
Released in May 1982, 'House of fun' is to date the only number one hit in the UK for Madness. It was released by Madness in between albums. The track did not appear on any previous or subsequent studio album - although it was obviously included in compilation albums, the first one being 'Complete Madness', released in 1982.
'This is mine' was released as the second single from Heaven 17's 1984 album 'How men are', which was their third. The video to this single was a hilarious piece in which the members of the band (Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh) played bankrobbers.
Everyone always thinks that Madonna was very original when she bared her navel in 1984. But on this sleeve, there's the ultimate proof that it was not so original: the girls from the Belgian group Dream Express did it already in 1977. It brought them less fame and fortune than the American hag.
'Shine' is the title track from Frida's 1984 album which was produced by Steve Lillywhite. He'd already worked with bands like U2, Rolling Stones and Peter Gabriel despite being only 25 years old at the time. 'Shine' was a deliberate move away from Abba's pop sound that Frida feared to be always connected to. In a recent comment, Frida said that 'maybe this album became a bit too modern for its time'.
In 1981, Vangelis wrote the score for the film 'Chariots of Fire', set at the 1924 Summer Olympics. The choice of music was unorthodox as most period films featured traditional orchestral scores, whereas Vangelis' music was modern and synthesizer-heavy. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Vangelis won the Academy Award for Original Music Score.
Alphaville were best known for their hits 'Big in Japan' and 'Forever young', when they released this single in 1989. It was a beautiful song, very different from that early material, and so it was 'rewarded' with a total lack of commercial success.
The Bee Gees had not been in the charts for four years - an eternity in that time - when they returned in October 1987 with 'You win again'. In the UK it was a number one hit, and in the Netherlands the single peaked at number 5. In America the sales were disappointing: it only reached number 75.
André Claveau represented France during the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest. Mind you, that was only the third edition of this annual event. He was born on December 17, 1915 and died on July 4, 2003. 'Dors, mon amour' ('Sleep, my love') was the first entry sung by a male soloist to win the contest.
A guest single today, from my friend Puck. Although, when you listen to this you would start to wonder why I have such strange friends. 'Juliana' was an ode to the queen of the Netherlands in 1979, on the occasion of her 70th birthday. I wonder at the lack of taste of people in this country every day, but I'm still amazed that this actually peaked at number 10 in the Dutch Top 40 during its five week run.
'Food for thought' was originally the debut single of UB40 in 1980. It was an attempt to publicize and condemn the Ethiopian famine in Africa, comparing it with the Western over-indulgent celebration of Christmas, a full five years before Band Aid brought the subject to widespread attention.
The M&H Band's version of 'Popcorn' was not just released as a 7" single (see it here), but also as a 12" single. This disc adds an extended remix which lasts for over six minutes. It may be one of the first extended remixes of a cover version of 'Popcorn' ever - later cover versions would be remixed as a matter of course.
'My bag' was the first single taken from the 1987 album by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, 'Mainstream'. Though not a very accessible song, it reached number 46 in the UK singles chart. 'Mainstream' was the last album by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, produced by the group and Ian Stanley, keyboard-player of Tears for Fears.
Wham! had made a name for themselves with socially conscious singles like 'Wham rap' and 'Young guns'. When they released 'Club Tropicana' it seemed like a deliberate move away from that. But in reality, the song was a satire of the boom for cheap package holidays for young, single people.
After representing the Netherlands during the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Alles heeft ritme', Frizzle Sizzle continued their pop career with songs in English. Their first attempt 'Never give up' was not successful, but the next single 'Talk it over', released in January 1987 was an immediate success. It peaked at number 14 in the Dutch Top 40, which made it a bigger hit than their Eurovision song.
Vicky Leandros was born as Vassiliki Papathanasiou on August 23, 1949. In 1958 her parents took her to Germany where she stayed with her father permanently after her parents' divorce. She revealed her talent at a young age while taking guitar, music, dance, ballet and singing lessons. In 1967 she received an offer to sing for Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'L'amour est bleu'. She finished in fourth place but the song became one of the biggest worldwide hits of the year and was covered by many artists.
While the fourth single from Annie Lennox's album 'Diva' (1992), 'Cold' was not released on 7" vinyl, it was a surprise that the fifth single was. It was a double A-side single, featuring 'Little bird' in a remixed version from the album, plus a new track: 'Love song for a vampire', recorded for the soundtrack of the movie 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'.
Released as the fourth single from their debut album 'The lexicon of love', ABC hit number 5 in the UK and number 19 in the Netherlands with 'All of my heart', a beautiful ballad with orchestral backing. It was one of the standout tracks from the album.
Released in 1983, 'My foolish friend' was the first Talk Talk single of that year, in between singles taken from their debut album 'The party's over' (1982) and 'It's my life' (1984). 'My foolish friend' did not appear on any of their albums, but the B-side 'Call in the night boys' would appear on 'It's my life'.
'Your love takes me higher' was a hit for the Beloved in March 1990, as a single drawn from their debut album 'Happiness'. However, this is not that single: this single was released a year before and features both band members on the sleeve instead of a drawing which featured on the sleeve of the 1990 release.
The Scottish band the Bluebells was formed in the first half of the Eighties by Bobby Bluebell, David McCluskey, Ken McCluskey, Lawrence Donegan, Craig Gannon, Russell Irvine and Neal Baldwin. 'I'm falling' was their first big hit, peaking at number 11 in the UK singles chart.
A full ten years before Dutch singer Father Abraham made his claim to fame with the Smurf song, David Bowie recorded and released 'The laughing gnome', a novelty song which failed to give him the chart recognition he so desperately desired.
Dutch singer Sandra Reemer (born October 17, 1950 in Bandung, Indonesia) participated three times in the Eurovision Song Contest. Her third and last attempt took place in 1979 as Xandra with the song 'Colorado'. While she made fourth place in 1972 together with Andres and ninth place in 1976 singing 'The party's over', this time she only made twelfth place.
When people ask me what music I would like to have played on my funeral, I usually cite titles like 'Down down deeper and down' (Status Quo) and this one by the Jacksons. Released as a single in December 1978, this track became a hit for the group in 1979, reaching number 4 in the UK and number 3 in the Netherlands.
'Can't stop' was the debut single of Maarten Peters, released in the Netherlands in 1985. The single was produced by Jos Haagmans, with whom Maarten had just worked for a year in the Frank Boeijen Groep, which they were both members of.
Chris Isaak was born on June 26, 1956. In 1984, he signed a recording contract and released his debut album 'Silvertone'. His second album, 'Chris Isaak' was released in 1986 and contained the single 'Heart full of soul'. This track was written by Graham Gouldman and originally recorded by the Yardbirds.
Prince wrote and recorded 'I feel for you' on his 1979 album 'Prince'. When Chaka Khan recorded it for her 1984 album 'I feel for you' and released it as a single, it became a massive hit. In the autumn of 1984, the single reached number 7 in the Dutch Top 40.
Kimberley Rew wrote 'Going down to Liverpool' for her band Katrina and the Waves. The Bangles recorded a cover version on their 1984 album 'All over the place', which was released as a single. The video to accompany the single featured Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy, which helped a lot in the publicity department. 
Elaine Paige released 'The Queen album' in 1989. It was an album with ten covers of tracks originally performed by Queen, performed with full orchestral backing. I didn't know the album until I found this single, containing great versions of 'Radio ga ga' and 'Love of my life'.
I got to know 'Child in time' as the number 1 of the Top 100 of all times, which was played annually on Radio Veronica. It was an extremely interesting track to me, mainly because of the tension and build-up in the first half of the song and the extreme noise at the end.
Released as the first single from their third album 'Hand cut', 'If you can't stand the heat' was a deliberate attempt by Bucks Fizz to display a tougher image. Having been known for their sweet pop tunes ever since they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981, this single showed the band members wearing leather and singing a tune that sounded a lot less 'friendly'. The lyrics of the song tell of someone who is manipulative, but when faced wth her own medicine, can't handle it, hence the song's title. In the UK, the single peaked at number 10. This 12" single features a longer version of the track.
The 'difficult second album syndrome' hit Tanita Tikaram hard. The first single taken from her second album 'The sweet keeper' (1990) was the upbeat, but slightly contrived 'We almost got it together'. The single peaked at number 52 in the UK and number 34 in the Netherlands.
Miquel Brown was born circa 1945 and is the step sister of disco singer Amii Stewart. She made a name for herself as an actress and disco/soul singer from the Seventies and Eighties. Perhaps her best known song is 'so many men, so little time'.
Taken from their 1980 album 'The turn of a friendly card' and released after the single of the same title, 'The gold bug' is an instrumental track, which was edited for the single release. As such, it has become a bit of a rarity, because compilation albums habitually use the album version - if they use it at all.
