'Who' is a track on Diana Ross's 1982 album 'Silk electric'. It was released as a single but, unlike other singles from the album, it didn't chart in any territory. Since I can't find any details about this single, I even start to wonder whether it was released worldwide. This copy was made in Holland and it may have been an exclusive release.
This single represents Anita Meijer's breakthrough in the Netherlands. After some time as a singer in the band Rainbow Train, she recorded 'The alternative way' as a duet with Hans Vermeulen, who also produced and arranged the track. It quickly rose to the top of the Dutch Top 40 in the summer of 1976.
Some singles are just classic tracks and it can be quite surprising to come across them in the bargain bin. But that's just what happened with 'I wish' by Stevie Wonder, one of the most recognisable tunes from 1977.
When you hear 'A way you'll never be', you may think it's a Level 42 track. And you wouldn't be too far from the truth: guest musicians on this track are Mark King and Phil Gould from Level 42. It didn't help the commercial appeal of this single: it sunk without a trace.
Fantastique was brought together by the producers team Cat Music in 1980. Dick van Dam and Astrid Leuwener were the faces of this duo, who scored their first hit in 1981 with 'Mama told me'. Not only did it reach number 27 in the Dutch Top 40, it also scored well elsewhere in Europe.
'The wanderer' was written by Donna Summer together with her producer Giorgio Moroder. She'd worked with Moroder while she was signed to Casablanca Records. When she left that label in 1980 after a dispute, she signed to the new Geffen label and continued to work with Moroder.
I was never really looking for this single, but I think this is the first time I actually saw it, and I bought it right away. This is the track my wife and I talked about when I showed her my record collection for the first time. I didn't have it, and she instructed me to download it so we could dance to it. And so I did, of course. It's good to have a physical representative of this track now.
'Jimmy' was the fifth single release from the Dutch band Renée, released in June 1980. It was the first single taken from the band's 1980 album 'Reaching for the sky' and it was received positively by critics and DJ's.
'Now that we found love' was written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff and originally recorded by The O'Jays.
'People are people' was written by Martin Gore, with Alan Wilder creating much of the sound of the track. It was released as Depeche Mode's tenth single in March 1984, reaching number 1 in Germany, number 4 in the UK singles chart and number 10 in the Dutch Top 40.
The band Crowded House broke up in 1996. The record company quickly released a compilation album featuring all of the band's hits during the decade they existed. One of those hits was 'Don't dream it's over', and it was this track that was re-released as a single in the UK.
Studio versions of Eurovision songs don't always do justice to the songs. They can sound quite meagre compared to the version that was performed on stage - especially before 1999, when the orchestra was abandoned in the show.
'In the long run' was released as the third single from Paul Young's 1986 album 'Between two fires' - but only in the Netherlands. In the UK, the B-side of this single, 'Why does a man have to be strong' was chosen as the A-side.
'Little lies' was written by Christine McVie with her husband at the time, Eddy Quintela. It was recorded as a track on Fleetwood Mac's 1987 album 'Tango in the night' and released as the album's third single.
Al Martino (October 7, 1927 - October 13, 2009) was an American singer and actor. His greatest successes as a singer took place between the Fifties and Seventies.
After a string of uptempo hit singles, Billy Ocean surprised many with the slow ballad 'Suddely'. It was the title track of his 1984 album, but released a a single in 1985. Such was the success of this ballad, that he would release further slow songs like 'There'll be sad song (to make you cry)' in later years.
'Back on the chain gang' was originally going to be about Ray Davies, with whom Chrissie Hynde had a relationship. They also had a daughter together. The meaning of the song changed when James Honeyman-Scott, guitarist of the Pretenders, died of a drug overdose at the age of 25 in 1982.
Natalie Maria Cole was born in 1950 as the daughter of Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Cole. She started singing herself from an early age and had her first performance aged 11. Her father died of lung cancer just four years later. After graduation in 1972, she started singing in small clubs. She released her first album, 'Inseparable', in 1975. Many albums followed, until 1989's 'Good to be back' gave her the biggest hit of her career: 'Miss you like crazy'.
Cole Porter wrote 'Ev'ry time we say goodbye' in 1944 for the musical revue 'Seven lively arts'. The song became a jazz standard, recorded by classic artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Carly Simon and many others.
'Kiss' started as a short acoustic demo with one verse and the chorus. Prince gave the song to the funk band Mazarati for their debut album. They reworked the song and gave it its stripped down sound. When Prince heard this version, he took back the song for himself, replacing their lead vocal, adding a guitar break in the middle. Mazarati were credited for their backing vocals, which Prince left intact. He added the song at the last minute to the album 'Parade'.
'November rain' is a very long single, clocking in at 8 minutes and 57 seconds. Axl Rose had been working on the song since at least 1983. An early live version by the band, released in Australia in 1985 is an acoustic version with guitar, lead vocals and backing vocals, but without guitar solos or the outro. An 18 minute version was recorded in 1986 with guitarist Manny Charlton from the band Nazareth. The version on this single comes from Guns n' Roses' 1992 album 'Use your illusion'.
Back in 1983, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran were the two biggest bands around. While Duran Duran's biggest peak would be 1984's 'The reflex', Spandau delivered their two flagship songs in 1983.
I first heard 'Whole lotta love' as part of a top 100 of all times somewhere in the Eighties. It was a fascinating rock track and although I usually don't really like guitar-based tracks, this was one big exception.
If you were to compare Madonna with Marilyn Monroe, there are actually some similarities: both tried their hand at singing despite not having a very good singing voice, for instance. Both are American women and both were perceived as sex symbols, although in the case of Madonna you can wonder whether that is a just perception.
Longtime readers of this blog will know that I bought the '89 remix of 'Waiting for a train' last year, but obviously I've got the original version too.
Despite the absence of a sexual connotation, a lot of people could relate to the lyric of Kim Wilde's 1988 hit single 'You came'. Kim wrote the lyric of the song after the birth of her nephew Marty, son of her brother Ricky. It also helped that at the time of this single's release, Kim was touring Europe supporting Michael Jackson on his 'Bad' tour. More people heard her songs, and so more people bought them.
Mai Tai's 'Female intuition' was released in January 1986. It became the group's first top 10 hit in the Netherlands, peaking at number 9. This was quite in contrast with the developments in the UK, where they had just had two top 10 hits during 1985: this single only managed to reach number 54 in the UK singles chart.
The soppy ballad 'Right here waiting' was the second single from Richard Marx's 1989 album 'Repeat offender'. It was an understated ballad while many bands were releasing so-called 'power ballads'. It featured none of the heavy drums and synths popular at the time, with Marx's vocal accompanied only by guitar and keyboards.
So this is a weird one: the front cover only states 'A flock of seagulls', whereas on the back of the sleeve you can find a photograph of that band plus a track listing. This single contains two hits by the band: 'Wishing' and 'I ran'. So where does this come from?
This limited edition double single includes two live tracks recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London on May 2, 1986. Rea had just completed his 'On the beach tour' when this single was released, the title track from his 1986 album 'On the beach'. The track was remixed for the single release.
Clannad started the Nineties with a slightly livelier sound. The single 'In fortune's hand', taken from their 1990 album 'Anam', was a full band effort, using more instrumentation than on previous singles.
'Microkid' is a track on Level 42's fourth album 'Standing in the light'.
The Dutch band The Nits released the track 'Nescio' in February 1983 as a single from their album 'Omsk'. The track features Dutch singer Mathilde Santing on backing vocals. It became the band's first top 10 hit in the Netherlands, peaking at number 8 in the Dutch Top 40.
'Picture this' was a track on Blondie's 1978 album 'Parallel lines', written by Chris Stein, Debbie Harry and Jimmy Destri. Although all three were the main song writers for the band's albums, this is the only time when Harry and Stein would collaborate with Destri, who has written several later hit singles for Blondie on his own.
'Spirits in the material world' was the first track on the Police's 1981 album 'Ghost in the machine'. It has a Jamaican Ska beat which changes to a swaggering rock beat in the chorus.
I've always had a penchant for the inane and the ridiculous. And this is what drove me to buy this single: 'Mishandeld, vernederd, verkracht' ('Abused, humiliated, raped') by the Dutch singer Annie. Although the single never reached the Dutch Top 40, it has still become some sort of classic, as it reached number 22 in the Flop 100 of all times in 1994, 14 years after its release.
'Then you turn away' was the third single taken from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's 1991 album 'Sugar tax'. It peaked at number 50 in the UK singles chart.
'Slave to love' was the first single taken from Bryan Ferry's 1985 album 'Boys and girls'. Released in April 1985, the single reached number 9 in the UK singles chart and number 36 in the Dutch Top 40. The guitar solo in the middle section features Keith Scott from Bryan Adams's band and the closing guitar solo is by Neil Hubbard.
'The word girl' was released as the fourth single from Scritti Politti's 1985 album 'Cupid & Psyche 85'. It turned out to be the band's biggest hit, peaking at number 6 in the UK singles chart. It also charted in the Netherlands, where it reached number 16 in the Dutch Top 40.
Released as a single in 1982, Renée had no success with 'Give me a break', a track from the compilation album 'Sometimes you cry'. The song sounded a lot like previous singles from the band, and presumably the listeners had had enough of the band. Although they continued to perform live for years, they would have no further chart success.
'Piano man' is a fictionalized retelling of real people Joel met during his days as a piano-lounge singer in Los Angeles, after the failure of his first album, 'Cold spring harbor'. At the time, Joel was trying to get out of a bad deal with the record company Family Productions, so, according to Joel, he was 'hiding out' at the bar, performing under the name Bill Martin while Columbia Records tried to get him out of the deal.
By the time 'Serious' was released as the second single from Duran Duran's 1990 album 'Liberty', interest in the album had already waned. Poor promotion, including a decision not to tour in support of the album, led the single to stall at number 48 in the UK singles chart. This was the band's worst charting single up until then.
'Moon over Bourbon Street' is a track from Sting's debut solo album 'The dream of the blue turtles'. The lyric of the song was inspired by the book 'Interview with the vampire' by Anne Rice.
'As one' was the final single taken from Sam Brown's 1989 album 'April moon'. As far as I know, there was no cd-single release, only a 12" single and a 7" single - which in 1990 was quite unusual.
Cock Robin released the second single from their third album 'First love last rites' in early 1990. 'Manzanar' was an album track, coupled with a non-album track 'We've changed'. The single was not a commercial success, as it didn't chart in any territory.
The Dutch duo Maywood had several hits in the Netherlands, but none of them was as big as 'Late at night'. This single reached number 1 in the Dutch Top 40 in the summer of 1980. There were actually many sultry nights during that summer when my sister, who owned a copy of this single, played this song, and I will forever associate this song with hot summers for that reason.
'Wishful thinking' was the third single from the album 'Working with fire & steel' by China Crisis. When the song was released as a single, it became an international success, reaching number 9 in the UK singles chart - their only top 10 hit in the UK - and number 14 in the Dutch Top 40. Since then, it has become one of the classic songs from the Eighties, appearing on numerous compilation albums.
Released in September 1984, 'Flesh for fantasy' was the third single from Billy Idol's third solo album 'Rebel Yell'. After the international success of the previous single 'Eyes without a face', this single did almost equally well, reaching number 11, 20 and 30 in Germany, Switzerland and Italy respectively. The single also reached number 54 in the UK singles chart and number 29 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
'Pearl in the shell' was the fourth and final single from Howard Jones' debut album 'Human's lib'. The track features a saxophone solo by Davey Payne of Ian Dury's band The Blockheads. Released in May 1984, the single reached number 7 in the UK singles chart.
