'Hold on my heart' is one of the few ballads released as a single by Genesis. Taken from their 1991 album 'We can't dance', it was released as the third single in April 1992.
Rudi Carrell was born on December 19, 1934 in Alkmaar, the Netherlands as Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar. In 1960, he represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Wat een geluk' ('Such luck'), becoming the first male singer to represent the Netherlands.
Saskia & Serge are a Dutch vocal duo consisting of singer Trudy van den Berg (born April 23, 1947, Grootebroek) and singer-guitarist Ruud Schaap (born March 22, 1946, Den Helder). They first attracted attention when they won a talent contest in 1967, performing as Trudy & Ruud. They married in 1969 and changed their professional name to Saskia & Serge, as their gentle, folksy style began to attract favourable attention.
'Someday' was one of the five songs on the demo tape, handed by Brenda K. Starr to record executive Tommy Mottola, that led to Carey being given a recording contract. Sony made alterations to the version on the demo tape because they thought it was too rough—the horn melodies were taken out and replaced with electric guitar melodies, and the ending was shortened by about eight seconds. Reportedly, Carey was unhappy with the final version of 'Someday', because she thought it had been too 'polished'.
Although Oleta Adams' debut album 'Circle of one' was a big seller in 1991, the singles seemed to be less popular. Although the title track was released as a single earlier on, the record company tried re-releasing the track in remixed form in a bid to get it higher up in the charts. The remix was made by one Yvonne Turner and sounded very different from the original version.
Five Star's biggest single hit was the mid-tempo ballad 'Rain or shine', released in the autumn of 1986.
By the end of the Seventies, the Dutch band Kayak were wellknown for their brand of symphonic rock, but that didn't mean they were consistently successful. Having had their first top 10 hit in February 1979 with 'Ruthless queen', two subsequent singles failed to chart.
'Feels like the first time' was, appropriately enough, Foreigner's debut single, released in 1977. The song was written by Mick Jones. The single reached number 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 39 in the UK singles chart.
Released as the second single from the Mission's 1990 album 'Carved in sand', 'Deliverance' is a perfect piece of trademark Mission rock: an intense track with deep, dark vocals and a storming guitar and drum backing.
The idea of a song to promote the movie 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' came late in the making of the film. Michael Kamen, had originally wanted the song to be as if it were Maid Marian singing it to Robin Hood. He offered it to Kate Bush, Annie Lennox and Lisa Stansfield but they all turned it down. David Kerschenbaum of Morgan Creek Records invited Bryan Adams – whom he had worked with in the early Eighties at A&M Records – to write the song based on the score from Kamen. Initially, Adams was to write the lyrics for another artist to perform, but it was decided that he should perform the song after writing it with his producer Mutt Lange. The pair recorded the song in Mayfair Studios in London.
Without Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac soldiered on. Billy Burnette and Rick Vito replaced him and in the new line-up they recorded the 1990 album 'Behind the mask'.
'Too much heaven' was the Bee Gees' contribution to the 'Music for UNICEF' fund. They performed it at the 'Music for UNICEF' concert on January 9, 1979. The song later found its way to the group's thirteenth original album, 'Spirits having flown'. Released as a single, it was a number 1 hit in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the USA.
Following the success of the rock-orientated track 'Talking in your sleep', Bucks Fizz were keen to replicate it with the release of this similar-themed song. 'Magical' was written by Meat Loaf and John Parr and originally recorded by Parr in 1985. While the track was not a hit for him in the UK, it did reach number 73 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The Bangles basically split up in 1989. When the record company CBS released 'Greatest hits' in 1990, they did so to fulfil the band's contractual requirements.
In 1986, Golden Earring released the dark and overproduced album 'The hole'. The first single from that album was 'Quiet eyes', the only single from the album to reach the top 10 in the Netherlands, peaking at number 9.
Bassist Krist Novoselic from Nirvana recalled that 'In bloom' 'originally sounded like a Bad Brains song. Then Kurt turned it into a pop song'. The band recorded a demo of 'In bloom' with producer Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin in April 1990. The song originally had a bridge section that Vig removed. Novoselic said that after the band recorded the song, Vig cut out the bridge from the 16-track master tape with a razor blade and threw it in the garbage.
Following David Bowie's split from record label Deram, his manager Kenneth Pitt managed to negotiate a one-album deal with Mercury Records in 1969. Next he tried to find a producer. Tony Visconti liked the album demo-tracks, but considered the planned lead-off single, 'Space oddity', a gimmick track and delegated its production to Gus Dudgeon.
When John Lion sings 'Alleen in Dallas' ('Only in Dallas'), he isn't referring to the city in Texas, but rather the television series that was immensely popular in the Eighties. His encounter with a woman in a bar who turns out to have a big and rather aggressive boyfriend is apparently something that could only happen in a fictional television series.
'King of pain' was released as the second single from the Police's 1983 album 'Synchronicity' in the USA and the fourth single in the UK. It was the only single from that album that didn't have an accompanying music video.
There's a preacher in every popstar, and to prove this, Howard Jones recorded 'Don't be part of it' in 1991. 'As long as there are the slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields' he sings, proposing us to stop eating meat just because of this. Well, I don't know...
Per Gessle wrote 'Almost unreal' for the soundtrack of the Bette Midler movie 'Hocus pocus' (1993), but it was not used. Instead, the song appeared in another movie soundtrack, from 'Super Mario Brothers'.
Spandau Ballet's career seemingly came to an end in 1990 with the release of 'Crashed into love', the fourth and final single from their 1989 album 'Heart like a sky'. The previous single 'Empty spaces' had stalled at number 94 in the UK singles chart and this one did no better, as it only reached number 96.
'Invisible sun' was written by Sting about the tensions in Northern Ireland. The song is a departure from Police songs before it; it contains a dark, looping synthesizer beat, and powerful, haunting lyrics. Among other things, the lyrics refer to the ArmaLite rifle used by paramilitary organizations, but mainly by the Provisional Irish Republican Army.
Under the wings of Prince, Sheena Easton reinvented herself as a sex bomb in the mid-Eighties. This image proved to be successful mostly in the United States, but sometimes her singles would have some chart success in Europe as well.
The Belgian group Clouseau participated in the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Geef het op', but they also tried to get on the international Eurovision stage in 1989. Their song 'Anne' was one of the candidates at the 1989 national final in Belgium, but lost in the end to Ingeborg's 'Door de wind'.
'Anne' was re-released in 1990 in a limited edition with a different B-side. I had the re-release first, but when I came across a copy of the original release I couldn't resist buying that one as well. The B-side of that one is a great acapella track.
'Little 15' barely made it onto the album 'Music for the masses' and was never intended to become a single. However, the French record label insisted they release it, and so it still happened. Copies of the single did make it to the UK on import, however, giving the band a minor chart placing, as it peaked at number 60. In Germany, the single was a bigger hit, peaking at number 16, in Austria it reached number 25 and in Switzerland it peaked at number 18.
Julio Iglesias was well known in his native Spain, but even his 1970 Eurovision entry 'Gwendolyn' didn't make him the international star he would become later on.
Peter Maffay was born on August 30, 1949 in the Romanian town of Brasov as Peter Alexander Makkay. He was the son of a German mother and Hungarian father. In 1963, he joined his first band, The Dukes. After completing his education and working for Chemigraphics, an art manufacturer, Maffay worked in clubs, where he distributed his music.
'Don't leave me this way' first charted in 1975 when it was recorded by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. A year later, a cover version by Thelma Houston hit the international charts.
'On every street' was released in early 1992 as the third single of Dire Straits' sixth and final studio album from 1991. I wasn't too wild about the two earlier singles 'Calling Elvis' and 'Heavy fuel', but this single seemed to be a return to the atmospheric tracks like 'Private investigations' and 'Brothers in arms'.
These days I'm not too wild about Dutch language music, but as a child that was difference. I guess the main attraction was that I could understand what people were singing, but I also guess that the music was a bit better back then.
'Can't wait another minute' was originally recorded by Lewis and covered by Five Star on their 1986 album 'Silk and steel'. It was released as the first single from that album.
'All over the world' is taken from the soundtrack of the movie 'Xanadu' (1980) featuring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck. The song also appears on the soundtrack album and was released as the second single from that album in 1980.
When the men from the Dutch group Het Goede Doel decided to record an album with different Dutch and Belgian artists, choosing a different artist for every track, deciding the best single from that album wasn't a very easy task.
Duo Datz consists of Orna and Moshe Datz. They are best known in Israel for their middle of the road type music and their series of children's dvd's.
Sherisse Stevens was born as Sherisse Laurence in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada. From 1978 to 1983 she hosted the show 'Circus' on CTV in Canada.
In 1989, the record company shied away from releasing 'No questions asked', one of two new tracks on Fleetwood Mac's 1988 'Greatest Hits' album. Instead, they put it on the B-side of a re-release of the song 'Hold me', which was originally a hit in 1982. Written by Christine McVie and Robbie Patton, it became one of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits in the USA. Released in July 1982, it peaked at number 4 for seven weeks.
Morgane was born as Ingrid Simonis in Blegny, Belgium on August 23, 1975. In 1992, she was selected to represent Belgium during the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Nous on veut des violons' ('We want violins'). It proved to be an unsuccessful entry, finishing 20th in a field of 23 competitors.
'I'll set you free' was released as the fourth and final single from the Bangles' 1988 album 'Everything'. The track was remixed by Bernard Edwards, making it 24 seconds longer than the album version and featuring a vocal introduction by Susanna Hoffs.
Although I have the limited edition singles in a tin can from all four previous single releases from Fine Young Cannibals' 1989 album 'The raw and the cooked' (1989) - 'She drives me crazy', 'Good thing', 'Don't look back' and 'I'm not the man I used to be' - I have not been able to locate the fifth one. It's not even offered on eBay or similar websites these days. It's a frustration, but I do have the 'normal' single.
'Looking at midnight' was released in May 1983, while Imagination were very much a part of the chart scene. Produced and co-written by Steve Jolley and Tony Swain, the single followed a formula that had become familiar for the band: falsetto vocals and swirling synth sounds.
'No son of mine' was released as the first single from Genesis' 1991 album 'We can't dance'. The lyric tells the story of a boy who runs away from his abusive home, and - after some reconsideration - attempts to return, only to be rebuked by his father. In interviews, Phil Collins has said that the lyrics are deliberately vague as to whether the narrator or his mother is the victim of the abuse.
'Over de muur' ('Over the wall') can be considered an Eighties classic in Dutch pop music. It was recorded by Klein orkest in 1984, at the height of the cold war. The song bemoaned the existance of the wall in Berlin and the strange differences between the two sides of the city: the stern greyness of communism on one side, exorbitant behaviour of capitalism on the other side. 'Only the bird flying from west to east Berlin are not called back and not shot down'.
Mike Oldfield recorded 'Family man' as a track on his 1982 album 'Five miles out'. He wrote all of the music for the chorus, and verses were written by the other writers: Tim Cross, Rick Fenn, Mike Frye, Morris Pert and Maggie Reilly. Tim Cross has also claimed to have written the majority of the lyrics for the song, and cited Rick Fenn as the inspiration of the 'family man' mentioned in the song.
'Frei zu leben' was performed during the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest by Chris Kempers and Daniel Kovac. Like more songs during that year's edition, the obvious theme was war and freedom, triggered by the fall of the Berlin wall in the autumn of 1989. Originally performed in German, the B-side of this single also featured a French version, while it was also recorded in English and Croation (since Daniel Kovac was born in Croatia).
'It never rains in Southern California' was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. The lyric of the song concerns the struggles of a singer who moves out to California to pursue a career in Hollywood but does not have any success and deteriorates in the process. In the chorus, Hammond sings, 'It never rains in California / but girl don't they warn ya / It pours, man it pours.'
