A couple of years back, I came up with the idea of a series in which I’d feature songs that would have been massive hits if the band and/or record label had released them as singles. I was full of great intentions, but the series got lost as I got distracted by other things and disappeared off the TVV radar after just these five suggestions:-
The Clash – Clampdown
The Chameleons – Looking Inwardly*
New Order – Age Of Consent
Echo & The Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here
Teenage Fanclub – Don’t Look Back
* a guest posting by Adrian Mahon
I’m going to try again, without promising that it will be a very regular thing.
The story of early Simple Minds is one of frustration and, with the benefit of hindsight, loads of missed opportunities from Arista Records.
Debut single Life In A Day did sneak into the charts at #62 in May 1979, but follow-up Chelsea Girl sunk without trace, although the debut album (also called Life In Day) did hit the Top 30. There was a degree of dissatisfaction among the group as to how the songs on the first album had been produced, and they decided to quickly return to a studio, with a new producer in the shape of John Leckie, and work on a new album with a bit more spontaneity.
It all meant Real To Real Cacophony was ready for release in November 1979. The only problem? Arista Records hated the results, and the marketing/promotion efforts were almost non-existent. The album failed to make it into the Top 100, and it took until January 1980 before a single was lifted from the album and giving a grudging release.
The song chosen was Changeling. It’s a more than decent number and perhaps, if it had been given any decent support by the label, it might have been a hit.
The b-side was another track lifted from the album, and given what would eventually happen with Simple Minds, then someone at Arista should still be hanging their heads in shame for relegating it to a b-side and not recognising that it had ‘hit’ written all over it.
mp3: Simple Minds – Premonition
I do get that with a running time of more than five minutes, Premonition wasn’t tailor-made for radio, but a bit of judicial editing, perhaps bringing in the vocals a bit earlier than the one-minute mark and an earlier fade-out, perhaps just after Jim Kerr has sung his last note, and you’d have had something quite special.
As it was, Arista would make a further mess of the band’s third album, Empires and Dance, as well as its two singles I Travel and Celebrate, and their full potential was only realised when they moved over to Virgin Records.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
To be fair to Arista, the second album isn’t Simple Minds’ most commercially oriented album. Calling Your Name would have been another single choice if they’d been bothered. I loved this album though – and still do. Was a bit underwhelmed by Life in a Day after the hype that surrounded it pre-release, but this was great and things kept looking up until whatever came after New Gold Dream when it all turned to shite.
I always felt Factory, especially as played live, would have been a great single.
Looking forward to more of this series, whenever it happens, it’s a great theme.
Premonition is my fave track from the first two albums, though I’m with Fraser and Martin – Calling Your Name and Factory might also have been decent choices.
I wonder what the debut would sound like if the band went back to the original tapes and remixed/remastered it. Would they be able to make it sound more like they’d hoped and expected?
Simple Minds released 2 albums within 6 months in 1979 – ‘Real to Real Cacophony’ was the better of the two. I always thought that ‘Premonition’, especially live, sounded like a Genesis record. It’s also quite long. Surprise, surprise – I read in a recent interview with Charlie Burchill that they did listen to them a lot when starting out. Much as though I love it, I am with Fraser and Martin on this.
“Premonition” was the first song where what Simple Minds meant to me manifested. That massive, cataclysmic bass line meant business!! I don’t think that the song has anything to do with the florid and bloodless Genesis! It is pure Krautrock-slash-Funk. Think Can, people!! It was hearing that song being played in a German rock club that was the eye-opener which led the band to consider the dance floor as a valid agenda. And both kicked off and cemented their era of indisputable greatness!
The post is 10x more informative than that damn book.