I wonder if some of you were imagining that I was going to say something ridiculous along the lines that Temptation by New Order wasn’t in fact the greatest 45 ever released. Ha!
This piece is, instead, about the Heaven 17 song which reached #2 in the UK singles chart back in April 1983, another of those songs that seems to be just about universally loved but has never been regarded as much cop here in Villain Towers.
I was a fan of Heaven 17 before its release and remained so afterwards but this, by far their biggest hit and best-known track was one that I usually lifted the needle over which meant that when I played Side 2 of The Luxury Gap LP, I went straight to its second track, the rather schmaltzy Come Live With Me.
Temptation annoyed me from the outset. I thought it was tuneless and I wasn’t a fan of the OTT and occasionally screeching co-vocal courtesy of Carol Kenyon. My mood wasn’t helped by the fact that having experienced flops with all the excellent singles from Penthouse & Pavement as well as the superlative Let Me Go, the band were now regulars on Top of The Pops with the worst thing they had done to this point in time. I despaired, again, at the poor taste being demonstrated by the record-buying public.
Even today, if it gets aired at one of the retro nights I occasionally drop into, I’ll sit on my backside and sulk rather than strut my stuff on the dance floor. And as I do, I will quietly laugh at any couples who use the occasion to act out a Glenn/Carol sing-song fantasy with one another.
mp3 : Heaven 17 – Temptation
I’m sort of enjoying doing these negative pieces for therapeutic reasons. But please, as ever, feel free to disagree.
JC
PS : BONUS POSTING ON THE WAY LATER TODAY….TRY NOT TO MISS IT!!!!