Category: Madonna

Big Country, China Crisis, Colourfield, Echo & The Bunnymen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Madonna, Prefab Sprout, Simple Minds, Smiths, Spear of Destiny, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Thomas Dolby

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (January)

The 1979 series was so well-received that I felt there really should be some sort of follow-up.

The 1979 series went into great detail, partly as I wanted to demonstrate just how magnificent a year it had been for singles.  The spotlight on 1984 won’t quite be as intense, but I still intend to pick out quite a few tunes that have stood the test of time.

The year began with the #1 slot being occupied by a novelty song in the shape of The Flying Pickets acappella cover of Only You.  The rest of the Top 20 was equally gruesome, with the likes of Slade, Billy Joel, Status Quo, Paul Young, Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney all vying with Roland Rat Superstar for the right to be exchanged for the record tokens that had been left under the Xmas tree. There were a few decent enough tunes from the likes of The Smiths, The Style Council, Aztec Camera, The Cure and Blancmange in the lower end of the charts that had been released towards the tail end of 1983 to make things slightly bearable.  But in terms of new entries in the chart of 1-7 January 1984, there was nothing to write home about.

Fast-forward a week, and The Police had the highest new entry, at #32, with the distinctly underwhelming King of Pain, the fourth single to be lifted from the album Synchronicity.  Just a few places below that was the fifth chart 45 from one of the many bands to emerge out of the Liverpool area in the early part of the decade:-

mp3: China Crisis – Wishful Thinking

In at #36, this was given a wonderful retrospective write-up by Post Punk Monk back in October 2011, and I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him:-

“This single is one of my all time favorites by the group in that the A-side is sweetly melancholic and unapologetically gorgeous, with a wonderfully played synthetic string section sweeping the tune along. Other tracks on the album this single is from have live strings, but I guess the recording budget didn’t extend that far. The synth strings still sound rather good and more importantly, the addition of oboe and fretless bass, two of my favorite instruments, on this track lends it a gentle nobility that carries it far above the sound of the crowd in the charts at the time of its release.”

Loads of folk in the UK clearly agreed with him, as Wishful Thinking would eventually climb all the way to #9 and prove to be the band’s best charting single.

This week’s chart also saw the debut of someone who would, in quite a short period of time, become, arguably, the biggest pop icon of the late 20th century.  It’s a tune that was later given this accolade many years later on one of the biggest digital sites out there:-

“A song as utterly ’80s as Rick Astley or the Pet Shop Boys, it is also surely the most evocative theme tune ever created when it comes to packing a suitcase and jetting off for beach cocktails […] A feel-good pop giant with an infectious chorus – and the closest thing we have to bottled sunshine”.

mp3: Madonna – Holiday

In at #53, it would reach #6 in mid-February, the first of what thus far have been 64 Top Ten hits in the UK for Madonna, of which 13 have reached #1.

The third of the new entries into the Top 75 being highlighted this time around turned out to be one which became a big hit six years down the line:-

mp3: Talk Talk – It’s My Life

The lead single from the band’s forthcoming second studio album came in at #67, and two weeks later peaked at #46.  It was then re-released in May 1990 to support a Greatest Hits package, at which time it reached #13.

Scrolling down now to the chart of 15-21 January.

mp3: Big Country – Wonderland (#13)
mp3: Thomas Dolby – Hyperactive (#45)
mp3: The Colour Field – The Colour Field (#53)
mp3: Spear of Destiny – Prisoner of Love (#60)
mp3: Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (#61)

I’m not going to argue that all of the above have aged well, but they provide a fine snapshot of the variety that was on offer to anyone seeking to expand their 7″ or 12″ vinyl collection. I certainly bought all five back in the day.

22-28 January. Have a look at what hit #1

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax

Even back then, in an era when it was possible for a slow-burner to reach #1, it was almost unheard of for it to take 12 weeks. But that’s what happened with Relax. Released in late October 1983, it had spent two months very much at the lower end of the chart, reaching #46 in the final chart of that year, and reaching #35 in the first chart of 1984, which earned Frankie Goes To Hollywood an invitation onto Top of The Pops for the show broadcast on 5 January.

The following week it climbed to #6, at which point Mike Read Reid, one of the highest-profile DJs on BBC Radio 1, publicly expressed his disdain for the single and said he wouldn’t be playing it on any of his shows, leading to a chain of events where the single was banned right across the BBC on radio and television. None of which stopped it being played on independent radio stations, or indeed on The Tube TV show which aired on Channel 4; Relax would spend five weeks at #1, and indeed would go on to spend a total of 48 weeks in the Top 75, not dropping out until the chart of 14-20 October.

All of which kind of overshadowed these new entries that week:-

mp3: Echo and The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (#17)
mp3: Simple Minds – Speed Your Love To Me (#20)
mp3: The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make (#26)
mp3: Prefab Sprout – Don’t Sing (#62)

Looking back at things, the singles charts of January 1984 weren’t too shabby, were they?

As with the 1979 series, I’ll be consulting my big red book of indie singles to identify those 45s that didn’t bother the mainstream charts, but were well worth forking out some money for. It should be with you in the next week or so.

JC

PS : Total coincidence that thirteen songs feature in this post…….or is it?????

(It is!!!)

Ciccone Youth, Madonna

FROM THE ARCHIVES (15)

R-207795-1608556212-4997

It’s time to partially close down the blog for the period over Christmas and New Year.  This time around I’m going to put up a re-posting from times gone by, and I’ll try my best to have all of them feature musicians whose appearances have been infrequent.

This dates from 28 March 2019

ONLY WHEN I’M DANCING CAN I FEEL THIS FREE

From the outset, I had pigeonholed Madonna as someone who was very capable of offering up pop fodder, either in the form of catchy but lightweight upbeat songs or moody ballads that wouldn’t have been out-of-place on albums by the poodle-rock brigade. I had every belief she was someone who would disappear off the radar just as quickly and unexpectedly as she had come to wider attention, cast aside by the record label moguls as soon as the next sex-kitten emerged.

And then I heard this:-

mp3 : Madonna – Into The Groove

Long-time readers won’t be shocked by the revelation that I’m a huge fan of this song. It ticks all the boxes when it comes to disco-pop in terms of its simple lyrics over a killer tune that’s filled with hooks and little bits going on in the background that you don’t appreciate on initial listens. OK, it has what can be accurately described as a very mid-80s production, but it’s done in such a way that it transcends the mediocre and becomes memorable and more than capable of repeated listens. It’s aged way better than almost all of its contemporaries.

The other thing that I found quite remarkable was that Madonna was the co-author of the song, along with Stephen Bray, a Detroit-born musician she had met in the late 70s when she was studying dance at the University of Michigan. I had assumed, wrongly, that she was the type of singer for whom all the songs would be written by others – in other words, that she was a performer rather than a talented artiste in her own right.

I think it is fair to say that Madonna’s audience expanded as a result of the success of Into The Groove, helped also by the fact it was closely associated with the film Desperately Seeking Susan in which she gave an assured screen performance in a production that was as much a critical hit as it was a commercial success. What I hadn’t appreciated until doing a wee bit of background research for this piece is that while it was a #1 hit in many countries (her first here in the UK), it was ineligible for the Billboard charts in the USA as it had previously featured as a b-side to the hit single Angel. Someone at Warner Bros must have got their backside booted for that basic error…….

I love the fact that the song can be interpreted in a couple of ways. On the surface, it is really just a girl thoroughly enjoying herself on the dance floor but wanting a handsome boy in the room to start strutting his stuff right beside her – and more than likely being careful not to tread on her white handbag! But it’s also a lyric with a fair bit of innuendo and undertones – not least the line ‘Live out your fantasies here with me’

More than 30 years on and it’s still a piece of music that attracts critical acclaim. It’s been described as the ultimate 80s song which is maybe stretching things but understandable (for what it’s worth, not that I’m a fan of it, but Do They Know It’s Christmas? surely has to be given that accolade). A writer in Rolling Stone magazine points out that Into The Groove has an amazing bassline, which harks back to my own earlier point about it having things going on in the background that you don’t appreciate at first.

And of course it led to the most unexpected of tributes from Thurston Moore and Co:-

mp3 : Ciccone Youth – Into The Groove(y)

This was one of the tracks played by Stewart Braithwaite at our recent Simply Thrilled evening – it was received rapturously.

JC

Ciccone Youth, Madonna

ONLY WHEN I’M DANCING CAN I FEEL THIS FREE

From the outset, I had pigeon-holed Madonna as someone who was very capable of offering up pop fodder, either in the form of catchy but lightweight upbeat songs or moody ballads that wouldn’t have been out-of-place on albums by the poodle-rock brigade. I had every belief she was someone who would disappear off the radar just as quickly and unexpectedly as she had come to the wider attention, cast aside by the record label moguls as soon as the next sex-kitten emerged.

And then I heard this:-

mp3 : Madonna – Into The Groove

Long-time readers won’t be shocked by the revelation that I’m a huge fan of this song. It ticks all the boxes when it comes to disco-pop in terms of its simple lyrics over a killer tune that’s filled with hooks and little bits going on in the background that you don’t appreciate on initial listens. OK, it has what can be accurately described as a very mid-80s production, but it’s done in such a way that it transcends the mediocre and becomes memorable and more than capable of repeated listens. It’s aged way better than almost all of its contemporaries.

The other thing that I found quite remarkable was that Madonna was the co-author of the song, along with Stephen Bray, a Detroit-born musician she had met in the late 70s when she was studying dance at the University of Michigan. I had assumed, wrongly, that she was the type of singer for whom all the songs would be written by others – in other words, that she was a performer rather than a talented artiste in her own right.

I think it is fair to say that Madonna’s audience expanded as a result of the success of Into The Groove, helped also by the fact it was closely associated with the film Desperately Seeking Susan in which she gave an assured screen performance in a production that was as much a critical hit as it was a commercial success. What I hadn’t appreciated until doing a wee bit of background research for this piece is that while it was a #1 hit in many countries (her first here in the UK), it was ineligible for the Billboard charts in the USA as it had previously featured as a b-side to the hit single Angel. Someone at Warner Bros must have got their backside booted for that basic error…….

I love the fact that the song can be interpreted in a couple of ways. On the surface, it is really just a girl thoroughly enjoying herself on the dance floor but wanting a handsome boy in the room to start strutting his stuff right beside her – and more than likely being careful not to tread on her white handbag! But it’s also a lyric with a fair bit of innuendo and undertones – not least the line ‘Live out your fantasies here with me’

More than 30 years on and it’s still a piece of music that attracts critical acclaim. It’s been described as the ultimate 80s song which is maybe stretching things but understandable (for what it’s worth, not that I’m a fan of it, but Do They Know It’s Christmas? surely has to be given that accolade). A writer in Rolling Stone magazine points out that Into The Groove has an amazing bassline, which harks back to my own earlier point about it having things going on in the background that you don’t appreciate at first.

And of course it led to the most unexpected of tributes from Thurston Moore and Co:-

mp3 : Ciccone Youth – Into The Groove(y)

This was one of the tracks played by Stewart Braithwaite at our recent Simply Thrilled evening – it was received rapturously.

JC