Tears For Fears – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Art of Noise, Big Country, Bronski Beat, Dead Or Alive, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Human League, Kane Gang, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Redskins, Scritti Politti, Strawberry Switchblade, Tears For Fears

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (November)

4-10 November

The highest new entry on the singles chart back in the first week in November 1986 belonged to Depeche Mode, a favourite of many TVV regulars but a band that your humble scribe has never taken to. Which is why there’s no link today to Blasphemous Rumours or Somebody, a double-A sided single which came in at #29 en route to becoming their 11th successive chart single going back to Dreaming Of Me in early 1981, (of which five had gone Top 10)

I’ve had to go all the way down to #54 to find a new entry worth offering a listen to:-

mp3: The Kane Gang – Respect Yourself

The trio’s third hit of the year, thanks to a cover of 1971 R&B/gospel number originally written and recorded by the Chicago-based Staple Singers. One of the highlights of the debut album The Bad and Lowdown World of The Kane Gang, which would reach #21 on its eventual release in March 1985.

Just two places further down the singles chart this week was another gang who often inhabited a bad and lowdown world, certainly in the eyes of the tabloid media:-

mp3: The Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On (#56)

A real favourite in the student union discos among us who were of a left-wing persuasion. The Redskins delivered a fine mix of pop, soul, blues, folk, punk and politics, who, if it hadn’t been for the fact that collectively the idea of a career in pop music was not their idea of fun, would surely have enjoyed a run of great albums beyond their sole offering, Neither Washington Nor Moscow, which would eventually appear in early 1986. Keep On Keepin’ On would eventually reach #46, and the offering today is the 12″ version as that’s a bit of vinyl I proudly still have all these years later.

mp3: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Never Turn Away (#70)

Probably the least-remembered of the twenty-two singles released by OMD during the 80s, it was also the one which performed the worst as #70 in the first week in November 84 was as good as it got. It’s one of those rare 45s on which Paul Humphreys rather than Andy McCluskey delivered the lead vocal.

11-17 November

The highest new entry on the singles chart back in the second week in November 1986 belonged to The Riddle by Nik Kershaw, someone who has his admirers among fans of 80s synth-pop. I always felt he was synth-pop with a soft rock edge, and while he may perhaps feature via guest postings, he’s not showing up today. This one came in at #17 and would peak at #3. It was his fourth smash hit of the year, and his success would continue throughout the following year.

mp3: The Human League – Louise (#36)

I think it’s worth lifting some stuff about this one from wiki:-

The lyrical story telling of “Louise” superficially seems to be a story about a chance encounter between a man and a woman on a bus who seem to be on the verge of a lover’s reconciliation. But like much of Phil Oakey’s songwriting, what seems ‘sugary sweet’ on the surface actually has a much darker subtext. Oakey points out that the story is actually about the original protagonists from “Don’t You Want Me” meeting up 4 years later. In “Louise” the man sees his lost love again and still cannot deal with reality. The anger that drove the earlier song has dissipated, and is replaced with a hopeful fantasy that his ex-lover is drawn to him all over again. So “Louise” is really about self-deception, delusion and eternal sadness. Oakey says about “Louise” in interview:

It’s about men thinking they can manipulate women when they can’t, even conning themselves that they have when they haven’t.

However, like the less savoury premise of “Don’t You Want Me”, the darker side of the “Louise” story went over the heads of the record buying public, who misinterpreted the lyrics as “sweet and upbeat”.

Louise would eventually reach #13 and still features in the band’s setlists to this day.

mp3: Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday (#63)

I can’t claim I came up with this description, but it is so accurate:-

“From the ominous shadows of Goth suddenly appeared two young girls in polka-dot dresses, flaming red lipstick, and hair ribbons. Looking like the brides of Robert Smith, Strawberry Switchblade made a brief splash on the U.K. charts and then abruptly vanished in the mid ’80s, leaving their fans with a handful of collectible singles and one LP of deceptively sweet-sounding dance pop.”

Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall were very well-known figures in Glasgow in the early 80s. The look they had for their pop success was how they walked the streets of my homw city – everyone, while not knowing exactly who they were, certainly recognised them. Since Yesterday is a very 80s sounding song, and there’s an argument could be made that it hasn’t dated brilliantly thanks to its rather lightweight production. But I’ll always a have a soft spot for it….it’s just one of those songs which sound tracked the festive period of 84/85, eventually peaking at #5 in late January and spending an incredible 17 weeks in the Top 75.

mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Rattlesnakes (#65)

The third and last single to be lifted from the debut album. Maybe it was all down to all the band’s fans having bought the album the previous month that this single, a genuinely outstanding song, stalled at #65.

mp3: Scritti Politti – Hypnotize (#67)

The third hit single of the year for Green Gartside & co, but #67 was as high as it got, coming nowhere near the success of Wood Beez (#10) and Absolute (#17). The band would bounce back in great style in 1985, with The Word Girl delivering a #6 hit and the album Cupid & Psyche ’85 going Top 5.

18-24 November

It was probably inevitable that after such a fine run of new singles the previous two weeks, the well would just about dry up completely this week. You could tell the Xmas marketing campaign was getting into full swing as the novelty records began to make showings – yup, this was the week We All Stand Together by Paul McCartney and The Frog Chorus came into the charts at #50, going on to reach #3 and particularly annoy the hell out of me for the many months it was never off the bleedin’ radio.

Having said that, there’s probably many fans of the lovable mop top who would have got annoyed with this one:-

mp3: The Art Of Noise – Close (To The Edit) (#62)

The ZTT collective’s music hadn’t struck a chord with the record-buying public. Debut single Beatbox had failed to chart in Aril 1984 and debut album Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise had languished at the very lower end of the chart. But for whatever reason, and I think a lot had to do with the imaginative video(s), Close (To The Edit) found favour. It was also released in a ridiculous amount of formats – standard and picture disc 7-inch versions, five 12-inch singles (one a picture disc) and a cassette single – and would enjoy a 20-week residency in the Top 75 right through to the end of March 1985, peaking at #8. It did lead to a Top of the Pops appearance that they wasn’t taken too seriously while illustrating the actual size of the synths that were required back in those days:-

Anne Dudley would later say:-

Top of the Pops was one of the worst experiences of my life. We’d done so many edits of the single I wasn’t even sure what its final structure was. We just stood there behind three keyboards. The director saved our bacon by cutting away to the animated video the record company had commissioned – they hadn’t liked the original one made by Zbigniew Rybczyński, featuring a punkette girl and three blokes in tails dismantling musical instruments with a chainsaw. It was the polar opposite of Duran Duran on a luxury yacht.

25 November – 1 December

The Art of Noise might not have been making much money for ZTT but this lot were:-

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power Of Love (#3)

The Xmas single – not an obvious one but the nativity-themed video, which was being aired everywhere, even on news programmes, made it clear what the marketing campaign was. It was all set to spend umpteen weeks at #1 and confirm the band’s total dominantion of the singles charts on the back of Relax and Two Tribes. It did reach #1 the following week, but then Band Aid came along………

Fun fact…..The Power Of Love was re-released just before Xmas 1993 and again went Top 10.

mp3: Big Country – Where The Rose Is Sown (#35)

The second single to be lifted from the #1 album Steeltown. Kind of feels strange that the record label pushed out a new 45 at this particular time of year. It certainly didn’t do anything to lift the album back up the charts and in reaching just #29, became the poorest-performing 45 of what was ‘peak’ Big Country.

mp3: Tears For Fears – Shout (#45)

I may have mentioned previously in this series that I couldn’t for the life of me recall Mother’s Talk which had charted in August 1984. But I certainly can’t say the same about Shout, which thanks to its boombastic chorus easily lodged into my brain. I recall being very disappointed with this. I had so much love and time for Tears for Fears when they emerged, and I still think the debut album The Hurting is a masterpiece. But Shout felt like synth pop with a stadium-rock edge and not for me, but loads of others loved it and took it to #4 in January 1985.

mp3: Bronski Beat – It Ain’t Necessarily So (#53)

A lot different from the previous two hit singles of Smalltown Boy and Why?, this inventive cover of a song written in 1935 by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess would spend 12 weeks in the chart, reaching #16. It helped further establish Bronski Beat as one of the best new arrivals in the UK music scene in 1984.

mp3: Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (#55)

I hadn’t, until now, appreciated that Pete Burns‘ biggest hit single actually dated from 1984. Turns out it came into the chart at the end of November 1984 and then spent another 11 weeks stuck in the lower regions of the Top 75 before bursting into the Top 20 and eventually reaching #1 in early March 1985. Say what you like about manufactured pop music and be as critical as you want to be, but this makes for a majestic, magnificent and memorable single. I will not tolerate any dissent!!!! Wylie, Cope and McCulloch must have been looking on in bewilderment.

So there you have it. November 1984. A month in which the singles chart, certainly at the lower end of things, was worth recalling in some detail. Keep an eye out later on for Part 2 looking at the new indie singles from the era.

JC

Armoury Show, Associates, Aztec Camera, Bluebells, David Sylvian, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Farmer's Boys, Friends Again, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Marc Almond, Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins, Smiths, Tears For Fears

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (August)

29 July – 4 August

Two Tribes remains at #1 for an eighth successive week. Careless Whisper would be the song that would eventually end its reign at the top, and it was the highest new entry this week, coming in at #12. It would prove to be THE big song of August 1984, giving the Wham vocalist a #1 hit with his debut solo effort.

This particular chart does offer up plenty that you will still hear today on those sorts of radio shows where the adverts are for SAGA holidays, funeral plans and the like – at least it seems that way when I’m the passenger in a car being driven by someone who really doesn’t care about music, or worse, knows that I’m such a snob they deliberately tune into the stations most likely to wind me up.

Some sanity does come courtesy of an indie-type band from Norwich, but who were signed to EMI Records, offering up their take on what had been a Top 10 hit for Cliff Richard & The Shadows* back in 1966:-

mp3: The Farmer’s Boys – In The Country

In at #50, it would then spend the next three weeks in the mid-40s.

Coming in at #59, for what would be their only Top 75 entry in what, in a parallel universe, would be an illustrious career, were TVV favourites:-

mp3: Friends Again – Lullaby No 2 Love On Board

The lead track on The Friends Again EP, a five-track release issued on 2 x 7″ singles and 12″ single. I still get pissed off thinking back to how badly Mercury Records mishandled the band.

*a second cover of a Cliff and The Shadows tune entered the charts this week. The song was Summer Holiday (#1 in 1963) and the ‘singer’ was Kevin the Gerbil, a puppet character on a kid’s TV programme. Kevin the Gerbil would eventually reach #50…..which, FFS, was higher than Friends Again managed.

5-11 August

Frankie Goes To Hollywood narrowly held off George Michael at the top of the charts, but we should be grateful for small mercies, as the horrific Agadoo by Black Lace would probably be #1 otherwise.

The highest new entry at #33 belonged to Howard Jones, who, along with Nik Kershaw, is a reminder of how synth-pop had been hijacked and turned into chart fodder by the major labels, as well as offering evidence that the mid-late 80s, for much of the time, was a really boring period for chart music.

There were loads of other new entries – Miami Sound Machine (#41), Dio (#42), The Pointer Sisters (#43), Break Machine (#51), Elton John (#52), Change (#53), Gary Moore (#55), Michael Jackson (#62) and Second Image (#68). I take it, like me, you’ll be really struggling to remember anything about many of those acts, while the songs of those you’ve heard of were all, without fail, the ones you don’t most associate with them (e.g, Passengers by Reg Dwight and Girl, You’re So Together by the King of Pop). Just as I was about to completely blank the entire Top 75, a little bit of salvation appears at #72:-

mp3: Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes

The mighty Quinn might have left Bourgie Bourgie floundering with his unexpected departure, but the results of his first solo effort, via the newly formed Swamplands Records, under the leadership of Alan Horne (Postcard Records) and funded by a major in the shape of London Records, offered up immense hope. But as the saying goes, it’s the hope that kills you…………………………….

12-18 August

Between the slim pickings of July 1984 and the first two weeks of August 1984, I was dreading opening up the webpage for this and indeed the following week. At long last Two Tribes was no longer #1, ending a nine-week stay, but such was its omnipresence that it would be a further 11 weeks before the sales were such that it dropped out of the Top 75.

Iron Maiden were the highest of the new entries, in at #27 with 2 Minutes To Midnight. I’ve never thought of this lot being a singles band, but it turns out this was their ninth Top 40 hit, going back to February 1980, and there would be a further 26 singles to make the Top 40 up until January 2007. I would probably recognise three of them at most…..

A couple of songs sneaked into the Top 40 this week, and while I’m familiar with the performers in both instances, I honestly couldn’t recall either single:-

mp3: David Sylvian – The Ink In The Well (#37)
mp3: Tears For Fears – Mother’s Talk (#38)

19-25 August

Another of the year’s massive songs made its first foray into the Top 75 this week. Stevie Wonder might have been responsible for some of the greatest funk/soul/pop hits of the 70s, but the following decade saw him go dreadfully mainstream, and none more so than I Just Called To Say I Love You, in at #3 and soon to spend six weeks(!!!) at #1.

Some awful song by Spandau Ballet was next highest at #23. It was called I’ll Fly For You, and it would eventually soar its way into the Top 10. I think it’s fair to say that Top of The Pops in the month of August 1984 was far from essential viewing.

The theme song from the film Ghostbusters entered at #56. It was still in the Top 75 some 31 weeks later, in March 1985, having peaked at #2. I wonder how much money Ray Parker Jr has made from said song over the decades, notwithstanding that some ten years later, he and his record company had to reach an out-of-court agreement with Huey Lewis who had sued on the grounds of plagiarism.

For the third week in four, some respite came from musicians with a Glasgow connection:-

mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Forest Fire (#59)

The big ballad from the debut album. I suspect Lloyd and the Polydor Records high heid-yins expected and hoped for better things than the #41 placing it eventually reached. One of the most enduring songs of the entire year as far as I’m concerned, as it helped soundtrack many a romantic post-indie disco session in my student digs.

Two more worth mentioning sneaked into this particular chart:-

mp3: The Armoury Show – Castles In Spain (#69)
mp3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – The Only Flame In Town (#71)

Richard Jobson‘s new band in the wake of the break-up of The Skids had, on paper, loads going for it what with Russell Webb also coming over from The Skids as well as John McGeogh and John Doyle having previously been part of Magazine, also in the line-up of The Armoury Show. Sadly, and maybe there was just too much in the way of expectation, the music never really hit the spot, and if they are remembered for anything (which I doubt), it will be for this debut single.

As for Elvis, this was the second single lifted from the rather underwhelming album, Goodbye Cruel World. #71 was just about all it deserved.

26 August – 1 September

mp3: The Smiths – William, It Was Really Nothing (#23)

The a-side of what I still believe is the greatest 12″ single of all time, with Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want and How Soon Is Now? as the b-sides.

William might only be 131 seconds in length, but not a single one of them is wasted. The chart position led to what proved to be one of the band’s most memorable Top of the Pops appearances, with Johnny playing a guitar gifted to him by Elvis Costello and Morrissey stripping to the waist mid-song. It all should have meant it went to #1 the following week, instead of #17, where is peaked.

A few more to see the month out….

mp3: Aztec Camera – All I Need Is Everything (#61)
mp3: The Bluebells – Cath (#65)
mp3: Marc Almond – You Have (#67)
mp3: Associates – Waiting For The Love Boat (#71)

Aztec Camera‘s advance 45 off their forthcoming second album was a bit of a letdown to those of us who thought the debut album High Land Hard Rain was as good as anything to ever come out of Scotland. It felt like a real betrayal of the Postcard-era roots, and not simply because Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits was the producer, but there was also the nonsense of a Van Halen cover as its b-side. I was disgusted in 1984, and I’m still disgusted 41 years later….albeit All I Need Is Everything, it has to be admitted, is a fine pop single.

Cath was a remixed version of the song that had taken The Bluebells into the chart a year or so earlier, being an attempt to cash in on the success of Young At Heart a few months earlier. It would peak at #38 a few weeks later.

Marc Almond‘s second solo single would, like its predecessor The Boy Who Came Back, fail to break into the Top 50. It would take quite a few years before any of the totally solo material would replicate the sales of the Soft Cell singles, and even then, it would require to be cover songs.

The Associates without Alan Rankine weren’t making the music that had been so successful back in 1982. Billy Mackenzie‘s voice remained quite magical, but the tunes were, it could now be argued with hindsight, kind of Associates by Artificial Intelligence (not that such a thing existed back then).

And with that thought, I’ll call a halt to proceedings this month.

JC

Malcolm McLaren, Tears For Fears

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (12)

Chart dates 27 November – 3 December

Before I even pull up the charts for December 1983, I’m anticipating this being a post where not too many songs will feature as the record companies were almost certainly pushing hard forthe Christmas market through the perenials and novelty records. I’ll take a few deep breaths and dive in…..

mp3: Tears For Fears – The Way You Are (#40)

I had forgotten all about this one. Tears For Fears had enjoyed a very decent year, with three singles going Top 5 and debut album The Hurting reaching #1. As a new and young group, they would have been on the receiving end of ‘advice’ from the record label execs, which is why they came to write and record a new song for release in the period just before Christmas, with one eye on giving the album a little extra promotional boost.

As wiki records, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith have been uncompromising in their dislike for the song in the years following its release, Orzabal stating it was “the point we realized we had to change direction”, while Smith was even more direct in proclaiming it “the worst thing we’ve done”.

I agree that, at this point in time, it was their worst song. But future releases down the line would eclipse it.

Chart dates 4-10 December

First thing to mention is that Uptown Girl by Billy Joel had its five-week stay at #1 ended by the Flying Pickets a cappella take on Yazoo’s Only You, which itself would stay at the top of the charts for the next five weeks, gaining the coveted ‘#1 at Xmas ‘title.

Here’s who came into the charts this week with new entries.

#11: Culture Club – Victims
#22: Billy Joel – Tell Her About It
#36: Status Quo – Marguerita Time
#38: UB40 – Many Rivers To Cross
#40: Barry Manilow – Read ‘Em And Weep
#44: Adam Ant – Strip
#49: Kool and The Gang – Straight Ahead
#51: Chas and Dave – My Malancholy Baby
#58: Elton John – Cold As Christmas
#63: Santa Claus & The Christmas Trees – Singalong-a-Santa Again
#70: Rod Stewart – Sweet Surrender
#72: Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody
#74: The Klaxons – The Clap Clap Sound
#75: Dayton – The Sound Of Music

I don’t think I ventured near a record store that week….or indeed the rest of the month.

Those of you who live outside the UK probably don’t fully get the horror of the singles charts in the months of December. That new entry at #63 is about as awful as it gets. It was a follow-up to a single from exactly 12 months previous, one which got as high as #19 and earned an appearance on Top of The Pops.

Feel free to stop right there and go find something better to do than read the rest of this rubbish.

Chart dates 11-17 December

A few record labels had been a bit slow in getting their novelty records into the shops and missed out on the bonanza of the first couple of weeks of the month. But it’s never too late to fleece the punters.

#48: The Jingle Bells – Christmas Spectre

I’ve just looked at Discogs. It was a 12″ only release on Passion Records. There’s 38 copies up for sale, ranging from 50p to £15, plus postage and packaging. It’s a medley of the following songs. Frosty The Snowman, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Winter Wonderland, Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town and White Christmas. How can you resist?

#52: Dennis Waterman and George Cole – What Are We Gonna Get ‘Er Indoors

The following week, this would hit #26. As introduced on Top of The Pops by John Peel. His look of horror as he worries that it might make a late run for a spot on his show’s Festive 50.

#54: Paul McCartney – The Pipes Of Peace
#61: Frida and BA Robertson – Time
#63: David Essex – You’re In My Heart
#70: Malcolm McLaren – Duck For The Oyster

I wonder what John Lydon was thinking?

#71: Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly – True Love
#73: The Jets – Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree
#74: Bucks Fizz – Rules Of The Game

Chart dates 18-24 December

It still wasn’t to late to inflict pain:-

#34 : Frank Kelly – Christmas Countdown

I had to look this one up.

And yup, it was a hit single for the bloke who would later, and quite brilliantly, play the role of Father Jack in the 90s comedy series, Father Ted. I had no idea, and until now have never heard it. It eventually climbed to #26, and led to a rather surreal Top of the Pops appearance in the first week of January 1984.

But seriously, people bought this shit?????

There were other equally awful singles that crept into the charts this week and indeed the following week. But I’ve had enough, as I’m sure you have too. Just to mention in passing, that among all this nonsense, the following singles were still listed in the Top 75 of the final week of 1983.

Waterfront – Simple Minds
Oblivious – Aztec Camera
This Charming Man – The Smiths
Relax – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The Sun and The Rain – Madness
The Love Cats – The Cure
A Solid Bond In Your Heart – The Style Council

Thanks for sticking with me through this series. It’ll be back next year, but this time will involve a 45-year look back at the 45s that were making all the noise in 1979 (but don’t worry, I won’t be looking at the full charts in any depth!)

JC

Bauhaus, Creatures, Eurythmics, Fun Boy Three, Heaven 17, Human League, Kissing The Pink, Tears For Fears

(BONUS POST) DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (4)

The singles chart of the final week of April 1983 was slightly less poptastic than the previous month.

Quite a few of those featured last time around were still in the Top 40 – David Bowie (#6), New Order (#23), JoBoxers (#19), Duran Duran (#27), Big Country (#29), Dexy’s Midnight Runners (#32), Eurythmics (#33) and The Style Council (#36).

The #1 slot was occupied by Spandau Ballet with True, an MOR-ballad that in later years would be revealed had been written a Gary Kemp who was infatuated at the time by Clare Grogan.

The Top 10 was actually a bit ‘meh’, but there were a couple of very decent electronic-pop tunes floating around

mp3: Human League – (Keep Feeling) Fascination (#4)
mp3: Eurythmics – Love Is A Stranger (#7)

Yup. The record company had made a quick cash-in . Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) might have fallen to #33 after 11 weeks in the Top 40, but the re-release of an earlier single from November 1982 kept Annie and Dave’s profile very high.

Sitting at #14 was another electro-group, with the song that would eventually climb to #2 and thus provide their biggest hit.

mp3: Heaven 17 – Temptation

Two of the highest new entries are very much worthy of mentions.

mp3: Tears For Fears – Pale Shelter (#22)
mp3: Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (#31)

I’ve a feeling Tears For Fears snagged themselves a Top of The Pops appearance that week as Pale Shelter went up to #5 the following week, which was where it peaked. Fun Boy Three took a more leisurely meander up the charts, taking a further three weeks to hit its high spot of #7.

Goth, of sorts, was also in the singles charts this particular week.

mp3: Bauhaus – She’s In Parties (#28)
mp3: The Creatures – Miss The Girl (#37)

She’s In Parties had fallen two places from the previous week with what proved to be Bauhaus‘s biggest hit single that wasn’t a cover. Miss The Girl would eventually reach #21 and was the first of two hit singles for The Creatures in 1983.

One final song to highlight this week, for what proved to be a one-hit wonder.

mp3: Kissing The Pink – The Last Film (#24)

Kissing The Pink were a new wave/synth band from London. They released three albums between 1983 and 1986, with later releases in 1993, 2015 and 2016. The Last Film was the only time any single troubled the charts and it enjoyed a remarkably long stay that wouldn’t really be possible today. It had crept into the Top 75 at the end of February 1983, and ten weeks later it got to #19 where it stalled for three successive weeks. It eventually fell out of the Top 75 in mid-June.

JC

Tears For Fears

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #47

R-2636195-1439021125-9962

The Hurting – Tears For Fears (1983)

This is an album that wouldn’t have been considered for the shortlist until more recent times.

As I mentioned in September 2021, which was the previous occasion that I wrote about The Hurting, I hadn’t given much thought to Tears For Fears since the mid-80s, such was my dislike for the album Songs From The Big Chair (1985) and the awful singles that were lifted from it.

The abrupt change came courtesy of me spotting, and deciding to buy, a reasonably second-hand vinyl copy of the 1983 debut album. It had been a record I had bought and enjoyed back in the day, but that had been missing from the collection for as long as I can remember – most likely loaned out and not returned.

It proved to be a very interesting, intriguing and ultimately enjoyable experience to listen to The Hurting in its entirety after a considerable period of time. I certainly had forgotten that it was an album in which very serious, difficult and often uncomfortably personal subject matters were covered. As I wrote in that piece in September 2021, given that so many debut albums often feature material drawn from personal circumstances, you have to wonder what sort of fucked up life had been endured by songwriter Roland Orzabal, who was just 21 years old when these songs were recorded.

The Hurting went to #1 in the UK, with its success driven in the main by the three singles lifted from it, all of which went Top 5 and led to Tears For Fears becoming mainstays on Top of The Pops and pin-ups within the pages of Smash Hits.

mp3: Tears For Fears – Mad World

Mad World is a deceptively brilliant song. A tune that demands you get up and dance, but with a lyric that is all about depression, isolation and helplessness. It’s a single that, on reflection, I should have found space for in the 45 45s at 45 rundown in 2008 – the problem was that I had completely dismissed the group as near-worthless on the basis of the second album.

I’d like to think that having The Hurting take its deserved place in the 60 @ 60 rundown goes some way to making up for that oversight.

JC

Eurythmics, Fun Boy Three, Madness, Stranglers, Tears For Fears

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (2)

Thanks again for all the feedback after the initial part of this series.

The Top 10 of the singles chart in the final week of February 1983 was a very strange mix. Michael Jackson, Bonnie Tyler, Kajagoogoo and Toto were in the top four places, but underneath all of that, you would find:-

mp3: Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (#5)
mp3: Tears For Fears – Change (#7)
mp3: Madness – Tomorrow’s Just Another Day (#8)
mp3: Fun Boy Three – Tunnel Of Love (#10)

For the sake of completeness, Musical Youth and The Thomson Twins made up the remainder of the Top 10. There were also a couple of very interesting singles entering the chart a bit lower down, but they’ll be part of next month’s story.

I didn’t think to look at the album charts last time round, mainly on the basis that I reckoned the month of January would be skewed by the unusual sales activity that occurs every festive period. As it turned out, I actually missed that Feline, the Stranglers seventh studio album, had been released in the second week in January and had gone into the charts at #4. The album had been preceded, in late 1992, by this single:-

mp3: The Stranglers – European Female

Nobody realised it at the time, but Feline would be the last of their albums to reach the Top 10 and that European Female would be just about their last original single to reach the Top 20. Up until now it had been continuous success for The Stranglers going back to 1977, but their commercial and critical peaks had now been scaled.

JC

Tears For Fears

THE HURTING

I hadn’t spotted till now that that Tears For Fears haven’t ever featured specifically on the blog before, and that this post will provide their first ever entry into the big index.

Today’s effort was inspired by me picking up, at a reasonable price, a second-hand vinyl copy of the 1983 debut album, The Hurting. It’s a record I bought back in the day, but for whatever reason has been missing from the collection for decades. I might have loaned it to someone and never got it back, but equally, I could have given it away on the basis that I really didn’t take to its follow-up, Songs From The Big Chair (1985) which went in a rather different direction – more bombastic yet more instantly accessible – that didn’t resonate with me at all. It’s the hit singles from the latter, and in particular Everybody Wants To Rule The World, which are a staple product of shows looking back at the 80s, and it’s a sound which hasn’t aged well at all.

Tears For Fears were not liked by many of the music writers back in 1983, as can be evidenced by this scathing review in the NME:-

“This record and others like it are a terrible, useless sort of art that makes self-pity and futility a commercial proposition, Tears for Fears and their listeners sound like they’ve given up completely, retreating from the practical world into a fantasy. The music is just the sort of doom-laden dross you’d expect from the lyrics: rehashed and reheated hollow doom with a bit of Ultravox here, diluted Joy Division poured everywhere, and the title track sounding suspiciously like one of the old pompous outfits with a welter of mellotrons – Barclay James Harvest per chance?” (Gavin Martin, NME 12 March 1983)

Miaow.

The interesting thing for me is that a new generation of writers, picking up on the 30th Anniversary edition back in 2013, were happy to reflect on it in much the same manner as I had back in the day, albeit I didn’t fully comprehend how deep and dark it really was, subject wise. In summary, and my recent re-connection with the record confirmed it, this is a work in which quite serious, difficult and often uncomfortably personal subject matters manage to somehow resonate with a willing audience while finding its way into the pop charts as a result of the music, certainly for the songs selected as singles, being so instantly catchy.

There is also a belated recognition that this particular album proved to be a big influence on many who would follow years later. I’m not all that familiar with the work of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, but from what I’ve read, it’s almost as if he took the template of The Hurting and made a huge and successful career out of it.

It was certainly a very interesting and enjoyable experience listening to The Hurting in its entirety again after a gap of at least 30 years. I really can’t hear too many Joy Division comparisons, but there are occasional reminders that Peter Gabriel‘s third solo album from 1980 was a huge influence on the way synth-pop/rock would evolve in the 80s, not least on the opening title track:-

mp3: Tears For Fears – The Hurting

This is followed by two of the hit singles – Mad World (#3) and Pale Shelter (#5) – with the former becoming even more well-known in 2003 when a dark, broody, piano-led ballad version by Gary Jules, from the soundtrack to the film Donnie Darko, went to #1, thanks to the film becoming a success when it was released on DVD two years after it had more or less flopped at the cinema box office. The original version of Mad World is a tremendously deceptive song – it is packed with the sort of music that gets you throwing shapes on the dance floor but has a lyric that, when you sit down and read/analyse it, is very much a cry for help in coping with a very severe depression and feelings of helplessness. It’s a genuinely astonishing work of art, all things considered.

mp3 : Tears For Fears – Mad World

Side One of the album closes on a couple of downbeat numbers, as can be evidenced from their titles – Ideas As Opiates, and Memories Fade. Given that so many debut albums often feature material drawn from personal circumstances, you have to wonder what sort of fucked up life had been endured by songwriter Roland Orzabal, who was just 21 years old when these songs were recorded. Let’s just say, I reflected on these songs, and indeed many of the others, in a way that I couldn’t possibly have done as a carefree, relatively happy-go-lucky, boy about town in the early 80s.

mp3: Tears For Fears – Memories Fade

The upbeat music which opens side two again acts as something of a disguise for the subject matters at hand in the songs Suffer The Children and Watch Me Bleed. And again, I found myself wondering why I hadn’t picked up just how dark an album this is. And then, almost out of the blue, the most instantly accessible, almost disposable track starts to come out of the speakers:-

mp3: Tears For Fears – Change

Another of the hit singles – a #4 hit around the time that the album came out. I hadn’t actually realised this was the case until doing a bit of fact-checking for this post, and had always assumed Mad World had been the single to promote the album. Turns out that it had actually been an earlier hit in late 1982, meaning that fans were already on the look-out for Change as its follow-up before a long-player hit the shops.

All of which goes to show that the record label and the duo were pulling a neat trick on the pop world at the time. The cute one, Curt Smith, was the vocalist and who got most attention. The first two singles were tailor-made for radio, but then the album, which turns out to be having been written entirely by the other bloke in the band, has loads of tunes that the pop kids wouldn’t enjoy, nor would daytime radio be comfortable playing them. This is especially the case with its final two songs – The Prisoner and Start Of The Breakdown – with the former sounding like the sort of thing which would bring sleepless nights to the early-teen readers of Smash Hits and then, a few years later, trigger off some sort of psychoticly violent incident that they can’t explain to their despairing parents….or the authorties who have just locked them up.

mp3: Tears For Fears – The Prisoner

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip down memory lane with The Hurting. It’s an album I liked in 1983, and it’s one I can really better understand and appreciate more in 2021. But you’ll never convince me that I should be devoting any time to its follow-up.