The Intro
1981 was the year of Adam and the Ants. No sooner had Ant and co. hit the top spot with Stand and Deliver! than they were at number 1 again with another early 80s classic.
Before
Following the success of Stand and Deliver!, Adam and the Ants spent most of the summer in continental Europe on tour. Upon their return they headed to London’s Air studios to record what became their last album.
Prince Charming, which became the title track, was an unusual sound for a number 1. Gone were the Burundi beat stylings of previous LP Kings of the Wild Frontier, and even the pop of Stand and Deliver!. Although Prince Charming is imperial Antmusic, it’s fair to say that, had this song been released by a total unknown, it wouldn’t have had the impact it did. Weirdly, it kind of already had been.
In 2010, Rolf Harris, still a national treasure at that point, claimed on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Danny Baker Show that a musicologist had found Prince Charming to sound identical to War Canoe, a 1965 release by Harris. You only have to hear 10 seconds of this (which is 10 seconds more than Harris deserves) to hear that they are indeed exactly the same.
However, Ant never denied it, and in fact showed Harris to be the devious bastard that he proved to be, when he noted that he owned a large collection of ethnic recordings, and War Canoe was in fact an old Maori folk song. Harris subsequently withdrew his complaint ‘with a bit of a giggle’. The prick.
Review
At least Ant and co-writer/guitarist Marco Pirroni made it interesting, adding the trademark Ant wailing alongside the guitar. Ant’s lyrics covered similar ground to Stand and Deliver!. That song concerned a dandy highwayman, whereas Prince Charming was lyrically inspired by Beau Brummel, the 18th-century dandy fashion leader, as well as the extravagance of men during the French Revolution. This tied in perfectly with the emerging New Romantic scene that Ant found himself in.
Much like David Bowie and Marc Bolan had encouraged men to not be afraid to wear make-up and experiment nearly 10 years previous, Ant made himself the voice of his generation, extolling the virtues of being flamboyant in 1981 – ‘Don’t you ever, don’t you ever, stop being dandy, showing me you’re handsome’ and the classic line ‘Ridicule is nothing to be scared of’.
Musically, yes, Prince Charming is far less adventurous than previous material, never changing from that War Canoe strum. But it is a true earworm that buries its way into the consciousness, and with Adam and the Ants, it’s more a case of taking note of the whole multimedia package, which means factoring in the video.
This Cinderella spoof is the strongest element of Prince Charming. Ant portrays the male version of Cinders, left at home while his drag queen evil stepsisters get to go to the ball and ‘dance the Prince Charming’. In one of her final roles, Diana Dors (Ant had personally appealed to her to take part) appears as Ant’s Fairy Godmother and dances iconically with five topless men. Ant becomes a Regency era dandy, goes to the ball and gets to do the dance himself, which went down in history as an essential element of this song. You simply cannot hear Prince Charming without picturing the dance, which is barely even a dance. The video ends with Ant in various guises, including Clint Eastwood, Alice Cooper and Marlon Brando, which he pulls off surprisingly well.
Prince Charming is perhaps Ant’s definitive statement on being a pop star, a love letter to his fans and the high watermark of his band’s popularity, and still sounds great today. But if I’ve spoiled it for anyone by linking it to Harris, I apologise.
After
In November, a few weeks after the single had began to slip down the charts, came the parent album, which surprisingly failed to hit number 1. Despite that, Adam and the Ants were one of the UK’s biggest-selling acts of 1981. In early 1982, Ant Rap peaked at number three. It was to be their final new release, as in March 1982, Ant disbanded his group. Pirroni, who was tired of touring, continued to work with Ant in a songwriting capacity. Bassist Gary Tibbs and drummer Chris ‘Merrick’ Hughes formed a short-lived duo.
The Outro
When Ant shot to number 1 as a solo star with the excellent Goody Two Shoes, it seemed to be a wise move. He was, after all, the star. However, his popularity began to wane soon after.
The Info
Written by
Adam Ant & Marco Pirroni
Producer
Chris Hughes
Weeks at number 1
4 (19 September-17 October)
Trivia
Births
21 September: Singer-songwriter Sarah Whatmore
23 September: Field hockey defender Helen Richardson
29 September: Hear’Say singer Suzanne Shaw
1 October: Journalist Deborah James
9 October: Actor Rupert Friend/Labour MP Jess Phillips
10 October: Journalist Stinson Hunter
13 October: Footballer Ryan Ashford/Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke
Deaths
19 September: Writer Ruth Tongue
21 September: Actor Nigel Patrick
23 September: Disc jockey Sam Costa
24 September: Actor John Ruddock
27 September: Physician Sir Stanley Davidson
28 September: Conservative MP Edward Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth
29 September: Historian Frances Yates/Football manager Bill Shankly (see ‘Meanwhile…‘)
30 September: Welsh rugby union player Roy John/Conductor Boyd Neel
1 October: Conservative MP Sir Graham Page
8 October: Labour MP Arthur Allen
12 October: Political analyst Robert McKenzie
Meanwhile…
21 September: Belize was granted independence.
25 September: Ford announced it was to discontinue the Cortina model, which would be replaced by the Sierra.
29 September: Liverpool mourned former football manager Bill Shankly after he died of a heart attack, aged 68.
1 October: 24-year-old Bryan Robson became Britain’s most expensive footballer when he moved from West Bromwich Albion to Manchester United for £1.5 million.
3 October: The hunger strikes at Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison came to an end after six months.
10 October: The Provisional IRA bombed the Chelsea Barracks, killing two people.
12 October: Granada Television’s Brideshead Revisited began transmission on ITV.
13 October: Opinion polls revealed Margaret Thatcher was still unpopular as Prime Minster, largely due to her anti-inflationary economic measures.
15 October: Norman Tebbit’s famous speech in which he told fellow Conservative MPs, how his father didn’t riot when he was unemployed during the 30s. ‘He got on his bike and looked for work’ etc. Whoop-de-do, Norman.