464. David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes (1980)

March 10, 2024March 24, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

Is this where 80s pop music truly began? Much as David Bowie’s first number 1 Space Oddity bid farewell to the 60s, its sequel Ashes to Ashes saw ‘the Action Man’ put a full stop on his most experimental period, while future New Romantics took note.

Before

Not that his best-selling single achieved the top spot when the public first heard the tale of Major Tom in 1969. It was a 1975 reissue by RCA, released after his album Young Americans. Soon after the re-release came Golden Years, a bridge between the blue-eyed soul of the last LP and his next, which peaked at eight. But as great as the new material was, Bowie was becoming more and more addicted to cocaine. Weight was falling off his already slender body, he wasn’t sleeping, and his brain was flirting with an unhealthy interest in fascism.

All this and an upcoming starring role as an alien in an adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth resulted in his latest character, the Thin White Duke. He later claimed to have no memory of recording his next album. That one of his greatest albums, Station to Station, was the result, is insane. A brilliant mix of soul, funk, balladry and krautrock, this LP was another sign of what was to come – the so-called ‘Berlin Trilogy’.

Whether the ‘Victoria Station Incident’, where Bowie may or may not have greeted fans with a Nazi salute, happened or not, the controversy suggested the Thin White Duke was entering dangerous territory. However, his decision to move to West Berlin in 1976 along with partner-in-crime Iggy Pop was actually an attempt to get better. Working with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti, Bowie took his interest in krautrock further than before, and released Low, recorded in France, in 1977.

Despite Low’s reputation, there is still great pop amongst the ambient and experimental music within. Most explicitly, Sound and Vision, which despite the long instrumental opening and spacey sound, was catchy as hell, and became one of his bestselling 70s hits, reaching three, despite a distinct lack of promotion.

The next LP, “Heroes”, was the only full Bowie album actually recorded in Berlin. But although this time was fully on board with promoting his latest work, the title track, now rightly considered one of his greatest songs, surprisingly only got as far as 24. Now cleaner, if not 100% clean of drugs, Bowie was increasingly busy, touring the material from Low and “Heroes” and releasing a recording – Stage – in 1978, as well as narrating a recording of Peter and the Wolf.

Recorded in the latter stage of his Isolar II world tour, Lodger, released in 1979, ditched the ambient instrumentals of his previous Berlin Trilogy work, and was a mix of new wave and world music. Lodger is underrated, and features great material, including number seven hit Boys Keep Swinging.

In December 1979, Bowie, perhaps with the 10-year anniversary of Space Oddity in mind, re-recorded his 1975 number 1 for Will Kenny Everett Ever Make It to 1980? Show. Stripped down to acoustic guitar, bass, drums and piano, this sparse mix was released as a B-side to his insane cover of Alabama Song. Released in February 1980, somehow this single reached 23. Probably because of the novelty factor of an alternative version of Space Oddity, rather than the A-side.

Returning to Space Oddity got Bowie thinking. What happened to Major Tom, as that song faded away and Ground Control lost contact? In a promo interview for the subsequent album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Bowie said ‘We come to him 10 years later and find the whole thing has soured, because there was no reason for putting him up there… The most disastrous thing I could think of is that he finds solace in some kind of heroin-type drug, actually cosmic space feeding him: an addiction. He wants to return to the womb from whence he came.’ Sound familiar? Bowie reached for the stars, got what he strived for, and ended up losing touch with himself, strung out in heaven’s high, hitting an all-time Low – literally.

Bowie was already reaching into his past for Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). He was reworking old demos of unfinished songs. In 2022, the box set Divine Symmetry was released, featuring early Hunky Dory material and fragments of songs that he returned to nine years later. Tired of My Life became eventual album opener It’s No Game Pt 1, and 30 seconds into a track called King of the City, you can plainly hear what became the middle-eight of Ashes to Ashes. It’s a fascinating listen.

When the sessions for Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) began at the Power Station in New York in February 1980, no lyrics existed for Ashes to Ashes, or People Are Turning to Gold, as it was called then, just lots of ‘la la las’. Interesting to wonder what the song would have become if this title had remained. The band assembled was the same as for his last four albums – Carlos Alomar on guitar, George Murray on bass and Dennis Davis on drums. Also contributing were pianist Roy Bittan from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band – who were recording The River next door – and Chuck Hammer, who played guitar synthesiser.

While Alomar set to work playing reggae, and Murray put down a funky baseline with some slapping, Davis understandably struggled with the ska drumbeat Bowie envisioned. The singer demonstrated with a chair and cardboard box, which Davis learned and laid down the following day. Visconti originally wanted Bittan’s piano lines to be recorded on a Wurlitzer electric piano, but after discovering it would take too long to get hold of the instrument, he instead ran the grand piano through an Eventide Instant Flanger, which created that distinctive, wonky riff the rhythm is built around. Hammer, who had toured with Lou Reed and was hired for his inventive ‘guitarchitecture’, created and layered four different multi-track guitar textures, each receiving different treatments through an Eventide Harmoniser (which Visconti had famously claimed ‘fucks with the fabric of time’ for extra reverb.

So far, so good. So very, very good. But unlike his recent albums, where Bowie wrote the lyrics often immediately after the backing tracks, he took his time on Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). The band reconvened in April at Visconti’s Good Earth Studios in London. Visconti added additional percussion, plus keyboard parts by session keyboardist Andy Clark. Everyone involved knew they had something special upon completion, and it was inevitable this would be the lead single from the LP.

Review

Bowie wrote lots of great music after Ashes to Ashes, but it’s most probably his final absolute classic, in effect waving goodbye to a decade of startling creativity. In his excellent Bowie blog, Pushing Ahead of the Dame, Chris O’Leary has a very good point in calling it his last song. It’s a dark nursery rhyme, full of strange phrasing, vocal lines, and imagery, all underpinned by quirky, infectious groove. ‘Do you remember a guy that’s been/In such an early song?’ is an odd opening gambit for the listener. But it’s only the start, as Ground Control reveals the rumour is true: ‘They got a message from the action man’. And while ‘I’m happy, hope you’re happy too’ bodes well, the lyrics get murkier, but make it clear that Major Tom needs bringing down to earth….

‘The shrieking of nothing is killing, just
Pictures of Jap girls in synthesis and I
Ain’t got no money and I ain’t got no hair
But I’m hoping to kick but the planet it’s glowing’

What surreal, bleak imagery, and a bridge like no other in the annals of number 1s. What makes it all the more remarkable is how it sounds – Bowie’s deadpan intonation sounds in danger of causing the already complex tune to fall apart. And underneath, ghostly backing vocals, possibly repeating Major Tom, it’s hard to tell at this point.

The almost comical moroseness of the chorus, masked in a creepy nursery rhyme, of course, totally hits the spot, and you can’t help but think of Major Tom, floating in a tin can, and the mirror image of Bowie, weighing six-stone, living off cocaine and milk and dabbling with the occult, as he was in the mid-70s, when Space Oddity was at the top of the hit parade.

Things get even weirder in the second verse, with Bowie’s chilling falsetto revealing that Major Tom can’t beat his addiction. ‘But the little green wheels are following me/Oh no, not again’ – what a ridiculous, sublime way to detail drug dependency.

In the next bridge, Bowie’s ‘valuable friend’ is louder, and it’s apparent he is just repeating himself, right down to the deadpan ‘Woh-o-woh’. It’s just occurred to me that ‘out of the blue’ could be taken literally – that Major Tom, since swapping the blue sky of Earth for the stars, has been content to live as a junkie, and essentially done nothing since he ‘really made the grade’.

I forget where, but someone once pointed out that ‘Wanna come down right now’ signifies Bowie’s need to figuratively get back to living clean but also signposts his 80s direction as a relatively straight-edge pop superstar. Whether it was intentional or not, it’s a very good point.

As Ashes to Ashes descends into malevolent childish chanting of its close, and the already amazing production breaks out into ghostly synths, you can picture Major Tom’s ship either flirting further out into the outer reaches of space, or landing back on home soil, a broken man inside, but one that can be saved?

David Mallet’s groundbreaking video, recorded over three days in May, was the most expensive ever at that point. It remains one of the most costly, with Bowie storyboarding and dictating the editing process. The use of a Quantel Paintbox, soon to be used extensively in film and TV, creates a ghostly alien world of black sky and pink ocean at Beachy Head and Hastings. Bowie is three characters, clown, astronaut and asylum inmate, all of which represent aspects of his past as a mime and, well, the other two are obvious, all things considered. The scenes of Bowie in his spacesuit were deliberately designed to reflect HR Giger’s incredible work in Alien, released the year before.

While such futurism looks charmingly dated now, a less distant future is also on show, with Steve Strange of Visage walking with Bowie along the sand, as a bulldozer menacingly creeps up behind them. Fellow Blitz Kids Marilyn and Boy George were passed over. If you haven’t heard Bowie superfan Adam Buxton’s telling of a charming anecdote about the filming of this scene, check it out here.

After

The album mix of Ashes to Ashes was edited down from 4:23 to 3:35 for the single release, which could be bought in three different picture sleeves, which each contained a sheet of adhesive stamps of Bowie in his Pierrot costume. The variety of ways to buy may well have contributed to its success in the UK, where it became Bowie’s second number 1 for a fortnight in late summer after debuting at four.

Live performances of Ashes to Ashes were rare through the years, which, considering its complexity, is understandable.

Major Tom did return briefly to the charts in 1996, courtesy of the Pet Shop Boys remix of Hallo Spaceboy. Initially reticent when told of their plan, he agreed it worked well upon hearing their disco take on the track from 1.Outside.

The video to Ashes to Ashes remains one of the most influential examples of the medium, and everyone sat up and took notice as to what could be done. Music videos may have existed since the 60s, but in the MTV age, they were about to be ubiquitous.

The Outro

Ashes to Ashes was sampled in Samantha Mumba’s top five hit Body II Body in 2000, and again by James Murphy for his remix of Bowie’s own Love Is Lost in 2013. It was also the name of the BBC’s sequel to police drama Life on Mars.

In late-2015, the surreal video to Bowie’s penultimate single in his lifetime, Blackstar, featured a dead astronaut, discovered by a woman with a tail. She takes his jewel-encrusted skull to a strange alien town, where a circle of women perform a ritual while the astronaut’s bones float towards a solar eclipse. Director Johan Renck said after Bowie’s death he believed the astronaut was meant to be Major Tom.

The Info

Written by

David Bowie

Producers

David Bowie & Tony Visconti

Weeks at number 1

2 (23 August-5 September)

Trivia

Births

23 August: Actress Joanne Froggatt
28 August: Chef Rachel Khoo
4 September: Football coach Michael Beale

Deaths

24 August: Actress Yootha Joyce/Linguist Gerard Shelley
26 August: Olympic swimmer Lucy Morton
27 August: Suffragette Arabella Scott
28 August: Academic Roy Pascal
31 August: Writer Anne Tibble
1 September: Film director Arthur Greville Collins
3 September: Surgeon Russell Brock, Baron Brock/Physician Sir George Pickering

Meanwhile…

28 August: For the first time since 1935, unemployment stands at 2 million.

1 September: Ford launches the third generation Escort, which later becomes the best-selling car of the decade in Britain.

463. ABBA – The Winner Takes It All (1980)

February 25, 2024March 24, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

It had been nearly two years since ABBA had last topped the charts, with the upbeat bounce of Take a Chance on Me. You won’t find any of that in The Winner Takes It All. One of the saddest number 1s you’ll ever hear details the break-up of a relationship – and you don’t have to look far to find the inspiration.

Before

ABBA: The Album had cemented the group’s status as one of the biggest and best in the world back in 1978. They converted a disused cinema in their hometown of Stockholm into Polar Music Studio, which would be used by huge acts including Led Zeppelin and Genesis. They also paid tribute to Stockholm with their next single, but Summer Night City proved problematic to record. It would peak at five in the UK. Nonetheless, it would signpost that ABBA’s next LP, Voulez-Vous, would be a further move into disco.

Not that you’d know that from their next single. The ballad Chiquitita was premiered at the Music for UNICEF charity concert on 9 January 1979, and released in the UK. Although the song gained the highest initial position of any ABBA single (eight), it couldn’t quite hit the top spot, finishing up at two behind Heart of Glass. But it remains one of the most famous charity singles ever.

While Chiquitita was charting, Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog announced they were getting divorced. Understandably, the media and fans wondered if this meant the end of ABBA, but everyone was reassured they would continue. In fact, it was hoped that now the news was out, they could get back to recording their troubled sixth album. Songwriters Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson decamped to an apartment in the Bahamas and they concentrated on listening to the latest sounds emanating from the US, which were mainly disco.

Voulez-Vous was released that April, with the next single, Does Your Mother Know, standing out due to Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad uncharacteristically being relegated to backing vocals. It stalled at four. The title track came next, billed as a double A-side with Angeleyes. Surprisingly, despite the former being one of their most famous and catchiest tunes, couldn’t get higher than three. When the similarly impressive Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) peaked at the same position (released to coincide with their second greatest hits compilation), it may have started to look like perhaps ABBA’s number 1 days were over. Which would have been OK – after all, they had notched up seven, which was more than anyone achieved in the 70s. Their last single that decade, the cheesy I Have a Dream, couldn’t get higher than two.

Following an enormously successful tour, including six sold-out nights at Wembley Arena, ABBA reconvened in Feb 1980 to start work on their seventh album. Perhaps due to the disco backlash in the US, and the looming divorce, they reverted to a more pop sound, with added mature lyrics that had been hinted at with songs like Knowing Me, Knowing You. Only this time, The Winner Takes It All mirrored Ulvaeus and Fältskog’s personal experiences at least, to a degree.

Ulvaeus and Andersson had written the first released fruits of Super Trouper in the summer of 1979 in a cottage on the island of Viggsö. Originally called The Story of My Life (a title that scans well with the chorus), The Winner Takes It All started out more uptempo. However, they found the demo too stiff, and when they returned to the song four days later, Andersson had come up with a looser structure and a suitably sadder arrangement thanks to the descending piano line. Impressed, Ulvaeus recorded a new demo and garbled nonsense-French lyrics over the tune (due to its new chanson feel). He then took the recording home and got drunk on whiskey. He later claimed the words to The Winner Takes It All were the quickest he ever wrote, coming to him in a blast of emotion within the hour.

Ulvaeus has claimed more than once that The Winner Takes It All shouldn’t be taken as a literal recount of his divorce, pointing out that there was no winner or loser in their experience. But he didn’t deny that his sadness over their marriage breakdown had inspired the song to an extent. To quote Knowing Me, Knowing You, ‘Breaking up is never easy’. And it certainly hit home for Fältskog, who shed tears when presented with the lyrics.

Review

The sadness in The Winner Takes It All is so real, it can actually be unbearable if it gets you at a bad time. Compare it with What’s Another Year – workmanlike maudlin misery with no sense of authenticity. Ulvaeus’ lyrics are painfully honest – I believe him when he says they’re not directly inspired by what he went through, but good God, there’s no wonder they hit a nerve with poor Fältskog. Those first three lines:

‘I don’t wanna talk,
About things we’ve gone through,
Though it’s hurting me, now it’s history’.

Ouch. Likely a fair summation of the mood in Polar Studios, post-divorce, between the former couple. From there, I’m not sure of the levels of fiction involved, but the title of the song and the comparison with a card game suggests some other woman has won her man, or perhaps it’s even about who got what in a court battle. ‘That’s her destiny’ suggests the former, while the references to judges later suggests the latter, so maybe it’s both.

The second verse talks of the spurned partner’s mistaken sense of security and hopes for the future, but that they now feel they were a fool to play ‘by the rules’. By verse three, she very much does want to talk. She’s angry and is asking those internal questions the mind asks even when the heart is too scared to find out the answer. She wants to know how her ex’s new love compares to her. By the time she gets to her confession she misses him, but is resigned to playing by the rules of the game. She’s lost.

The final verse, now that’s the hardest part to bear. An apologetic Fältskog feels sorry for making her ex feel sad about how things turned out, and although she’s trying to come to terms with their more formal future (‘And I understand, you’ve come to shake my hand’), it’s too hard. She’s ‘tense, no self-confidence’, but what does she do? She apologises, because she cares still. It’s heart-wrenching.

As someone who’s only really getting to grips with how great ABBA were, I must admit that previously, I didn’t really care for The Winner Takes It All particularly. Musically, I saw it as another example of ABBA’s high camp and melodramatic tendencies. I knew it was connected to marital woes, but it’s taken middle age and, more importantly, my own divorce to understand just how very real and painful this song is. ABBA were coming to the end of the road, but they approached it with grace and honesty. And I was wrong about the tune too, because it’s actually pretty funky when you really listen – courtesy of the session rhythm section, Ola Brunkert on drums and Mike Watson on bass.

Ulvaeus’ lyrics are thoughtful, but the same can’t be said for whoever signed off on the video. As usual, their director Lasse Hallström took a very literal approach, and really blurred the lines of truth and fiction. Following black and white images of ABBA in happier times, we cut to a dejected and pained Fältskog in close-up, singing inbetween footage of the rest of the band having a laugh. Her face at the end is almost too much to bear when you consider the video was shot only 10 days after the divorce was officially declared.

After

The Winner Takes It All was a worldwide hit, becoming number 1 in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and South Africa. It also performed well in Austria, France, West Germany and Sweden, and became their final US hit. The signs were very good for the parent album, Super Trouper.

The Outro

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan’s rendition of ABBA’s penultimate number 1 from their series The Trip is well worth a watch if you’d rather not get too caught up in the inherent misery of the song.

The Info

Writers & producers

Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

Weeks at number 1

2 (9-22 August)

Trivia

Births

19 August: Actor Adam Campbell/Singer Darius Danesh

Deaths

9 August: Comedian Audrey Jeans
10 August: Philosopher Gareth Evans
18 August: Rower Harold Kitching
20 August: Historian AK Hamilton Jenkin/Historian Dame Lucy Sutherland
21 August: Actor Norman Shelley

Meanwhile…

11 August: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visits Harold Hill in East London to hand over the keys to the 12,000th council tenants to buy their home under the right to buy scheme. When she does so, she’s booed by neighbours of the family in East London.
Also that day, Tyne and Wear Metro opens on Tyneside.

16 August: The Denmark Place fire kills 37 people of eight nationalities, after an arson attack. Petty criminal John Thompson was thrown out of The Spanish Place – one of two unlicensed bars on the top two floors of 18 Denmark Place (Rodo’s was the other). He found a container, hailed a taxi to a petrol station, filled it with petrol, poured it through the letterbox of the venue, and threw a lit piece of paper inside. The fire swept through the building so quickly, many inside died on the spot.

20 August: 47-year-old Marguerite Walls became Peter Sutcliffe’s 12th known victim, strangled to death on her way home from work in Leeds.

462. Odyssey – Use It Up and Wear It Out (1980)

February 16, 2024March 24, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

Before they reached number 1, New York soul trio Odyssey were best known for Native New Yorker. But Use It Up and Wear It Out, which didn’t even chart in the US, was originally tucked away as a B-side, before it began igniting UK dancefloors.

Before

None of Odyssey were native New Yorkers. Before the group existed, there were The Lopez Sisters, from Stanford, Connecticut. Lead vocalist Lillian Lopez Collazo Jackson and elder sisters Louise Lopez and Carmen Lopez were raised there after being initially raised in the Virgin Islands.

The Lopez Sisters had been performing from a young age, and they headlined New Faces of 1968 at Carnegie Hall. They were spotted by an agent and booked to perform a European tour. When they returned five months later, Carmen left to get married. Lillian and Louise resolved to continue, but with a man on the team, so they hired Filipino bassist and singer Tony Reynolds.

As soul and disco act Odyssey, they signed with RCA Records in 1977 and worked with prolific producer and songwriter Sandy Linzer, who helped create many 60s pop tunes with Denny Randell and Bob Crewe. They recorded their eponymous debut LP and Native New Yorker became their debut single. The upbeat Native New Yorker had previously been an album track for Frankie Valli, but it was Odyssey’s version that became a hit. Though the single only peaked 21 in the US, it reached five in the UK. No further singles from the album charted, and Reynolds left the trio, to be replaced by Fayetteville, North Carolina native William ‘Bill’ McEachern.

Second LP Hollywood Party Tonight was released in 1978 but didn’t leave much of a mark, with no singles charting. Odyssey were beginning to look like one-hit wonders, who had arrived too late to ride the wave of disco. Third album Hang Together came out a year later, and the single Don’t Tell Me, Tell Her, was another failure. On the flip side was Use It Up and Wear It Out. Linzer co-wrote the track with L Russell Brown, who had co-written Knock Three Times and Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.

Review

Use It Up and Wear It Out is an infectious combination of disco and salsa, which had been all the rage a few years previous when Saturday Night Fever was everywhere. But then came the ‘Disco Sucks’ movement. From an acid-fuelled club movement in the mid-70s, disco was now attempted by most mainstream artists, with varying degrees of success. So a backlash was inevitable. But the ‘Disco Sucks’ concept was ugly, often used as an excuse for homophobic, racist remarks. And it led to the ridiculous Disco Demolition Night, where records were blown up and a riot ensued between Major League Baseball games at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois on 12 July 1979.

‘Disco Sucks’ had sped up disco’s demise in the US, but not so much in the UK. So Use It Up and Wear It Out was welcomed here with open arms. And deservedly so, because although it’s not up there with classics of the genre, it’s good fun. The jerky, Latin groove gets under the skin, while Odyssey issue a call to arms to get up and dance. If the music’s right and the stars align, it’s true that dancing becomes everything, so the line ‘Ain’t nothin’ left in this whole world I care about’ is particularly effective. As is often the case with disco, the 12″ version is better because it’s easier for the rhythm to work its magic, although there’s not that much difference between this and the single edit. The keyboard sounds… well, yes, they’re a bit quirky and an acquired taste, but I enjoy them. Use It Up and Wear It Out may be a minor chart-topper, but it’s a decent one.

After

Capitalising on momentum, Odyssey followed up Use It Up and Wear It Out with If You’re Lookin’ for a Way Out, which peaked at six. The parent album’s title track fared less well, only making it to 36 in 1981. That same year came another album, I Got the Melody, which contained their version of Lamont Dozier’s classic Going Back to My Roots – and it soared to four.

Odyssey’s last charting single was Inside Out (three), the first track from 1982’s Happy Together. This was their final work for RCA, and Reynolds left, so the name proved more than a little ironic.

The Outro

Odyssey continue but the line-up has changed. For some time, the trio consisted of Lillian, her future husband Al Jackson and her son Steven Collazo. When his mother and step-father retired in 2003, Collazo took charge and hired twins Annis and Anne Peters for the 2011 album Legacy. They were replaced in 2013 by Jerdene Wilson and Romina Johnson, who had sang on Artful Dodger’s 2000 garage hit Movin’ Too Fast.

The Info

Written by

Sandy Linzer & L Russell Brown

Producer

Sandy Linzer

Weeks at number 1

2 (26 July-8 August)

Trivia

Births

28 July: Rock climber Leo Houlding

Deaths

26 July: Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan
28 July: Businessman Sir Cullum Welch
29 July: Nurse Eileen Skellern
4 August: Actress Dorice Fordred
5 August: Composer Normal Fulton
6 August: Agriculturalist Leslie Hilton Brown
7 August: Socialist activist Lady Clare Annesley/Railway engineer Henry Everard/Children’s author Kathleen Fidler

Meanwhile…

26 July: Bow Wow Wow’s C30, C60, C90, Go – the first pop single to be released on cassette format –peaked at 34 in the charts.

29 July: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced the introduction of Enterprise Zones. The new employment relief was targeted at areas in Britain which had been hardest hit by deindustrialisation and unemployment.

461. Olivia Newton-John/Electric Light Orchestra – Xanadu (from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1980)

February 11, 2024March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

The 1980 musical fantasy Xanadu was a box office failure, even inspiring the Golden Raspberry Awards. But the soundtrack album, featuring Olivia Newton-John, Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard and the Tubes, was a global smash. And the theme gave Newton-John her third chart-topper and – surprisingly – ELO’s sole number 1.

Before

1978 was a mammoth year for Newton-John. The Australian pop star and actress became a superstar thanks to her role as Sandy in Grease. And together with co-lead John Travolta, she was a chart mainstay, with two lengthy number 1s – You’re the One That I Want and Summer Nights. So enduring was the image of Newton-John, sexed-up and dressed in tight black leather at the film’s finale, she adopted it for her next LP, Too Hot, released at the end of the year. Its first single, A Little More Love, was a worldwide hit and peaked at four. But 1979 was a barren year for UK singles success.

She began 1980 by duetting with Andy Gibb on I Can’t Help It in the US, as well as a TV special – Hollywood Nights. Then came Xanadu. Originally conceived as a low-budget film cashing in on the roller-disco craze, it grew in scale as big names joined the production, most notably Newton-John and the legendary dancer Gene Kelly, in what was toby his final role.

Xanadu, directed by Robert Greenwald, was based on the 1947 movie Down to Earth, which also featured Kelly. The new film was named after the nightclub setting, which in turn referenced Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1816 poem Kubla Khan. However, the filming ran into difficulties due in large part to several script changes. The soundtrack LP was split, with tracks by Newton-John (plus Richard, the Tubes and Kelly) on side one. All tracks there were written by John Farrar, who before writing You’re the One That I Want had been in The Shadows. Side two exclusively featured ELO, with the final song featuring both acts together on the title track.

ELO was originally conceived by Roy Wood, singer-songwriter in 1969 chart-toppers The Move. He spoke to fellow Brummie Jeff Lynne of psychedelic pop act The Idle Race, about a new group that would ‘pick up where The Beatles left off’, employing classical instruments on a full-time basis. Lynne liked the idea but was determined to try and find fame with his own group rather than join The Move to get things started. But by January 1970, when Trevor Burton left The Move, he’d changed his mind – on the condition that he and Wood concentrated on their new project – the Electric Light Orchestra.

That summer, a track intended to be a B-side for The Move developed into the first ELO track. And what a debut 10538 Overture was, when it finally hit the shops in 1972. Written by Lynne, with around 15 Chinese cello parts played and overdubbed by Wood, there had been nothing like it before, and it reached nine in the charts. The debut eponymous ELO LP had been released the previous December, and was and is still known in the US as No Answer, due to a misunderstood note left by a United Artists Record Executive. Their call to the UK to find out the name of the album had resulted in ‘no answer’. This album features a far less slick sound than later work, and features only three core members – Lynne, Wood and Bev Bevan on drums.

The Move finally became defunct shortly before the release of 10538 Overture and around the time of ELO’s live debut, which saw the trio joined by Bill Hunt on keyboards and French horn, Andy Craig, Hugh McDowell and Mike Edwards on cello, Wilfred Gibson on violin and Richard Tandy on bass. This line-up proved short-lived, as the making of the second ELO album later in 1972 saw a raft of departures. First Craig, then – most importantly, Wood, who among other reasons cited being unable to hear the classical instruments over the electric when performing live. Wood took Hunt and McDowell with him and of course, went on to form Wizzard, who scored two number 1s with See My Baby Jive and Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballad) in 1973. With Wood’s departure no doubt in mind, Lynne ensured that all band members were properly amplified when playing gigs from then on.

Wood only featured on two tracks on ELO 2, released in 1973. Neither were the cover of Roll Over Beethoven, which soared to six in the singles chart. The new line-up included Tandy switching to keyboards to replace Hunt, plus new recruits Mike du Albuquerque picking up the bass and cellist Colin Walker. Third single Showdown showcased a new, funkier direction and surprisingly missed out on the top 10, finishing at 12.

Further changes came during the making of the next LP, On the Third Day. Gibson was sacked, Walker quit and Mik Kaminski joined as violinist. Then McDowell bounced back from Wizzard during the end of recording. Concept album Eldorado was released in 1974 and saw the end of Lynne multi-tracking strings and using a full orchestra instead. Albuquerque left during recording.

Lynne took on a deliberately more commercial sound and the line-up finally stabilised after Eldorado. Kelly Groucutt became their bassist and Melvyn Gale replaced Edwards as a cellist. The next album, Face the Music, saw ELO deservedly score a number 10 hit with Evil Woman in 1975.

Sixth LP A New World Record (1976) was the first to feature the classic ELO logo and their first top 10 UK album. It spawned three great singles – Livin’ Thing (my favourite) peaked at four, and then in 1977, Rockaria! climbed to nine and Telephone Line reached eight. And later that year came the huge, multi-platinum Out of the Blue. First single Turn to Stone did respectably (18), but in 1978 Mr Blue Sky, Wild West Hero and Sweet Talkin’ Woman all reached six. The first and latter are obviously classic pop songs.

ELO were now massive, and so were their gigs at the time. Taking a leaf out of George Clinton’s book, Lynne and co performed in front of a spaceship, with elaborate lasers and smoke machines, on a huge world tour dubbed ‘The Big Night’, which was the highest-grossing tour ever at the time. They also performed a record-setting eight sold-out gigs at Wembley Arena.

ELO’s fame peaked in 1979 with the multi-platinum LP Discovery. Featuring a mix of ultra-glossy pop and rock with disco influences, this album contained four top 10 singles – Shine a Little Love (six), The Diary of Horace Wimp (eight), the highlight, Don’t Bring Me Down (three) and Confusion/Last Train to London (eight).

Whoever had the idea of Newton-John and ELO for the soundtrack to Xanadu, it was a great move. A side each for the lead actress, fresh from Grease, and one of the biggest bands of the late 70s. Throw in legends Richard and Kelly, plus a hip band in the Tubes, and it was bound to do well. And it was certainly way more successful than the film itself.

However, initially the signs weren’t promising in the UK. Newton-John’s Magic was released first and although it was a US number 1, it couldn’t manage better than 32 here when released in May. ELO’s I’m Alive came next and climbed to 20. It was time to bring out the big one.

Review

Xanadu was written by Lynne as an ELO song with Newton-John in his place as lead singer. It’s easy to see why people rushed out to make it number 1 for a fortnight in the summer of 1980. Especially as there had been two months of sad ballads in the top spot beforehand.

Although disco was fading in popularity and the ridiculous Disco Demolition Night had taken place the previous year, Xanadu was designed as a coke-fuelled floorfiller. It ticks lots of boxes, and I can remember playing my brother’s single as a boy and loving it. Which makes sense as it’s like a hit of pure sugar from a bag of sweets. And yet, if you strip away Lynne’s sheen, it sounds rather throwaway now. The soaring chorus is strong – with piano flourishes reminiscent of Dancing Queen – but the rest doesn’t leave much of a mark. It’s an argument you could make about a fair bit of ELO’s material. Of course, there’s classics in there like Mr Blue Sky and Livin’ Thing, but sometimes the production is hiding substandard material. I would bet on many buyers listening to Xanadu once or twice and then forgetting all about it. It doesn’t help that, as I keep banging on about here, that there are so many classic chart-toppers in 1980. Xanadu doesn’t stand the test of time as well as I’d expected it to.

The official video to Xanadu, is, I assume, taken from the film itself. It’s predictably flashy, with a predictably stunning Newton-John mining among roller-skaters and even body-poppers, in a sign of things to come. There’s no sign of ELO at all. The effects may be dated, and I’ve no idea what’s going on at the end when Newton-John turns blue and then ends proceedings in a Marilyn Monroe-style pose in white. But it’s all rather charming, thanks in large part to Newton-John.

After

Press screenings of Xanadu were cancelled, which raised suspicions that Universal weren’t confident. The suspicions proved true, and it sunk at the box office, despite critics applauding the soundtrack. A double feature of Xanadu and Can’t Stop the Music inspired the first ever Golden Raspberry Awards (or Razzies), highlighting the worst in cinema every year since. Greenwald won the initial Worst Director Award and his movie was nominated six more times.

One further track was lifted from the soundtrack. It’s love theme, Suddenly, was a Newton-John/Richard duet, and it reached 15. Refusing to let the failure of the film curtail her career, she followed the project with her most successful album, Physical, in 1981. The surprisingly risqué title track, hidden behind a memorable ‘keep fit’ video, was a Billboard number 1, but somehow only made it to seven on these shores. Newton-John also made a video version of this album, with a short film for every song. One song, Landslide, was her final UK hit for eight years, reaching 18 in 1982. A year later she starred with Travolta once more, but the romantic fantasy Two of a Kind was a flop. Nevertheless, as with Xanadu, the accompanying album did well.

Newton-John’s fortunes began to slide with the release of her 1985 LP Soul Kiss, and she went on hiatus after giving birth to daughter Chloe in 1986. She returned in 1988 with the album The Rumour, but although the title track was written and produced by Elton John, it failed to make an impact. The next album – her last to be produced by Farrar – was Warm and Tender, and it also got nowhere. It took the nostalgia of The Grease Megamix in 1990 to return her to the charts, peaking at three. In 1992, a planned comeback was waylaid when she discovered she had breast cancer on the same weekend her father died. Fortunately she recovered, and added cancer awareness to her impressive resume of charity and humanitarian work.

Gaia: One Woman’s Journey was released in 1994. Co-produced by Newton-John, this album chronicled her time with cancer. In 1995 she reunited with her showbiz pal Richard for his musical Heathcliff, and their duet Had to Be finished up at 22. In 1998, the Martian Remix of You’re the One That I Want did extremely well, becoming a number four hit.

Newton-John concentrated on releasing material in Australia from then on, but occasionally toured the UK. She married John Easterling in 2008, and continued to act, including two cameos in popular US musical comedy drama Glee. Occasionally she’d reunite with Travolta, including on the charity festive album This Christmas in 2012, or to celebrate the Grease phenomenon.

In 2017, Newton-John’s cancer returned and spread to her back. Despite significant pain, she was able to relieve her pain with cannabis oil. But on 8 August 2022 she died, aged 73. As a mark of respect, Melbourne and Sydney lit up some of their most famous landmarks.

Two more ELO tracks were released from the Xanadu soundtrack – All Over the World (one of Lynne’s best, which went to 11) and Don’t Walk Away (21). Next came their sci-fi concept LP Time in 1981, on which they replaced their trademark strings with synths. Its first single, Hold On Tight, was their last top 10 hit, peaking at four. The last Time release, The Way Life’s Meant to Be, could get no higher than a paltry 85.

Lynne wanted to release a double album in 1983, but CBS blocked the plan and he was forced to edit down Secret Messages to a single LP. This, combined with dwindling ticket sales and arguments with his manager Don Arden, took their toll. He decided to wrap up ELO. Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King sold respectably, reaching 13, but no further singles made the charts.

Bevan went to play for Black Sabbath, while Lynne concentrated on production, working with the Everly Brothers and ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog. He also collaborated with Tandy on the soundtrack to Electric Dreams (1984). However, ELO were contractually obligated to complete one more album, so Lynne, Bevan and Tandy reunited to record Balance of Power, released in 1986. The first single it spawned, Calling America, was their final top 40 hit (28). ELO leader Lynne disbanded the group once more and produced George Harrison’s comeback album Cloud Nine in 1987, before the duo joined supergroup The Traveling Wilburys.

ELO returned to life in 2000 with the release of the box set Flashback featuring, among various out-takes, an inferior new remake of Xanadu. A year later a new album, Zoom, was released featuring only Lynne from the classic line-up – bar Tandy on one track. A new line-up followed, with Tandy returning to the fray, for a planned world tour, that never materialised.

Lynne and Tandy eventually returned under the name Jeff Lynne and Friends for Children in Need in 2013. They went down so well, the project expanded into Jeff Lynne’s ELO in 2014. A tour and a new album, Alone in the Universe, followed in 2015, but Tandy left a year later. ELO were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The last Jeff Lynne’s ELO album to date was From Out of Nowhere in 2019.

The Outro

Xanadu grew a cult following over the years, with a spin-off musical hitting Broadway in 2007.

The Info

Written & produced by

Jeff Lynne

Weeks at number 1

2 (12-25 July)

Trivia

Births

18 July: DJ Gareth Emery/TV news presenter Tasmin Lucia-Khan/Engineer Scott James Remnant
19 July: Liberty X singer Michelle Heaton

Deaths

14 July: Welsh poet Andiron Talon Davies
15 July: Scottish painter Dorothy Johnstone
18 July: Theatre director Robert Kidd
21 July: Physiologist Isabella Leitch
23 July: Poet Olivia Manning
24 July: Comic actor Peter Sellers (See ‘Meanwhile…’)

Meanwhile…

19 July-3 August: Great Britain and Northern Ireland win five gold, seven silver and 9 bronze medals at the controversial Olympic Games in Moscow.

22 July: Unemployment hits nearly 1.9 million – a 44-year high.

24 July: Shortly after dinner with his former Goon friends Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan, actor and comedian Peter Sellers dies of heart failure. He was 54.

January Sale

January 29, 2024 / robbarker1979

‘January, sick and tired, you’ve been hanging on me’.

Yes, the month that never ends isn’t over yet. It’s not all bad though, because it means there’s still time for a January sale.

The digital version of my book Every UK Number 1: The 60s is available for seven days on Kindle for 99p. That’s down from £4.99, and the print version is £15.99, so A BIG SAVING.

460. Don McLean – Crying (1980)

January 28, 2024March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

US singer-songwriter Don McLean’s commercial appeal in the UK had fallen after American Pie and his 1972 number one Vincent. So it’s surprising to discover he returned to the top of the pops eight years later with a cover of Roy Orbison’s classic ballad Crying.

Before

McLean had followed up the LP American Pie with his eponymous third, but there were no charting singles. In fact, only a live version of Buddy Holly’s Everyday, from fourth album Playin’ Favorites, made it to the charts for the rest of the 70s – and that only scraped in at 38 in 1973.

That same year, Killing Me Softly with His Song by Roberta Flack became a number six hit in the UK. It’s mentioned here because the song’s lyrics, credited to Norman Gimbel, were co-written by Lori Lieberman, who was inspired by witnessing a 1971 concert by McLean. 23 years later, the Fugees took Killing Me Softly to number 1 in the UK.

McLean’s fortunes weren’t helped by record label politics. After one more album for United Artists (1974’s Homeless Brother), he signed with Arista Records for four albums. However, he only recorded one – Prime Time – in 1977.

In 1978 McLean set to work on the next. Chain Lightning saw McLean record in Nashville with noted session players and also featured Elvis Presley’s old backing group, The Jordanaires. However, he and Arista founder Clive Davis didn’t get on, and the deal broke down. McLean was left without a recording contact in the US, but the LP was released through EMI in Europe.

Considering the roll call of veteran Nashville musicians on Chain Lightning, a cover of Roy Orbison’s Crying fitted in nicely. This song had been written by the ‘Big O’ with his regular collaborator Joe Melson, and was the title track of Orbison’s third album. Amazingly, the original version only managed to reach 25 in the UK in 1961.

Review

McLean’s version starts promising with just his acoustic strum and voice. And what a voice – it hits home here much more than on his previous UK hits what a great singer McLean is. It bodes well for a great cover of a classic break-up song. The trouble is, as impressive as McLean’s singing is, you can’t help compare it to one of the greatest singers of all time in Orbison. Few people can get that wounded heartbreak across quite like the Big O. And this version gets worse as it goes on. Had it stayed sparse, with those nice steel guitar sounds that creep in, I’d have liked Crying more.

The problem is Larry Butler’s production. Butler was a country music producer, responsible for huge hits including Kenny Rogers’ two number 1s – Lucille and Coward of the County. I’m not a fan of the dry, bland production of either of those, and this is worse. He overeggs the pudding way too much, smothering it in sickly strings and the Jordanaires wailing. It’s boring and totally ruins the sadness at the heart of Crying. Orbison’s original may sound old-fashioned in the 21st century, but it’s still more authentic than McLean’s.

The best version I’ve heard is Orbison’s duet with Canadian singer-songwriter kd lang. Originally recorded in 1987 for the film soundtrack to Hiding Out, it was released as a single four years after the Big O’s death, climbing to 13 in 1992.

I also feel I need to mention my bafflement at the sleeve for this single. Either a giant McLean is looking to the sky in terror as a plane appears to be heading for his mouth, or McLean is normal-sized and the plane is tiny. Either way… what’s that all about? I hope it’s not some kind of reference to ‘The Day the Music Died’.

Actually, no, the best version of Crying, as we all know, is from an episode of Only Fools and Horses in 1991. ‘Stage Fright‘ features Philip Pope as Tony Angelino, a club singer with a speech impairment.

After

Arriving hot on the heels of What’s Another Year and Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless), this was the third sad number 1 in a row during the spring/summer of 1980. McLean’s European success with Crying resulted in a US deal with Millennium Records, who released the single and its album to success in America – Crying peaked there at five in 1981. However, chart fame has mostly eluded him ever since. In 1981, a cover of Since I Don’t Have You reached 23 in the US, and a new version of his debut, Castles in the Air, scraped in at 36 later that year. You could argue that he didn’t help matters by making his releases few and far between. In the 80s he only released two LPs, and his next and to date final chart news took place thanks to a re-release of American Pie, which climbed to 12 in 1991. He continues to release albums, albeit sporadically. The last to date was Still Playin’ Favorites in 2020.

The Outro

McLean has received many plaudits over the years, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His music has influenced many, including, perhaps unexpectedly, rappers. Tupac Shakur’s favourite song was Vincent and it was played to him when he was in a coma after his shooting. He’s also received songwriting credits on two songs by Drake.

Stories have surfaced in recent years of abusive and controlling behaviour towards family members. In 2016 he was arrested for domestic violence towards his then-wife Patrisha Shnier McLean, which he pled guilty to. His daughter Jackie told Rolling Stone in 2021 that he was emotionally abusive to. McLean admitted aspects of her account were true, but denied emotional abuse.

The Info

Written by

Roy Orbison & Joe Melson

Producer

Larry Butler

Weeks at number 1

3 (21 June-11 July)

Trivia

Births

22 June: TV presenter Charlene White
23 June: Liberty X singer Jessica Taylor
29 June: Mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins
1 July: Actor Ricky Champ
7 July: Labour and Co-operative Party MP Jim McMahon
8 July: Author Nikesh Shukla

Deaths

21 June: Physiologist WAH Rushton
22 June: Solicitor Joseph Cohen
23 June: Scottish actor John Laurie
27 June: Scottish physicist Sir Gordon Sutherland
1 July: Novelist CP Snow
3 July: Cricketer Charles Benstead
4 July: Anthropologist Gregory Bateson
6 July: Composer Frank Cordell/Engineer Jeanie Dicks/Lawyer Sir Ralph Windham
7 July: Actor Reginald Gardiner

Meanwhile…

23 June: New company law makes insider trading in shares illegal.

24 June: Unemployment reaches 1,600,000 and becomes the post-war record.

26 June: The Glasgow Central by-election results in a Labour hold despite a swing of 14% to the Scottish National Party.

30 June: Circulation of the pre-decimal sixpence coin is withdrawn.

1 July: Aston Martin fails to raise the funds necessary to buy MG’s Abingdon car factory – putting it under risk of closure.

8 July: Despite Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher’s pleas, miners who are threatening to strike demand a 37% payrise.

10 July: An accidental fire during maintenance destroys Alexandra Palace’s Great Hall, Banqueting Suite, Dressing Rooms and Ice Rink.

459. The Mash – Theme from MAS*H (Suicide Is Painless) (1980)

January 24, 2024March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

There are many weird chart-toppers but this is up there with the weirdest. Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless) is a song about suicide, with lyrics written by a teenager and sung by the voices behind some of the most memorable US TV shows and advert jingles, 10 years after the film it came from was first released.

Before

M*A*S*H (1970) is a black comedy about the Korean War of 1950-53, directed by Robert Altman and based on the 1968 novel M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors, by Richard Hooker. The film starred Donald Sutherland, EIliot Gould and Tom Skerrit as members of a unit stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. The movie struck a chord with a country in the midst of losing the Vietnam War and was one of the biggest films of the early 70s, winning an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Composer and arranger Johnny Mandel provided incidental music for M*A*S*H. In addition to film scores, Mandel was a jazz and pop musician, working with greats including Count Basie and Frank Sinatra.

The film M*A*S*H is bleaker than the subsequent series (which Altman hated). And this song’s title is more literal than you may realise. In one scene, the unit’s dentist, Walter ‘Painless Pole’ Waldowski (played by John Schuck) decides to kill himself. He’s such a womaniser, he decides he must be compensating for being gay. Yes, you read that right. Surmising that living as a gay man is too hard, he thinks suicide is the better option. The rest of the unit don’t believe him, and decide to organise a ‘Last Supper’-style event, where they give him a sleeping pill masquerading as poison.

Mandel was tasked with writing a song for Private Seidman (Ken Prymus) to sing during the Last Supper scene, with two stipulations. The first – it had to be called ‘Suicide Is Painless’, in reference to the dentist’s nickname and his fake cause of death, and the second – it had to be ‘the stupidest song ever written’.

Before Mandel came up with the tune, Altman tried to write some lyrics, but told the composer ‘I’m sorry but there’s just too much stuff in this 45-year-old brain. I can’t write anything nearly as stupid as what we need.’ But he reassured Mandel when he said ‘All is not lost. I’ve got a 15-year-old kid who’s a total idiot.’ When he presented him with the lyrics by his son Michael, Altman said they only took him five minutes to write. If this is true, it’s impressive, as although some of the words show signs of adolescent influence, Suicide Is Painless is pretty deep.

Altman was very impressed with the song’s appearance in the Last Supper scene. And rightly so, as Prymus’s performance is lovely. So he decided to upgrade it and it officially became Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless). And it’s this version, playing out over the opening credits, that became the released single.

Altman chose to adopt a choral approach and enlisted members of The Ron Hicklin Singers. This Los Angeles-based group were the vocal equivalent of The Wrecking Crew, and often worked together to record thousands of TV and film themes, plus countless TV and radio jingles, from the 60s to the 80s. Some of the more memorable included the themes to Happy Days, Wonder Woman and Batman. But they’re perhaps best known in the US for their time as backing singers for The Partridge Family, the TV show/musical spin-off that made David Cassidy a teen idol. Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless) features John and Tom Bahler, Ron Hicklin and Ian Freebairn-Smith.

Review

As unusual as this is, it’s a fascinating number 1 – and genuinely great too. The producer – Thomas Z Shephard – was an expert in musical theatre, classical and opera albums, and it really shows. The minimalistic production is spellbinding, capturing the genius of Mandel’s tune through a simple folk sound of acoustic guitar and bells. Using the voices of those better known for performing on ads and family comedies is a really clever touch – it gives the impression The Mash (as they were credited) are actually selling the concept of suicide to the listener. Very, very dark.

And although the lyrics were written by a teenager, there’s remarkable bleakness, insight and intelligence at times. The opening line referring to ‘early morning fog’ could be taken as symbolic of depression, or could be a literal reference to the conditions of the Korean War. The chorus, sometimes taken as nonsensical, is actually pretty deep. When someone is so in the grip of depression and suicidal thoughts, it can obviously feel ‘painless’ as a way out of problems. And the misery can be so all-encompassing, it really can feel like it doesn’t matter either way to the sufferer, that they really can ‘take or leave it’. But it can also refer to soldiers fighting a war too. They may well die anyway, so why not have that level of control to feel better, as a mental way out of the horrors of conflict? To say that suicide ‘brings on many changes’ is an understatement at best, for those left behind, but to someone wallowing in their own personal hell, that might be as deeply as they’re willing to think about family and friends. Haunting, to say the least, particularly this verse:

‘The sword of time will pierce our skins,
It doesn’t hurt when it beings,
But as it works its way back in,
The pain grows stronger, watch it grin’

Bloody hell.

The final verse however, augmented by strings, reads much more like the work of a teenager:

‘A brave man once requested me,
To answer questions that are key,
“Is it to be or not to be?”,
And I replied, “Oh why ask me?”.

Not great.

After

Originally released as Song from M*A*S*H in 1970, this single failed to trouble the UK top 10. The long-running TV series spin-off for CBS began in 1972. Starring Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers, the half-hour episodes were often more like a sitcom than a comedy drama. CBS tried to avoid controversy, keeping away from any overt protest at the still-ongoing Vietnam War. And they decided to ditch the disturbing lyrics to the film’s theme, using an instrumental version instead. Altman described the series as ‘the antithesis of what we were trying to do’.

The TV series was first broadcast in the UK in 1973 on BBC Two, and the film premiered on Christmas Eve, 1977 – two years after the end of the Vietnam War. The movie was repeated in 1980 on 10 Feb, and I can only think that the combination of this being shown, while the series was still running, caused the song to capture the public’s imagination. There seems to have been something in the air that spring/summer, as this was the second in a hat trick of sad songs at number 1, following What’s Another Year and preceding Crying.

M*A*S*H ended in 1983. The finale, aired in the US on 28 February, remains the most-watched episode of scripted TV ever – watched by an around 125 million Americans. The UK didn’t get to say goodbye until 27 December 1984.

Altman once claimed that while he made $70,000 for directing M*A*S*H the film, his son has made more than $1 million in royalties for the theme’s lyrics. Not bad work for ‘a total idiot’.

The Outro

In 1992 the Welsh alt-rockers Manic Street Preachers released a decent cover of Theme from M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless) as a double-A-side for charity with Fatima Mansions’ cover of (Everything I Do) I Do it For You. Raising money for The Spastics Society, it peaked at seven in the charts. This singles has since proved to be sadly ironic, in light of their guitarist and songwriter Richey Edwards’ disappearance in 1995.

Remember people, if you’re feeling suicidal, help is available. Contact The Samaritans on 116 123.

The Info

Written by

Johnny Mandel & Mike Altman

Producer

Thomas Z Shephard

Weeks at number 1

3 (31 May-20 June)

Trivia

Births

1 June: Footballer Martin Devaney/Actor Oliver James
2 June: Rugby player Richard Skuse
4 June: Actor Philip Olivier
10 June: Chess master Jovanka Houska/Singer-songwriter James Walsh
11 June: Footballer Ernie Cooksey
12 June: Doctor Adam Kay

Deaths

1 June: Boxer George Marsden/Boxer Len Wickwar
5 June: Athlete William Seagrove
7 June: Writer Elizabeth Craig
9 June: Physician Sir Derrick Dunlop
10 June: Conservative MP Denis Hanley
12 June: Businessman Sir Billy Butlin
18 June: Oil executive Sir Maurice Bridgeman/Film director Terence Fisher/Geologist Neville George
19 June: Educator Gladys Wright
20 June: Golfer John Beck/Poet Amy Clarke

Meanwhile…

6 June: Two Malaysian men were jailed for 14 years after they were found guilty of running a drug smuggling ring in London.

12 June: Pregnant 16-year-old Gail Kinchen and her unborn baby were accidentally shot dead by a police marksman in a tragic accident. The officer had entered the Birmingham flat to encounter Kinchen’s boyfriend, David Pagett, who was holding her at gunpoint.

17 June: Secretary of State for Defence Francis Pym told the House of Commons that US nuclear cruise missiles were to be located at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire and the disused RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire.

19 June: Three unknown gunmen were shot dead by Iraqi security forces when they attacked the British embassy in Iraq.

458. Johnny Logan – What’s Another Year (1980)

January 14, 2024March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

Irish singer Johnny Logan became the first Eurovision Song Contest winner to also reach number 1 with their song since Brotherhood of Man in 1976 with Save Your Kisses for Me. He also went on to be the first act to win Eurovision twice – hence the nickname ‘Mr Eurovision’.

Before

Logan was born Seán Patrick Michael Sherrard on 13 May 1954 in the Australian suburb of Frankston, Victoria, as his father, the Irish tenor known as Patrick O’Hagan, was touring the country at the time. The Sherrards returned to Ireland when he was three, and by the age of 13 he had taken to composing his own songs. When he left school he became an apprentice electrician but was able to indulge his first love by performing music in pubs.

Sherrard starred in the title role of rock musical Adam & Eve in 1976, and a year later he was the lead in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. In 1978 he took the name Johnny Logan from the main character in 1954 Western Johnny Guitar. His debut single was No, I Don’t Want to Fall in Love, which failed to chart. The following year he made his first attempt to appear at Eurovision, but finished third in the Irish National Final.

In 1980 Logan tried again. This time he entered the Irish National with a song by broadcaster Shay Healy, who had previously written for Billy Connolly, among others. What’s Another Year had been written with Glen Curtin in mind originally, but reworked by co-producer Bill Whelan to suit Logan better. 14 years later, Whelan was asked to compose some incidental music for that year’s Dublin-based Eurovision. He came up with Riverdance, and you know how well that went down.

Logan won the Irish National final in Dublin on 9 March, and so headed to the Eurovision final in the Netherlands on 19 April. Giving a very doe-eyed, woe-is-me performance in a white suit, he won over the judges and became the first Irish winner of the contest since Dana with the execrable All Kinds of Everything.

Review

What’s Another Year isn’t much more pleasing to the ears than Dana’s song, sadly. The saxophone at the start is probably the highlight, because it brings to mind Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street. It’s downhill from there. This is bog-standard MOR dross, in which a lovelorn Logan moans about yet another anniversary of being alone. He sings it well enough, and makes things slightly more interesting when he trills the song’s title at times. But you ultimately want to give him a shake and tell him that’s more than enough wallowing. He’s good-looking, only bloody 26, and looks a lot younger. Get on Bumble, lad! There’s very little else to add other than this was clearly a victory for the older generation, hitting back after the exciting new sounds of Blondie and Dexys Midnight Runners. Oh, and the video to What’s Another Year is classic 80s soft-focus close-up tediousness.

After

What’s Another Year became number 1 across Europe. Hoping to capitalise on his Eurovision success, In London (which was the B-side of his debut) was released in June as the follow-up, and Save Me not long after that. Neither charted. As we’ve learned, with a few exceptions, Eurovision winners can quickly get forgotten about. In a blatant attempt to win over the grandparents once more, Logan recorded a recent Cliff Richard track, but Give a Little Bit More also flopped.

Logan attempted a comeback in 1983, but his new look and single Becoming Electric were a turn-off. However, in 1985 he was involved with another number 1 single. He was among The Crowd, the supergroup that recorded a cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone in aid of the Bradford City Disaster Fund, launched in the aftermath of the terrible fire that killed 56 spectators. He followed this up by becoming simply ‘Logan’, but Stab in the Back didn’t chart.

In 1984 Logan had written Ireland’s Eurovision entry, Terminal 3, for Linda Martin. And it very nearly won, coming second to Sweden’s amazingly titled Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley by Herreys. In 1987 he won the contest in Belgium with his self-penned saccharine power ballad Hold Me Now, which reached two in the UK. He also released a cover of 10cc’s 1975 chart-topper I’m Not in Love, which was produced by fellow chart-topper Paul Hardcastle.

Logan continued to release material, but it failed to dent the UK charts. But he still faired OK in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. He even recorded a cover of Richard’s song Miss You Nights with Elvis Presley’s backing band, the Jordannaires in 1990.

Then in 1992, Mr Eurovision struck a third time. He was the man behind Martin’s Irish entry, Why Me, which won the contest in Sweden. He became one of the select few to have written two winning Eurovision entries.

Logan has continued to release material, but has mostly stuck to Europe, particularly Germany. His stature as Mr Eurovision has ensured he’s remembered by fans of the competition. In 2005 at the 50th anniversary concert in Copenhagen, Hold Me Now was voted third most popular Eurovision entry. A new version peaked at nine in Denmark four years previous. In 2007 the double A-side Don’t Cry/I Love to Party (with Kaye Styles) climbed to seven in Belgium. The last chart success he’s had to date was Pray, a number three hit in his home country in 2013.

The Outro

When the 2020 Eurovision was cancelled due to COVID-19, the Netherlands instead hosted the programme Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light. The show featured previous participants, so of course Mr Eurovision was there, performing the suddenly relevant and even poignant What’s Another Year.

The Info

Written by

Shay Healy

Producers

Bill Whelan & Dave Pennefather

Weeks at number 1

2 (17-30 May)

Trivia

Births

22 May: Actress Lucy Gordon
30 May: Footballer Steven Gerrard

Deaths

17 May: Entrepeneur CC Roberts
18 May: Joy Division singer Ian Curtis (see ‘Meanwhile…‘/Trade unionist Bert Papworth
19 May: Janet Hitchman/Conservative MP Sir Christopher Peto, 3rd Baronet
20 May: Diplomat Sir Oscar Morland
24 May: Diplomat Ronald Burroughs
25 May: Gardener Alan Chadwick
28 May: Rugby league player Albert Brough/Trade union leader Jack Greenhalgh

Meanwhile…

18 May: In the early hours of the morning, Ian Curtis, lead singer of Joy Division, died by suicide, aged only 23 years old, after writing a note to his wife, Deborah. The couple were soon to be divorced. Deborah discovered her husband’s body on the eve of the band’s tour of North America.

27 May: The inquest into the death of New Zealand-born teacher Blair Peach, killed during a demonstration against the National Front in 1979, returns a verdict of misadventure.

28 May: Nottingham Forest retained the European Cup by defeating West German league champions Hamburger SV 1-0 in Madrid. This was the fourth year in a row that an English club had won the trophy.

457. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Geno (1980)

January 7, 2024March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

Kevin Rowland’s soul outfit Dexys Midnight Runners two number 1s are among the best-loved singles of the early 80s. Their first was a tribute to Geno Washington, and a comment on the fleeting nature of fame.

Before

Rowland was born on 17 August 1953 in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton to Irish parents from County Mayo. The Rowlands lived in Ireland when young Kevin was aged one to four, before returning to Wolverhampton. The family then moved to Harrow when he was 11. Rowland left school at 15 and became a hairdresser.

The first group featuring Rowland were the Roxy Music-influenced Lucy & the Lovers. Inspired by the rising punk scene, he then formed The Killjoys. This group was also short-lived, and for his next project, Rowland decided to move into soul music, having already written the Northern soul-style Tell Me When My Light Turns Green. Together with Killjoys guitarist and vocalist Kevin ‘Al’ Archer, they began to search for members to join their new band of soul brothers.

Dexys Midnight Runners (note the lack of apostrophe in the first word. There shouldn’t be one, even though the credit for the single Geno mistakenly suggests so) are so-called as a reference to Dexedrine. This brand of dextroamphetamine was used by Northern soul fans to help them stay on the dancefloor all night.

Rowland and Archer recruited ‘Big’ Jim Paterson on trombone, George ‘JB’ Blythe on saxophone (previously of Geno Washington’s Ram Jam Band), Steve ‘Babyface’ Spooner on alto sax, Pete Saunders on keyboard, Pete Williams on bass and John Jay on drums. This original line-up were told to give up their day jobs, as an intense programme of all-day rehearsal sessions was planned. Dexys Midnight Runners was a serious business.

The group began rehearsals in late 1978. By mid-1979, Bobby ‘Jnr’ Ward had replaced Jay on the drumkit. Bernard Rhodes, manager of The Clash, signed Dexys and had them record their debut single, Burn It Down, but suggested the song be renamed Dance Stance first. Rhodes also told Rowland to change his vocal styling, to make it more emotional.

Dexys Midnight Runners supported The Specials on some live shows, and seeing them bedecked in suits got Rowland thinking. He wanted Dexys to have their own distinct look too. Taking Robert DeNiro’s Mean Streets (1973) as a cue, the band started wearing donkey jackets and woolly hats.

Dance Stance was released on Oddball Records. Rowland wasn’t happy with Rhodes’ production, and when it only scraped into the charts at 40, he fired him and signed his group with EMI. Pete Wingfield became their new producer, and Saunders and Ward left, to be replaced by keyboardist Andy Leek and drummer Andy ‘Stoker’ Growcott.

Their first single on their new label was written in 1979 by Archer, to lyrics by Rowland. There’s a striking musical similarity to Your One and Only Man by Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band, as well as elements of The Turtles’ Happy Together. The crowd noises that open and close the track were lifted from Van Morrison’s 1974 live LP It’s Too Late to Stop Now.

And why Washington? In a 1980 interview for The Guardian, Rowland stated ‘He was the greatest soul singer that ever lived, apart from James Brown. I know he blew it, played the cabaret circuit and pissed everyone off but he’s criminally underrated, especially the band he had about ’65. The fire and emotion he performed with, total conviction … it’s that strength and aggression we try to put in.’

If EMI had had their way, Geno would have been relegated to the B-side and might never have caught the public’s imagination. The plan was for the A-side to be their cover of Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon’s Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache. Dexys’ refused, and there was talk of the single being a double-A-side, but the band won out.

Review

Discovering the riff isn’t entirely original has perhaps slightly taken the shine off the sheer catchiness of Geno. But only a little, because as Rowland said, they tried to capture the power of a Washington show, and what a performance it is. Gritty and determined, Geno is about Rowland as much as it is about his hero, if not, even more so. He recounts a Washington show from 1968 – he’s the youngest in a rough crowd (With the lowest head in the crowd that night/Just practicin’ steps and keepin’ outta fights’).

So captivating was Washington, Rowland needed no ‘bombers’ or ‘Dexys’, because his high was brought on by the gig itself. In the middle eight, Rowland switches from past to present as he explains the schooling he got at that gig, and references the Washington 1966 hit Michael (The Lover) (‘Academic inspiration, you gave me none/But you were Michael the lover, the fighter that won’). The next lyric, ‘But now just look at me as I’m looking down at you’, can be taken literally, in that Washington is now in the crowd looking up at Dexys Midnight Runners. But it’s more likely Rowland proudly pointing out how the student is now the master. Occasionally, he seems almost cruel in his delight at this: ‘And now you’re all over, your song is so tame’, but he soon follows this with more kind words ‘You fed me, you bred me, I’ll remember your name’.

If this review seems a little more lyrically heavy than usual, it’s because I’m thinking you might be like me and have never known half of the content of the lyrics to Geno. Rowland’s singing style is totally unique. Punchy, earthy and emotional, yes. Easy to understand, no. It’s more like yelping at times, but it’s impossible to imagine Geno without Rowland’s testifying.

The video to Geno distills the essence of Dexys perfectly. Switching between band members walking moodily around Birmingham wasteland, eating in a dingy cafe, jumping New Street Station barriers, at a boxing gym and stomping around a small stage with a gaudy background. If this was Madness, it’d probably be a lighthearted romp. But this is Dexys Midnight Runners.

After

Geno was criticised in the music press upon release, but that infectious, jerky rhythm caught on big time. Within two months it was number 1 and stayed there for a fortnight. It was replaced by something far inferior, but gained Dexys many fans and had them waiting expectantly for their debut album. It also inspired The Specials, who they once supported, to write their next chart-topper.

The Outro

Much like The Specials, Dexys were a band to believe in. A collective of young soul rebels committed to the rugged beauty of the music they loved. But by the time they had their second number 1 Come On Eileen in 1982, only Rowland and Paterson remained. Dexys were a new band with a totally different look.

The Info

Written by

Kevin Rowland & Kevin Archer

Producer

Pete Wingfield

Weeks at number 1

2 (3-16 May)

Trivia

Births

8 May: Scottish singer Michelle McManus
9 May: Field hockey player: Kate Richardson-Walsh
12 May: Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Deaths

4 May: Actress Kay Hammond/Scottish jazz pianist Joe ‘Mr Piano’ Henderson
5 May: Conservative MP Sir Archibald James/Singer Betty May
6 May: Labour MP William Warbey
8 May: Botanist Charles Edward Hubbard
9 May: Historian James Webb
10 May: Trade unionist Frank Lynch
12 May: Academic William A Robson
14 May: Actor Hugh Griffith/Playwright Christine Longford
15 May: Meteorologist John Somers Dines
16 May: Physicist Robert Alan Smith

Meanwhile…

3 May: Liverpool win the Football League First Division title, for the 12th time.

5 May – The Iranian Embassy Siege comes to a dramatic close when the SAS storm the Iranian Embassy building and kill five out of the six terrorists. The dramatic events are broadcast live on TV, and the SAS become national heroes.

10 May: Second Division team West Ham United win the FA Cup for the third time, defeating First Division Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley Stadium.

16 May: Inflation rose to 21.8%.

456. Blondie – Call Me (1980)

January 3, 2024March 25, 2024 / robbarker1979

The Intro

In what must surely be one of the shortest durations between chart-toppers for one act, Blondie only had a month inbetween Atomic and Call Me – two of the best number 1s that year. This collaboration with Italian genius producer Giorgio Moroder (the man behind I Feel Love) was the theme song to Paul Schrader’s American Gigolo. The film starred a little-known actor called Richard Gere as a high-end male escort and it made him a star.

Before

Call Me began as a Moroder instrumental known as Man Machine. Not the tune by Kraftwerk, but similar in the sense it combined electronic music with pop. He originally had his eye on Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac to add lyrics and perform songs for American Gigolo, but she couldn’t for contractual reasons. Luckily for Moroder, Blondie were one of the hottest bands on the planet, and singer Debbie Harry was up for it. She watched the film and had the opening scene – driving on the Californian coast – in mind as she set to work writing the words, which only took a few hours.

Blondie went into the studio in New York with Moroder in August 1979 to record Call Me – just one month after finishing up their fourth LP Eat to the Beat. The pressure of following up the massive album Parallel Lines, and Harry’s perceived increasing dominance of the group, was causing tension. The recording of Call Me didn’t help. The first session, in LA, had seen Moroder and his crew, including keyboardist Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Forsey (drummer on I Feel Love), record an instrumental version to a timecode so it would synchronise with American Gigolo.

It’s unknown whether Moroder was only expecting Harry, but Faltermeyer later claimed the producer was surprised the rest of the band were insisting on adding their own instrumentation. Guitarist Chris Stein’s equipment was buzzing and annoying the perfectionist Moroder, who, after realising the musicians were struggling to play in time and fighting among themselves, aborted the sessions. The backing tape was completed by Moroder and co, including the keyboard solo by Faltermeyer. This riled an already paranoid Blondie (minus Harry of course), but when Call Me shot to number 1 in the US before Atomic did, and then after Atomic in the UK, they changed their tune. Who is it on backing vocals, is it drummer Clem Burke, keyboardist Jimmy Destri, bassist Frank Infante, all three, or Moroder’s boys? I don’t know.

Review

Moroder and Blondie are two of the greatest names in disco, so it’s a given that any collaboration between the two would be great. Call Me and Atomic are like sisters, both showing Blondie at the top of their game, melding disco, pop and rock in a totally natural way. And although only Harry is on the recording, you’d never know upon listening, which shows how effectively Moroder had also become in combining different genres. Moroder was intending to produce Blondie’s next LP, but the infighting caused him to change his mind. It’s fascinating to imagine how good that could have been.

The rest of the band’s jealousy towards their singer is only natural, but she is also at the peak of her powers as a songwriter. Where Atomic featured improvised lines that captured the feel of the band’s blistering performance, Call Me shows Harry studying her source material and coming up with a song that is perfect as a film soundtrack. She succinctly communicates that Gere’s character is available whenever you need him, referencing the classic Martini ad tagline ‘Anytime, anyplace, anywhere’. He’s clearly used to a higher class of clientele (‘Roll me in designer sheets’) and ‘speaks the languages of love’, with a smattering of Italian and French thrown in for good measure. But the best lines are Harry’s frustration at feelings ruining what are meant to be a purely business arrangement: ‘Emotions come I don’t know why/Cover up love’s alibi’. As with I Feel Love, this Moroder classic is best heard in full via the 8:05 album version. The video edit is way too short at only 2:15

Further proof that Harry now pretty much was Blondie in the public eye is apparent in the record sleeve above and the video to Call Me, in which the striking singer is filmed in the city, on the beach and on stage. The rest of her band are nowhere to be seen.

After

Call Me was released in the US first in January 1980 and surprisingly was only their second number 1. It became their biggest-selling single and was also number 1 on Billboard‘s end-of-year chart that December. In addition to the soundtrack version, video edit and radio edit, there was a Spanish-language 12″. A Ben Liebrand mix missed out on top 40 action in 1988. Oh, and an abbreviated version was sung by Harry on The Muppet Show in 1981.

The Outro

Of course, the problem with being at the peak of your powers is that the only way is down. There was only one more Blondie 80s number 1, and it was a cover that didn’t hit the heights of Call Me. The band re-recorded Call Me in 2014, and to be fair, this probably felt more needed than their other 2014 covers, as it meant Blondie were actually on the recording. However, it’s probably not a huge surprise to find out it doesn’t match the original.

The Info

Written by

Giorgio Moroder & Debbie Harry

Producer

Giorgio Moroder

Weeks at number 1

1 (26 April-2 May)

Trivia

Births

28 April: Cyclist Bradley Wiggins
2 May: Footballer Zat Knight

Deaths

26 April: Actress Cicely Courtneidge/Conservative MP Irene Ward, Baroness Ward of North Tyneside
27 April: Theatre director E Martin Browne/Producer John Culshaw
29 April: Film director Sir Alfred Hitchcock (see ‘Meanwhile…’)
30 April: Scottish Labour MP Thomas McMillan
2 May: Conservative MP Sir Jocelyn Lucas, 4th Baronet/Army captain Herbert Westmacott

Meanwhile…

29 April: Legendary filmmaker Sir Alfred Hitchcock died at home in Los Angeles, aged 80.

30 April: A six-man team of terrorists from the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan began the Iranian Embassy Siege, taking 26 hostages at the Embassy of Iran in Knightsbridge.

1 May: British Aerospace was privatised.