The Intro

In a classic example of the British public losing its collective mind over Christmas, the 1982 festive number 1 wasn’t The Jam’s Beat Surrender. It was the bizarre but strangely charming novelty duet Save Your Love, credited to Renée and Renato. And even more strange is the fact this one-hit wonder was the first truly indie chart-topper.

Before

In 1975, the Italian-born, West Midlands-based waiter Renato Pagliari auditioned for ITV’s hit talent show New Faces. He didn’t succeed, but he caught the eye of songwriter and producer Johnny Edward, who loved rock’n’roll and hated kitsch pop. As a reaction to Brotherhood of Man’s 1976 Eurovision winner Save Your Kisses For Me, Edward wrote the tongue-in-cheek, overblown ballad Save Your Love with his wife Sue.

Over the next few years, Edward was busy creating, controlling and even voicing, through a vocoder, the robot Metal Mickey. Metal Mickey, directed by Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, was a hit children’s show from 1980 to 1983. I loved it at the time but from the clips I’ve seen since, I reckon it probably hasn’t aged well.

Edward decided to return to Save Your Love, and remembered Renato. He teamed him up with the singer Hilary Lester and got them in the recording studio. To help sell the record, he credited the song to Renée and Renato, portraying the duo as lovers, or husband-and-wife, who were singing their hearts out to each other to a frankly ridiculous degree.

BBC Radio 2 DJ Terry Wogan was of course no stranger to kitsch. The Eurovision Song Contest commentator played Save Your Love on his hugely popular breakfast show, and the single gained traction.

Review

Anyone with any knowledge of Christmas number 1s, or longtime readers of this blog, will know the long and not always illustrious history of novelty chart-toppers over the festive season. The combination of parents and grandparents buying songs for young children and the strange sense of humour of Brits in general, has resulted in some, you could politely say, unique Christmas bestsellers. Before 1982, some had their merits (I’m thinking Lily the Pink or Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)), while some were totally awful (see Long Haired Lover from Liverpool, or There’s No One Quite Like Grandma).

Save Your Love, believe it or not, falls in the former category. It shouldn’t, because it’s dross. But it’s also very funny. The idea of the British public falling for an Italian waiter and his fake lover performing such a lightweight saccharine love song sounds like something that could easily happen in the 50s or 60s, yet this was also feasible in 1982, in an era in which a group like Kraftwerk would also top the charts.

The lyrics are totally unremarkable, but the performance is. Renato certainly belts his parts out with real gusto, and that makes it funny. The knowledge that the Edwards were taking the piss also adds new appeal. But the best thing about Save Your Love is the video.

Renato, in a series of tight pullovers, serenades a very serious looking Renée (played by model Vivienne Marshall). This wonderfully ill-matched couple wander around in ultra-soft-focus. Renée remains mostly stony faced while Renato blasts the song out at full volume in her face. He even manages to throw a rose up to her bedroom window, and we see them holding hands in bed. Aww. The video was subject to a delicious spoof by the wonderful Kenny Everett.

After

Save Your Love, amazingly, held fort for four weeks. As it was released on Hollywood Records, it was the first ever truly independent record to top the hit parade. But reality soon set in and Renée and Renato’s follow-up, Just One More Kiss, failed to crack the top 40. Other singles followed but got nowhere.

Lester returned to private life, but Renato loved to entertain. He became a cruise ship singer, and would often entertain guests at his son’s restaurant, named Renato’s. He is also rumoured to have been the voice behind the famous ‘Just one Cornetto’ campaign for the Wall’s ice-cream in the 80s, though his son denies this.

Renato continued to release albums and singles, and even though he was a figure of fun, he’s scored one more number 1 than most of us ever will. He died from complications during brain tumour surgery on 29 July 2009, aged 69.

The Outro

Renato was a big fan of Aston Villa FC, and in the early 90s he was asked by their manager Ron Atkinson to perform Nessun Dorma for the team to provide inspiration. After his song was over, Atkinson told his team to harness that passion on the pitch. When he appeared on the BBC Two TV show Room 101, Atkinson said that only Luciano Pavarotti could perform the song better than Renato.

The Info

Written by

Johnny Edward & Sue Edward

Producer

Johnny Edward

Weeks at number 1

4 (18 December 1982-14 January 1983)

Trivia

Births

1 January 1983: Footballer Calum Davenport

Deaths

19 December 1982: Composer Lawrance Collingwood/Actress Jane Arden
29 December: Motorcycle racer Jack Brett
31 December: Convicted robber Derek Ridgewell
2 January 1983: Comedian Dick Emery
5 January: Opera singer Amy Evans/Writer James Wentworth Day
6 January: Composer Bernard Stevens
7 January: Opera singer Edith Coates
8 January: Army brigadier-general Arthur Stanley-Clarke
10 January: Welsh rugby union player Carwyn James
14 January: Actress Margie Morris

Meanwhile…

23 December 1982: The Round Oak Steelworks at Brierley Hill in the West Midlands closes, meaning more than 1,200 jobs are lost.

1 January 1983: The British Nationality Act 1981 comes into effect, creating five classes of British nationality.

3 January: Children’s ITV is launched as the new late afternoon programming strand for children on the ITV network.

5 January: Two policemen and a policewoman drown at Blackpool after attempting to rescue a man who entered the sea to save his dog (both also drown).

6 January: Danish fishermen defy the government’s prohibition on non-UK boats fishing in its coastal waters.

14 January: Armed policemen shoot and severely injure the innocent Stephen Waldorf in London. They believed he was escaped prisoner David Martin.