Stuart Colman - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

1981 had been a banner year for Shakin’ Stevens, with two number 1 cover versions of rock’n’roll classics This Ole House and Green Door. Shaky was back a year later and he topped the charts for the third time with a song of his own – the jaunty, Cajun-flavoured Oh Julie.

Before

The album Shaky had made Stevens one of the most popular singers of the previous year. With two number 1s under his belt, Epic Records milked the LP for one more hit. However, his cover of the vintage ballad It’s Raining proved it was time to make more music, when it peaked at 10.

Recording on the follow-up began at the end of a whirlwind year. Give Me Your Heart Tonight. As it wasn’t released until October 1982, it’s most likely that the album was still being worked on when Oh Julie was released, but Epic were understandably hoping to try and keep Stevens very much in the public eye.

Oh Julie was penned by Stevens and arranged by his guitarist Mickey Gee, who had previously worked with Tom Jones (when he was known as Tommy Scott), Joe Cocker and Dave Edmunds. He had also played in Shaky’s old backing band, The Sunsets.

It’s also worth talking about – on a song that there isn’t really much worth saying – Steven’s guitarist and producer, Stuart Colman, who played a large part in the singer’s success. In 1976, Colman organised a march to the BBC, complaining about the lack of rock’n’roll on Radio 1. Despite the fact the station, as always, was supposed to be playing chart music, Colman was awarded his own show, and that is why Epic gave him the fateful call to ask him to produce Stevens.

Also in the line-up for Oh Julie was the accordionist Geraint Thomas, who had recorded the album Geraint Thomas & the Dominators, produced by Andy Fairweather Low, in 1979. Thomas’s input adds some much needed colour to Stevens’ least-remembered chart-topper, giving it that authentic rockabilly feel.

Review

Before Shaky fans shake their fists at me, let me say, fair play to Stevens for Oh Julie. It’s a decent stab at songwriting, and a rather brave attempt to move away from only recording classic material. Anyone would have potentially come up short against rock’n’roll standards in that situation. But it’s middling at best – and Shaky doesn’t cover himself with glory by admitting later that he only called it Oh Julie because it rhymes with ‘truly’.

Actually… I’ve just scanned the lyrics. Bloody hell Shaky, I’ve changed my mind. They’re beyond lazy. Let’s face it, Colman deserves credit here for having polished a bit of a turd. There’s no excuse for this when you compare it to some of the amazing number 1s yet to come in 1982.

What is worth mentioning, however, is the unhinged video. Stevens can always be relied on for amusingly camp videos, and this is no exception.

Shaky is out in the cold, singing by a lamppost while an accordionist (Thomas himself?) plays on. Suddenly, our hero spies the sexy, glamorous Julie, who gives a sly look and goes inside, leaving her door open (ahem). Taking this as a red rag to a bull, Shaky goes in, and we then see that there’s CCTV cameras watching him. He starts singing to photos of Julie on the wall, which start coming to life, and then we see Julie sat in a control room casually watching him busting his moves. All totally normal. Once he’s had enough, Stevens just fucks off and Thomas carries on playing. Mental.

After

Although Give Me Your Heart Tonight was a top 10 album and spawned several hits, 1981-82 were the peak years for Stevens. However, there was one last number 1 to come – but that has to wait until we get to the 1985 Christmas number 1, Merry Christmas Everyone.

The Outro

There’s not a lot to say here, so I’m just going to use the chance to post once again the fantastic sight of a pre-fame Jim Moir before he became known as Vic Reeves, dancing in the video to his 1987 number five hit What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For? which had been the final number 1 of the 50s for Emile Ford and The Checkmates.

The Info

Written by

Shakin’ Stevens

Producer

Stuart Colman

Weeks at number 1

1 (30 January-5 February)

Trivia

Births

31 January: Footballer Allan McGregor

Deaths

30 January: Actor Stanley Holloway
1 February: Conservative MP Sir John Foster
4 February: Scottish blues-rock frontman Alex Harvey
5 February: Folklorist Peter Opie/Welsh novelist Ronald Welch

Meanwhile…

5 February: The collapse of Laker Airways leads to 6,000 passengers stranded.

The Intro

Ghost Town had spent three weeks at number 1, soundtracking the country’s dissent over rising unemployment. What did it take to reunite the country? It took the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles II and Lady Diana Spencer, and the retro rock’n’roll of Shakin’ Stevens, who was at the peak of his fame with Green Door.

Before

Shaky-mania was a very real thing back then. Grandparents and parents loved the Welsh pop star, who had filled in the sizeable gap left by the death of Elvis Presley, boys thought he was cool, and girls swooned.

Stevens’ cover of This Ole House had topped the hit parade in the spring, and so it was a case of striking while the iron was hot. Work began on his fourth album, the imaginatively titled Shaky. Adopting the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ methodology, it featured a mix of self-penned Stevens numbers and covers of 50s rock’n’roll tunes. The first fruits of Shaky to see the light of day was the original track You Drive Me Crazy, which was a strong track and rushed out hot on the heels of This Ole House. It was brand new, but could easily have been mistaken for a 50s or 60s hit. It very nearly became Shaky’s second number 1, but it was kept off the top spot by Stand and Deliver!, by the UK’s other hottest pop star of 1981.

Perhaps sensing that Stevens could repeat the success of his last number 1 by releasing a song the old folks would remember from their youth, Philips Records released his cover of Green Door.

Green Door had been written by US orchestra leader Bob ‘Hutch’ Davie, with lyrics by Marvin J Moore, in 1956. The original version was recorded by Jim Lowe, a singer-songwriter and radio presenter. The green door in question refers to the entrance to a private club, that Lowe is desperate to enter. He can hear laughter, an old piano which is being played ‘hot’, and can see smoke coming through the keyhole. Lowe’s recording, which became number 1 in the US and eight in the UK, is an interesting production, on which Davie played piano, that he sped up to give it a honky tonk sound.

In the UK, Lowe’s version was eclipsed by Frankie Vaughan’s, which reached number two. Vaughan, known as ‘Mr Moonlight’, was hugely popular in the UK, and in time he would have two number 1s. However, Lowe’s version is the superior one.

Review

I don’t know if it’s age or nostalgia, but here I am bigging up Shaky, whose version of Green Door is better than Lowe’s and Laine’s. It is very similar to the latter, but where normally I’d prefer an authentic primitive 50s production over a glossy 80s take, that isn’t the case here.

Producer Stuart Colman gives it sheen but also some oomph. It’s catchy as hell and to be fair, the country must have been ready for a party after all the civil unrest that had been going down that summer. And yet, it’s only a few months since I reviewed This Ole House, and I marked that down considerably, despite both singles being very, very similar. Perhaps Stevens caught me on a good day, this time.

Or perhaps it was the silliness of the video that made me warm to Green Door. Shaky’s videos are always good for an easy laugh, and this is no exception. Just like This Ole House, the director is taking things very literally (possibly the same director?). Stevens jumps around in front of some, yes, green doors in much the same way he jumped off the old house (yes, really). There are repeated shots of an eye looking through a keyhole, a piano… you get the message. Then he finally gets inside the club and gets the chance to do some Elvis-style gyrations on the piano. It’s ridiculous, but in a good way, and I can totally see why he must have seemed so cool to me as a little lad.

After

After spending nearly all of August 1981 at the top of the singles chart, the parent album Shaky was released, and went on to be his most successful LP ever, also reaching number 1. It’s Raining, also from the album, peaked at 10, but he would soon be back at pole position.

The Outro

Green Door is obviously squeaky clean and upbeat. But it also took on a more sinister meaning for me, thanks to its reworking for a 1976 public information film, that continued to be shown well into the 80s. Looking at it now, it’s really not scary, but it did its job when I was a boy, as after seeing it I’d be too scared to answer the door to anyone. Cheers, Central Office of Information!

The Info

Written by

Bob Davie & Marvin J Moore

Producer

Stuart Colman

Weeks at number 1

4 (1-28 August)

Trivia

Births

8 August: S Club 7 singer Bradley McIntosh
11 August: Scottish singer-songwriter Sandi Thom
17 August: Conservative Party MP Johnny Mercer/Actor Chris New
20 August: Ben Barnes
27 August: Comedian Olivia Lee
28 August: Scottish Labour Party leader Kezia Dugdale

Deaths

5 August: Poet Molly Holden/Clarinettist Reginald Kell
9 August: Landowner Ralph Bankes
10 August: Civil servant Sir Alan Lascelles/Anglican clergyman James Parkes
12 August: Royal Navy captain Howard Bone
15 August: Lawyer Sir Humphrey Waldock
16 August: Cinematographer Denys Coop
18 August: Second World War pilot Athol Forbes
19 August: Actress Jessie Matthews
21 August: Journalist JRL Anderson
22 August: First World War nurse Mairi Chisholm
24 August: Physician Margery Blackie
26 August: Television producer Peter Eckersley
28 August: Record producer Guy Stevens

Meanwhile…

1 August: Kevin Lynch became the seventh IRA hunger striker to die.

2 August: Less than 24 hours later, Kevin Lynch became the eighth.

8 August: Thomas McElwee became the ninth.

9 August: Broadmoor Hospital is criticised when double murderer Alan Reeve became the second prisoner to escape there in three weeks.

17 August: An inquiry opened for the Moss Side riots.

20 August: Michael Devine was the 10th IRA hunger striker to die in prison.
Also on this day, Minimum Lending Rate ceased to be set by the Bank of England.

25 August: Britain’s largest Enterprise Zone was launched in Tyneside.

27 August: 31-year-old Moira Stuart was appointed to be the first black newsreader on the BBC.