Simply Red 'For Your Babies'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

The chances are that if you're at all interested in Simply Red, you already have the Stars album from which this was the third of five hit singles - it had already been the biggest-selling album of 1991 and was to be the top seller of 1992. If the song title doesn't ring any bells, well, that's what the YouTube links are for, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend actually looking at the screen, because the video is an annoying parade of clichés and pomposity. The song itself drifts rather in the direction of the sanctimonious too; a fairly typical example of the sentimental song of a new parent but for the fact that Mick Hucknall didn't as far as we know become a father until more than ten years later.

Mind you, this doesn't sound anywhere near as bad now as I thought it might. Perhaps it's the knowledge that Simply Red got so much worse than this but there is a decent if slight tune buried under the self-consciously tasteful production and Hucknall could still sing then. It's not something I'd want to hear too much of and I'd hardly say it deserved the success it had, but it slips down easy.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 7, 9, 20, 21, 24, 32, 33
Available on: Simply Red 25: The Greatest Hits

Arrested Development 'People Everyday'

Chart Peak: 2

YouTube

It probably isn't really necessary for me to post a link to the original of 'Everyday People' but it was a good excuse to listen to it myself. That's all the more welcome as I prepare myself for the admission that I've never really got Arrested Development. At the time I was too young or at least too ignorant to understand them, and now I sort of feel like they're too much of their time to make sense if you didn't like them in the early years of the decade. To be sure, I appreciate the appeal of hip-hop that isn't about shooting people, and there are plenty of "daisy"-sounding tracks I like. The trouble is, I think, that this lot don't seem to convey quite the same sense of fun as Jurassic 5 or De La Soul or even the original, and the enforced positivism without that lightheartedness tends to drift into the realms of the preachy; the fact that the leader chose to call himself Speech hardly counteracts that suspicion.

All of which said, 'People Everyday' is a slightly different song from them, as the protagonist actually becomes genuinely irritated by some people grabbing their crotches and bothering his girlfriend. It's a trace of grit that makes this track more human and likeable, although the irritating backing vocals spoil the effect somewhat. I can admire this record from afar but I'm not sure when I'd ever choose to listen to it.

Also appearing on: Now 24
Available on: 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of...

George Michael 'Too Funky'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

At last, a proper hit from a major act who was still alive in 1992! Indeed, the success of 'Too Funky' may have been something of a relief to Michael after the underwhelming chart performances of his previous few solo singles, although this was of course new material and a charity record to boot. Apparently the song was originally intended for a Listen Without Prejudice Volume 2 that never happened, and it does have a livelier sound than the mopey first volume (or so I've deduced from the singles, never having felt the desire to listen to a George Michael album with or without prejudice). Having pondered deep questions on his previous effort, this time around he just wants to get his end away, and isn't going to mince his words about it.

I suppose there are some people who might question whether such a single-entendre packed song ("I've got to see you naked baby" and so on) hits the right mood for a fund-raiser, but you certainly have to give him credit for supplying such commercially viable material at his own expense. A nice gesture indeed, but I can't be quite so positive about the record itself. It lacks the pompousness that puts me off a lot of his work, but that's an awkward disconnect between the animalistic directness of the lyric and the glossy sequenced accuracy of the production here. If he's as passionate as the words say, surely that's got to be either consummated or frustrated, but the dynamics just aren't there to convince me of that.
Also, that "I'm not trying to seduce you" sample at the start sounds maddeningly clichéed, although I'm more keener on the surprise ending, which Wikipedia attributes to Russ Abbott but other sources claim comes from Hancock's Half Hour.

Edit 10th November - as I should know, since I have the DVD case on the desk in front of me, The Radio Ham is an episode of Hancock.

Also appearing on: Now 22 (with Elton John), 25 (with Queen), 34, 35, 36, 37, 38,
Available on: Twenty Five

Go West 'Faithful'

Chart Peak: 13

YouTube

OK, I have to admit I'd never heard of this track before. I obviously remember Go West for what I think of as their big Eighties hits (although looking it up, 'King Of Wishful Thinking' was 1990) and I dimly recall Peter Cox's solo career, but both their Now appearances date from a period when I wouldn't have been sure they were even around had I not looked it up.

It's not totally impossible that I might have heard 'Faithful' at the time, but if I did it must have passed me by entirely. It kind of still does actually, another entry into the long category of "I'm going away but I'll be good, honest" songs, although the chorus lyric "I'll be faithful to my lover's prayer" has a slightly stilted un-English sound. The tune is slight and this strikes me, like a lot of music around this time, as decidedly ho-hum.

Also appearing on: Now 26
Available on: Aces and Kings: The Best of Go West

Bob Marley And The Wailers 'Iron Lion Zion'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Well, this is a track I certainly remember. Perhaps being at school with somebody called Brian helped. Of course, Marley had been dead for over a decade by this point, and because his death was so early in my life it felt like ancient history, although of course 1992 is longer ago now than 1981 was then. Ouch.

Anyway, 'Iron Lion Zion' was an unreleased track recorded circa 1973 and initially made available on a boxed set. Logically, it ought to be rubbish, and I start with the handicaps of not really understanding the Rastafarian imagery or indeed being much of a reggae fan at all. Actually, though, it's perfectly fine little ditty with a catchy hook and a nice brass section (I'm not sure how much, if anything, was overdubbed posthumously). I also don't entirely know why most sources seem to suggest a credit to the Wailers, when the original sleeve names Marley alone.

Also appearing on: Now 3, 44 (with Funkstar De Luxe)
Available on: Songs Of Freedom

Was (Not Was) 'Shake Your Head'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

The first act on this album to have managed more than one Top 10 single (the other being 'Walk The Dinosaur') and indeed there are another couple of songs I remember in the shapes of 'Spy In The House Of Love' and a slightly iffy cover of 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', but none of those ever made it to a Now album. Somehow, though, their highest-charting single in the UK passed me by utterly at the time, and even when I came to write this post I just sort of vaguely recalled having heard it a few years ago. Well, that and the unusual vocal line-up of Kim Basinger and Ozzy Osborne.

As people who know their Was better than me will already be aware, the original recording of this song dates back to 1983, and they even didversion with Madonna on vocals which remains officially unreleased. The version that finally became the hit is a remix by Steve "Silk" Hurley with the actress's vocal added. And yet for all the effort, re-workings and remixing it's a record that I find it hard to concentrate on, as if it's so busy being pleased with itself for its cleverness that it forgets to do anything clever, merely reciting a list of difficult or impossible tasks (shades of 'All You Need Is Love'? and heading for a chorus I've already forgotten. Certainly not unlistenable, but I don't think I'd care if I didn't hear it again.

By the way, as the video I linked to was posted by the record company, I have to assume it really does fade out that abruptly. Did they run out of budget or something?


Available on: The Collection

Charles And Eddie 'Would I Lie To You?'

Chart Peak: 1 (2 weeks)

YouTube

Another good pop record. No more than good, certainly; there's nothing unprecedented about it, but it pushes all the right buttons and you can tell why the record company were so pleased to have this song to launch their new act with: whilst both Charles (Pettigrew) and Eddie (Chacon) were songwriters, they didn't supply this one. They put their all into the performance though, although not in an especially intense way. The song requires and gets a cheerier, lighter-hearted rendition.

There are just a couple of problems. One is that the call-and-response vocal "Would I lie to you?" "Oh yeah" does slightly seem to undermine the intended message. The other different disadvantage is that it doesn't really establish much of an identity for the duo, which might be one reason why they too struggled to repeat anything that even faintly resembled the worldwide success of this number. So far, there's been a bit of a sense of the transitory about this album.

Available on: Original Hits: Number 1's