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If there's a them to this side of the record, it's alternate tracks by veteran artists. Slade obviously hadn't been around quite as long as the Stones, but this still finds them ten years after their last Number One single, although they'd just had a near miss with the Christmas Number Two 'My Oh My'.
Whilst that song had crept into the US Top 40, 'Run Runaway' has the honour of being their highest-charting single of all time over there. It doubtless helped that Quiet Riot had raised their profile over there with a couple of cover versions, and apparently it was quite the MTV favourite in its day. Slade having spent much of the late Seventies trying to crack the American market, this isn't really the same sort of thing as their biggest UK hits, featuring a modern-at-the-time production (the clip I've linked to misses the thudding intro) and more of a studio-bound sound. And of course they didn't spell it "Run Runnerweigh" or anything... Despite all this, it's aged unexpectedly well, still capturing some of the charm that made them famous, and backed by Jim Lea's crazy violin playing, a common thread with their first Top 10 hit, 'Coz I Luv You'. In fact, this sounds more Celtic to me than the Big Country record.
Also appearing on: Now 20
Available on: The Very Best Of Slade
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