YouTube
Although I gratefully acknowledge Tom Ewing's Popular as an influence on this blog, I don't think I've ever linked to a post before. Initially, that was because he hadn't caught up with 1983 yet; at time of writing he's well into 1986, but I think I've been restrained more by the fact that his writing is so much better than mine. For once, though, I can't avoid drawing attention to his obvservation here that 'Hello' is defined for most of us by its video, which works rather to its detriment. Videos weren't something I got to see all that often back in 1984, so it's particularly remarkable that my memories of this one are so dominated by the clay head: however, it must have closed Top Of The Pops six weeks running in the absence of a personal appearance by Lionel. Wikipedia helpfully explains that the sculptor had never even met his subject, which is not the most surprising thing I've ever learnt on this blog.
Anyway, you can't see the video on Now 4 so I'll have to try and imagine I can't either. Where I diverge from Tom is that I don't share even his moderate enthusiasm for the song itself. I do find that wibbly synth bit under the lyric "And in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times" strangely effective, but it's all downhill from there. Richie once said he started writing ballads for the Commodores to ensure his songs were included on albums, there being less competition that way. And whilst this possibly isn't as sick-making as 'Three Times A Lady', there's something unpleasantly cynical-sounding about this as if he's writing it by the yard. Well crafted, for sure, but it's more like a carpet than a record, with none of the joie de vivre of 'All Night Long'.
Available on: The Definitive Collection
Hello is a song totally out of date with the Now! compilation on which it features. It seems to have been chucked on in the absence of anything from the latter part of 1984 to fill the gap.
ReplyDeleteWell, such things have often happened on Now albums (see tomorrow's post) but in this particular instance I think it might have been more of a case of Motown being reluctant to licence it any sooner. I don't notice anything from them on the first three volumes...
ReplyDeleteEither way, you can tell they didn't intend it as a filler, given that big photo of him with pride of place (er, no pun intended) on the cover.