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I've never seen the film of Give My Regards To Broad Street, but it's quite conspicuous that its twenty-fifth anniversary last year wasn't greeted by a special edition DVD release, a big publicity drive or indeed any acknowledgement at all. It's widely held that this song, or at least the original is the one saving grace of the film and a soundtrack packed with sub-par retreads of Beatles songs: the worst offender an awful elevator-music version of 'The Long And Winding Road worse than anything Phil Spector did to it.
In anybody's money, 'No More Lonely Nights (Ballad)' is one of McCartney's best songs of the 1980s, glossily produced but with real heart. Something in the slightly halting way he sings "And if it takes a couple of years..." really seems to humanise the song. Deservedly, the single was a major hit, with a peak position he's yet to match barring charity records and the Beatles reunion.
The bad news is, however, that this isn't quite that track. It's a remix (strictly speaking of the already inferior 'Playout Version') by Arthur Baker, who really should have known better. So should Paul McCartney, who was apparently so taken with this version that he recalled the single so that this version could be added. Somehow it manages not only to remove all that was good in the original but also to fail utterly as a potential dance record and it's difficult to imagine how this version got picked as an opener for Now 4 (it's listed correctly on the sleeve so it can't just be a mistake in the tape library). If they were reluctant to open the album with a slowie then the more obvious solution would have been to shuffle this a little further back in the running order, especially as this isn't exactly upbeat itself. Maybe it was meant to be a public service to people who bought the first pressing of the single? Oh well, at least they managed to spell the song title correctly.
Of course, one of the other real claims to fame for Now 4 is that it shares its title with the first ever Now CD. However, editing it down to a single disc and sneaking on a few tracks from earlier volumes mean this isn't one of them, so anybody who wanted this mix on Compact Disc had to wait until a 1993 re-issue of the soundtrack album.
Also appearing on: Now 2, 15, 24, 37, 67
Available on: Give My Regards To Broad Street
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