Cameo 'Single Life'

Chart Peak: 15

YouTube

Charted at No. 47 on 10th September and rose steadily to reach No. 15 by 15th October.

I'm not sure who those people on the cover are but I'm pretty sure they weren't members of Cameo. I don't think I'd ever heard this track all the way through before, though I did remember the chorus, and had a vague idea I'd seen part of the video before. I was slightly surprised at how minimal it sounded - even this 7" edit is effectively instrumental for much of its running time and the arrangement's pretty sparse, dominated by the slap bass and synths you'd expect on Side Four of a mid-80s Now! album.

In theory, I should hate Larry Blackmon's silly whiny voice and the lyric of this song, which seems to be boasting about the single life, ie pulling lots of girls. But somehow the combination is goofy enough to work. And they do make the effort to clown about in that video. It's not something I'd go out of my way to listen to, and not being a single man I'm not invited to clap along to it, but it's cheery enough.

Also appearing on: Now 8
Available on: Anthology