Wednesday 12 September 2012

Maria Vidal 'Body Rock'

Chart Peak: 11

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Originally released last year and from the breakdance movie of the same name, 'Body Rock' became a club hit and then crossed over to the pop chart - it made No. 11 in late September/early October.
She did this on Top Of The Pops 27 years ago today, a handy reminder that Steve Wright could be equally annoying when announcing TotP performances in-vision. Maria Vidal only had the one hit, and that at the second time of asking, but she does have a small place in pop history: the character of Gina in 'Livin' On A Prayer' is supposedly based on her in the days when she was the girlfriend of that song's co-writer Desmond Child. She later married Rick Nowels, another man noted for making rock music as bland as possible, and you might expect this to be in a similar vein. Whilst not earth-shattering, though, this is actually sort of pleasant in a vaguely disco-pop way, lacking some of the heavy-handedness of her ex's work.

I've never actually seen the film Body Rock, and I don't know if many people did. It seems to have been one of those dance-craze cash-in movies of the sort that still gets made to this day. Since the film's about breakdancing, you might have expected something a bit more hip-hop oriented for the title song, but it doesn't quite seem to have worked out that way. I presume they were aiming for something more obviously commercial in order to promote the film, but with the song not even charting here first time around (and missing the US Top 40) it seems to have been a bit of a forlorn hope. Still, it left us with a decent, if clichéed, pop song.

Available on: 101 80s Anthems

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