Thursday 1 August 2013

Nick Kamen 'Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever'

Chart Peak: 16

YouTube
Originally a Top 30 hit for the Four Tops in 1966, this track is Nick's follow-up to 'Each Time You Break My Heart'.
And the retro-soul returns, in cover version form, thanks to Nick Kamen, the young man best known for taking his clothes off in an advert for trousers. Thanks to this and other modelling work, he got a record deal and scored a Top 5 hit with the Madonna outtake 'Each Time You Break My Heart', one of her few writing credits on a song she never released herself. I presume his management sensed the musical climate of the times and decided on a safe cover version to keep the momentum up. It worked on this occasion, although this proved to be the last time he would trouble the Top 39 positions in the UK chart.

Unfortunately, it's a pretty insipid version of the original, with Stewart Levine's production lacking the swing or grit of Motown's version. Kamen's vocal is best described as "competent" and not even in the same league as the earthy tone of Levi Stubbs (in fairness, few singers are). Ironically, Kamen found himself on the opposite side of this equation when his self-penned 1990 single 'I Promised Myself' - only a Number 50 "hit" in the UK, but a big smash in many other countries - was covered by Basshunter.

Available on: Love In The 80's

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