Nick Berry 'Every Loser Wins'

Chart Peak: 1 [3 weeks]
YouTube

Charted at No. 66 on 30th September, had blasted to No.1 by 1th October and was still topping the chart at the beginning of November. By the way, the first Eastenders star to be on a No.1 record was Mrs Pauline Fowler, A.K.A. Wendy Richard who appeared on the 1962 No.1 'Come Outside' by Mike Sarne.

Just to clarify for younger or non-British readers, Nick Berry is an actor who was an early cast member in the popular soap opera Eastenders. This song was heavily promoted on the show itself as part of a storyline in which his character Wicksy was originally the lead singer of a band and then fell out with them and went solo so he ended up in competition with them. Well, something like that anyway: I didn't watch the show at that time (or ever, really) so I mainly became aware of this through the chart success of this song and of its rival 'Something Outa Nothing'[sic] by the actors Laetita Dean and Paul Medford, which peaked at 12 around the same time. Both songs were co-written by MOR veteran Simon May (who had of course also composed the distinctive theme tune) and Stewart and Bradley James.

'Every Loser Wins' is probably the more competent of the two songs, though it does resemble the quiet section from the end of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' stretched out to a full song. It's barely three minutes long but it feels much longer. There's nothing particularly wrong with it and I seem to recall that when I was eight I thought this was what good songwriting was supposed to sound like, but this is really the triumph of competence over the things that make music enjoyable. It's an inevitable but rather unsatisfying end to Now 8 on the analogue formats, though the CD version is reshuffled to end with Genesis instead. It's been a decent album, but Side Four was virtually a wash-out.

Also appearing on: Now 22
Available on: Eastenders - Peggy's Theme

Gwen Guthrie '(They Long To Be) Close To You'

Chart Peak: 25
YouTube

A hit for the Carpenters in 1970, this Bacharach and David song gave Gwen her second Top 30 hit in Britain following the Top 5 smash 'Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent'.

If you're taking notes - and why wouldn't you be? - this is the fourth song title on Now 8 to start with a bracketed subtitle, with three of the four having shown up on the first disc. Perhaps it was a fashion in 1986. Gwen Guthrie's first hit was an Eighties pop-soul anthem, albeit one that sparked some controversy for its lyrical insistence "You've got to have a JOB if you wanna be with me," which didn't go down well with some unemployed people.

Despite writing that song herself, she stuck to tried and tested material for the follow-up though this (self-produced) rendition is a broad interpretation of the song; she plays about with the lyric and melody like a jazz singer to produce an admirably un-syrupy performance over a club-friendly beat of the era. It's certainly distinctive but it seems to have confused the marketplace a bit and became only a moderate hit. She never had another and sadly died in 1999.

Available on: True Love (3 CD Set)

Paul Hardcastle 'The Wizard'

Chart Peak: 15
YouTube

The New Top Of The Pops theme, 'The Wizard', charted at No. 34 on 7th October and had reached no. 15 by 21st October.

"New" is a bit of a relative term here: the theme had been in use since April, so it was already familiar by the time the single hit the shops, which is why after about 40 seconds I expect to hear cheering and David "Kid" Jensen introducing a performance by Level 42. Needless to say, Hardcastle did get to perform the song on the show itself once it charted, getting bonus 80s TotP points by having what seem to be at least seven synthesisers on stage for an obviously mimed performance and being in front of a video wall, though there's a surprising lack of dry ice. Given the advance familiarity of the song it seems slightly odd that it took three weeks to peak but I suppose people might have had trouble linking the title to the theme tune.

29 years later, 'The Wizard' sounds like the sort of thing you might dance to while waiting for house music to be invented. It has the programmed beats and the samples (is that really Vincent Price's laugh from 'Thriller'?) but Hardcastle seems to be playing some sort of jazz-funk over the top of it. I don't actually know whether the song was originally written for a TV theme and stretched out to the three-minute single (then later still to a two-part album version of almost ten minutes) but it sort of feels like it, not really justifying the extended running time with enough variation on the basic theme. In contrast to the more inventive '19' and 'Just For Money', this appeals mainly on a nostalgic level.

Also appearing on: Now 6
Available on: Top of the Pops: 1986

Robert Palmer 'I Didn't Mean To Turn You On'

Chart Peak: 9
YouTube

Charted at No. 30 on 15th July, had sped to No. 9 by 29th July giving Robert his second Top Ten Hit of 1986

It was a funny old career that Robert Palmer had; enough hits to be considered a major star but not quite as many as you might think, and rarely a consistent run. The hits he did have covered a wide range of genres: soul, rock, funk, jazz, reggae, blues, even yodelling and included more cover versions than you might think. So it is that the third Jam and Lewis song on the album was originally recorded by Cherrelle, with Palmer supposedly covering it as some sort of satire on the unsuitability of the song for a teenage singer, although if this story is true he was misinformed as Cherrelle would have been 24 when her version was released. He also undermines the point slightly with the typical Palmer video as well.

It could be argued that the rather smarmy way Palmer sings the song is authentic to the lyric, but it's not especially enjoyable. Still, the song has a decent groove to it and it's well-produced (by Bernard Edwards, in contrast to the Nile Rodgers contributions elsewhere on here) and as the follow-up to 'Addicted To Love' it was never likely to fail. Yes, Palmer is yet another of the British acts who had a US Number One in 1986 and never managed one back home. This was one of two of his singles to peak at 2 there.

Also appearing on: Now 13, 18 [with UB40], 19, 29
Available on: Gold

Debbie Harry 'French Kissin' In The USA'

Chart Peak: 8
YouTube

Blondie had five British No. 1's in less than two years between February 1979 and November 1980. This solo single was released in early November.

Slightly surprising that Blondie themselves have never appeared on a main-series Now album. Obviously their initial run of hits was too early (and BMG presumably refused to licence 'Maria' in 1999) but there were several remixed and re-issued hits from the Now era that might have shown up. Anyway they didn't so Debbie Harry is represented only by her two major solo hits.

'French Kissin' In The USA', which apparently lost the second half of its title when actually released in the USA, was not her own composition but was written by comedy writer Chuck Lorre, who later created such sitcoms as Grace Under Fire, Cybil and Two And A Half Men. I don't think the song itself is supposed to be funny but it is presumably meant to be some sort of fluffy pastiche. It doesn't quite work though, possibly because she doesn't have the right sort of voice or because the production (by one of the J.Geils Band who wasn't J.Geils or the lead singer) doesn't really fit. Or maybe the song just isn't any good.

Also appearing on: Now 16
Available on: An 80s Summer

Doctor And The Medics with Roy Wood 'Waterloo'

Chart Peak: 45
YouTube

Roy Wood was No.1 with The Move ('Blackberry Way') and with Wizzard ('See My Baby Jive' and 'Angel Fingers'), Doctor And the Medics were No.1 with 'Spirit In The Sky'. 'Waterloo' was originally No.1 and a Eurovision winner for Abba... So this new version should get to No...

To nowhere in the Top 40, as it turned out, making this the third and last non-hit on Now 8. Again, though, the Doctor and his Medics weren't really a one-hit wonder because they'd had a Top 30 hit with 'Burn' as the immediate follow-up to their chart-topping cover version. Still, somebody obviously thought there was demand for more novelty covers from the Seventies and so this version of Abba's Eurovision winner arrives, sung by the group's (female) backing singers The Anadin Brothers. You could argue this was a little ahead of its time, six years before Erasure's Abba-Esque EP, but you could also argue that Erasure put more of their own spin on the track whereas this a fairly straight re-run of the original without the thorough finesse of genuine Abba.

Roy Wood makes his only appearance in the main Now series (though he has of course appeared on several Now Christmas albums) on saxophone here, though he probably attracted more attention in the video. He also provides a tenuous link back to It Bites, since Francis Dunnery's late brother played in Violinski, a spin-off from Electric Light Orchestra and of course Roy Wood was also a member of ELO. The video also features cameo appearances by Lemmy, Captain Sensible and some other people I don't really recognise but they're filmed as if they're famous.

The Medics don't really impress too much with their Now tracks, which feel more like cabaret than something for sound-only. However Andy Partridge produced their earlier single 'The Miracle of the Age' which hints that there was something slightly more interesting going on once upon a time.

Doctor And The Medics also appear on: Now 7
Available on: Keep Thinking It's Tuesday

It Bites 'Calling All The Heroes'

Chart Peak: 6
YouTube

Charted at No. 58 on 8th July, peaked at No. 6 on 19th August. It Bites are the first Cumbrian group ever to make the British Top 10.

As far as I know they remain the only Cumbrians to have a Top 10 single, although British Sea Power have also made the Top 10 album chart. As if exhausted by this attainment, It Bites never made the Top 40 again, despite a sizeable live following and many semi-successful releases.

'Calling All The Heroes' is an odd confection with a swashbuckling prog-rock lyric sung over some sort of synth-pop thing. It has an undeniably memorable chorus, which explains how frontman Francis Dunnery went on to become a successful co-writer; he's done even better as a producer, but then he wasn't responsible for the rather flat sound of this track which feels incredibly dated now. It's really neither one thing nor the other.

Available on: Whole New World (The Virgin Albums 1986-1991)

Kim Wilde 'You Keep Me Hangin' On'

Chart Peak: 2
YouTube

Originally a Top 10 hit for the Supremes in December 1966, Kim's version charted at No. 36 on 21st October and raced to No. 15 the following week.

So it turns out this is the second consecutive track that's a US Number One by a British act who never topped the domestic chart. Of course it's more remarkable in the case of Wilde because she had so many hits in total, amking her more comparable to the aforementioned likes of Genesis and Bananarama than to Cutting Crew even though it was into 1987 when this topped the US chart.

The original version of this song is a notable work of production, compressing many changes of mood and pace into a brief running time to ratchet up tension. Apparently Kim Wilde and her producing brother Ricki had forgotten this by the time they recorded this cover (they admitted they hadn't heard the song for some time) and they settled for a simplistic version which is supposed to be Hi-NRG-influenced but is mid-NRG at best. The closest this gets to being impressive is the amount of hair she has in the video.

Also appearing on: Now 8, 13, 14, 25
Available on: Another Step

Cutting Crew (I Just Died) In Your Arms

Chart Peak: 4
YouTube

Charted at No. 74 on 12th August, had sped to No. 4 by 16th September to become Cutting Crew's first hit single.

Arguably the two most different tracks on Side Three are right up against each other at the end. One thing Cutting Crew do have in common with Billy Bragg is that neither of them graced the main Now series again, although they're not quite the one-hit wonders you might recall them as: 'I've Been In Love Before' had two runs in the Top 40 and peaked as high as 24.

I must admit that it never occurred to me until now that Cutting Crew could be any nationality other than American, but apparently they were mostly British though ultimately more successful in the USA. This single was recorded there and certainly has every hallmark of being aimed at radio stations in that market: it's almost a textbook example of every mid-80s soft-rock cliche. Keyboard pads, a bit where it goes slightly quiet and builds up again, a "polite" guitar solo exactly where you expect it to be, endless repetitions of the big chorus... in fact only a few minutes after listening to it I'm already struggling to remember the verses but they're not really the point. Singer Nick Van Eede, a man clearly unfamiliar with the concept of "too much information", explains that he had the idea for the song title while having sex with his girlfriend and wrote it down for future use. His girlfriend's reaction to this, or indeed to the chorus lyric "I should have walked away" is not recorded. The record has a remarkable inert quality, as if it's trying to bypass any need for anyone to actually like it and heading straight to being a hit (in fairness it did succeed). Several of the band were successful session musicians and with all due respect to that trade, they sound like session men on this track too.

Available on: The Best Of Cutting Crew

Billy Bragg 'Greetings To The New Brunette'

Chart Peak: 58
YouTube

His previous single 'Levi Stubbs' Tears' was a Top 30 hit... 'Greetings' was released as the follow-up in late October.

OK, a couple of things to mention early on. Firstly, some discographies list this track as "Billy Bragg with Johnny Marr and Kirsty MacColl" [also how it was listed on the chart] so for consistency with earlier posts I'm continuing to credit them even though they're not mentioned on the sleeve of Now 8. Kirsty MacColl sings a prominent backing vocal towards the end of the track and Johnny Marr, he plays guitar. And as for that video, since it's been copied from VH-1 I have to assume that it's official, even though the combination of stock footage and home movies of Bragg not singing give it an oddly posthumous feel.

Billy Bragg is of course still very much among us but despite his high profile he's never been a consistent singles chart performer so Ashley Abram was taking quite a risk placing this track on the album. It of course didn't pay off as this is one of two singles on Now 8 that missed the Top 50. Interestingly both of them are the only solo appearances in the series by performers who had Top 20 hits that were uncompiled; Bragg can technically claim that his next chart appearance after this was at Number One with 'She's Leaving Home', though inevitably it was Wet Wet Wet's flipside that made it to Now 12. It's a bit of a cliche to say that most of Bragg's best writing deals with the personal rather than the political, but it's not entirely untrue; not least of course because the emotions he's discussing here are eternal. Throughout the song his protagonist addresses the unseen "Shirley" with whom he evidently has a testy but enjoyable relationship - not an over-the-top Burton/Taylor kind of thing, the sort of relationship normal people have. Though Bragg possibly thinks of himself as cleverer than his narrator he still leaves him and Shirley as sympathetic characters and throws in perhaps his most-quoted lyric "How can you lie back and think of England when you don't even know who's in the team?" Although this doesn't quite have the same emotional impact as the aforementioned 'Levi Stubbs' Tears', neither does it have the hectoring tone of some of his songs, and the conversational tone of the performance is safely within his limited vocal range. A good song that could even have been a hit were it not for the confusing title; Bragg did eventually give in and re-record the song as 'Shirley' a decade later. If it seems out of place here, at least Bragg is sometimes better enjoyed in smaller doses.

Kirsty MacColl also appears on: Now 10 [with the Pogues], 15, 31
Available on: Must I Paint You a Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg

Big Country 'One Great Thing'

Chart Peak: 19
YouTube

Charted at No. 27 on 16th September, made No. 19 the following week becoming the group's third Top 30 single of 1986.

In contrast to Huey Lewis, Big Country are an act that I do associate with Now albums, because even though they're only actually on four of them those appearances have increased the number of Big Country songs I'm familiar with to a significant extent. 'One Great Thing' sounded only glancingly familiar if that, probably because it was used in beer adverts on the telly at the time (and obviously those weren't scheduled during children's programmes) but it's fairly typical stuff, forceful Celtic rock with a uplifting positive lyrical message. Exactly the sort of thing I tend to regard with suspicion but weirdly I find myself quite liking this one. And I've even played it more than once so it can't just be that it caught me on the right day.

Perhaps ironically, given its seemingly anti-nationalist sentiment, the song was used as part of the Scottish independence campaign after Stuart Adamson's death. The band kept recording into the 1990s and a version continues to exist even now, releasing a new album with Mike Peters from the Alarm on vocals in 2013. Better to remember them this way though.

Also appearing on: Now 2, 4, 7
Available on: The Seer

Huey Lewis And The News 'Stuck With You'

Chart Peak: 12
YouTube

Charted at no. 48 on 19th August, this American chart-topper peaked at No. 12 on 30th September.

A one-off appearance for Lewis and his band, which might be why they sound a little out of place somehow. Maybe it's just the arrival of such an obviously American act after so many British groups, but they somehow don't seem to belong in the same reality as the Now albums. Indeed, they only ever had three Top 20 singles in Britain, and two of them were 'The Power Of Love', so they weren't really as big as they seemed, though they had a couple of successful albums.

As much as they always sounded like a polished version of a bar-room band, they also sounded like they knew they were lucky to get where they were and wanted to make sure everyone had fun. To quote one of their own song titles (ironically from 2001) 'We're Not Here For A Long Time. We're Here For A Good Time'. The track has an easy-going one-of-the-guys cheer that's hard to dislike but also hard to think much about. It even sounds charmingly apologetic.

Available on: Greatest Hits: Huey Lewis And The News

Status Quo 'In The Army Now'

Chart Peak: 2
YouTube

Quo's twentieth (Yes, twentieth) UK Top 10 hit since 1968 and one of their biggest to date, 'Army' charted at No. 29 on 30th September and had shot to No.2 by 28th October.

I don't think "shot to No.2" is supposed to be an army-based pun but you can't be sure can you? Although Side 3 is obviously supposed to be the "rock" side of the album, there's a bit of a contrast between the different styles. Not that Status Quo don't have a sense of humour - though I think it was less in evidence in the 1980s than it is now - but they're not noted for being subtle or trying to sneak in challenging political ideas. In fact, 'In The Army Now' is an atypically serious song from them, although few in Britain would have noticed that it is in fact a cover of a 1981 single by the Dutch duo Bolland (who were born in South Africa, so there's some connection to the Madness song after all) and if anything the Quo version is a little toned-down in its content: they drop the admittedly dated references to Vietnam for a start. By 2010, they re-recorded an even more pro-military version in collaboration with the actual army, and I'm sure somebody could write a whole thesis about changing attitudes to the armed forces in 21st-century Britain.

The 1986 recording is notable as the biggest Quo hit that deviates from the archetypal sound they discovered in the early 1970s, and a rare example of them covering a song in a style closer to the one it was originally in than to their own. Unfortunately this means it shares the great failing of the Madness track (in that it sounds very dated now) but it's also quite bland and has a pseudo-serious mood it can't live up to, however catchy the chorus is.

When I first started writing this and looked the song up on YouTube, I thought it was actually more interesting than I remembered. It turned out that I'd actually found the video for the 12" mix, which is rather more dramatic and less monotonous. I might have given that version a better review.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 14, 18, 33 (with the Beach Boys), 53
Available on: In The Army Now

Madness '(Waiting For) The Ghost Train'

Chart Peak: 18
YouTube

Their farewell single after 21 Top 21 hits! 'Ghost Train' features the return of pianist Mike Barson

Well, when the subject crops up of bands who were active in my childhood and used humour and entertaining videos to get some interesting subject matter over... well, you can't not mention Madness so it's good timing for them to turn up here. Good timing doesn't mean they were having a good time though, and by the middle of the decade the strain was starting to show as the singles weren't going Top 10 any more. Barson seems to have been a key figure in keeping the septet into some sort of order and after he'd left the remaining six obviously weren't having so much fun.

So they finally decided to split up, which called for a second best-of collection (Utter Madness
 to follow Complete Madness) and this new single. Tellingly, I have no memory of hearing this at the time at all, and when I did first encounter it (on a boxed set my dad bought at a car boot sale in the mid-90s) I wasn't keen. Over the years I've grown much fonder of it, the only Madness hit written entirely by Suggs (unless you count 'Forever Young', which peaked at 199 in 2010) which is apparently a song about apartheid in South Africa; I'd never have guessed but you can sort of hear it when you're looking out for it, especially in the chorus "It's black and white, don't try to hide" and in the accent with which he sings certain lyrics. Although the track was, like every other hit they had in the 80s, produced by regular collaborators Langer & Winstanley, it does sound decidedly of-its-time, dominated by brittle-sounding drums and synthesisers and a phasing effect that sounds a bit like they were playing about. Arguably they could have put more effort into the structure of the song than messing about with the gimmicks but I suppose they were losing focus a bit. Still, the song is strong enough to shine through and has the advantage of not being as overplayed as the big Madness songs.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 3, 6, 21, 43
Available on: Mad Not Mad

The Housemartins 'Think For A Minute'

Chart Peak:
YouTube

Charted at No. 47 on 30th September, had progressed nicely to reach No. 18 by 28th October. 'Think' is the group's second Top 20 success following 'Happy Hour'.

Sadly the last time we get to hear from the Housemartins on this blog, it being rather unfortunate that their brief span of success was in the days of only two Now albums per year. I don't have the toilet-shaped picture disc of this single, but I was lucky enough to obtain the original 12" for less than a pound, as pictured to the left.

If their debut album London 0 Hull 4 has a flaw, it's that a lot of the tracks do sound quite similar, and the original album version of 'Think For A Minute' (a title which I always thought should have an exclamation mark in it but doesn't) is a little bit Housemartins-by-numbers with its typical jangly guitars in the same tempo as many of their other songs. I love a jangly guitar, but so long into a running order of similar tracks it sells itself a bit short.

For single release we get an entirely new recording of the song, in an acoustic arrangement. Obviously slowing a song down can have mixed results, though the most common one is boredom. That's not the case here, thanks to the quiet intensity of the playing and Paul Heaton's outstanding vocal - there can't be many vocalists who've been so successful and yet so underappreciated. It concentrates attention on his more recognised talent as a lyricist, in which he's produced a susprisingly compelling song about apathy. A lovely trumpet solo from Guy Barker serves to preclude any monotony. And of course one of the reasons I've always loved the Housemartins is because they temper whatever messages they have with humour, as in the video for this song where drummer Hugh Whittaker mocks his minor role on the track by attempting to dominate the performance. Of course, the fact that he later served time for attacking somebody with an axe makes this slightly less funny now but we didn't know about that in 1986. For an indie band of the era they have some surprisingly good dance moves too, but then their interest in other music is also demonstrated by the affectionate parody B-side 'Rap Around The Clock'.

"Top pop stars or total willie noses?" they ask on the back cover of the 12". I'm voting for the former this time.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 9, 10
Available on: London 0 Hull 4 - Deluxe E Album Set

Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush 'Don't Give Up'

Chart Peak: 9
YouTube

The follow-up to 'Sledgehammer' went straight into the chart at No. 31 after just one week on release.

Hard to imagine that even in 1986 a new release from one (or even two) established stars entering the Top 40 in release week was really that noteworthy, but I guess they had to make it sound exciting somehow. Presumably they went to press too soon to mention that by its second week, 'Don't Give Up' had progressed to the Top 20 and been joined in the 40 by Kate Bush's solo single 'Experiment IV'. It's fairly well-known now that Peter Gabriel was originally inspired to write this song by images of Depression-era America and so intended the song as a duet with Dolly Parton but she turned it down (Gabriel speculates that she didn't actually know who he was) and forced him to go in another direction.

Tantalising as it is to imagine a Gabriel/Parton duet, his old friend Kate does a more than sterling job. Not only is she obviously a very good singer but the contrast between their two voices accompanies the contrast between their two parts, the despairing man in the verses and the determinedly hopeful woman in the chorus. What saves this from glib sentimentality is the pain in her voice; you know she's not just handing out platitudes, she's struggling herself but they both need each other to keep going. This is accompanied by a relatively minimal soundscape, which fits with the desolate beauty of their situation without suggesting any specific place or time. The most famous element in that production is of course Tony Levin's bass part, which was recorded partly by using one of his daughter's nappies to damp down the strings. One certainly hopes it was a clean nappy.

The resultant track is quite possibly the best on this album, certainly the best in this sort of style (it's harder to compare this with something like 'What Have You Done For Me Lately') but also a song that's not an easy or comfortable listen. Sometimes I don't feel up to it.

Peter Gabriel also appears on: Now 7, 23, 24
Kate Bush also appears on: Now 6, 16
Available on: Hit

Boris Gardiner 'I Wanna Wake Up With You'

Chart Peak: 1 [3 weeks]
YouTube

Charted at No. 50 on 22nd July, had rocketed to No. 1 by 19th August where it stayed for 3 weeks. The follow-up 'You're Everything To Me' made the Top 20 in October.

The odd one out among the three chart-topping singles on Now 8 as the only not to show up on a CD spin-off. EDIT 21st of March: That previous sentence was entirely wrong, but I'm not pretending I didn't make the mistake so I've just crossed it out - this is in fact the closing track on Now '86.
Needless to say, when I was eight years old I didn't entirely grasp the implications of the song but I did think this song was the soppiest load of nonsense possible. I must be getting old because I think I've warmed to it a little over the years. Mind you, I think that may be less because of the song itself - which borders on the inane and certainly doesn't have enough to it to justify a four-minute running time - than because I quite like the idea of a man having his first Number One single at the age of 43. It does have a certain sweetness about it, but it'd be very generous to say I actually liked it.

Available on: Reggae Collection [+digital booklet]

The Human League 'Human'

Chart Peak: 8
YouTube

Charted at No. 19 on 19th August, made No. 8 on 2nd September becoming the group's 11th Top 20 hit in Britain.

Another Jam & Lewis production, though in this case it was also written entirely by the producers with no input from the group themselves, whereas Janet Jackson had contributed to her own single. Although this was recorded immediately after the Jackson album (and therefore before it had been success) the American duo had already made a bit of name for themselves with the likes of SOS Band and Alexander O'Neal so it's obvious why the League would have wanted to work with them. In practice, though, they apparently fell out in the studio, with the group walking out before the production was even finished and largely disowning it. Well, at least until this got to Number One in America anyway.

In the previous post I mentioned the contrast between the heavily programmed production and a human vocal, and whilst this is already an inferior song it could have worked fairly well in a similar production. The trouble is that, as Spin magazine noted at the time, the Human League don't really do that, they're more about emotional detachment and self-conscious straightfacedness. When Phil Oakey croons, "I'm only human," you don't totally believe him. It doesn't help that Joanne Catherall can't decide what accent to use for her brief spoken section either. They certainly made worse records than this but it's a right-place-right-time sort of hit.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 13, 30, 31, 32
Available on: The Best Of

Janet Jackson 'What Have You Done For Me Lately?'

Chart Peak: 3
YouTube

Charted on 18th March, moved slowly at first and then raced to No. 3 by 29th April. 'Lately' was followed into the Top 20 by 'Nasty' and 'When I Think Of You'.

Possibly the most noteworthy new arrival on Now 8, the second most successful member of the Jackson family was not an overnight success in the US, let alone here. Her only Top 100 success before this was the unlikely duet with Cliff Richard on 'Two To The Power Of Love', and even that only got to 83. Only when she reportedly defied her father's wishes and started working on her third album with Minneapolis-based producers Jam & Lewis did her fortunes change. Ironically, though, the breakthrough single was inspired by the end of her short-lived marriage to James DeBarge; it seems her father was right about him if nothing else.

This sound became ubiquitous, perhaps too ubiquitous for its own good, but rarely has it sounded as good as it does here, a combination of funk, soul and synthpop that works partly by contrasting Jackson's peppy vocal against the mechanical backing track. There's a twist of humour amid the exasperation and the middle eight comes in at exactly the right moment. It's as close as she and dare I say it anyone in her family ever came to a perfect pop song.

Also appearing on: Now 26, 38, 39, 40, 41, 49, 53 (with Beenie Man)
Available on: Design Of A Decade 1986/1996

Jaki Graham 'Step Right Up'

Chart Peak: 15
YouTube

Follow-up to 'Set Me Free' and 'Breaking Away' which were both Top 2 hits earlier in 1986.

Oddly appropriate that the notes are about her previous hits because this does sound very like an attempt to write a follow-up to 'Set Me Free'. Even though the lyrical sentiment is kind of the opposite, it's quite similar musically, though inevitably not as good. It's also rather marred by the attempt at a rock production with a jarring guitar overdubbed at the end of the track. Graham does her best but she hasn't been given a lot to work with here.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 6 [with David Grant], 7
Available on: The Very Best Of