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

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

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

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

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

Mel And Kim 'Get Fresh At The Weekend (Showing Out)'

Chart Peak: 3
YouTube

Charted at No. 67 on 16th September, crawled at first but had started to move by 28th October by which time it was No. 24

The debut hit from the sisters and an early Now appearance for a Stock Aitken Waterman production (though certainly not the first) and it seems to be an almost perfect example of the SAW songwriting/production style. Although it's not quite as strident as the follow-up 'Respectable', it's got the same sort of lyrical focus on mild rebellion and hedonism, plus the famous stuttering vocal effect that sounds a bit like they're trying to pack the familiar excitement of a 12" remix into a 7" edit. Conversely, there's very little bass on the track, which was one of Waterman's famous strategies. Annoying as it could get to hear too many records that sounded like this, it is in retrospect one of the best examples of the formula.

Also appearing on: Now 11
Available on: That's The Way It Is - The Best Of Mel & Kim

Grace Jones 'I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect For You)'

Chart Peak: 56
YouTube

Grace has co-written and co-produced her new single - released early November.

Another confident inclusion, though it doesn't look like this one went quite as well for them as Swing Out Sister. This was her first single for EMI after her run of reggae-influenced hits on Island, which might explain why it's her Now debut. As well as changing label she also moved to a more disco-pop sound, so her co-producer was the ubiquitous Nile Rodgers. Famously, it was Jones who'd first invited Rodgers and the other members of Chic to the legendary Studio 54 club, but they were refused entry so they went home and wrote 'Le Freak' instead. Despite this old connection, her insistence on contributing to the production apparently led to a rather fraught working relationship. Her co-writer for this and the rest of the album was Bruce Woolley, who'd also co-penned 'Slave To The Rhythm' and 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. It's a good if undramatic song and features a strong performance but it does keep reminding me of 'I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You' by Linda Lewis. Perhaps it reminded the record-buying public too as the single stayed largely on the shelves and the album Inside Story was also her least successful in the UK. It's one of those odd little quirks that this turned out to be her only solo Now appearance. Surprisingly it's not the lowest-charting single on this album either.

Available on: Inside Story

Cameo 'Word Up'

Chart Peak: 6
YouTube

'Word Up' charted at No. 50 on 26th August, and became the group's biggest UK hit to date when it made No. 3 on 23rd September.

Side Two starts with what we can safely call the least subtle song on the album, the signature hit from the funk group who'd already existed for over a decade but scored their first US Top 40 with this idiosyncratic take on 80s RnB. Despite the large number of cover versions it's not really that good a song and was utterly confusing to me at the time; I sort of imagined that "Word up" was something like the bat symbol on Gotham City but I wasn't sure what we were supposed to be getting underway.

It's not really about the song though, it's about the groove and the excuse for Larry Blackmon to be ridiculous and show off his bright red codpiece. Even his name is a bit silly, though apparently it's his real one. It's this daft over the top element that makes this version so much better than the more straightforward efforts by Gun, Melanie G and Little Mix.

Also appearing on: Now 6
Available on: Cameo - Universal Masters

Genesis 'In Too Deep'

Chart Peak: 19
YouTube

Charted at No. 33 on 26th August, moved steadily to reach No. 19 by 30th September. 'In Too Deep' is featured in the film Mona Lisa.

I've never actually seen Mona Lisa, as I don't think it's especially child-friendly viewing and indeed I was barely aware of it until it got mentioned in tributes to the late Bob Hoskins. I do still vaguely remember the song, which was also released as the second single from the Invisible Touch album, though if you'd asked me even a few years ago I'd have struggled to remember whether it was actually a Genesis track or a solo Phil Collins recording. The song certainly sounds like it was written entirely by Collins and just became part of a Genesis album because that's what he was working on at the time he was offered the soundtrack job.

I was quite surprised a while back when I was listening to this and found myself enjoying it. Although I'm unashamed that I like some Collins-era Genesis like 'Mama', 'Land Of Confusion' etc, this is a rather syrupy song that sounds worse the more I listen to it. I guess there's just something in the melody that appeals to me even behind the dated production, the weak lyrics and some less than brilliant singing.

Although this is the end of Side One on the LP and cassette it somehow gets to be the last track of all on the Now 8 CD.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 7, 9, 21, 23, 24
Available on: The Platinum Collection

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark '(Forever) Live And Die'

Chart Peak: 11
YouTube

Charted at No. 52 on 2nd September, had reached No. 11 by 30th September. This is the Liverpool group's 9th Top 20 hit in Britain.

Yep, it's another video with grainy monochrome footage of people in jeans and jackets with no ties miming the song! And it's another track where a real live brass section sounds cheap and fake. No mistaking when this is from then. '(Forever) Live And Die' is, though, an unusual entry in the OMD catalogue in that it features the less famous member of the duo, Paul Humphreys, on lead vocal. Indeed, it proved to be his last major hit as part of the act before he left Andy McCluskey to go effectively solo a couple of years later.

Considering the pop-oriented direction into which McCluskey took OMD, one might expect a Humphreys-fronted single to be the opposite, but in fact this is one of their most commercial tracks. Not only is it a straightforward song with a directly emotional lyric, it's actually rather melodic and charming in a way that a lot of their attempts to be crowdpleasing aren't. Although it sounds dated now there's a warmth I can't resist.

Also appearing on: Now 3, 4, 20, 25, 34
Available on: The Pacific Age

Swing Out Sister 'Breakout'

Chart Peak: 4
YouTube

Charted at No. 57 on 21st October, had motored to No. 31 by the following week.

Unfortunately, there's only one poor copy of the official video on YouTube, though a better version can be seen here.
'Breakout' seems a confident choice of inclusion on here, as a single by a previously uncharted act which was only a minor hit at time of going to press, but it must have been visibly on an upward trajectory by then. In fact, with the benefit of hindsight it's hard to envisage this song ever not being a hit, but I suppose there have always been a lot of obvious hits that failed; indeed, whilst Swing Out Sister had a second Top 10 hit and a Number One album and have continued to record (though now reduced to a duo) into the 21st century, they haven't become the hitmaking machine that might once have been expected.

'Breakout' is very much an Eighties spin on Sixties pop, apparently a direction encouraged by producer Paul Staveley O'Duffy - who has continued to work with them as producer, musician and co-writer, so they presumably thought he was right - from the trio's jazzy origins. Conversely, O'Duffy was also insistent that the debut album be recorded with live string and brass sections. To his credit he not only used brass but made it sound like the real thing, in contrast to, say, 'Notorious' where live musicians blowing are so processed as to sound like cheap synthesisers. In Mark Cunningham's 1996 book Good Vibrations, O'Duffy recounts that he intentionally used the tattiest most damaged snare drum he could get hold of on this track to make it sound distinctive. All that and Corrine Drewery's idiosyncractic vocal melody make this a rare example of a big hit from this era that had enough polish to sound in place on radio at the time and yet not jarringly dated now. It may not be the most original song ever recorded but it was effervescent enough to stand out then and it still stands out now. Also, I've learnt that Corrine Drewery's mother founded a hedgehog rescue centre which is an admirable fact.

Also appearing on: Now 15
Available on: It's Better To Travel

Run D.M.C. 'Walk This Way'

Chart Peak: 8
YouTube

Charted at No. 37 on 2nd September , had raced to No. 8 for 2 weeks by the end of the month. 'Walk This Way' also featured the group Aerosmith who had the original Seventies American hit.

In fact, the track (and video) only feature Steven Tyler and Joe Perry: apparently the budget didn't run to bringing, er, whoever the other members of Aerosmith were or are. Mind you, in 1986 I wouldn't have been able to name even two members of the group for whom this was the (uncredited) UK singles chart debut. I hadn't even heard of them although they'd had some album success in the 1970s; it seems that the renewed interest from this single spurred them to a bigger comeback and a whole run of big hits in the 80s and 90s, though many of them were ballads and none of them shows up on a main series Now album. Not a great loss, to be honest.

Although we all know that 'Rapper's Delight' had been a Top 10 hit at the back end of 1979, identifiable hip-hop tracks (as distinct from the likes of 'Candy Girl' which have brief rap interludes) are predictably scarce on the early Now albums. Between them the first six volumes had only offered 'White Lines' and, if you're generous, 'Hey You! Rocksteady Crew'; though Now 7 doubled that number with the Real Roxanne and Luvbug Starski's borderline-novelty hit in the middle of Side 4. So 'Walk This Way' still has the feel of a trailblazer, especially coming so early in the running order, just as it was a breakthrough for the genre in America, where it was amazingly the first hip-hop track to make the Top 5. It even outcharted the original there (and here I suppose), helping to make rap music seem more acceptable to a rock audience. Apparently the whole thing was Rick Rubin's idea, based on the fact that he'd heard Run-DMC freestyling over the riff, and you can see why it made sense because, for good or ill, 'Walk This Way' exemplifies a lot of the things that rap and rock have in common: the rebellious image, the emphasis on simple repeatable rhythmic patterns, the macho posturing... it's a stepping stone on the way to some of my favourite rap hits, but also to the awfulness of most rap-metal. In fact, such is its fame as a breakthrough it's hard now to listen to it as a song in its own right, but I can tell it's a job well done.

Also appearing on: Now 39 [vs Jason Nevins]
Available on: It's Like This - The Best Of [Clean]

Pet Shop Boys 'Suburbia'

Chart Peak: 8
YouTube

Charted at No. 23 on 30th September, reached No. 8 for 2 weeks in mid-October. 'Suburbia' is the group's 4th Top 20 hit in less than a year.

In contrast to the amount of Duran Duran that I unwillingly have inflicted on me, the PSBs seem like an act who aren't really on enough Now albums. Nine appearances in their own right (plus the one under a pseudonym and their guest appearance with Robbie Williams) hardly seems to scratch the surface of their run of hit singles over nearly 25 years, and you'd think they're exactly the sort of act who'd embrace the concept. Perhaps because of the perspective that writing this blog has given me, I've found myself warming to the duo and even bought a best-of album although the weird twist is that most of my favourite tracks of theirs aren't in the Now series; and I'm not just showing off there, I'm including some of their biggest hits like 'It's A Sin' and 'West End Girls'. In fact the version of the Pet Shop Boys on the Now albums is a version I like less than the one I know from their full chart career.

Back when I was an eight-year old hearing this song, I didn't know what Suburbia was, let alone that I lived in it (Kenton, Middlesex, if you wanted to know). I promise it's not only because of my location that I've never been very fond of this song (after all, Neil Tennant is from a suburb too); it just feels a bit too much of a cliche. Worse, it feels a bit thin as a record, despite the fact that this single version is re-recorded from the original album track. If anything I actually prefer the original B-side 'Paninaro', which was later re-recorded and became a hit in its own right in 1995. That didn't get onto a Now album either.

Also appearing on: Now 7, 10, 11, 15, 18, 20, 26, 28 [as Absolutely Fabulous], 35, 72
Available on: Ultimate [+Video]

Duran Duran 'Notorious'

Starting a new album again here, so as a slight experiment I'm putting this part before any details of the track itself. Now 8 seems a logical enough way to follow Now 38, especially as it's the only one of the first 10 I haven't already done. Fitting in with my album-every-two-months schedule means that the short month of February is a good time to do the shorter 1980s albums. Besides, there are some real gems and a few surprises on here. Now 8 is also notable as the second album in the series to come out on CD, albeit again in a truncated single-disc version. Unlike the Now 4 compact disc, though, the Now 8 CD was drawn entirely from the vinyl and cassette versions so I have tagged the crossover tracks. As you may see from the image accompanying this post, my own copy of the album isn't in the best of condition but it's good enough and all sleevenotes are intact, so let's get going...

Chart Peak: 7
YouTube

Roared into the chart at No. 14 on 28th October after just one week on release.

Because we're in the era when there were only two Now albums a year (1985-7), it's less obvious than it might have been that Duran Duran were on a bit of a hiatus in the middle of the decade, save for the one-off James Bond theme 'A View To A Kill' on Now 5. 'Notorious' and the parent album of the same name marked their resumption, although by the time the record was finished they were two Taylors short with Roger Taylor in retirement and Andy Taylor estranged: he grudgingly took part in some recording sessions but left amid much acrimony. Some reports have it that he tried to stop the remaining trio using the group name, which would perhaps explain why the single and album covers just say "Duran Notorious". They were able to retain the services of Nile Rodgers as producer and guitarist for these sessions, which should in theory have been a good fit for the funk direction they were aiming at but as usual there's something profoundly unfunky about Duran. Maybe this track suffers particularly from the protracted recording sessions but it feels like there's a fundamental tension between the desire for a smoothly metronomic sound and the human element needed to give the track drive. The hip-hop-influenced repetitions of the title in the chorus certainly stick in the mind but unfortunately they always sound better in my memory than in the finished track. The song is apparently supposed to be quite a bitter one (the "flaky bandit" mentioned in the lyric is supposedly Andy Taylor) but the anger comes through no more convincingly than the funk. I don't want to sound like I have some anti-Duran bias but I've not really enjoyed any of their Now appearances yet, it somehow keeps feeling like a chore.

Also appearing on: Now 1, 2, 3, 5, 13, 14 24, 25, 31
Available on: Notorious