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

Status Quo 'Burning Bridges (On And Off And On Again)'

Chart Peak: 5
YouTube

Reckoned to be about their 37th Top 40 single in Britain, 'Burning Bridges' turned out to be one their biggest hits in recent years - it reached No. 5 in December 1988.

After two tracks of reinvented rock music, we can turn to one act you can trust not to modernise their sound. At least, I'm sure it seemed that way at the time but the odd thing is that when you listen back to this track now it does actually seem very 1980s. More so than most of their other Now appearances, in fact, and certainly more than 'The Wanderer' four years earlier, though it's still more recogniseably Quo than 'In The Army Now'. Perhaps it's a sign that in those days an act like Status Quo could still hope to have mainstream success by applying a vaguely modern production to their typical songwriting, whereas nowadays they have to work more on a nostalgic basis. Either way, though, it's not a song I remember hearing at the time (or hearing much since, come to that) and the effect is of something written to order, going through the motions as the subtitle suggests.

The most notable thing about this song is that they later recycled it as 'Come On You Reds' by Manchester United, the only single by a football club (ie other than England) ever to top the UK charts, and a single that accounts for a majority of Quo's time at Number One as songwriters.

Also appearing on: Now 4, 8, 18, 33 (with the Beach Boys), 53
Available on: The Essential Status Quo

Status Quo With The Beach Boys 'Fun Fun Fun'

Chart Peak: 24

YouTube

Quo's cover of the Beach Boys 60s classic 'Fun Fun Fun' actually features the legendary Amerian outfit on Backing vocals... It entered the chart at No. 24 in 25th February 1996.

It's an inevitable consequence of the Now! albums starting as late in pop history as 1983 that there are several acts who appear in the series long after their best work is behind them. And here we get two for the price of one; it's unlikely to be widely disputed that Status Quo perfected their heads-down no-nonsense mindless boogie at some point in the 1970s, even if you don't prefer the earlier psuedo-psychedelic sound. And as for the Beach Boys, well, there are many who consider them the greatest American act of the rock era and who feel that Pet Sounds is the best album ever. The good news is that the five surviving members of the line-up who made that album seem to have been involved here: Brian and Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston, with what I believe were Brian Wilson's first UK performances for fifteen years. The bad news is that, well, they're backing singers for Status Quo on one song. But the Quo certainly got their money's worth for the airfares, as a quick scan of YouTube finds them on a whole slew of ITV programmes, including little-remembered game show Talking Telephone Numbers. When Emma Forbes jokes about them threatening to sue in the intro, it's not a reference to the any lawsuits between the various Beach Boys (not even to the then-recently-settled one about the authorship of this very song) but to the Quo's notorious attempt to sue Radio 1 for not playlisting this track. They've subsequently claimed that this was a publicity stunt instigated by their management, and some people might even believe them, but the whole notion seems even more absurd now than it did at the time.

The elder Wilson (and Jardine) had returned to California before some of the other appearance, including this one on GMTV, which is fortunate as the thought of Brian Wilson being interviewed by Eamonn Holmes is really too horrible to think about. But that clip is notable for its reference to a listener unused to the amount of pre-release publicity records were starting to get in those days, presumably because the potential market for this record would not be regular singles buyers in the mid-1990s. Or Radio 1 listeners.

It's unlikely that you'll be unfamiliar with the original of this song, but in all honesty I needed to hear it after researching all the clips of this new version. Here's a genuine live version from 1964 as a bonus. You might not know that it was never a hit in the UK, though it was the title track of a successful EP; it was certainly a well-known number at the time, as I recall my Mum recounting that she'd enjoyed hearing the song (as a very young person, I hasten to add) despite having no idea what a "T-Bird" was. Predictably enough, Status Quo interpret the song in their usual mode of the time, simplistic but not actually all that rocky somehow. Mike Love sings a new verse not in the original, presumably in order to pad the song out to a more conventional length for the modern era. Needless to say, it's not actually any good, and doesn't even offer the same sort of stupid fun as the other Beach Boys collaboration to wind up on a Now! album, 'Wipeout' with the Fat Boys. It's a bit of a sad end to their UK singles chart career, and indeed to the oeuvre of Carl Wilson, who died less than two years later, fifteen years ago next month in fact. I had to listen to Holland while I was writing most of this to make myself feel better.

Status Quo also appear on: Now 4, 8, 14, 18, 53
The Beach Boys also appear on: Now 10 (with the Fat Boys)
Available on: The Platinum Collection

Status Quo 'The Wanderer'

Chart Peak: 7

YouTube

As it happens, I do actually remember this record; but if I didn't then knowing the original song I could have guessed exactly what a Status Quo version would sound like and I'd have been right. Recorded as a new track for their compilation 12 Gold Bars Vol 2, this version of Dion's hit recasts the already simple song in typical heads-down Quo style. It seems almost irrelevant to try and criticise this because anybody buying it would have known exactly what to expect.

In fact, the most interesting thing here is the video; not that the premise is at all inventive, but it's quite intriguing to see the passage of time. London looks quite different a quarter-century ago, people's clothes are pretty different and the picture quality attainable on portable video cameras was very different. And yet Quo seem exactly the same. In fact, I don't think it's even the same line-up now, but Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt seem to have done all their aging by this point and they still sound the same. And all this despite the fact that more time has passed from 1984 to now than from the original 1961 hit to then.

Also appearing on: Now 8, 14, 18, 33 (with the Beach Boys), 53
Available on: Pictures: 40 Years of Hits