Texas 'Black Eyed Boy'

Chart Peak: 5
YouTube

The modern soul sound of 'Black Eyed Boy' was the third Top 10 single for Texas this year... It was a whopping Top 5 hit in August following earlier successes with 'Halo' and 'Say What You Want'.

Three Top 20 hits in 1997 was already more than they'd managed in their entire previous career, and with them all making the Top 10 it was enough to put them alongside the Verve and, er, Chumbawamba as the year's late bloomers. By the time 'Black Eyed Boy' came out as a single in the summer, I already knew it well from my dad's copy of the White On Blonde album and the single remix took a little getting used to, particularly with the additional synthesisers dubbed over the bass solo.

The song - co-written by Robert Hodgens of the Bluebells, incidentally - is probably the best on the album, clearly aiming for a Motown-esque sound but stopping short of full pastiche and with a barbed lyric, both pleading and critical. For reasons I can't entirely articulate I've always especially liked the way Sharleen Spiteri sings the word "deceit", maybe because she's slightly smiling at the memory even as she complains about it. With a different delivery, the chorus lyric "Black-eyed boy, you will find your own space and time" could just be trite pep-talking, but it's clearly intended as a tougher sentiment here. Funnily enough, just last week Spiteri was asked on the radio who the song was about but if you were hoping for an exclusive, unfortunately she refused to answer the question. The production has a good propulsive energy and is well-detailed with smart use of percussion. On reflection I think the single mix is an improvement because that big string section really comes through on the intro and the extra few seconds in the fade leaves in a little extra taste of the vocals.

It's probably still not cool to say this, and there was a time in the last decade when I wouldn't have said it, but at their best Texas were very good indeed, and this is a real highlight.

Also appearing on: Now 36, 37, 39, 40, 43, 47, 48, 49, 56, 62, 63
Available on: Greatest Hits (UK Comm Single CD)

Texas 'Say What You Want'

Chart Peak: 3

YouTube

Texas first hit big in 1989 with 'I Don't Want A Lover'... Ms Spiteri and the boys had their biggest hit to date with 'Say What You Want' - a No.3 monster in January '97.

Though they'd had other hits in between, Texas really seemed to be drifting into one-hit-wonderhood at this point. I remember being very surprised to hear them announced as a new entry on the chart early in 1997 when I'd pretty much forgotten they ever existed; but of course this proved to be only the start of their real commercial peak. Although most of the personnel were the same, they really seemed like a different band from the blues-rock incarnation of their earlier years, with a new slinkier sound influenced by trends in RnB but still old-school enough to appeal to a more mature audience. Perhaps no less importantly, they did what they'd always refused to do before and focussed more attention on Sharleen Spiteri, who started appearing alone on the record covers and in videos.

That description makes things seem very contrived, and doubtless it was to some extent, but they just about get away with it by displaying an apparently genuine love for the music. 'Say What You Want' was clearly "inspired" by Al Green's 'Tired Of Being Alone' and Marvin Gaye's 'Sexual Healing', but any record that can recall that latter song without making me want to throw up is onto a winner. I think they made better records before the formula got too tired, but this was a well-made pop single. And it sets out 1997's stall as a year of comebacks and surprise success from older acts.

Also appearing on: Now 37, 38, 38, 40, 43, 47, 48, 49, 56, 62, 63
Available on: I Don't Want A Lover

Texas 'Summer Son'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

Sixpence None The Richer were from Texas. Texas weren't.
They pulled off one of the more remarkable comebacks of the 1990s with 1997's album White On Blonde, dismissing their previous one-hit-wonder reputation by picking up on contemporary RnB sounds and concentrating on photogenic frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri, who became the face of the band in almost all subsequent videos and artwork.
Like so many bands in this position, they couldn't resist following it up with more of the same. 'Summer Son' comes from The Hush, and whilst it became their seventh consecutive Top 10 hit, it does sound like the formula is starting to wear a little thin. There's a trace of disco in the bell-like percussion (reminds me of 'Can You Feel It?' by the Jacksons - apparently there's also a Giorgio Moroder mix of this somewhere) and it meshes well enough with the biting guitars, but the bass end of the production sounds as dated as you might expect from something that was trying hard to sound modern ten years ago, and the song itself doesn't quite seem to get into gear. Enough time seems to have passed now that I can admit it when I like a song by Texas, but this doesn't quite seem to hit the spot - in fact I prefer the single that broke their Top 10 run, 'When We Are Together'.

And I can't let this pass without mentioning the rather odd video, which seems to interpret the notion of the Summer Son a bit too literally. Maybe Spiteri just wanted to be felt up by a topless male model.


Also appearing on: Now 36, 37, 38, 38, 43, 47, 48, 49, 56, 62, 63
Available on: The Hush