Robbie Williams with Pet Shop Boys 'She's Madonna'

Chart Peak: 16

YouTube

Robbie teams up with the Pet Shop Boys on the pulsing new single 'She's Madonna', described as "a dynamic piece of synth-pop"... The video shows Robbie as we have never seen him before and features a plethora of LA's most famous (and infamous) drag queens.

Madonna herself has famously never appeared on a Now album, but she's also exceptional in pop music culture for the sheer number of hits by other people which refer to her or spin off somehow from her fame - anything from the self-aggrandising ('If Madonna Calls' by Junior Vasquez), through the brilliantly odd ('The Wheels On The Bus' by Mad Donna) to the unspeakably dreadful ('Do It With Madonna' by the Androids). Inevitably, some of this has slipped into the Now discography, but rarely has it been more obvious than with Robbie's hit supposedly based on Guy Ritchie's parting words to the girlfriend he left for Ms Ciccone. It's a pretty thin idea for a song, in all honesty, and the lyrics fail to live up to even this limited promise; the Pet Shop Boys production and backing vocals are so perfunctory it's hard not to suspect that they were in it for the postmodern appeal of collaborating with Williams. He presumably is a fan of theirs anyway, but they fit this song in particular because of its obvious flirtation with gay or at least sexually ambiguous imagery, especially in the video.

This was the third single from the infamous Rudebox album, and it's a sign of where his career was at the time that he could get away with releasing an album full of half-baked in-jokes and odd cover versions. It didn't last though, and whilst the Number 16 peak of this single would be considered a success for most people, it was at the time his second-lowest-charting solo single and one of only three to have fallen short of the Top 10. The album itself, despite would would again be considered massive initial sales for almost any other act, was a major flop by his standards which apparently led to heads rolling at EMI. It was outsold by Take That's comeback release (see disc 1) and although it did slightly better internationally, it did lead to a couple of years' silence from Williams. His career still doesn't seem to be back in gear.

Also appearing on: Now 34, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51 (with Nicole Kidman), 52 (with 1 Giant Leap & Maxi Jazz), 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 74
Available on: Rudebox [+video]

Was (Not Was) 'Shake Your Head'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

The first act on this album to have managed more than one Top 10 single (the other being 'Walk The Dinosaur') and indeed there are another couple of songs I remember in the shapes of 'Spy In The House Of Love' and a slightly iffy cover of 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone', but none of those ever made it to a Now album. Somehow, though, their highest-charting single in the UK passed me by utterly at the time, and even when I came to write this post I just sort of vaguely recalled having heard it a few years ago. Well, that and the unusual vocal line-up of Kim Basinger and Ozzy Osborne.

As people who know their Was better than me will already be aware, the original recording of this song dates back to 1983, and they even didversion with Madonna on vocals which remains officially unreleased. The version that finally became the hit is a remix by Steve "Silk" Hurley with the actress's vocal added. And yet for all the effort, re-workings and remixing it's a record that I find it hard to concentrate on, as if it's so busy being pleased with itself for its cleverness that it forgets to do anything clever, merely reciting a list of difficult or impossible tasks (shades of 'All You Need Is Love'? and heading for a chorus I've already forgotten. Certainly not unlistenable, but I don't think I'd care if I didn't hear it again.

By the way, as the video I linked to was posted by the record company, I have to assume it really does fade out that abruptly. Did they run out of budget or something?


Available on: The Collection