Ultravox 'Vienna'

Chart Peak: 13 [2 in 1981]
YouTube

'Vienna' originally ade No. 2 in 1981... It returned to the chart in February '93 reaching No. 13... lead singer Midge Ure also had a successful solo career as well as having earlier hits with Slik and Visage.

You might have noticed that I've been a little late (like, about three weeks) with some of these posts. My apologies for that but on the positive side, it means I can report on what happened when a group of Eurovision fans including my brother went to Austria for the contest.

We walked in the cold air... pic.twitter.com/SdwyEPTfIZ

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...freezing breath on a window pane... pic.twitter.com/SlVM2ron9l

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...lying and waiting... pic.twitter.com/DM7EaNom89

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...A man in the dark in a picture frame... pic.twitter.com/LBsMNdmRTg

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...so mystic and soulful... pic.twitter.com/HDOZVtQxXl

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...a voice reaching out in a piercing cry... pic.twitter.com/q5MuBEJsIj

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...It stays with you until The feeling has gone... pic.twitter.com/nzIG2so6K1

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...only you and I... pic.twitter.com/ru6OVxDjP0

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

...It means nothing to me. This means nothing to me... pic.twitter.com/tfoPFMvL23

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

... OH VIENNA! pic.twitter.com/hyyWH2p5bR

— Neil K!llham (@JPKillham) May 23, 2015

I've also had time to discover that somebody appears to have done an Ultravox/Shostakovich mash-up. It's handy to have a bit of extra content actually, because the trouble with writing about 'Vienna' is that everyone knows it. At least, I'm fairly confident that anyone who bothers to open this post will be very familiar with the song that was stuck in the runner-up position behind John Lennon and Joe Dolce. It was re-issued to promote a combined Ultravox/Midge Ure compilation and as it worked its way up the chart, I remember my Mum joking that it was at risk of being kept off the top this time by Rolf Harris, who was charting with his version of 'Stairway To Heaven'. Of course it didn't come to that in the end, but it was a big enough hit to justify an appearance on Now 24, if only to make up for the fact that there weren't any Now albums in 1981.

I've kind of vacillated in my opinions of the song over the years. Obviously I was too young to really notice it when it was in the chart originally, then as a slightly older child I wasn't interested in a slow song. Later I learnt of its history as a song denied the Number One position by a novelty record and came to the conventional wisdom that this was a travesty... then I decided it was pretentious and boring (as Tom Ewing said on Popular, 'Vienna' is certainly funnier than 'Shaddap You Face'). Now I've moved on again, probably as part of my greater appreciation of the music of the 1980s, and I've come to see the song's overwrought nature as a feature, more than a bug. I like that they've combined a very icy synth-pop melody with a big (and well-recorded) grand piano part and a string section, and also that this is a rare example of a hit single that speeds up in the middle. It has a proper big finish too, and for that reason I think this probably should have been pushed one place further back in the running order. Still, it's safely in my Top 3 Ultravox songs now with 'Young Savage' and 'The Voice'.

Also appearing on: Now 3
Available on: The Best Of Ultravox

Hue And Cry 'Labour Of Love'

Chart Peak: 25 (6 in 1987)
YouTube

Hue and Cry are Pat and Greg Kane... 'Labour Of Love' originally made No. 6 in 1987 and this well-acclaimed remix returned them to the chart in March 1993.

Slight anomaly here - although the note refers to "this... remix", and the small print shows a 1993 copyright date, the production credits printed on the disc itself are as the original and indeed it's the original 1987 mix of the track that appears on the disc. I'm not sure whether this is a mistake or not (three of the four formats of the single included the original anyway), but for reference the official lead track of the re-release was the 7" Urban Edit, which sounds amazingly dated now.

Oddly enough, the 1987 version doesn't actually seem that out of place among the early-90s tracks, if only because an extra six years seems less significant when everything's already over 20 years old. There's something that seems increasingly ridiculous about the song though, a slightly overdone pastiche of soul and a sense that it's a bit too in love with its own cleverness, though I admit I could be projecting my own impressions of Pat Kane as a media personality onto his music - I certainly liked the song in 1987, before I understood it.. At least it has a nice sudden ending for the end of Disc 1.

Also appearing on: Now 10, 13, 14, 15
Available on: Labours Of Love - The Best Of Hue And Cry

The Bluebells 'Young At Heart'

A new month and I'm not going to bother with the jokes this time (especially as I'm posting in the evening) so we drop straight into Now 24, an album I was pleased to find for a decent price because it plugged some gaps in my collection. Of course any Now album I buy plugs its own gap but I must admit there have been one or two that's I've picked up more out of duty than excitement. It's our second visit to the music of 1993, give or take a few tracks from late 1992, but I have a slight preference for the spring Now albums because they often have some of the more interesting hits from early in the year. 



Chart Peak: 1
YouTube

'Young At Heart originally reached No. 8 in 1984... the use of the track on a VW advert sent it racing to No. 1 in late March '93... Bobby Ken, David, Lawrence and Russell split up some years ago and are now pursuing different careers.

For topicality's sake, I've included the Top Of The Pops performance of this track from 22 years ago today. I think more people might actually remember the previous week's appearance, with the camera attached to Bobby Valentino's violin bow. I guess that caused too much motion sickness for them to repeat the experiment. I did link to the original video in my previous post on this song, if you want to hear what the original 1984 vocal sounded like. As an aside it was pretty rare for the same act to be allowed on TotP two weeks running, although of course the Number One single was always an exception. It's particularly remarkable that the Bluebells made two consecutive in-person appearances considering that they had split almost a decade earlier. Though they seemed to enjoy these appearances they didn't do as you'd expect a band in a similar situation to nowadays and persist with the reunion; as far as I know it was another fifteen years before a partial lineup returned to live work as a support band for Edwyn Collins.

As to the song itself, well I don't think my views have changed much in the last two years although it might be worth noting that I remember the song more from this release than its original appearance, and that it seemed very old at the time even though it was only from nine years earlier. Hard to imagine a song from 2006 seeming out of place now, although in fairness 'Young At Heart' was already retro even when it was new. Overexposure of this song seems to have put paid to anyone remembering their other material, though. It means too that I don't go out of my way to listen to the song unless I'm doing this and it tends to wash over me when I do hear it, though I realise it's actually a good song.

Also appearing on: Now 3 [same track]
Available on: The Singles Collection

Ben E. King 'Stand By Me'

Chart Peak: 1 [4 weeks]

YouTube

Originally made No. 27 in summer 1961, re-charted at No. 19 on 10th February and "501"-ed its way to the top the following week. It was still firmly at No. 1 in early March.

The otherwise impenetrable verb "501" is of course a reference to the use of this song in a jeans commercial starring Eddie Kidd, although to be honest that's not something I'd have remembered were it not in the sleevenote. I do remember that the song was used in the film of the same name, as the video that got shown at the time was the one made to tie in with the film, showing a 48-year-old King incongruously miming to the vocal he'd recorded half his lifetime ago, while Will Wheaton - before he became the world's most famous Google+ user - shows his dance moves.

A surprisingly small hit on initial release, 'Stand By Me' (written by the ex-Drifter himself with legendary writers and producers Lieber & Stoller) became something of a standard, with both Kenny Lynch and John Lennon having charted versions of the song as well. It's one of those songs that always seemed to have been around and I don't recall being especially surprised to see an oldie do so well at the time - it was in the higher end of the charts around the same time as Freddie Mercury and Boy George's retro covers and the re-issue of 'I Get The Sweetest Feeling'. The sound of early 1987 was, to a great extent, the sound of the past. It does stand out by dint of its understated production, even compared to the simple but boisterous 'Reet Petite'. There aren't a lot of instruments on there, but every one counts. Even the guiro. It makes for a very intimate atmosphere as King calls upon the listener to stand by him and implicitly promises to stand by them too. A song of strength and tenderness that deserves to be listened to more closely than I usually do, but that's the price of success.

I was quite pleased to find that Ben E. King (or Benjamin Nelson, as he was born) is still alive and continued to perform into this century. Of course the recording of  'Stand By Me' has now passed into the public domain, so those writing royalties are all the more important now.

Available on: Stand By Me - 32 Original Recordings

Jackie Wilson 'Reet Petite'

Chart Peak: 1 (4 weeks) [No. 6 in 1957]

YouTube

'Reet Petite' was originally a Top 10 hit around Christmas 1957. It re-charted at No. 63 on 25th November 1986 and had rocketed to No. 1 by 23rd December, staying on top for 4 weeks.

I won't claim it's any more than coincidence, but we switch from an album that ends with an oldie to one that starts with one. Now 9 was the first Now album of 1987, and the last to be released in an abbreviated single-CD form. It's been in the queue for this blog for quite a while - I bought my copy on the same day as Now 12, in fact - and finally shows up on the basis that I did Now 10 longer ago than Now 7, if you see what I mean.

One of the most unlikely Christmas Number Ones since people started referring to them, 'Reet Petite' was an exceptionally old track; at just over 29 years it set a new record for longest gap between chart debut and first week at the top. But it was also a very eighties hit inasmuch as it owes its renewed success entirely to a promo video. Of course, by 1986 we were well into the first golden age of the video: they were established enough as an important source of promotion that people were putting real effort (and budgets) into them, but there were still relatively few outlets for them in UK, so the smallish number we got to see tended to make a relatively big impression. Sadly, Jackie Wilson had died a couple of years earlier after a long period in a coma, so any re-release would have relied on a video in any case, but apparently this particular release was a purely opportunistic reaction to the rather cute claymation video which got an airing on a documentary. That would certainly explain why the cover of the single features a video still, as does the rather nice picture disc copy I snapped up a couple of years ago.

As it happened, though, the release did tie in with a bit of a retro-soul revival at this time, with many oldies revived by cover versions or use in adverts. In truth, this song was already a bit retro in 1957, drawing its title from Louis Jordan's 1948 US hit 'Reet, Petite And Gone' and its bold brassy production and Wilson's effervescent vocal recall Louis Prima and other acts from the jazz world. In fact, this is probably closer to the old big bands than to his other big hits 'Higher And Higher' and 'I Get The Sweetest Feeling', both of which were inevitably re-issued after this. It's a bright upbeat love song with no deep message, but Wilson sounds like he's having a whale of a time, rolling his "R"s and savouring every syllable whilst the well-drilled backing musicians provide a joyous accompaniment. Even though the song's twenty years older than I, it was instantly accessible to my younger self (not that I'd likely have paid attention to it without that video) and though I hadn't really thought about the song for a while, I was captivated all over again when I first played Now 9, even finding myself wanting to dance. A timeless classic and one of the greatest ever Now openers. It's also among the most important in pop history, since co-writer Berry Gordy used his proceeds from the record's initial success to set up the record company that became Tamla Motown. It also caught the attention of Van Morrison of course... but it was deliberate when Dexys Midnight Runners had that backdrop of Jocky Wilson, OK?


Available on: Reet Petite (Amazon Edition)

Dusty Springfield 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me'

Chart Peak: 1 [1 week in 1966]

YouTube

As a tribute to the late, great diva Dusty Springfield, we have included 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me'... This timeless ballad was a No. 1 single for Britain's finest soul singer in 1966.

I've mentioned before that Now 42 contains some unusual selections, and it concludes with the most exceptional of all. This is as far as I know the oldest track on a main-series Now album relative to its last chart appearance: comparably old tracks were appearing due to re-issues and even the seven-year-old 'Grease Mega-Mix' on Now 40 coincided with renewed chart success of one of its constituent parts. Presumably this is a case of Ashley Abram or somebody somewhere in the organisation pulling rank just this once, as no other star has been awarded such a tribute appearance before or since, unless they had a posthumous hit; though it does make it all the odder that she didn't make the cut with any of her hits with the Pet Shop Boys. It's also the only example I can recall of a first-person sleeve note.

I'm not totally sure I can agree with the word 'timeless' in that description, though. Even in 1966, when this single snuck a week at the top of the chart between 'Somebody Help Me' and 'Pretty Flamingo' (according to the Record Retailer chart used by modern reference books; it had a second week on the NME chart), it can't have seemed totally up-to-date: other Number One singles that year included 'Paint It, Black', 'Good Vibrations' and 'Eleanor Rigby', all of them much more radical recordings. What 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' is, is a good old-fashioned belter. It's adapted from an Italian chart-topper which Springfield herself discovered and asked her friends Vicki Whickham (who I see was awarded the OBE this month - topical!) and Simon Napier-Bell to supply an English lyric. It's perhaps odd that she didn't approach more experienced wordsmiths (both of them were involved in management, although Napier-Bell had written some music) though it may be that she trusted people who knew her personally to write something she could relate to emotionally. It has been suggested in retrospect that the song relates in some way to her tempestuous love life, which would of course have been complicated further by the fact that she couldn't be open about her sexuality in those days. Whether or not that was the writers' intent, it's hard not to think that her own experience contributed to the power of her vocal performance (the 47th take apparently, such was her perfectionism) and it's that vocal which in all honesty, makes this record the classic it is rather than simply a well-made pop song. The many subsequent covers have all fallen somewhat short, and yes I even include Elvis in that, because it takes an extraordinary performance by an extraordinary talent to keep the rather extreme sentiment from sounding OTT and ridiculous or phony. When she comes in for the big finish and exhorts you to "BELIIIIEVE MEEEE!!!" you actually sort of do.

It's a sign of how strong the competition was that this is only a middling chart-topper for 1966, and that it's some way from being my favourite Dusty track. I can't pretend it's not a highlight of Now 42, and with that big dramatic flourish at the end a glorious closer. But it's only a highlight, not the highlight.

Available on: Just Dusty

Sister Sledge 'Thinking Of You'

Chart Peak: 11

YouTube

No problems with 1980s production styles on this track, as it's from 1979 and features the immaculate production skills of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. They also wrote the song and indeed it's pretty much a Chic record with different singers on it, although this didn't save it from flopping in the US. Here in the UK it wasn't an A-side at the time but showed up as a single five years later for reasons that aren't instantly apparent: as far as I can tell there was no new Greatest Hits collection, and indeed the sleevenote merely attributes this as being taken from the original We Are Family album.

Whatever the reasons for its return, 'Thinking Of You' is a nice song to have back. Whilst Chic can be accused of being formulaic at times, it was a pretty good formula, and this songs offers an especially winning combination of their typical spotless perfection (listen to how fantastic Rodgers' guitar playing is on the intro, all the better for the fact that he's resisting anything showy) and rock-solid groove with some hint of emotional engagement, the latter not always being the case with the parent act. Indeed, I suspect this may be why it's been successfully covered, which doesn't often happen with Rodgers/Edwards songs. It was the start of a minor revival for the Sledges, followed by remixes of two more songs from We Are Family (with extra vocals from  members of Duran Duran, which would have made a neat connection) and, less cheeringly, by the drippy new song 'Frankie' the following year. This song got its own remix in 1993, as part of the next re-release programme.

Also appearing on: Now 5, 24
Available on: We Are Family [Expanded]

The Source Featuring Candi Staton 'You Got The Love'

Chart Peak: 3 [4 in 1991]
YouTube

John Truelove's club anthem was originally a Top 5 smash in 1991... New mixes saw the powerful cut, which features the timeless vocals of Candi Staton, return to the chart at No. 3 in February '97.

In fact, Candi Staton's original gospel single crept into the Top 100 just before Christmas 1986, but it's fair to say that more people are familiar with Truelove's dance reworking, originally a bootleg that later went legit. And if they missed it the first time around, they'll probably have caught up with the seemingly endless stream of revivals since: this is the highest-charting version to use Staton's vocal, although of course 'You Got The Dirtee Love' outdid this by one place in 2010.

The main result of all this is that my ears are quite fatigued of this song. It's been just about long enough since the last remix that I can stand to hear this now, but I still find it hard to give it the sort of close listen that would reveal why people might prefer this mix (by Rhythm Masters, says the sleeve note here) over any other. Indeed it's hard to escape the suspicion that they didn't and it was just an excuse to milk a few more bob out of a one-hit wonder.

Also appearing on:Now 19, 63 [other mixes of this track]
Available on: This Is... 1997

N-Trance 'Set You Free'

Chart Peak: 4 [83 in 1993, 39 in 1994, 2 in 1995]

YouTube

Originally released in 1994 (although it was the 1995 release that scored a major hit), 'Set You Free' is widely regarded as one of the definitive dance tunes of the 90's... Proving its enduring popularity, the track (featuring Kelly Llorenna on lead vocals) re-entered the UK Top 5 in September 2001 - The band have achieved 10 hit singles in the UK and boast worldwide record sales in excess of 5 million.

As I think I've intimated before, I wasn't really interested in dance music in the mid-1990s, and to the extent that I gave it any thought at all, I tended to think more of the "credible" dance that got written about in the NME. I was certainly aware of this track though, it was a regular on the TV music channels with that video that reportedly cost £5000. They must have had a big catering budget.

In theory, they released a remixed version to publicise a hits compilation, but Now 50 uses the famous 1995 version. It's possible that this is just a mistake - it wouldn't be the first or last time in the series - but it could have been a conscious choice as even at the time the remix didn't seem all that well-received and it's all but forgotten now, although the 2001 single (which includes both versions) inexplicably recharted in early 2005. It's certainly this version that's aged better now, for all that it sounds rather of its time; mind you that very sense of nostalgia is probably part of the appeal now. It's not a track I'd really seek out, but because it was so ubiquitous at the time it's acquired a certain warm glow.

Also appearing on: Now 30 [this same track], 32, 38
Available on: All Clubbed Up

Don McLean 'American Pie' [full length version]

Chart Peak: 12 [2 in 1972]

YouTube

Somebody suddenly seems to have walked in and said that the album was getting far too silly. For the final track is rather self-consciously serious, and as if to underline the point it's the long 8-minutes-plus version; presumably that's why there's one less track on Disc 2 than Disc 1. This full-length version also appeared on the CD and cassette versions of the re-released single, presumably because they could. At the time it felt like something of a treat to hear such a long song getting played on the radio but nowadays I have to admit to finding it a bit of a chore.

At the time, too, I might have been keener to agree with the sentiment of the song and its exposition of how pop music was useless after the 1960s. Indeed, I remember having an earnest discussion on the uselessness of post-1970 music with my mum in Burger King, which quickly descended into "What Have The Romans Done For Us" territory when she reminded me about the existence of soul music, indie etc. Even though I appreciate the tragedy of Buddy Holly's death all the more now, I find it harder to be impressed by McLean's wordplay or his thesis, though at least this is a well-made record, with a warm, intimate sound to it, and less sickly than his other big hit of the time, 'Vincent'.


Available on: American Pie

Here ends Now 20. All that remains is to embed the playlist for those who wish to draw their own conclusions. There are some good moments but they seem a bit to few and far between for an album with half a year to draw on.

Free music - Now 20

Donna Summer 'I Feel Love'

Chart Peak: 8 (1 in 1977, 21 in 1982)

YouTube [long version]

The original version of this record should, I hope, need no introduction. One reason I hope that is that I can't really be bothered to give it one, but suffice it to say that Brian Eno's oft-quoted prediction that it would change the sound of dance music for the following fifteen years seems to have been wrong only by underestimating how long it would last. So here we were 18 years later and electronic music had become so synonymous with dance that even entirely undanceable electronica like Aphex Twin was filed in the dance section of shops and written about on the dance pages of the NME.

With victory asssured, this new version of the song seems almost like a lap of honour: the remixes were apparently commissioned to promote another greatest hits collection, but they seem to have arrived at the right moment to give Summer her first Top 10 hit since 1989 (and her last to date), as well as inspiring a follow-up re-release of 'State Of Independence'. The version featured here is by Rollo and Sister Bliss of Faithless, who had themselves recently made their Top 40 debut with the original release of 'Salva Mea', though their Top 10 breakthrough was still over a year away. Perhaps if I listened to the full ten-minute version enough I might pick up some sort of vibe from it: but this edit is just boring. Admittedly, I've never really liked the original and I don't like Faithless much either, but this is substantially less interesting in this form than either of them. 

Available on: Renaissance 3d (Faithless)

Rose Royce 'Car Wash'

Chart Peak: 20 (4 in 1976)

YouTube

I can't really remember, if indeed I ever knew, why this was re-released, but it certainly wasn't the last time: this re-working showed up a decade later, and in 1990 a solo version by Gwen Dickey tickled the lower regions of the Top 75.

You can see the sense of sequencing it next to James Brown (perhaps putting it next to S-Express would just have been too obvious) but at the same time this is different in that it's the unadulterated original version (or at least the original 7" edit - apparently the soundtrack album has a slightly longer version). 

I have to admit it's not a song I've ever really been that keen on. It might not help that when I first heard it I was unfamiliar with the concept of a carwash as a place where people actually worked, as opposed to those things at petrol stations with the big rollers. And we never used those anyway, although I used to have a little toy one I could drive my little Matchbox cars through. Anyway, Norman Whitfield's production is very slick and clever, and the band themselves, already established as backing musicians for many other Whitfield clients, play very well: Duke Jobe's bass playing is especially strong. Between them they produce many fine moments, several of which have been extensively sampled on later hits.

The fault seems to lie more in the material itself (Whitfield again, though apparently he wasn't that keen on the idea at first and agreed to do it for the money and as a launchpad). Somehow it doesn't convince as a whole, possibly because it's hard to reconcile the smooth funkiness that the music is aiming at with the rather stupid lyrics. Perhaps it works better in the film.

Available on: Music For Movies

Don Henley 'The Boys Of Summer'

Chart Peak: 12 (12 in 1985)

YouTube

If you can cast your mind back to last month, you might remember that the first disc of this album kicks off with a 1990 remix of material from 1978. So obviously they'd want to contrast this with something fresh and new from 1998 itself at the top of Disc 2...

Oh.

I would have said that I couldn't remember why this was re-released, but in fact what I remember was that even in 1998 nobody could really understand why. It didn't seem to tie in with anything particular, apart from the fact that it was actually the summer (as opposed to the original release in January 1985)... but then again this song isn't really set in summer is it? All the references to the season seem to be nostalgic.

In fact this is one song I thought I could probably have done without re-listening, but in keeping with the spirit of the project I thought I'd better. And it did shed a small amount of light; I'd always thought it slightly odd that a record made by a drummer was so bland rhythmically, but he seems to have tried to fix it by adding a lot of extra cymbals in the middle section. It's to little avail, though, as the finished article has a stilted quality that means even the whiny quality in Henley's vocal doesn't make him sound very engaged with his own  material.

I'm mature enough now to realise that there might be some traces of a good song in there somewhere, but it seems fitting that he managed to inspire possibly the most lukewarm Amazon customer review ever, or that the boy who plays his younger self in the video grew up into a member of AOR American Idol spin-off band Daughtry.

Available on: The Very Best Of

John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John 'The Grease Mega-Mix'

Chart Peak: 3 [in 1991]

YouTube

With the fifteenth anniversary imminent, summer 1998 found the Now albums firmly established and in rude health. It's slightly curious that the first track on this album was released in 1990 to promote the film's release on video; this doesn't make it the oldest track ever to appear on a Now album or even to open one, but this is surely the longest gap after a record had actually charted. Admittedly, a re-issue of 'You're The One That I Want' (which unsurprisingly features prominently here) had reached the Top 10 around this time as part of the 20th Anniversary hype, but even so it feels faintly perverse for that to be replaced by this already dated-sounding artefact; presumably there were some licensing problems somewhere down the line.

I should probably spell out at this point that I've never actually seen Grease on stage or screen, although inevitably it's not totally unfamiliar to me, and I knew at least two of the songs long before I'd heard this. I also know that the sequence here doesn't follow the original narrative. After a quick feint with the intro from 'Greased Lightnin', the aforesaid 'You're The One That I Want' shows up and... well, it annoys me a bit to be honest, especially the Travolta part. We're suddenly yanked out of this by a drum solo and some psuedo-Art Of Noise sound effects, and then 'Greased Lightnin' kicks off in earnest; it wasn't for some time that I realised Travolta sings lead on this too, as the voice is so different. And it's a song about a car, so it's gone some way to winning me over already. Hard to believe they got away with that "pussy wagon" line though - maybe it's because the rest of the song is so camp... It's followed by a clapping solo(!) and then what could generously be called a segue into 'Summer Nights', which deservedly makes up almost half the total running time. For me it's the best song here, and of course comes with two movements itself, shading from the upbeat narration (about half of which is cut here, but the right half) to the sadly smiling end. It's just a pity that I spend the whole thing knowing he's about to ruin it with that "Eau" just before the end.

So, a record that's less than the sum of its parts, but at least doesn't peak to soon. Not the worst opener ever, but quite possibly the most baffling. It's reminiscent of 1958, 1978 and 1988 but never 1998.

Available on: Grease - 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Heaven 17 'Temptation (Brothers In Rhythm mix)'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

And so, for the first time in the history of this blog, we meet a track I've written about before. In fact, I've warmed even more to the original of 'Temptation' in the last 51 weeks or so. But I still think the best thing about it is the juxtaposition of the "Temp-ta-tion!" chant with the more restrained verses, and that's rather flattened out by the remix here, even if they do spell it out in the video. It's still slightly more interesting than some of the more generic dance of the time though. The orchestral track from the single is an interesting little find too.

Still, a big commercial success for them, thanks to heavy promotion work and it even did well enough for the following remix of 'Fascist Groove Thang' to take that song into the Top 40 for the first time. Only just though, which shows just how much this song seems to have overshadowed the rest of their career.

Also appearing on: Now 1 [original version of this track], 4
Available on: Temptation: Best of Heaven 17

John Lee Hooker 'Boom Boom'

Chart Peak: 16

YouTube

Just in case anyone thought Erma Franklin's track was the oldest on the album, 'Boom Boom' dates back to 1961 in its original form, although given the large number of different recordings on YouTube I can't be absolutely sure I've found the right one. I remember the song itself well enough though, as like the aforementioned 'Piece Of My Heart' it was brought back to the national consciousness by a jeans advert. It was Hooker's second Top 40 hit in the UK, a mere 28 years after 'Dimples'.

As it happens, my Latin teacher at the time was a big blues fan, an amateur guitarist who sometime did a blues show on a volunteer radio station. Lessons with him were always pretty freewheeling and when the subject came up, he seemed glad to have this song to use as an example of the emotional directness of the music. I don't know whether that totally convinces me, and I tend to feel that you have to make a decision to become a blues fan or not, but the fact that I didn't doesn't preclude me from liking the odd blues record here and there and this one hits the spot just right, somehow. The fact that it's barely a couple of minutes long is an advantage, evading the self-indulgence that puts me off a lot of the blues music I've heard. Also, it doesn't have the burden of self-conscious authenticity that modern-day blues can too often be ruined by.

Available on: Legend - The Best of John Lee Hooker

Erma Franklin '(Take A Little) Piece Of My Heart'

Chart Peak: 9

YouTube

As the single cover makes plain, this is another case where the Now series doesn't live up to the first word of its name, but rather an 25-year-old track revived after its use in a TV commercial. This was obviously a common phenomenon at the time - to some extent it still is, but of course the instant availability of downloads allows many a featured track to trickle sales over a long period rather than showing up more dramatically when the record company are persuaded to reissue a single.

Anyway, this proved to be the only UK hit for Aretha's big sister (or, indeed, for anyone called Erma) and rather a belated one at that, but if you're only going to have one hit, it might as well be a classic, and this is a brilliant example of how to make soul music, every note exactly where it needs to be. Franklin and the producers are confident enough in the song's own drama not to keen banging you over the head with it. Respect is also due to whoever played the key piano line on this track. There have been many versions of this song and will doubtless be many more, and several are good - but for me none has ever beaten this original. By far my favourite Now 23 track so far.

Available on: The Pop Years 1992-1993

Nina Simone 'My Baby Just Cares For Me'

Chart Peak: 5

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The albums might all have the word "Now" in the title, but giving a realistic picture of the popular singles of this time wouldn't be possible without representing at least some of the many old records that were re-released after being used in adverts, usually with a claymation promo video. The practice largely fell into disuse in the late 1990s when singles became too much of a loss-maker, although downloads have have revived it somewhat in the last two years.

Back to 1987, though. I don't really recall the advert this was used in, if indeed I ever saw it, but I do remember the song and video. I was aware even then that it was old, although I'm not sure I realised it was as many as 29 years back, or even that I could have understood how long that actually was. Happily, one advantage of this age is that it still sounds good today, because it never sounded like it was from the 1980s. Even though it's not the most heavyweight song, and she may not have been that keen to record it, it impresses me even more as an adult. Simone's very precise phrasing stands out, but what I really like now is her piano playing, which punctuates the song effectively and distracts you from the shortage of lyrics. Perhaps jazz fans wouldn't appreciate this so much, but for a sceptic like me this is right on the money. I suspect the same might not go for the "extended smooch version" that I saw on a 12" single of this in a charity shop the other week.

One more small historical note: perhaps because it was released by reissue label Charly, who never had that many hit singles to play with, this is one of the few singles to cross the invisible boundary and appear both on a Now album and on the contemporary volume in the rival series The Hits Album.

Available on: The Very Best of Nina Simone