YouTube
Boyzone are Ronan, Stephen, Keith, Shane and Michael... The Dublin quintet had a huge No. 2 smash with this cover of Johnny Bristol's 'Love Me For A Reason' which was a chart-topper for the Osmonds back in 1974.Last time I wrote about Boyzone, in November 2013, they seemed about to miss out on the Top 40 with their then current single 'Love Will Save The Day'. In the event they did sneak in at 39 but it seems likely that their Top 40 career is now at an end, though they continue to record. An album of cover versions is due later this year, though of course covers are nothing new for them. Here we find them at the opposite end of their career covering a cover version. Johnny Bristol originally released 'Love Me For A Reason' as follow-up to his big hit 'Hang On In There Baby', but the track was almost instantly covered by the Osmonds, and it's clearly this version that was the model for this version. The Mormon siblings seem to have innovated the addition of the word "girl" into the chorus.
Like a lot of the big Boyzone hits, this seems ruthlessly efficient. It seems like Louis Walsh picked out a song that he knew the target audience wouldn't have heard before and which pleaded directly at a GIRL, emphasising the word in the very chorus. Sung entirely competently and with a video of them standing in a room full of candles you've got a Top 10 single to launch your new boy band. Nobody else needed to care and indeed at this point they didn't. Boyzone would go on to make music for a broader audience, but this is narrowcasting.
Also appearing on: Now 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 71
Available on: Love Me For A Reason: The Collection
No comments:
Post a Comment