M People 'Sight For Sore Eyes'

Chart Peak:
YouTube

The last 3 years have seen M People rise from dance act to pop group to household name... 'Sight For Sore Eyes' followed previous smashes such as 'Moving on Up' and 'One Night In Heaven' into the Top 10 in November '94.

Some readers may not be surprised that when I looked up this video, my first thought was to try and identify the scap cars they use as a backdrop. I think it's (l-r): Austin Montego, Ford Escort Mk 3 3-door, Vauxhall Astra Mk1 or possibly Opel Kadet, Escort Mk 3 5-door, Ford Cortina Mk 4 and Renault 11, but I am very much open to correction. Needless to say, the song title also reminded me of a well-known joke by TV's Tim Vine of Housemates fame: "Conjuctivitis.com, that's a site for sore eyes."

I suppose you could make some sort of tenuous analogy between M People in the 90s and the Human League in the 80s - both amassed impressive runs of hits (this was the sixth of eight consecutive Top 10 hits, not counting a remix EP that only got to 32) after a slow start and then seemed to fall from favour quite quickly, and neither of them was known for making obviously intellectual music. The difference was that where the League sometimes came over as knowingly inane, M People just got on with things and thus were widely considered uncool. I'm no great fans of either act but I am willing to say in public that Heather Small is a better singer than Phil Oakey, and at least when she sings "at the drop of a hat" on this song she knows what she's talking about - imagine trying to keep a hat on top of that hair.

OK, so it's another post where I've put off discussing the song itself. It's not bad in an upbeat gospel-pop way but neither is it truly inspiring. At least it has some joy to it.

Also appearing on: Now 26, 27, 28
Available on: One Night In Heaven: The Very Best Of M People [Clean]