Sardonicus reviews a bunch of old 45s
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Sardonicus
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Prince - 1999 b/w Little Red Corvette (1985)
UK chart peak - Number 2
Remember when the mention of the year 1999 was SYNONYMOUS with the future, as we all partied with our ROBOT SLAVES & jetted off to work in FLYING CARS & the likes? Nowadays it's an association with a happier, more innocent, pre-9/11 world, with Shania Twain dominating the charts & a pile of classic films being released. In "The Matrix" I'd definitely be choosing the pill that gets me to stay in 1999 permanently looking at the current STATE OF THINGS. I'd be an optimistic 16, about to leave high school, the music was awesome, social media hadn't infected the world, & soap opera HEARTTHROB Greg Shadwick showed his arse in "Brookside" in a SHOCK NUDE SCENE. What more could anyone want?
But I DIGRESS (again). A signature Prince hit - possibly his best known song, although it's arguable - this was written in the early 80s with THE FUTURE in mind with its vision of a PARTY IN THE APOCALYPSE as the millennium hits (not long before that might be HAPPENING FOR REAL!), backed by a constantly repeating riff that I can only describe as NAGGING, MEMORABLE & INSISTENT. A minor hit (number 25) in the UK initially, Warner Brothers made the wise decision to pair it with "Little Red Corvette" (which had flopped at number 54) as both songs were obviously capable of performing MUCH BETTER. It became one of a number of Prince singles to just miss the top spot in the UK - with the expertly timed Valentine's release of "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" in 1994 giving him his only chart topper here, in one of those annoying examples of an artist getting their only number 1 with a song far from their best.
Obviously, it became one of a handful of songs played to death in 1999 to usher in the new century, but nowadays, a quarter of the way into the new millenium, "1999" is viewed from a different perspective - it seems almost quaint in its idea of what the world might be like. A party to mark the end of the world might have been preferable to the INSANITY we're witnessing - I imagine Prince would have had a right old CHORTLE if you'd told him DONALD TRUMP was President & fucking up the planet.
"Little Red Corvette" made this an actual genuine double A side release. It got - & still gets - a lot of airplay. As an INNOCENT YOUTH I always thought it was a song about how much Prince liked his SWANK NEW CAR, but of course, being Prince, it's all a metaphor for the FINE ART OF SHAGGING as he tells a tale of a ONE NIGHT STAND with some CONNIVING TROLLOP who he never sees again. One of my favourite of his pop funk workouts & this release is surely amongst the greatest ever double A side singles.
Although he wasn't as UBIQUITOUS & successful at the time of his death in 2016 as his 80s heyday, we were robbed of a musician of rare talent & hugely prolific at that - he penned an astonishing number of songs, many unreleased, & was tinged with genius & just a bit of madness too. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, monstrously influential & a true ICON.
UK chart peak - Number 2
Remember when the mention of the year 1999 was SYNONYMOUS with the future, as we all partied with our ROBOT SLAVES & jetted off to work in FLYING CARS & the likes? Nowadays it's an association with a happier, more innocent, pre-9/11 world, with Shania Twain dominating the charts & a pile of classic films being released. In "The Matrix" I'd definitely be choosing the pill that gets me to stay in 1999 permanently looking at the current STATE OF THINGS. I'd be an optimistic 16, about to leave high school, the music was awesome, social media hadn't infected the world, & soap opera HEARTTHROB Greg Shadwick showed his arse in "Brookside" in a SHOCK NUDE SCENE. What more could anyone want?
But I DIGRESS (again). A signature Prince hit - possibly his best known song, although it's arguable - this was written in the early 80s with THE FUTURE in mind with its vision of a PARTY IN THE APOCALYPSE as the millennium hits (not long before that might be HAPPENING FOR REAL!), backed by a constantly repeating riff that I can only describe as NAGGING, MEMORABLE & INSISTENT. A minor hit (number 25) in the UK initially, Warner Brothers made the wise decision to pair it with "Little Red Corvette" (which had flopped at number 54) as both songs were obviously capable of performing MUCH BETTER. It became one of a number of Prince singles to just miss the top spot in the UK - with the expertly timed Valentine's release of "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" in 1994 giving him his only chart topper here, in one of those annoying examples of an artist getting their only number 1 with a song far from their best.
Obviously, it became one of a handful of songs played to death in 1999 to usher in the new century, but nowadays, a quarter of the way into the new millenium, "1999" is viewed from a different perspective - it seems almost quaint in its idea of what the world might be like. A party to mark the end of the world might have been preferable to the INSANITY we're witnessing - I imagine Prince would have had a right old CHORTLE if you'd told him DONALD TRUMP was President & fucking up the planet.
"Little Red Corvette" made this an actual genuine double A side release. It got - & still gets - a lot of airplay. As an INNOCENT YOUTH I always thought it was a song about how much Prince liked his SWANK NEW CAR, but of course, being Prince, it's all a metaphor for the FINE ART OF SHAGGING as he tells a tale of a ONE NIGHT STAND with some CONNIVING TROLLOP who he never sees again. One of my favourite of his pop funk workouts & this release is surely amongst the greatest ever double A side singles.
Although he wasn't as UBIQUITOUS & successful at the time of his death in 2016 as his 80s heyday, we were robbed of a musician of rare talent & hugely prolific at that - he penned an astonishing number of songs, many unreleased, & was tinged with genius & just a bit of madness too. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, producer, monstrously influential & a true ICON.
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I loved that first incarnation of Fuzzbox. I can't add much to what @Sardonicus has already written because it's a perfect summary of their weird career. Rules And Regulations peaking at 41 was shenanigans of the type recently discussed here in relation to multiple SAW releases - they were selling enough to crack the top 30. I have a double CD that covers the whole first era and it's an absolute joy - it includes the cassette format of Love Is The Slug, called "Radio Fuzzbox" a genuinely funny set of skits into which the songs and a very early ropey-as-fuck live recording were placed. In fact, if you're in the mood, let's dial back to 1987...
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Ah so the "Fuzzy Ramblings" B side must have been clips or outtakes from this! I'll give the full thing a listen
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance b/w Electro Ski Mix (1988)
UK chart peak - Number 3
Neneh Cherry is another artist who I believe has been touched with MUSICAL GENIUS, but unlike someone like Prince, she's never really received her flowers. It's a little forgotten just how highly influential her pop/rap/dance hybrid was on a whole generation, with everyone from the Spice Girls to Ms Dynamite clearly taking NOTES as this classic sauntered to the top 3 on both sides of the Atlantic, accompanied by a heavily pregnant Neneh performing it on TOTP to the SCANDAL of the Murdoch dominated media - how DARE SHE GAD ABOUT the stage DANCING & SINGING in HER CONDITION! She should be at home getting some BED REST (although the ironing & hoovering isn't going to DO ITSELF, NENEH, LOVE, PREG OR NOT.)
I was AGOG to only find out THIS VERY MORNING that "Buffalo Stance" is, to all intents & purposes, a cover version of a SAW produced song. Neneh's future husband, Cameron McVey, had teamed up with Jamie Morgan & SAW a couple of years earlier for a tune called "Looking Good Diving" - replete with cringe Zoolander style video, which I'll include here for the LOLZ. Neneh guested on a remix on the flip side, "Looking Good Diving With The Wild Bunch" which includes virtually all of the rap from "Buffalo Stance", & when the Morgan McVey duo imploded after the single flopped, Neneh & Cameron reworked the best bits of the A side (the keyboard bit) & the B side (the rap) to make one of the best singles of the 80s. Actually no, scratch that, one of the best singles EVER.
At a time when British rappers like Derek B made the choice to rap in faux-American accents to give a sheen of RESPECTABILITY, a woman showing up complete with doing bits in a full on British SQUAWK must have seemed like a CHOICE. But Neneh Cherry was, & always has been, so effortlessly cool that she was able to pull the whole thing off with APLOMB, & the rapped verses sounded both authentic, yet easily catchy enough for your pop loving kids to sing along with too. The selection of all the quality bits from the previous single, excising out the cringe, shows just how good her MUSICAL EAR is. It's amply demonstrated on the mostly instrumental B side, with the end bit, when the music fades out leaving just the keyboard notes repeating, still able to induce CHILLS DOWN THE SPINE.
Neneh had previously duetted with The The on the brilliant "Slow Train To Dawn" in 1987 & been a backing vocalist on the accompanying "Infected" album, & along with coming from a musical family, she wasn't new to the whole thing when this hit. Therefore she always was a bit defiant & rebellious, chiefly because I think success was a bonus, rather than the goal, & she seemed all the better & more refreshing a personality for it. The debut album "Raw Like Sushi" contained tons of potential hits, with follow up "Manchild" the biggest, & although her MUSICAL OPUSES have been SPORADIC since, usually as she's taken time away to raise her kids, she's never made a bad album. 1992's "Homebrew" opted for a lower key vibe, 1996's "Man" took on a more trip hop influence & the most recent "Broken Politics" is as insightful & consistent a work as ever from someone 30 odd years into making music.
Her 1990 charity single, a cover of Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin", completely ESCHEWS the Sinatra style vibes of the original for a dark, noodling bass vibe that's always begged to be sampled IMO - it's a standout example of just how Neneh Cherry can take a song & rework it into something darker, unexpected & more musically interesting than you would have ever expected, just as she did here with "Buffalo Stance". She was away from the scene for a long time after 1996 before slowly coming back in order to raise daughter Mabel, now a pop star in her own right, but for me, Mum is IRREPLACEABLE as one of the British female solo greats.
UK chart peak - Number 3
Neneh Cherry is another artist who I believe has been touched with MUSICAL GENIUS, but unlike someone like Prince, she's never really received her flowers. It's a little forgotten just how highly influential her pop/rap/dance hybrid was on a whole generation, with everyone from the Spice Girls to Ms Dynamite clearly taking NOTES as this classic sauntered to the top 3 on both sides of the Atlantic, accompanied by a heavily pregnant Neneh performing it on TOTP to the SCANDAL of the Murdoch dominated media - how DARE SHE GAD ABOUT the stage DANCING & SINGING in HER CONDITION! She should be at home getting some BED REST (although the ironing & hoovering isn't going to DO ITSELF, NENEH, LOVE, PREG OR NOT.)
I was AGOG to only find out THIS VERY MORNING that "Buffalo Stance" is, to all intents & purposes, a cover version of a SAW produced song. Neneh's future husband, Cameron McVey, had teamed up with Jamie Morgan & SAW a couple of years earlier for a tune called "Looking Good Diving" - replete with cringe Zoolander style video, which I'll include here for the LOLZ. Neneh guested on a remix on the flip side, "Looking Good Diving With The Wild Bunch" which includes virtually all of the rap from "Buffalo Stance", & when the Morgan McVey duo imploded after the single flopped, Neneh & Cameron reworked the best bits of the A side (the keyboard bit) & the B side (the rap) to make one of the best singles of the 80s. Actually no, scratch that, one of the best singles EVER.
At a time when British rappers like Derek B made the choice to rap in faux-American accents to give a sheen of RESPECTABILITY, a woman showing up complete with doing bits in a full on British SQUAWK must have seemed like a CHOICE. But Neneh Cherry was, & always has been, so effortlessly cool that she was able to pull the whole thing off with APLOMB, & the rapped verses sounded both authentic, yet easily catchy enough for your pop loving kids to sing along with too. The selection of all the quality bits from the previous single, excising out the cringe, shows just how good her MUSICAL EAR is. It's amply demonstrated on the mostly instrumental B side, with the end bit, when the music fades out leaving just the keyboard notes repeating, still able to induce CHILLS DOWN THE SPINE.
Neneh had previously duetted with The The on the brilliant "Slow Train To Dawn" in 1987 & been a backing vocalist on the accompanying "Infected" album, & along with coming from a musical family, she wasn't new to the whole thing when this hit. Therefore she always was a bit defiant & rebellious, chiefly because I think success was a bonus, rather than the goal, & she seemed all the better & more refreshing a personality for it. The debut album "Raw Like Sushi" contained tons of potential hits, with follow up "Manchild" the biggest, & although her MUSICAL OPUSES have been SPORADIC since, usually as she's taken time away to raise her kids, she's never made a bad album. 1992's "Homebrew" opted for a lower key vibe, 1996's "Man" took on a more trip hop influence & the most recent "Broken Politics" is as insightful & consistent a work as ever from someone 30 odd years into making music.
Her 1990 charity single, a cover of Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin", completely ESCHEWS the Sinatra style vibes of the original for a dark, noodling bass vibe that's always begged to be sampled IMO - it's a standout example of just how Neneh Cherry can take a song & rework it into something darker, unexpected & more musically interesting than you would have ever expected, just as she did here with "Buffalo Stance". She was away from the scene for a long time after 1996 before slowly coming back in order to raise daughter Mabel, now a pop star in her own right, but for me, Mum is IRREPLACEABLE as one of the British female solo greats.
jyxz
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Don’t forget Rip Rig + Panic era with TV chef (and Miquitas mum) Andi Oliver!
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
It really is a brilliant album - they messed up by picking the 2 weakest songs, "Kootchi" & "Feel It" to follow up "Woman" - the ANTHEMIC & SLUTTY "Hornbeam" was RIGHT THERE
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She was in a later line up of The Slits too - that was the group that morphed into Rip Rig and Panic, I think, after The Pop Group split and some of them were looking for new people to work with.
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Yep, another brilliant album that shows how she still kept her finger on the musical pulse at 50 odd years of age having barely done albums in an age before. WHAT A WOMAN
I learned about the Buffalo Stance history from A Journey Through Saw podcast which was pretty wild. She’s considered a one-hit wonder here even though her next single was a top 10 though not remembered at all.
I’ve never bothered to dive into her discography but maybe I need to seeing all the praise here.
I’ve never bothered to dive into her discography but maybe I need to seeing all the praise here.
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
DIVE IN, Joe! You won't regret it, she's done some incredible work. Some of it will be RIGHT UP YOUR STREET
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
jyxz
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I love the Homebrew album. In fact I think I’ll put it on RIGHT NOW.
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My listening timeline for my 90s thread is about a year ahead than the actual thread, and I’ve just reached the moment when Homebrew was released, or at least the lead single, in late 92. I had noticed that Trout (which I didn’t recognise) had the highest number of streams from that album, which I found odd, but @Sardonicus just confirmed the reason for that. I might also have to put that album on later and listen to it properly.
Ok I vaguely remember this one.
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Donna Allen - Serious b/w Bad Love (1987)
UK chart peak - Number 8
I was AGOG when I first heard this song in the late 2000s, as it turned out that eternal dance classic, 1995 Top 5 smash "U Sure Do" by Strike, sampled heavily from it - I'd always thought that song was wholly original. Anyway, it was a good choice by Strike, as they lifted the hook from this little pop/soul number to reveal its dancier roots.
It also appeared to have been entirely forgotten by 1995, despite being a decently sized hit on both sides of the Atlantic. I don't recall ever hearing it on the radio or getting recurrent play anywhere, & it's hard to understand why, as it's sunny, catchy, perfectly upbeat & has funky trumpets & a Grandmaster Flash style rap bit popping up throughout - it's the sort of thing that's perfect fodder for the nostalgia stations at least - I always place it in a similar genre to something like radio staple "C'est La Vie" by Robbie Nevil which hit around the same time.
This might be the issue though, & maybe the issue overall with Donna Allen & her career that's seen as many stops as starts over the years. As good as it is, it's part of a wider genre of a glut of similar hits that all saw success at the same time - so radio programmers are a bit spoiled for choice & tend to go for the more well known artists hitting with this sort of thing. It also struck me while listening to it that it's essentially a Janet Jackson song done by someone who can actually sing (
) & therefore I think the likes of OUR JAN also hoover up some of the airplay spins it might otherwise get. Therefore it's one of those top 10 hits that I'd wager is entirely evocative of the time & place it was released since any of the attention it got would have been entirely within 1987 (it's the same with "Escaping" by Dina Carroll, which immediately places me in late 1996). A genuinely enjoyable & overlooked gem.
B side "Bad Love" ploughs a similar FURROW of upbeat 80s pop soul, but while it wasn't a bad listen, I'd totally forgotten it within 5 minutes of switching it off. Working off the assumption that this was the standard of material that Donna was releasing, I can see why she only managed to get the odd hit every now & then, when she did get her hands on something of a better quality - it was 2 years before she got another chart hit, reaching the UK Top 10 again with the nice but generic "Joy & Pain" (again a song I've no recollection of at the time, that never gets airplay), then a 6 year wait before "Real" in 1995, than another top 30 in 1997 as a guest vocalist on the dancey "Saturday" - one of those songs where the chorus line still pops into my head regularly as the weekend approaches. An attempt at another restart on "The Voice" several years ago didn't get very far, & although she appears to still be musically active, her few brief forays into chart success appear to be long forgotten.
UK chart peak - Number 8
I was AGOG when I first heard this song in the late 2000s, as it turned out that eternal dance classic, 1995 Top 5 smash "U Sure Do" by Strike, sampled heavily from it - I'd always thought that song was wholly original. Anyway, it was a good choice by Strike, as they lifted the hook from this
little pop/soul number to reveal its dancier roots.It also appeared to have been entirely forgotten by 1995, despite being a decently sized hit on both sides of the Atlantic. I don't recall ever hearing it on the radio or getting recurrent play anywhere, & it's hard to understand why, as it's sunny, catchy, perfectly upbeat & has funky trumpets & a Grandmaster Flash style rap bit popping up throughout - it's the sort of thing that's perfect fodder for the nostalgia stations at least - I always place it in a similar genre to something like radio staple "C'est La Vie" by Robbie Nevil which hit around the same time.
This might be the issue though, & maybe the issue overall with Donna Allen & her career that's seen as many stops as starts over the years. As good as it is, it's part of a wider genre of a glut of similar hits that all saw success at the same time - so radio programmers are a bit spoiled for choice & tend to go for the more well known artists hitting with this sort of thing. It also struck me while listening to it that it's essentially a Janet Jackson song done by someone who can actually sing (
) & therefore I think the likes of OUR JAN also hoover up some of the airplay spins it might otherwise get. Therefore it's one of those top 10 hits that I'd wager is entirely evocative of the time & place it was released since any of the attention it got would have been entirely within 1987 (it's the same with "Escaping" by Dina Carroll, which immediately places me in late 1996). A genuinely enjoyable & overlooked gem.B side "Bad Love" ploughs a similar FURROW of upbeat 80s pop soul, but while it wasn't a bad listen, I'd totally forgotten it within 5 minutes of switching it off. Working off the assumption that this was the standard of material that Donna was releasing, I can see why she only managed to get the odd hit every now & then, when she did get her hands on something of a better quality - it was 2 years before she got another chart hit, reaching the UK Top 10 again with the nice but generic "Joy & Pain" (again a song I've no recollection of at the time, that never gets airplay), then a 6 year wait before "Real" in 1995, than another top 30 in 1997 as a guest vocalist on the dancey "Saturday" - one of those songs where the chorus line still pops into my head regularly as the weekend approaches. An attempt at another restart on "The Voice" several years ago didn't get very far, & although she appears to still be musically active, her few brief forays into chart success appear to be long forgotten.
jyxz
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LOVE this Donna Allen track and I for one was angry at the Strike sampling 
You know ‘Saturday’ is a cover too?
You know ‘Saturday’ is a cover too?
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
LOVE this Donna Allen track and I for one was angry at the Strike sampling
You know ‘Saturday’ is a cover too?
I did not. Was there any dance song in that era that didn't sample something??!?
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I think there are so few 90s dance tracks without a trace of something else. I've done a few deep dives, and it's heartbreaking.
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Kiss - Crazy Crazy Nights b/w No No No (1987)
UK chart peak - Number 4
Several years removed from their biggest successes in America, this single gave Kiss their first UK top 10, & joint biggest ever UK hit, along with "Bill & Ted" soundtrack hit "God Gave Rock & Roll To You II" in early 1992. Surprisingly, it only struggled into the top 70 on HOME SHORES, when I'd always figured it to be one of their SIGNATURE TUNES. Regardless, it doesn't really matter, because it's just the same formula as everything else I've heard from them of bland, meat & potatoes pop metal. To me, Kiss have always been one of the ultimate musical examples of STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE.
It says it all that the first thing I - & I'd wager many others - think of when it comes to Kiss isn't the music at all, it's the distinctive make-up - which they appear to have ABANDONED for this single, although the back sleeve shows they've all stolen Brian May's hair. Feed into ChatGPT a command for a sugary pop metal confection complete with twiddling guitar bits, a big old chorus & some generic lyrics that are essentially meaningless blah, & you'd get something very similar to "Crazy Crazy Nights". I'm not 100% sure why this one took off here in comparison to everything else, although I'll take an educated guess that with your hair metal types like Bon Jovi & Def Leppard seeing monstrous success in 1987, this similarly themed song rode the WAVE OF POPULARITY to the top 5. While it doesn't deeply offend me or anything, I just give it a collective shrug. It's musical fast food, filling a void but ultimately forgettable. The best thing I can say about it is that knowing the year of release once won a friend & I a crate of beer at a quiz in a Huddersfield pub Also, maybe it's just me, but for a band with a well established reputation as WOMANISERS, I've always found lead singer Paul Stanley's vocals to be incredibly MINCY 
B side "No No No" sadly bears no relation to the later Destiny's Child hit, but goes on for an interminable amount of time with ludicrous "Wayne's World" style air guitar solos & the likes. It's the same Kiss recipe of instantly gratifying pop metal that doesn't do anything new & fades from the memory within minutes of giving it a spin.
If anything they seem to have left their biggest mark on the touring industry, with their spectacular stage shows setting the tone for many other acts to follow in their footsteps. After many lucrative years touring the hits, they appear to have retired in late 2023, & unlike Aerosmith, no further controversies seem to have followed them.
UK chart peak - Number 4
Several years removed from their biggest successes in America, this single gave Kiss their first UK top 10, & joint biggest ever UK hit, along with "Bill & Ted" soundtrack hit "God Gave Rock & Roll To You II" in early 1992. Surprisingly, it only struggled into the top 70 on HOME SHORES, when I'd always figured it to be one of their SIGNATURE TUNES. Regardless, it doesn't really matter, because it's just the same formula as everything else I've heard from them of bland, meat & potatoes pop metal. To me, Kiss have always been one of the ultimate musical examples of STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE.
It says it all that the first thing I - & I'd wager many others - think of when it comes to Kiss isn't the music at all, it's the distinctive make-up - which they appear to have ABANDONED for this single, although the back sleeve shows they've all stolen Brian May's hair. Feed into ChatGPT a command for a sugary pop metal confection complete with twiddling guitar bits, a big old chorus & some generic lyrics that are essentially meaningless blah, & you'd get something very similar to "Crazy Crazy Nights". I'm not 100% sure why this one took off here in comparison to everything else, although I'll take an educated guess that with your hair metal types like Bon Jovi & Def Leppard seeing monstrous success in 1987, this similarly themed song rode the WAVE OF POPULARITY to the top 5. While it doesn't deeply offend me or anything, I just give it a collective shrug. It's musical fast food, filling a void but ultimately forgettable. The best thing I can say about it is that knowing the year of release once won a friend & I a crate of beer at a quiz in a Huddersfield pub
Also, maybe it's just me, but for a band with a well established reputation as WOMANISERS, I've always found lead singer Paul Stanley's vocals to be incredibly MINCY B side "No No No" sadly bears no relation to the later Destiny's Child hit, but goes on for an interminable amount of time with ludicrous "Wayne's World" style air guitar solos & the likes. It's the same Kiss recipe of instantly gratifying pop metal that doesn't do anything new & fades from the memory within minutes of giving it a spin.
If anything they seem to have left their biggest mark on the touring industry, with their spectacular stage shows setting the tone for many other acts to follow in their footsteps. After many lucrative years touring the hits, they appear to have retired in late 2023, & unlike Aerosmith, no further controversies seem to have followed them.
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Between this & the next single in the pile coming up, I'm blaming you for your "give me hair metal" thread bringing up all this TOSH to reviewThe best thing KISS ever did was be CHER ADJACENT
Sheena
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Between this & the next single in the pile coming up, I'm blaming you for your "give me hair metal" thread bringing up all this TOSH to review
Yeah, this was never on my list, but I'm now INTRIGUED/EXCITED for the next one
Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
Europe - The Final Countdown b/w On Broken Wings (1986)
UK chart peak - Number 1
Oh, @Sheena, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. Now look what's shown up
I don't know if this is the sort of hair metal hit you were hoping would appear, although it might be the ultimate example - some would say the FINAL BOSS - of the genre. It takes the massive synthy riff along with big old guitar solos done by Van Halen with "Jump" a couple of years ago & dials it up to a bit more HYSTERICAL.
This must be the first time I've ever voluntarily sat down & listened to "The Final Countdown" - apart from not being a HUGE FAN of it, I've never needed to. It's one of a handful of truly UBIQUITOUS songs that seem to have soundtracked everything for my entire life. Sporting events, New Year's Eve, the Millennium, space & sci fi shows, every TV or film genre imaginable really have all used this song. It genuinely does seem suitable for ANY OCCASION. You could even play it at a funeral if you were feeling a bit
Hair metal isn't my PREFERRED GENRE anyway, & this song STANDS & FALLS on whether you love or hate the huge synth riff - which, credit where it's due, is immediately ear-catching & memorable - the OTT guitar solos & the sheer over dramatic URGENCY of the whole thing. I actually think his delivery of it is one of the problems I have with it - it suits the song to a T, but I can't enjoy it. It all sounds so RUSHED & PANICKED, like he might explode before it gets to the chorus. Despite that I imagine the LADS LADS LADS picked this up in droves at the time, the entire thing is CAMP AS TITS. Just look at the cover, which is giving me Heart heading out to a LEZZA BAR in 1987. I can almost smell the Silvikrin hairspray from here, which surely they kept the Swedish outlet of in PROFIT SINGLE HANDED for the decade.
The B side gave me a dreaded feeling that it might be covering the dire AOR bollocks released by Mr Mister the same year, but is actually more of the same fast paced hair metal, just not as good.
Europe (who join Asia & America as charting bands named after continents, although Africa, Oceania & Antarctica are all available I believe) actually had a few more hits after this that I have no memory of, but were bigger than "The Final Countdown" in some markets at the time - "Carrie" for instance, reached the US Top 3 compared to this reaching number 8 there. Still releasing albums as of 2017 (WHO KNEW??!!) they really could have retired the day "The Final Countdown" began heading down the charts, their biggest contribution to popular culture complete, & I'm sure paying them all a HEALTHY ANNUAL STIPEND in the nearly 40 years since it spent a couple of weeks atop the UK charts.
UK chart peak - Number 1
Oh, @Sheena, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. Now look what's shown up
I don't know if this is the sort of hair metal hit you were hoping would appear, although it might be the ultimate example - some would say the FINAL BOSS - of the genre. It takes the massive synthy riff along with big old guitar solos done by Van Halen with "Jump" a couple of years ago & dials it up to a bit more HYSTERICAL.This must be the first time I've ever voluntarily sat down & listened to "The Final Countdown" - apart from not being a HUGE FAN of it, I've never needed to. It's one of a handful of truly UBIQUITOUS songs that seem to have soundtracked everything for my entire life. Sporting events, New Year's Eve, the Millennium, space & sci fi shows, every TV or film genre imaginable really have all used this song. It genuinely does seem suitable for ANY OCCASION. You could even play it at a funeral if you were feeling a bit
Hair metal isn't my PREFERRED GENRE anyway, & this song STANDS & FALLS on whether you love or hate the huge synth riff - which, credit where it's due, is immediately ear-catching & memorable - the OTT guitar solos & the sheer over dramatic URGENCY of the whole thing. I actually think his delivery of it is one of the problems I have with it - it suits the song to a T, but I can't enjoy it. It all sounds so RUSHED & PANICKED, like he might explode before it gets to the chorus. Despite that I imagine the LADS LADS LADS picked this up in droves at the time, the entire thing is CAMP AS TITS. Just look at the cover, which is giving me Heart heading out to a LEZZA BAR in 1987. I can almost smell the Silvikrin hairspray from here, which surely they kept the Swedish outlet of in PROFIT SINGLE HANDED for the decade.
The B side gave me a dreaded feeling that it might be covering the dire AOR bollocks released by Mr Mister the same year, but is actually more of the same fast paced hair metal, just not as good.
Europe (who join Asia & America as charting bands named after continents, although Africa, Oceania & Antarctica are all available I believe) actually had a few more hits after this that I have no memory of, but were bigger than "The Final Countdown" in some markets at the time - "Carrie" for instance, reached the US Top 3 compared to this reaching number 8 there. Still releasing albums as of 2017 (WHO KNEW??!!) they really could have retired the day "The Final Countdown" began heading down the charts, their biggest contribution to popular culture complete, & I'm sure paying them all a HEALTHY ANNUAL STIPEND in the nearly 40 years since it spent a couple of weeks atop the UK charts.
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Sardonicus
WHADDA YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THE COMPUTER
I can't get past that he sings the whole thing like he's DESPERATE FOR A WEE