Aaron Frazer is the new sound of Brooklyn Blue-Eyed Soul. Blue-Eyed Soul is a genre that popped up in the late 20th Century to describe Caucasian artists who sang with a very distinctive African-American sound. Past performers who were associated with the genre were Daryl Hall and John Oates, Player, Michael McDonald, Bobby Caldwell, Lisa Stansfield, George Michael, Christiana Aguilera and Dusty Springfield.
Aaron Frazer first found fame as drummer and co-lead singer for the R&B band Durand Jones & the Indications. The band formed at Indiana University in Bloomington and released two albums, a self-titled album in 2016 and American Love Call in 2019. Although they released four singles, most notably “Cruisin’ to the Park,” the band failed to breakthrough to big time fame.
Durand Jones & the Indications had a very late 1960s into mid-1970s soul sound and were most often compared to Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye. Aside from Jones and Frazer, who shared vocals, other band members included Blake Rhein (guitar), Kyle Haupt (bass) and Steve Okonski (organ/keyboards).
Frazer’s voice is in the falsetto range, comparable to Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson. He can really hit the high notes. When I first heard the song “Have Mercy,” I thought that Frazer was an African-American artist and was surprised to learn he is not. “Have Mercy” led me to his debut album Introducing…Aaron Frazer, which was just released in January of this year.
Introducing… has 12 songs and almost every song is a gem. “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It),” “Done Lyin’,” “Lover Girl,” “Bad News,” “Ride with Me,” “Girl on the Phone,” “You Don’t Want to Be My Baby,” “Love Is” and (my personal favorite) “Have Mercy” are all diamonds. That’s 10 out of 12 songs that rate A+, which makes for an outstanding debut album.
Most of these songs continue the more 1960’s Soul sound of Durand Jones songs like, “Too Many Tears” (again, a personal favorite), “Sea Gets Hotter” and “How Can I Be Sure?” They are also reminiscent of a side-project Frazer engaged in called The Flying Stars of Brooklyn, who released a very modern-day Soul/Gospel single called “My God Has a Telephone.”
If you are a fan of Motown’s 1960s-70s sound, you will love Aaron Frazer. I’ve never heard an artist do such a remarkable job of bringing a decades-old sound back to life with such a contemporary feel.
If you like the album Introducing… Aaron Jones, be sure to check out the Durand Jones & the Indications album American Love Call. “Cruisin’ to the Park” was released as a single after the album was released in 2019 and is not on the album. Both are available on download services.
Lisa Stansfield appeared on the music scene late in 1989 with her first single All Around the World. The song, from her debut album Affection, was a worldwide mega-hit and an international #1 single. Although it did peak at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, it reached #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. In doing so, it was one of the rare singles at that time to break through the color-barrier that often separated soulful black and white artists.
Affection produced two more hit singles in the USA: You Can’t Deny It, which also peaked at #1 on the Billboard R&B chart and at #14 on the Hot 100, and This Is the Right Time, which peaked at #13 on the R&B chart and #21 on the Hot 100 in 1990. That same year, she received several awards, including the Brit Award and the Billboard Music Award. She was also nominated for two Grammy Awards.
Stansfield’s sophomore album, Real Love, was released in late 1991. The album produced an initial hit single in the USA, Change, which peaked at #12 on the Billboard R&B chart and #27 on the Hot 100. The follow-up single, All Woman, topped the Billboard R&B chart, but stalled at a disappointing #56 on the Hot 100. The album itself peaked at #6 on the R&B chart and at #43 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, a big drop from the #9 peak of Affection in 1990. It was amazing at that time to see a British artist who was able to unite American audiences and make them musically “colorblind” in the category of soul music, much like Jimi Hendricks and Sly Stone had made Americans “colorblind” in the category of rock music. No genre of music should have a color-barrier.
Although Stansfield’s success across Europe was still hitting tremendous highs, it was obvious to her American record label, Arista, that she was fading across the States, despite her great success on the Billboard R&B charts. Her third album, So Natural, was released all across Europe, but was not released in the USA.
Her fourth album, Lisa Stansfield, was released worldwide, including the USA. Although the album did fairly well on the Billboard R&B Chart (#36) and the Billboard Top 200 (#55), the first single Never Gonna Give You Up peaked at #74 on the Hot 100. It did reach #1 on the Billboard Dance chart, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy Arista and no follow-up singles were released in the USA.
Despite Stansfield’s inability to match her initial success in the United States, she has remained popular throughout Europe to this very year– releasing four albums between 2001 and 2018: Face Up, The Moment, Seven and Deeper. All four albums were met with critical acclaim as well as successful sales figures.
In addition to the new album, Deeper, Stansfield performed a tour across Europe in 2018, and her first tour across the United States in 20 years. She obviously has no intentions of retiring any time soon. In fact, it’s been two years since her last album release, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new Lisa Stansfield album in the near future.
In terms of breaking the color-barrier between music genres, Stansfield, like Tina Marie, was one of the few white artists to find tremendous success on the R&B charts in the 20th Century. Other white artists of my generation to cross-over included Daryl Hall and John Oates, Bobby Caldwell (What You Won’t Do for Love), Player (Baby Come Back), and Madonna. Before my time, The Righteous Brothers were probably the most famous act to bridge the color-barrier between pop and soul music back in the 1960s. Fortunately today, there are many current hit-makers who cross-over to both genres and who have truly helped to make America more musically colorblind. I think that’s why music is truly the language of Love– it sees all people as equal and it makes us all feel equally blessed when we hear it.
“8-3-1″ from 2001.
“Deeper” from 2018.Lisa Stansfield performing live with George Michael.
Many people proclaimed Disco dead in the early 1980s. Certainly by 1981, the door had been closed on the genre. Billboard even changed their “Disco” chart to “Dance.” But time has proven that the Last Dance, which Donna Summer took to #1 in 1978, never ended.
Donna Summer- Last Dance (1978)
Actually, just two years after Disco supposedly breathed its last breath, Madonna appeared on the scene with her self-titled debut album. The entire album was pure Disco with a nuanced 1980’s electronic tinge. All three singles, including the very Disco-heavy Lucky Star and Holiday, were hits. Although Madonna’s many follow-up hits were less Disco and more ’80s Synthpop-Dance, there was still an underlying Disco edge to her sound.
Many 1980’s artists followed Madonna’s lead, from Deniece Williams (Let’s Hear It for the Boy) to Janet Jackson (Nasty, What Have You Done for Me Lately, Escapade, etc.) to The Pet Shop Boys (Domino Dancing, West End Girls, etc.) to Bronski Beat (Small Town Boy). And of course, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, always had our feet dancing. Even Donna Summer was so resilient beyond the “death of Disco,” that she produced massive Top 10 hits in the 80s, like She Works Hard for the Money and This Time I Know It’s for Real. Jody Watley introduced killer Disco/Dance beats with Looking for a New Love and Real Love. The list goes on and on: Bananarama (Venus), Shannon (Let the Music Play), Nu Schooz (I Can’t Wait), Stacey Q (Two of Hearts), Mary Jane Girls (In My House), etc., etc, etc.
Janet Jackson- Escapade
By the 1990’s, Disco had morphed into various types of House Music (Deep House, Acid House, etc) and Trance. Most of the DJ compilations of the 1990s were mindless, pounding trash (in my humble opinion). But there was great Disco-Dance music in the 1990s. Look at Cathy Dennis early in the decade. Just Another Dream and Touch Me (All Night Long) were massive pop and club hits. The same was true for Karyn White with her hit Romantic, Jade with Don’t Walk Away and George Michael with Fastlove. And of course, there were the two most popular Dance Queens of the 1990’s: Mariah Carey and Britney Spears (Although Spears gained more attention in the early 2000s, while Carey’s popularity began to wane).
Then we had the emergence of Euro-Disco or Euro-Dance with groups like Real McCoy (Another Night) and La Bouche (Be My Lover). That movement morphed back toward an original Disco sound at the end of the 1990s when Cher hit gold in 1998 with Believe, which held the #1 spot on the Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks. There were other 90s dance artists, like Amber (Colour of Love) Gina G (Just a Little Bit), and Crush (Jellyhead).
Real McCoy
The eternal Cher
Cher- Believe
Madonna opened up the new millennium with the Disco-Dance rhythms of Music, which was a massive #1 hit (although unfortunately, her last #1). Then she took on a total Disco groove with her 2005 album Confessions on the Dance Floor, which spawned the Disco hit Hung Up. As the 2000s progressed, EDM (Electronic Dance Music) emerged. The genre has been the primary dance genre of the late 2000s and its struck plenty of Top 40 gold. The Chainsmokers, Charli XCX, Tegan and Sara, Ariana Grande, Katie Perry and Selena Gomez are just a few of the artists who have taken the Disco/Dance beat to new highs.
Ariana Grande Katie Perry Selena Gomez
But the true new modern day Disco Queen has been Lady Gaga. Her debut album, The Fame, is pure Disco. The same is true of the follow-up albums The Fame Monster, Born This Way and Artpop. Although her album Joanne took a detour, Lady Gaga returned to true Disco form this year with Chromatica.
Lady Gaga, Reigning Queen of Disco for the 21st Century
2019 and 2020 have been different from anytime since the 1970s when it comes to pure Disco music, however. Starting in late 2019, a pure Disco edge began to emerge among artists who had established themselves as Indie-Synthpop-Dance acts. Gold Fields, an Australian band, produced one of the hottest Disco tracks of 2019 with their song Cocoon (as remixed by Maja Jane Coles). Chk Chk Chk produced their most Disco danceable funk album Wallop. Friendly Fires (Inflorescent), Mika (My Name is Michael Holbrook) and Hot Chip (A Bath Full of Ecstasy) also produced Disco-tinged albums in 2019.
Gold Fields- Cocoon (Maya Jane Coles Mix)
Chk Chk Chk- My Fault
2020 has seen the greatest pure Disco releases in ages. Jesse Ware’s new album What’s Your Pleasure and Roisin Murphy’s Roisin Machine are Disco from start to finish. Of course, so is Lady Gaga’s Chromatica. Asked to choose between the three– as which is the best Disco album of the year– would be tough. Although I think that both Jesse Ware and Roisin Murphy have the advantage over Gaga this year simply because there is more meat to their songs. By that, I mean the songs on their albums tend to be longer and better developed than the songs on Chromatica. Some critics have already proclaimed What’s Your Pleasure and Roisin Machine as possible Albums of the Year.
Jesse Ware
If I was going to judge between the two albums on a purely 1970s original Disco sound, then I’d have to give the nod to Roisin Murphy. Roisin Machine not only has the original Disco beat, but even adds the use of Disco strings, which haven’t been used since the original Disco Era– as far as I’m aware. I always thought the Disco strings were a bit cheesy, but Murphy pulls everything together perfectly in the same way Cerrone did in the ’70s. (Actually, Cerrone is still alive and kicking. He’s released two Disco albums in the 21st Century.)
Roisin Murphy
Roisin Murphy- Narcissus
Having mentioned Donna Summer, who also made a nice comeback in the 2000s with Crayons in 2008, I also need to mention Chic. Nile Rodgers, one of the co-founders of the original Chic in the 1970s, released a purely Disco single in 2015 called I’ll Be There. The song is an awesome return to the original Disco sound. He followed that up in late 2018 with the first authentic Chic album since the early 1980s, It’s About Time.
Personally, I loved It’s About Time, aside from the fact that it is too short. A follow-up album was promised for February of 2019, but it never materialized. It’s About Time featured all new Chic music, with the exception of Lady Gaga covering the original 1979 Chic hit I Want Your Love.
Disco is dead? Afraid not. Despite the backlash the genre received in the early 1980s, Disco is still alive and well. The Last Dance has yet to end.
There have been many reincarnations of Peaches & Herb since the duo first appeared on the Soul/R&B music scene in the 1960s. Tonight, I’m going to focus on the second reincarnation of Peaches of Herb that reappeared in 1977. Herb Fame and Linda Greene recorded six albums between 1977 and 1983. And this is the Peaches & Herb of my generation.
After their debut album flopped in 1977, the duo’s second and most successful album was 1978’s 2Hot! The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, thanks to the success of two dynamite singles: “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Reunited.”
“Shake Your Groove Thing” was a dynamite dance floor scorcher. The song has a really hot hook and it shook up the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, finally peaking at #5 in March of 1979. At the time, Disco had become the musical rage and the Top 40 was dominated by Disco artists– as well as Pop-Rock and New Wave artists who conveniently rode the Disco beat to the top of the charts. Think Rod Stewart “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and Blondie “Heart of Glass.”
The pinnacle of success for Peaches & Herb was not a Disco song, however. Instead of following up “Shake Your Groove Thing” with another dance diamond, like “All Your Love” or “Love It Up Tonight,” the duo’s second single was an R&B ballad– “Reunited.”
“Reunited” was a shimmering, melancholy love song that took the United States and the world by the softest of storms. The song climbed to a four week in a row run at #1 on the Hot 100. It also went to #1 on Billboard’s R&B Chart and to #1 in Canada, while peaking at #4 in England. “Reunited” was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1980 Grammy Awards, and although it didn’t win, I will always consider it to be the most beautiful song of 1979.
2Hot’s final single “We’ve Got Love” was a good mid-tempo dance number, but it was the first single by Peaches & Herb to fail to crack the Top 40, stalling at #44. By this time, the album had reached platinum status in sales and Peaches & Herb seemed destined for greater future success.
Twice the Fire, released in late 1979, was the follow-up to 2Hot! The album’s lead-off single, “Roller Skatin’ Mate,” seemed destined for #1 honors. It had an extremely hot beat and the lyrics were perfect for the times. Roller skating/rollerball had become all the rage and it went hand in hand with Disco. There were movies and TV shows that featured rollerballing and Chic even mentioned “roller skates” in their mega 1979 #1 hit “Good Times.” But the new skating rage wasn’t enough for “Roller Skatin’ Mate” to break the Top 40. The song stalled at a very disappointing #66 and a disappointing #30 on the R&B chart.
The album’s second single “I Pledge My Love” did much better and provided Peaches & Herb with their third Top 20 single. The song, which sounded a bit like 1962 meets 1979, peaked at #19 (It did go to #1 in New Zealand). The last single from Twice the Fire— “Howzabout Some Love”— failed to chart. Although all of the single releases were basically a disappointment, Twice the Fire managed to reach a respectable #31 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.
Part of the problem for Twice the Fire and for Peaches & Herb’s follow-up albums– Worth the Wait, Sayin’ SomethingandRemember— was a problem every successful artist is eventually faced with: Changing times. 1979 had faded into 1980. The late 1970’s had already introduced the new music genre of the 1980’s– New Wave. While Disco was still all the rage in 1978-79, artists like The Cars, The Romantics, Gary Numan, Squeeze and The Knack were slowly working their way up the Pop charts. By the time Worth the Wait was released in 1980, Disco was on shaky grounds.
The first single from Worth the Wait, “Funtime” was also dance floor dynamite, but the song failed to chart on the Hot 100 and peaked at #37 on the R&B singles chart. The follow-up single, “All Night Celebration” never saw the light of day on any chart. And the final single, “One Child of Love,” only charted on the R&B singles chart where it stalled at #51. The album itself was the first Peaches and Herb LP to bubble-under on the Billboard Albums Chart, where it peaked at #120.
Amazingly enough, the next Peaches & Herb album, 1981’s Sayin’ Something, peaked at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. It’s amazing because neither single– “Freeway” or “Bluer Than Blue”— charted on the Hot 100. “Freeway,” another disco dance track, did reach #37 on the R&B singles chart. And the follow-up ballad “Bluer Than Blue” peaked at #45.
There were no miracles left for the last Peaches & Herb album, Remember, which was released in 1983. By this time, Disco was completely dead. The Billboard Disco Chart suddenly became the Billboard Dance Chart. Remember is not a Disco album. R&B had moved back toward a Pop-Funk sound with ballads mixed in. Peaches & Herb took the cue and that’s the sound of Remember; but by 1983, Michael Jackson was all the rage and acts like Peaches & Herb were yesterday’s news.
Remember stalled at 202 on the Billboard Albums Chart and the first single– the title song– failed to chart on the Hot 100, although it did peak at #35 on the R&B Singles Chart. “Remember” and follow-up single “In My World” were both ballads. Unfortunately, “In My World,” a beautiful song, failed to even chart on the R&B Singles Chart. There are upbeat funk numbers on Remember, but there were no more singles.
Herb Fame and Linda Greene parted ways after Remember. It was obvious by 1983-84 that New Wave, Synthpop and Electronic Funk were the music of the 1980s and these genres were storming the charts behind such bands as The Pretenders, Duran Duran, Midnight Star and The Gap Band.
Since the 1980s, there have been various other versions of Peaches & Herb. Herb Fame has been featured in all of the reincarnations of the duo, but there have been at least four other Peaches since Linda Greene. The duo, as Herb Fame and Meritxell Negre, recorded one last album, Colors of Love, in 2009.
If you were living in the late 1970s, you most likely first encountered David Naughton through the best Dr. Pepper commercials ever made. They were catchy enough to get me to retry the soft drink that I hated as a child– and I found out that, as an adult, my taste buds had changed. I was hooked and “I’m a Pepper” to this day– although a Diet Pepper!
Aside from the Dr. Pepper commercials, David Naughton is probably most famous for his role in the 1981 horror/comedy An American Werewolf in London. The film also starred Griffin Dunne (who was later Madonna’s love interest in the 1987 film Who’s That Girl?). American Werewolf made David Naughton a household name and he starred in several other movies and TV shows throughout the 1980s.
Griffin Dunne and David Naughton in American Werewolf in London (1981).
But few people probably remember that David Naughton was also a One Hit Wonder on the Billboard music charts. In 1979, Naughton had a starring role in ABC’s short lived TV version of Saturday Night Fever meets Happy Days— Makin’ It. Although the TV show was a flop, the title song, which Naughton sang, became an over night sensation in the Disco Clubs of the era.
The single version of Makin’ It peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became 1979’s 14th most popular song of the year, according to Billboard. The single spent five weeks in the Top 10 and 16 weeks in the Hot 100.
David Naughton and Greg Antonacci in a promotional picture for the TV series “Makin’ It.”
Although it was the only hit song David Naughton ever sang, it’s no wonder the song was such a great success at the time, despite the failure of the TV show. The song was written by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris, who were the equivalent of 1980’s hit makers Jam and Spoon, for the Disco Era. The duo had written several hits, including Reunited (#1 for 4 weeks) and Shake Your Groove Thing (#5) for Peaches and Herb and I Will Survive (#1) for Gloria Gaynor, among other hits.
Although the video quality of this performance of Makin’ It (above) is pretty bad, videos weren’t in the groove yet. This was filmed just two years before MTV launched. Radio still dominated. The song was also featured in an episode of the popular TV series C.H.I.P.S. Here’s a clip from that episode:
David Naughton hasn’t been a household name since the 1980s, but he is still acting to this very day in movies, video games and TV. I guess that’s what you call “Makin’ It!”
Every decade has had it’s novelty songs, from the “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley in the 1950s to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt” in the 1990s and beyond. But I’m going to focus on a few from my favorite decade, the 1980s.
Some of these songs were by serious artists (The Smiths and Murray Head, for example), but most of them were by obscure artists: Boys Don’t Cry, Falco and Edelweiss.
We’ll start with “I Wanna Be a Cowboy” by Boys Don’t Cry, released in 1986. Boys Don’t Cry were a British rock band, which formed in 1983. They were eventually discovered by future Trance/Dance artist Paul Oakenfold and released their self-titled debut album in 1986, which contained “I Wanna Be a Cowboy.” It was the first of only two albums for the band.
“I Wanna Be a Cowboy” was a big hit in the USA, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. That wasn’t enough to save the album, however, which peaked at #55 on the Top 200 Albums Chart.
Although the band released nine singles in the 1980s, “Cowboy” was the only one to chart. The single released just prior to “Cowboy,” “Lipstick,” was actually a pretty good song and was one of those that fall into the category of “Should’ve been a hit.”
Also released in 1986 was “Rock Me Amadeus” by Austrian pop star Falco. The song took it’s appeal from the Academy Award winning success of the 1984 film Amadeus. “Rock Me Amadeus” was a worldwide hit despite the fact that it was sung in German. Even in the USA, UK and Canada, versions of the song were supplemented by English lyrics here and there, but the lead vocal remained in German. The song was one of the few non-English tracks to ever reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Falco
Unfortunately, Falco died in 1998 following a car accident in the Dominican Republic. He managed to escape being a one hit wonder with his follow-up single to “Rock Me Amadeus,” “Vienna Calling.” The song peaked at #18 on the Hot 100, but that marked the end of Falco’s success outside of Europe.
A song that was an even more obscure Austrian single was “Edelweiss” by the band Edelweiss. The song (in it’s extended version) was a big Club hit in 1988 (peaking at #7), but it even managed to climb up the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #24. Although the song was hokey, with its yodeling and nonsensical lyrics, it had a certain catchy charm to it, almost like “Love Shack” by The B-52s– although that was admittedly a much better song.
Edelweiss released only one album, The Wonderful World of Edelweiss, and was never heard from again.
Edelweiss— Austria’s One Hit Wonder
On the more serious side, there were two other songs I consider novelty by more serious artists. The first was “Girlfriend in a Coma” by The Smiths, who were a tremendously popular band in their native England. The band had some success in the USA during the 1980s. Their most successful album in the States–Strangeways, Here We Come— peaked at #55 on the Top 200 Album Chart in 1987. But The Smiths have become more of a retro legend sort of success here since that time.
The Smiths
“Girlfriend in a Coma,” which was also released in 1987, gets its novelty appeal from its title. I personally feel like it is the most unusual-humorous-novelty title for a song– ever. The Smiths were fronted by lead singer Morrissey, who left the band in 1987 to start a solo career, after tensions rose between him and guitarist Johnny Marr. Actually Marr was the first to exit the band. Morrissey was the personality of the band, however, and there was really no way to replace him. So The Smiths found themselves in the same situation that The Doors did in the early 1970s, when lead singer Jim Morrison died.
The last song on my list is actually one of my favorites from the ’80s– “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head. The song was taken from the play Chess and was Murray Head’s only hit. What makes it a novelty song? Primarily the video, which has a sort of cheesy feel about it. In fact, the one woman who is prominently displayed in the video doesn’t look like a real Asian to me anymore than Mickey Rooney did in Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961.
“One Night in Bangkok” has a killer beat and baseline– considering it was featured in a Broadway musical– that I’ve always found irresistible. Of the five songs here, it’s my favorite– minus the video.
Tonight I’m just going to focus on a few songs that were hits around the rest of the world, but that never saw a DJ’s turntable in the United States. It’s really a shame that there was so much good music in the 1980s that many great songs just never cracked the Hot 100, much less made it into the Top 40.
The first song that I personally like that didn’t see the light of day in the States is “Feels Like Heaven” by British band Fiction Factory. Released in 1983, the song went Top 20 in several European countries and Top 10 in others, like their native England, where it peaked at #6. It’s a beautiful song, but it failed to chart on the Billboard Singles Chart and Americans missed out on a piece of great New Wave history.
Fiction Factory- Feels Like HeavenEurogliders
A really stunning song to miss the USA charts was “Absolutely” by Australian band Eurogliders. This beautiful song, with an awesome beat, failed to chart anywhere in the world beyond Australia, where it peaked at a dismal #29 on the Australian Kent Music Chart. The album, of the same title, did considerably better, peaking at #6 in Australia; but, again, failed to chart anywhere else in the world. Here’s one of the greatest hits you never heard… Absolutely! Although I’ll admit, the video didn’t help the song in terms of sales.
Eurogliders- Absolutely
FM was a Canadian band who’s prime years were between 1976-1989. Although they started as a Progressive Rock band, by the mid-1980s they switched course into the dominate genre at the time– New Wave. Their 1985 album Con-Test featured a quirky New Wave sound that was very heavily dependent on The Cars.
FM
In fact, their best charting single “Just Like You,” which peaked at #38 in Canada sounds exactly like a Cars song minus the Ric Ocasek vocal. It’s actually a very infectious, very danceable song that sounds great to me. It reminds me of “Shake It Up” by The Cars, but neither the single or the album charted anywhere outside of Canada.
FM- Just Like You
The last band I want to look into is Shriekback. The band formed in 1981 in England. They were headed by former XTC member Barry Andrews and former Gang of Four member Dave Allen. What a combination! XTC was very artsy-pop-new wave while Gang of Four tended toward a post-punk sound. Mixed together, Shriekback produced a very quirky and funky song called “Lined Up” from their 1983 album, Care. “Lined Up” peaked at #3 on the UK Indie Singles Chart and was their best charting single in the Indies category.
Shriekback
“Hand on My Heart” was their best charting single on the Mainstream UK Singles chart, but it peaked at a disappointing #52. The same song peaked at #22 on the Billboard Dance Chart and their 1988 single “Get Down Tonight” peaked at # 20 on the same chart. But that was the beginning and end of Shriekback’s success in the USA or England. The band recorded 14 albums, however, with their latest release being in 2016. Here’s one of my favorite ’80s tracks, “Lined Up.”
Shriekback- Lined Up
That’s tonight’s glimpse of the songs that should have been hits back in the 1980’s. Look forward to a continuing series of the Hits Americans Never Heard.
Annie Lennox has created many personas for herself over the history of her musical career, in particular her years with Eurythmics and as a solo artist. Most of those personas are all gathered together in this remix video of her 1990s hit single “Little Bird” from Diva.
Annie with a little Marlene Dietrich flair in suit and tie.
Of course the first famous incarnation of Annie Lennox was the extremely short-haired, carrot-top-redhead from 1983’s chart-topping song “Sweet Dreams.” She made that debut– looking very much like Marlene Dietrich in a man’s suit– for the official video to the single. Apparently, not satisfied with just the “Sweet Dreams” look, that same year she turned to using wigs. She appeared as a long, dark haired chartreuse in a television version of “Love is a Stranger,” which was also from the album Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) …
In late 1983, Eurythmics had a new album (Touch), new video and a new wig for Annie. She became a long-haired blonde in the video for “Who’s That Girl,” in which she strikingly looks like Lady Gaga (especially as the video opens) some 25 years before anyone knew who Lady Gaga was– actually nearly three years before Lady Gaga was born!
Annie Lennox projecting the future Lady Gaga in the photo at top, left.
By 1986, Annie returned to the short haircut, ditching the wigs, for the album Revenge. Her new hair cut wasn’t quite as short as 1983’s carrot-red super-pixie, and she’s was a blonde now. In a song from the period, “The Miracle of Love,” she shows a beautifully soft side that she would later further develop into the prevailing sound for her solo career (1992-present).
By the time the album Savage was released in late 1987, Annie was back to being a wigged, long blonde haired sex symbol in some videos and a medium-length brunette housewife in other videos. Since my personal favorite song from the album is the title song, here she is looking like a 1980’s Marilyn Monroe— complete with facial mole.
1989’s “Don’t Ask Me Why” brought us a very platinum blonde, short haired Annie Lennox. She’s not only platinum blonde, but also very elegant– probably the most elegant that Annie Lennox has ever looked in a video. She’s wearing a silver, shoulder-less sequined gown with deep green high heals. And, most importantly, she looks like Annie Lennox, the real Annie– not an interpretation of someone else. From the album We Too Are One is the elegant Miss Annie Lennox…
Taking a step backwards to Savage again, here is Annie as the simple brunette housewife I mentioned earlier, who seems a bit neurotic or frustrated in the video for “Beethoven (I love to Listen to).”
That same album, Savage, actually produced at least three different Annie Lennox personas. In the video “You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart,” we see a return to the short, blonde haired Annie that we saw during her Revenge period. So first, she’s Marilyn Monroe, then she’s a dowdy housewife and then a somewhat ragged version of her real self.
Although she looks a bit ragged or more disheveled in the video for “Chill,” she looks immaculate in 1986’s “Thorn in My Side” (below) where her short blonde haircut is perfectly combed in place and inching toward the more white color coming in 1989.
Next, from 1992, who could ever forget the short dark haired, mascara eye-masked Annie in a black evening gown from her duet with David Bowie? Backed by the remaining members of Queen, in honor of Freddie Mercury, here’s “Under Pressure.”
Annie Lennox and David Bowie.
We’ll end with her child-like Minnie Mouse look in the video “Waiting in Vain” from her second solo album, Medusa (1995). Here she returns to dark hair in a sort of “Bob” haircut that first became popular in the 1920s.
Yes, over the years there have been many personas created by the one great Annie Lennox. I’m not sure I’ve covered them all here, but I think I’ve focused on most of them. Which is your personal favorite? For me, it’s a tie between her 1986 Revenge blonde locks and her 1989 We Too Are One platinum look. I wonder what her REAL hair color is?!!! I certainly don’t know, but, even though the red is striking, I think blonde compliments her facial features best.
Did you ever stop to realize that the popular musical phrase “One Hit Wonder (OHW),” when you make an acronym out of it, is actually the word “WHO” backwards? Seems kind of appropriate since a One Hit Wonder is known as an artist who had 15 minutes of fame, usually Top 10 and often #1 fame, and then disappeared from the music scene.
The number of One Hit Wonders over my lifetime are definitely too many to count. So how about we look at one from each decade?
The 1960s
This was one of my childhood favorites: “Incense and Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock. The song was a huge hit in 1967 and was part of the Psychedelic Rock movement. Honestly, at the time, I was more into The Monkees, but I did like this song a lot. I don’t remember ever hearing anything else on the radio from Strawberry Alarm Clock, though. They came in with “incense” and quickly left with “peppermints!”
The 1970s
There were a massive number of OHWs in the 1970s, some Pop/Rock, some R&B and some Disco: Remember “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks? or “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas or “Keep on Dancing” by Gary’s Gang? But the one I’m going to focus on was a band that came from my home state of Kentucky– Exile.
Exile
Exile, a Lexington club band, released their debut pop/rock album in 1978. The album, Mixed Emotions was actually pretty good, but it only produced one hit– and it was a massive one: “Kiss You All Over.” The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in a row at a time when Disco was king. To be honest, Exile had one more single from Mixed Emotions just barely break the Top 40, “You Thrill Me,” but it stalled at #38, and Exile was never heard of again– in the Pop/Rock world. They did release a follow up album, but I’d be surprised if anyone could name it off the top of their head.
In all fairness to Exile, they switched musical genres from Pop/Rock to Country in the 1980s and they were a tremendous success on the Country Charts. Nevertheless, they still remain a OHW on the Hot 100.
The 1980s
Jade Starling of Pretty Poison
Probably my favorite OHW of the 1980s was Pretty Poison. The band was fronted by female vocalist Jade Starling and they had a tremendous dance hit with “Catch Me, I’m Falling.” The percussion in the song was pure dynamite. I don’t think any of Michael Jackson’s songs made me want to get up and dance like “Catch Me” did. But once “Catch Me” reached it’s peaked at #8 and started “falling” on the Hot 100, that was the last I ever heard of the band. According to Wikipedia, the band released nine singles between 1981 and 2009, and are apparently still together. But 1987’s “Catch Me, I’m Falling” was their lone 15 minutes of fame.
The 1990s
Donna Lewis
Probably the biggest One Hit Wonder of the 1990s was British singer Donna Lewis. She came out of nowhere in 1996 with the single “I Love You Always and Forever,” which was a Top 5 hit across the world. The song peaked at #2 on the Hot 100. It received so much airplay, however, that you would have thought it had peaked at #1 for two months. I was really sick of the song long before it began to fade. But as it did, so did Donna Lewis. At least in the States, she was never popular again. The song was resuscitated for the soundtrack to this year’s film “Isn’t It Romantic,” starring Rebel Wilson.
2000-2009
BBmak
Into the 2000s, the biggest OHW that comes to my mind is BBmak, who had a massive lone hit with “Back Here” in the year 2000. The single peaked at #5 in the UK and at #13 in the USA. Like “I Love You Always and Forever,” the single received so much airplay again you would have thought it had peaked at #1. Maybe that was because is was #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart for 11 weeks!
2010- Present
DNCE
Since 2010, the OHW that made a big splash was DNCE with their mega-hit “Cake by the Ocean” in 2015. They might be the biggest recent one hit wonder simply because the band was fronted by Joe Jonas of The Jonas Brothers. The song peaked at #9 on the Hot 100 but was a massive world-wide hit. As the name of the band suggests, their music was very dance-oriented. DNCE stayed together for three years, disbanding in 2018. Joe Jonas has since gone on to a successful solo career and reunited with his two brothers as the Jonas Brothers Band.
I’ve loved Eurythmics since 1983, when they debuted with their first USA hit, Sweet Dreams. But I had no idea until just recently, that Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics were originally members of the short-lived British band The Tourists.
The Tourists released three albums between 1979-1980. And although their second album, Reality Effect, reached a respectable #23 on the British Album charts and earned Silver Status, their other two albums stalled in the upper 100 (at #72 and #75). None of their albums charted in the States.
Their most successful single, on both sides of the Atlantic, was I Only Want to Be with You, which peaked at #4 in the UK, but stalled at #83 in the USA. They released a total of six singles, the other five failed to chart in the States, before the band split. One other single, So Good to Be Back Home Again broke the Top 10 (#8) in the UK, but it was downhill from there.
The Tourists had a sort of New Wave/Post Punk/Pop sound. They sounded very different from Eurythmics, with the exception of Annie Lennox’s vocals. As Eurythmics, Lennox and Stewart were able to weave a much more pop-friendly and trending 1980s synthpop sound that quickly took the world by storm following the release of the sophomore album, Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.
Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox as members of The Tourists.
I’ve only heard a few tracks by The Tourists, so far. But I liked them well enough to order their 1997 Greatest Hits (?) album today. An album was released in 1984 entitled Should Have Been Greatest Hits. I’d say that title is still more appropriate if you think of hits in terms of chart play. But there are many “hits” that were never released as singles. They’re “hits” to me, even if no one else ever heard them. Often times, I think I could do a better job of choosing singles than the record execs do. To this day, I don’t understand how Eurythmics Cool Blue was overlooked as a single. It’s dynamite. But nobody asked me back in 1983 after the album Touch was released!
Meditation to the Groove! 