Popdose: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 56
Rob
· 5 months ago
Was a record just set for the number of A/C artists in a week?The subtitle for this week's BFTAEOTE should be "Artists Only Your Parents Love."
Madness got ripped off in my opinion. Though top notch, "Sun and the Rain" wasn't even the best song on the album. That honor goes to the perfectly ridiculous "Michael Caine" ("My name … is Michael Caine"), which I believe was a big hit in the UK.
Kordian
· 5 months ago
Michael Caine hit Number 11 in UK in early 1984.
I heard "Pancho Villa" recently on Vox FM in Warsaw. This DJ (he's called Marek Sierocki and he's also responsible for music in the popular TV news broadcast "Teleexpress") obviously has got a soft spot for French disco and 80s dance, and rightly so. He even played the musical efforts of...Stephanie, Princess of Monaco once.
DavidMedsker
· 5 months ago
God, I love Madness. Just got their new album the other day. Pretty good, though slightly less wacky than their earlier stuff.
jabartlett
· 5 months ago
Manhattan Transfer's "Morse Code of Love" came out in the wrong decade. Ten years earlier, at the height of the 1970s, it would have fit better on the radio. I'm betting it would have been a smash, since the "Happy Days"/"Laverne and Shirley"-inspired 50s nostalgia wave was just starting to crest.
I was going to say more, but I'm distracted by that picture of Teena Marie.
JonCummings
· 5 months ago
I'm a big Madness fan, too. With my street cred thus established, I can now work out which of the following I'm less embarrassed about -- my sadness that you don't share my enthusiasm for the Manhattan Transfer, or my happiness to add "Lonely Together" and "I'm Your Man" (which never appear on GH collections) to my Manilow library.
You're right that Manhattan Transfer stuck out like a sore thumb on the pop charts in the '80s, but that doesn't make "Trickle Trickle" a bad song. (I didn't know til just now that it was originally a minor doo-wop hit in '58 for a group called the Videos, which won Amateur Night at the Apollo, got an indie record contract and recorded "Trickle Trickle" -- only to have two group members die before they could record a follow-up.) Anyway, the MT songs that made the Top 40 were pretty awesome. Their version of "Boy from New York City" cuts the original to shreds, and "Soul Food to Go" is just great, if nonsensical.
Rob
· 5 months ago
"Soul Food to Go" is nonsensical because they rewrote the lyrics to a classic Djavan song called "Sena" that was a partial tribute to Caetano Veloso. The only word the two songs have in common is "jazz." You can hear two Brazilian versions of the song, plus the cool Claymation video of "Soul Food to Go" at my blog: http://playitandbedamned.blogspot.com/2008/02/m...
By the way, Doug Fieger of the Knack contributed lyrics to "Soul Food…" So blame him.
Ray
· 5 months ago
Speaking of Doug Fieger, even if you didn't need more ammunition for your arsenal I'd suggest seeking out the cheesy 1971 drive in flick PRIVATE DUTY NURSES. He's part of a band called "Sky", which not only contributed most of the music to the movie but they actually appear as the house band at the local bar.
steed
· 5 months ago
I can't believe you're happy to add "I'm Your Man" to anything. My lord, what have I done.
Brian
· 5 months ago
Longtime listener, first time caller. I have been addicted to this feature and dutifully download and listen to all the songs every week, then usually delete 90 percent of them - there is a reason most of these songs charted so low, and that is because they are terrible. But Magazine 60, hoo buddy. That's good stuff.
steed
· 5 months ago
Every time I listen to the song I think I like it more. It's a shame it doesn't get a whole lot of airplay these days. Thanks for "calling".
Matt
· 5 months ago
No love for "Thief Of Hearts" with that killer Giorgio Moroder production and Melissa looking like a super swank "Dynasty" character in the video? Ah well.
Chris X
· 5 months ago
hearing that Moroder produced it led me to actually go back and listen to it(because really, why would I voluntarily listen to Melissa Manchester otherwise?). I'm glad I did. This is great. That guy can do no wrong.
Curt
· 5 months ago
Old enough to actually remember the "Thief of Hearts" video playing every two hours on VH1 -- the channel debuted right around the time the song came out (early 1985). At that time, VH1 was the AC version of MTV, and it was nothing but videos.
Still trying to figure out how Teena Marie charted just five times in the decade.
By the way, first time caller, and really wish I had found this site a year ago -- I'm also putting together as many chart hits as possible from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, and this helps fill in a lot of gaps.
steed
· 5 months ago
Well, you've still got plenty of letters to fill more gaps - and of course the holy grail of '80s music is going to appear in a few weeks - so you'll fill the biggest hole you have. And now I'm going to stop talking about filling holes.
Brian
· 5 months ago
Whoa - you're gonna bust out some Shamus M'Cool? Impressive.
Chris X
· 5 months ago
um...I like Madness.
:/
kingofgrief
· 5 months ago
Another epic weigh-in...
"The Sun and the Rain": love, love, LOVE. And I only heard it for the first time in the past year due to a cruel twist of fate. For all their whimsy, those Nutty Boys do possess a brilliant melancholy streak (see also "Grey Day" and "Primrose Hill"). Looking forward to the new album, it comes out Stateside next Tuesday.
"Don Quichotte": by coincidence, I spun this during yesterday's Classic Club Hour*. Never had the 7" edit, so thank you for this. When I first heard it in '86, I thought it was a new Tom Tom Club single (the female vocals are rather reminiscent of the sisters Weymouth). A few months later, I thought I heard the new Magazine 60 single: a cover of the Shocking Blue's "Venus". Foiled again.
"Female Intuition": the backstory reminds me of the single that led me to this blog in the first place, Curtie and the Boombox' "Black Kisses (Never Make You Blue)". Who knew that Holland was such a hotbed of New Wave-flavored R&B in the mid-80s? I get a Grace Jones/Annie Lennox vibe from the vocals here.
"Thief of Hearts": ganked this one since it's not available on iTunes. I hear "Fame" with a touch of "Maniac".
Manhattan Transfer: I like them enough to own the Down in Birdland anthology from Rhino. Someday I'm going to attempt "Chanson D'amour" at karaoke if I'm drunk enough.
Manhattans: dig "Crazy", but "You Send Me" withers in the shadow of Sam.
"I'm Your Man": Let's agree to disagree here. I'm almost tempted to bust this out during the Club Hour* and see if anyone can identify the artist. Remember, if Barry didn't kick the tempo up a few notches here and there, we wouldn't have "Copacabana".
*http://myspace.com/soundawakeradio
steed
· 5 months ago
Dude - kicking up the tempo and "I'm Your Man" are totally different. I'm astonished at the responses to that song - I've gotten e-mails expressing love for it. In many cases I'd concede that maybe it's just me not "getting it" or having weird taste...but I concede nothing here. I will maintain that it's crap, to my grave. I'd be shocked if anyone remembers it - but then again, I'm shocked at a lot of things in this post, so who knows.
kingofgrief
· 5 months ago
Remember, this is the guy that got excited about stumbling upon that Band of Gold album. One man's trash and all that.
All Comments
Madness got ripped off in my opinion. Though top notch, "Sun and the Rain" wasn't even the best song on the album. That honor goes to the perfectly ridiculous "Michael Caine" ("My name … is Michael Caine"), which I believe was a big hit in the UK.
I heard "Pancho Villa" recently on Vox FM in Warsaw. This DJ (he's called Marek Sierocki and he's also responsible for music in the popular TV news broadcast "Teleexpress") obviously has got a soft spot for French disco and 80s dance, and rightly so. He even played the musical efforts of...Stephanie, Princess of Monaco once.
I was going to say more, but I'm distracted by that picture of Teena Marie.
You're right that Manhattan Transfer stuck out like a sore thumb on the pop charts in the '80s, but that doesn't make "Trickle Trickle" a bad song. (I didn't know til just now that it was originally a minor doo-wop hit in '58 for a group called the Videos, which won Amateur Night at the Apollo, got an indie record contract and recorded "Trickle Trickle" -- only to have two group members die before they could record a follow-up.) Anyway, the MT songs that made the Top 40 were pretty awesome. Their version of "Boy from New York City" cuts the original to shreds, and "Soul Food to Go" is just great, if nonsensical.
By the way, Doug Fieger of the Knack contributed lyrics to "Soul Food…" So blame him.
Still trying to figure out how Teena Marie charted just five times in the decade.
By the way, first time caller, and really wish I had found this site a year ago -- I'm also putting together as many chart hits as possible from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, and this helps fill in a lot of gaps.
:/
"The Sun and the Rain": love, love, LOVE. And I only heard it for the first time in the past year due to a cruel twist of fate. For all their whimsy, those Nutty Boys do possess a brilliant melancholy streak (see also "Grey Day" and "Primrose Hill"). Looking forward to the new album, it comes out Stateside next Tuesday.
"Don Quichotte": by coincidence, I spun this during yesterday's Classic Club Hour*. Never had the 7" edit, so thank you for this. When I first heard it in '86, I thought it was a new Tom Tom Club single (the female vocals are rather reminiscent of the sisters Weymouth). A few months later, I thought I heard the new Magazine 60 single: a cover of the Shocking Blue's "Venus". Foiled again.
"Female Intuition": the backstory reminds me of the single that led me to this blog in the first place, Curtie and the Boombox' "Black Kisses (Never Make You Blue)". Who knew that Holland was such a hotbed of New Wave-flavored R&B in the mid-80s? I get a Grace Jones/Annie Lennox vibe from the vocals here.
"Thief of Hearts": ganked this one since it's not available on iTunes. I hear "Fame" with a touch of "Maniac".
Manhattan Transfer: I like them enough to own the Down in Birdland anthology from Rhino. Someday I'm going to attempt "Chanson D'amour" at karaoke if I'm drunk enough.
Manhattans: dig "Crazy", but "You Send Me" withers in the shadow of Sam.
"I'm Your Man": Let's agree to disagree here. I'm almost tempted to bust this out during the Club Hour* and see if anyone can identify the artist. Remember, if Barry didn't kick the tempo up a few notches here and there, we wouldn't have "Copacabana".
*http://myspace.com/soundawakeradio