Here is the second part of my list of influential singles from a 2023 Facebook challenge. The idea of the challenge was to post each day for 20 days a single that had been influential in my life. I expanded this to include singles which, when I listen to them, vividly conjure up a particular time in my life. In addition, I wanted to concentrate on singles that were either one-hit wonders or outliers in some way.
I’m in Love with the Girl on a Certain Manchester Megastore Check-out Desk – The Freshies
The Freshies were a one-sort-of-hit wonder in the early 1980s. Formed in Manchester in the mid-1970s by singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Sievey, the band had several members over the years who went on to be in well-known bands including the Cult (Billy Duffy) and Magazine (Martin Jackson). According to Sievey, at one point a 14-year-old Johnny Marr wanted to join the band but was considered too young at the time.
In many ways, Sievey was an innovator at the time, starting his own record label to release The Freshies’ songs and doing all his own promotion with hand-drawn materials. His best-known song was 1980’s “I’m in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Check-out Desk”, which the band re-recorded as “I’m in Love with the Girl on a Certain Manchester Megastore Check-out Desk” so that it would be played on BBC radio, which at the time had a strict no-advertising policy which precluded the mention of any brand names. The single did receive airplay on Radio 1 and reached number 54 in the charts in February 1981.
Unfortunately, commercial success eluded the Freshies and the band broke up in 1982. Sievey went on to perform music and comedy as his giant-headed alter-ego Frank Sidebottom, making regular TV appearances in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as pursuing a career as an animator, working on “Bob the Builder” and other shows. Frank Sidebottom staged a comeback in 2005, which lasted until Sievey’s death from cancer in 2010 aged 54.
Chris Sievey’s friends and associates remember him as a kind of crazy genius, and that genius is on clear display in this song. Just listen to how he sings the list of record labels near the end!
Four Eleven Forty Four – Pete Wylie
Pete Wylie was not really a one-hit wonder, having charted both as a solo artist and with various incarnations of his Wah! band, but this oddly-titled single was not one of his chart successes, reaching just number 79 in the UK charts in 1987.
At the time, it was one of the singles that we received at University Radio York and I really liked it, with its backing of sequencer/synthesizer, drum machine, guitars and harmonica, as well as its obscure lyrics extolling the virtues of this mysterious lady. The title of the song, according to Wikipedia, dates back to the nineteenth century and an illegal US lottery where the numbers 4, 11 and 44 were a popular bet for poor African-Americans.
For me, listening to this song takes me back to my college days and all the great new music that was coming out then, which is all being played by the Oldies stations now! 🤣
Phew Wow – The Farmer’s Boys
One of the promos for the University Radio York breakfast show featured a short excerpt of instrumental music that I really liked. I asked the person who made the promo what the music was, and was told that it was “Phew Wow” by the Farmer’s Boys. I had never heard of the band or the song, but there was a copy of the 1984 single in the station library, so I dug it out and had a listen.
The Farmer’s Boys were a band formed in Norwich in 1981 who gained a lot of local popularity in the post-punk years, playing a number of gigs with the Higsons. One of their early singles attracted the attention of John Peel, who invited them into the studio to play several sessions for Radio 1, as did David Jensen. However, despite their songs getting a good amount of national airplay, the band never caught on and chart success eluded them. The Farmer’s Boys broke up in 1985, with the members going on to work with various other bands.
It’s a shame, because “Phew Wow” is a good, catchy pop song, though the lyrics, exhorting a friend to get over his breakup by going out and getting lashed with the lads, might attract eye-rolls from certain quarters today! And don’t the band members all look so very 80s in the video? I think I had the same shirt that the lead singer is wearing!
Star Wars Theme – Meco
The year was 1977, and the most eagerly anticipated film of the year, nay, our whole lives so far, was Star Wars! The film would premiere in London in December that year, so in the interim all we had to satiate our cravings for all things Star Wars was Marvel’s Star Wars Weekly and… a disco arrangement of the theme music?
“Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band” by Meco (aka Domenico Monardo and his orchestra) reached number 7 in the British charts in 1977. It’s a classic 1970s disco track featuring four-on-the-floor drumming, oon-ga-oon-ga bass and wah-wah guitar. Swirling string arpeggios and a punchy brass section take us through a medley of the themes from the soundtrack, all punctuated with laser sound effects and cinematic whooshes. Other highlights include the Obi Wan Kenobi death theme on harmonizing electric guitars and a hugely funky arrangement of the Cantina Band theme.
Composer John Williams also released a single of the main theme from the film played straight, but for some reason it wasn’t released in the UK, so for all we knew at the time, this was going to be the music we would hear in the cinema!
This single stands as a great nostalgia piece on a lot of levels, and listening to it takes me right back. Every time I hear it I do, however, find myself asking the same two questions. First, how different would the experience of watching Star Wars have been if it HAD had a disco soundtrack, and second, right before the Cantina Band section, does the weird, Donald Duck-sounding voice REALLY say “Action Man! Hee-hee-hee!” as that is what I have heard for the past 46 years!
May the funk be with you!
The Promise You Made – Cock Robin
A 1986 single from a band that hails from San Francisco, just a little way north of where I am sitting writing this. Cock Robin were an American band that fared much better in Europe than on their home turf.
“The Promise You Made” didn’t make an impression on the charts in the US and barely scraped the top 30 in the UK, but it was a top 10 hit in several European countries and reached number 1 in Belgium and the Netherlands.
This song has all the ingredients of a great 1980s-era song. Moody, atmospheric keyboards, delayed guitars, Anna LaCazio’s haunting vocals and of course a music video that makes sod all sense!
Another record I discovered during my time at University Radio York, I often think that in a more just world this song would have been a huge hit in the UK and US, but sometimes the stars just aren’t aligned. Singer-songwriter-bassist Peter Kingsbery now lives in France, and Cock Robin continues to perform today, albeit with a different line-up.
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