Music In The 1980s - Lesser Known Hits

[Metalweb]

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[anpt]

I'M ONLY SHOOTING LOVE - TIME BANDITS

Netherlands, 1983

Australia - 9
Belgium - 8
Netherlands - 10
New Zealand - 1

ENDLESS ROAD - TIME BANDITS

Netherlands, 1985

Australia - 5
Belgium - 19
Netherlands - 18
New Zealand - 41
Portugal - 4

Time Bandits achieved great success as far away as Australia, where "I'm Only Shooting Love" and "Endless Road" (where its music video was filmed) were both Top 10 hits.

wikipedia

[anpt]

SONG FOR NADIM - YANN ANDERSEN

Netherlands, 1987

Netherlands - 36
Portugal - 1

[anpt]

MY OWN WAY - DURAN DURAN

Uk, 1981

Australia-10
Ireland-20
Portugal-1
UK-14

the single has often been cited by the band as one of their least favourite and is rarely played live.

The band's dislike of "My Own Way" is evinced by the song's omission from all of Duran Duran's compilation albums.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Own_Way_(song)

[Robbie]

'My Own Way' was re-recorded in a slower version for the 'Rio' album. I prefer the single version to the re-recorded album version but it's still not too great a track. It sounds like something that was rush recorded in order to get a single released before Christmas 1981.

[Metalweb]

Agree "My Own Way" is the weakest of the early Duran Duran singles - it sounds more like a dashed-off b-side.

Quite risky of them to release it as they weren't yet chart regulars at this point - they'd only had one Top Ten hit....

[anpt]

Portuguese singles chart

Planet earth - #7
Careless memories - #8
Girls On Film - Duran Duran (5#1)
My Own Way - Duran Duran (2#1)
Save a Prayer #4
Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran (4#1)
Is There Something i Should Know - Duran Duran (3#1)
Union Of The Snake - #4
The Reflex - #9

'My Own Way' was re-recorded in a slower version for the 'Rio' album. I prefer the single version to the re-recorded album version but it's still not too great a track. It sounds like something that was rush recorded in order to get a single released before Christmas 1981.

[Gambo]

While I hear what some are saying about 'My Own Way' not standing up as favourably when compared with Duran's other early singles, I still think it doesn't deserve the bad press it gets, including from the band themselves! Although I default to the single version because I'm a bit of a stickler for always ensuring I have the standard 7" mix to listen to, it's quite nice to stick the album on once every now and then to hear the slower interpretation of the song; unlike Robbie I rather think it works better at a lower tempo - not as frantic and without the unnecessary flourishes of orchestration over it, which to my ears sit strangely for a band who normally relied on synths for that kind of backing on their earlier material. I feel like the single recording sounds like someone put the 'Rio' version on too fast at 45RPM, although the first take of the song I would've heard was the fast one, as it charted in late '81 many months ahead of the LP's release. It reminds me that for all the panning they used to receive, and often still do, 'Rio' I think stands up pretty well as a consistent and engaging body of work, with very little filler - most of its tracks could've passed for singles ('Hold Back The Rain' in particular was a single in the making that never got to see the light of day). One of the decade's more enduring albums and nice to remind oneself that the long-playing scene wasn't all about Dire Straits!

[anpt]

TOUCH BY TOUCH - JOY

Austria, 1985

Austria - #1
Germany - #18
Portugal - #2

[anpt]

CRIME OF PASSION - MIKE OLDFIELD + BARRY PALMER

Uk, 1984

Denmark-1
Greece-3
Ireland-22
Sweden-10
Switzerland-17
UK-61
Germany-17

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_..._Oldfield_song)

[anpt]

FAMILY MAN - MIKE OLDFIELD + MAGGIE REILLY

Uk, 1982

Canada - 29
UK - 45


FAMILY MAN - HALL & OATES

Australia - 49
Ireland - 15
Uk - 15
USA - 6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family..._Oldfield_song)

[TOMMYROCKLAND]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH, anpt.

THANK YOU ALL FOR POSTING.

AMAZING, FANTASTIC,

GREAT WORKS.

GREAT LIST.

GOOD TIMES.

RNR NEVER DIE.


DON'T STOP THE CHARTS.

[Gambo]

I can't believe I didn't know that Hall & Oates' 'Family Man' was a cover of a Mike Oldfield song! Especially as the original managed to get close to the UK Top 40 a year earlier. I've been labouring under the delusion that it was H & O's own composition for 38 years! One learns something every day on this thread. Good song in both incarnations.

[Metalweb]

Intriguing video for "Crime Of Passion" but the song itself is very similar (both melodically and lyrically!) to "Moonlight Shadow" from '83....

[Robbie]

Intriguing video for "Crime Of Passion" but the song itself is very similar (both melodically and lyrically!) to "Moonlight Shadow" from '83....

I'd completely forgotten about 'Crime Of Passion' but, yes, it almost sounds like 'Moonlight Shadow' part 2...

[TOMMYROCKLAND]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

DON'T STOP THE CHARTS.

RNR NEVER DIE.

[anpt]

EYE IN THE SKY - THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT

1982

Australia - #22
Canada - #1
Germany - #38
New Zealand - #6
Spain - #1
USA - #3


DON'T ANSWER ME - THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT

1984

Australia - #43
Belgium - #8
Canada - #22
Germany - #7
Netherlands - #7
New Zealand - #30
UK - #58
USA - #15

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alan_Parsons_Project

[Benny]

Both Alan Parsons Songs are absolutely fantastic, especially 'Don't Answer Me'. They were huge in Germany in the late 70s and early 80s with 7 consecutive top 3 albums between 1977 and 1984, four of which reached number one.

[anpt]

Is there any explanation for the lack of success of The Alan Parsons Project in the uk?

Great group!

Hit singles

"(The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether" (USA-37-1976) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHNxBheFAt4
"I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" (USA-36-1977) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOwFVowEugQ
"Lucifer" (Germany-8-1979, Australia-4-1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9e9tp3_PE8
"Games People Play" (USA-16-1980) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLi7Ljcy6n8
"Time" (USA-15-1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhRzORqNa0E
"Gold Bug" (Australia-15-1981) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPhTpMjAmxQ
"Sirius"/"Eye in the Sky"
"Old and Wise" (Netherlands-19-1982) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDlDKvidYbk
"Don't Answer Me"
"Prime Time" (USA-34-1984) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6NNJq0FZN4
"Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)" (USA-71-1985) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4F_K95ol8c

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Al...graphy#Singles

Albums

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Al...#Studio_albums

[Robbie]

I think The Alan Parsons Project failed to hit it big in the UK because they never really fitted in to the contemporary pop scene. Their style of music was never really fashionable in the UK. There's probably also a degree of the band never really being marketed right either. Various members of the band* were accomplished session musicians, Parsons was an accomplished producer and the work the various members did with other acts often overshadowed their work as part of the band. While the band were appreciated outside of the UK, in the UK there may have been an element of the band being seen as a side project for most of the musicians.

* although the band was centred around Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson there was a revolving door of session musicians including most of the EMI record label's studio band (best heard on the 1978 album 'The Kick Inside' by Kate Bush). I believe the band never toured in the 70s and early 80s - the various members were probably too busy with recording committments.

[Metalweb]

Parsons was a very successful producer in the mid 70s and had consecutive No.1 singles in '75 with Pilot and Cockney Rebel.

I'd say the Alan Parsons Project's '76 debut album 'Tales Of Mystery and Imagination' , based on the perennially popular works of Edgar Allan Poe, is their most fondly remembered release here. (There was a deluxe 2cd re-issue about ten years ago that I bought and listened to again quite recently).

The album had a couple of tracks featuring John Miles (pretty hot stuff in the mid 70s!) and a great performance from Arthur ("Fire!") Brown as the going-crazy narrator of 'The Tell-Tale Heart'.

I'd suspect the album has remained relatively overlooked because it was released on a different label (Charisma) to subsequent output so tracks haven't appeared on 80s compilations from the group.

[anpt]

TEMPTATION - DE BLANC

UK?, 1982

Portugal - #4



https://elviejopop.blogspot.com/2012/08/de-blanc.html


From the same guys that wrote Louise Tucker's "Midnight Blue". De Blanc and Louise Tucker had singles witn the same song "Hush".

Also produced and Written by Charlie Skarbek and Tim Smit

* Temptation - De Blanc - no. 4 in portugal (1982) https://www.discogs.com/De-Blanc-Tem...elease/4004704
* Feel Emotion - Twiggy (1985) https://www.discogs.com/Twiggy-Feel-...release/653492
* Light Of The World - Ava (1991) https://www.discogs.com/Ava-Light-Of...lease/10502056

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Skarbek

Skarbek wrote also the lyrics of "World In Union" with music originally from Gustav Holst.

[anpt]

THIS IS MY LIFE - EARTHA KITT

1986

France - #19
UK - #73

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eartha_Kitt_discography

Eartha Kitt had some hits in the 80s :

"Where Is My Man" (1983) Bel-6; ger-31; nld-22;nzl-28;swe-5;uk-36
"I Love Men" (1984) Bel-29;Ger-26;Nzl-49;UK-50

[Gambo]

Methinks De Blanc's voice was pitched a tad too high for that song?! Still, at least he couldn't hide behind auto-tune like they can now and what we heard was what was sung, albeit perhaps after numerous edited takes... Love the bargain-basement vid! Must have been a pretty borassic budget. That said it does act as a handy snapshot for anyone wanting a simple study in contemporary clothing and ordinary interior design of the early '80s - it's so regular and unglitzy compared to many clips of the time and so more closely represents how things actually looked for a lot of youngsters at that stage. A few more of these TV shows supposedly set during the era get so much wrong on those fronts (probably because the people making them were all born afterwards and have no personal recollections to draw on) and would be significantly improved on the realism stakes if they did more research and took their cues from stuff like this!

Ah, Eartha. Much-missed.

[anpt]

DANCE AROUND THE WORLD - RICHENEL

Netherlands, 1986

Belgium - #7
Italy - #3 (?)
Netherlands - #10
Norway - #10

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richenel

The music and production were from Fluitsma & Van Tijn, known for Mai Tai and other acts. Richenel died in 2020.