1986 was either a good year or a really, really terrible year for music, it's always subjective, isn't it?
Whilst Wham! and The Police called it a day, Pet Shop Boys and Erasure became huge, Q magazine launched, Doctor Who faced The Trial Of A Time Lord both on- and off-screen, not least for the limpest version of the theme tune to date, whilst John Barry did alright at the Oscars with his soundtrack for Out Of Africa. Bizarrely, given my parents' spartan music collection, my mum actually bought this latter. On vinyl, too.
Anyway, none of the above feature in today's 8-song, 46-minute selection of 12" mixes. Instead, it's a mix of hits and non-hits, (quite a few) cover versions and songs that should be more deeply etched in the collective consciousness but had to make way for numerous singles from No Jacket Required by Phil Collins and The Chicken Song by Spitting Image instead.
Train Of Thought was a-ha's fourth single from their debut album and third consecutive Top Ten, peaking at #8 in April 1986. The video is a similar mix of animation and live action that made Take On Me unforgettable. The animation by Michael Patterson actually originated as his student film at the California Institute of the Arts so predates his work on Take On Me. Unfortunately, the video is less memorable.
I paid little attention to Love And Money in 1986 but have come back to them in more recent years due to following the many and varied 21st Century exploits of former members, James Grant, Paul McGeechan, Stuart Kerr, Bobby Paterson, Gordon Wilson and Douglas MacIntyre. Dear John is a 12" vinyl rip so the quality of the recording doesn't match the quality of the song. Not that the publlic noticed, it failed to dent the UK charts.
Similarly, Sparks seemed to be a spent force in the UK in the 1980s. They had just one charting single in the decade; Change managed to scrape to #85 in July 1985. Fingertips was a cover of the Stevie Wonder song, a rare step away from the Mael Brothers' focus on writing their own material. Both it - and Sparks' 1980s output - deserved more love over here than it got and it's wonderful writing four decades later in the knowledge that they've subsequently been embraced as the legends that they are.
Radio Head by Talking Heads has the dubious distinction of being the song that inspired the name of Thom Yorke and chums' own band, though generally that's the only inspiring thing about this song. I don't mind the music from the True Stories album and film, though it's a far cry from the essential early albums. Full Force clearly thought so too and felt obliged to drop in a sample from Once In A Lifetime to pep things up.
No-one's going to argue that Communards' cover of Don't Leave Me This Way was a deserved #1, but Jeanie Tracy had a go the year before with her own version, produced by close friend Sylvester. In 1986, a re-edit by Razormaid co-founder Joseph Watt appeared on his 12 By 12 album and it's fair to say that I would have equally moved at the school disco if they'd popped this platter on.
Although I'm a fan of much of Boy George's music, I've not really connected to Culture Club, then and now. Gusto Blusto, featured here, was the second single from From Luxury To Heartache... in the USA and Canada, at least. Over here, we got God Thank You Woman. The latter stalled at #31. I'm not sure that Gusto Blusto would have fared any better.
I'd known about The Residents for years, though I wasn't all that familiar with their music. I spotted the 12" single of Kaw-Liga in a secondhand record shop and was sufficiently intrigued to buy it and I'm glad I did. A cover of a Hank Williams song from 1953, it opens with a shuffling beat ripped from inspired by Billie Jean. The full 12" version runs to nine and a half minutes, the original aka album version runs to about half that, just as good.
Wrapping things up is Iggy Pop and David Bowie, reuniting as performer and producer for the first time in a decade, with greeat commercial results for the former. Blah Blah Blah will never be my go-to Iggy album but I enjoy it for what it is and the time it captured. I also ended up buying all the 12" singles, though the label had an annoying habit of recycling tracks for B-sides. The extended remix of Fire Girl was a 12" A-side then re-appeared on the B-side of Isolation the same year.
Sunday's selection will feature another trip back in time, for a different kind of dance music.
1) Train Of Thought (U.S. Mix By Steve Thompson): a-ha
2) Dear John (Extended Mix By John 'Tokes' Potoker): Love And Money
3) Fingertips (Extended Club Version By Steve Bates) (Cover of Stevie Wonder): Sparks
4) Radio Head (Extended Mix By Full Force & Glenn Rosenstein): Talking Heads
5) Don't Leave Me This Way (Re-Edited By Joseph Watt) (Cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes): Jeanie Tracy
6) Gusto Blusto (Rock Mix By Arif Mardin & Lew Hahn): Culture Club
7) Kaw-Liga (Album Version By The Cryptic Corporation aka Hardy Fox & Homer Flynn) (Cover of Hank Williams): The Residents
8) Fire Girl (Remix By David Bowie & David Richards): Iggy Pop
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