It Hurts And Hurts And Hurts So Good

Millie Jackson delivering a  super cool performance of It Hurts So Good on US TV show The Ebony Affair in 1975.

Millie released the song in 1973 as a single and although it failed to crack the UK charts, it featured in the blaxploitation movie Cleopatra Jones, the soundtrack album shifting half a million copies in the USA.

It Hurts So Good was originally a single by Katie Love & The Four Shades Of Black in 1971, released only in the USA...and Spain, it appears. Despite being a red hot Muscle Shoals  Production, it wasn't a hit in either country.

Susan Cadogan then ad a crack at the song, Lee Perry at the controls, retitled it as Hurt So Good and, in one fell swoop, created both the definitive version and the big hit that the song deserved. Hurt So Good spent 3 weeks at #4 in the UK singles chart in April and May 1975.

Twenty years later, Jimmy Somerville attempted the same with his take on the Cadogan/Perry version and whilst it was also a hit in the UK, neither the recording nor the chart performance could hope to match the majesty of the above.

Tomorrow's Party Will Never End

But why wait until tomorrow when you can have 45 minutes of The Communards today?

It's been just over a month since retired Reverend Richard Coles came third in I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! so what better time to celebrate his former former life as a purveyor of perfect pop with partner Jimmy Somerville?

The Communards' huge success with their cover versions of Don't Leave Me This Way and Never Can Say Goodbye - UK #1 and #4 in 1986 and 1987 respectively - arguably overshadowed their power of their own songs. 

Jimmy had sharpened his songwriting skills with Bronski Beat, perfectly combining personal, political and pop lyrics, and these were honed in The Communards. Combined with Richard's multi-instrumental talents, they were a formidable duo.  You need look no further than Disenchanted, one of the finest songs of the 1980s, full stop.

Just a fistful of twelve inch versions, all but one by the legendary Mike Thorne, the other by ZTT uber producer Stephen Lipson, but every single one is a corker. 
 
1) Don't Leave Me This Way (Son Of Gotham City Mix By Mike Thorne) (Cover of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes): The Communards ft. Sarah Jane Morris (1986)
2) Tomorrow (Extended Version By Stephen Lipson): The Communards (1987)
3) So Cold The Night (12" Version By Mike Thorne) (1986)
4) Disenchanted (12" Mix By Mike Thorne) (1986)
5) You Are My World (12" Version By Mike Thorne) (1985)

Tomorrow's Party Will Never End (44:51) (KF) (Mega)