I Have Never Heard Entire Albums By These Bands Who Have Excellent Songs On Late '70s/Early '80s European K-Tel-Style Compilations

Do any of them have albums worth hearing? The world wants to know, or at least I do.

Double Dancing (Record 2) (K-Tel Finland 1983)

GARY LOW "I Want You"
FREEZ "Pop Goes My Love" (have only otherwise heard his/their electro-hop classic "I.O.U." before)
STYLE "Dark Eyes"
BLACK LACE "Superman" (talked dance steps, sounds like an English version of Claudio Chechetto's Italian early '80s "Gioca-Jouer," or maybe the other way around)
CAROLA HĂGGVIST "Hunger"
DAVID GRANT "Love Will Find A Way" (Linx-style early '80s Brit soul I guess?)

Disco Fever (K-Tel U.K. 1977)

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo" (Second-tier ABBAs, right?)
MERI WILSON "Telephone Man" (top 20 hit in U.S.!)
SMOKIE "It's Your Life" (superstars in this world, I guess. Lots of hits on lots of these compilations; "Living Next Door To Alice" was their only U.S. top 40)

David Grant was the singer in Linx

OK, that explains the similarity, duh!

Hit Machine (Arcade West Germany, no year notated but clearly early '80s)

SEAN TYLA "Breakfast In Marin" (from pub rock band Tyla Gang, who I've also never heard an LP by)
EAST SIDE BAND "Rendesvous"
ARABESQUE "Marigot Bay"
CHRISSY "Mark My Words"
COAST TO COAST "Do The Hucklebuck"

Hit Power (Arcade West Germany, 1975)

HANK MIZELL "Jungle Rock" (crazy rockabilly about jungle animals -- sound like it's from the '50s)
HELLO "Love Stealer" (also did "New York Groove" that Ace Frehley covered, obviously. Both songs seem to steal the beat of Bohannon's "Disco Stomp"! And somebody sent me a CD-R of their The Glam Rock Singles Collection which I haven't listened to yet, so I guess I can knock them off the list soon.)
5000 VOLTS "Doctor Kiss-Kiss"
JOHNY WAKELIN "In Zaire" (Hit in U.S. only with "Black Superman - Muhammad Ali; this was apparently the followup, about Ali's Bungle in the Jungle vs. George Foreman. "African Man," not about boxing, shows up on a different compilation.)
HEAVY METAL KIDS "She's No Angel" (Lots of songs on these samplers. My favorite so far is "Chelsea Kids.")

Hit Tornado (Arcade Holland, 1977)

CHAMPAGNE "Rock N Roll Star"
SAILOR "Stiletto Heels" (Less artsy version of Roxy Music? Can't believe I've never checked these guys out. Another comp has their "A Glass of Champagne")
HARPO "Rock 'N Roll Clown"

BLACK LACE "Superman"

Is this the same Black Lace who later had hits with Agadoo, We're Having A Gang Bang etc? If so, aargh.

FREEZ "Pop Goes My Love" (have only otherwise heard his/their electro-hop classic "I.O.U." before)

This was the first Freez song I ever heard, courtesy of an altogether different K-Tel compilation:

... what the ad doesn't tell you is that the album is split between a) the horrifically wack instructional rap and b) bonafide classics like "You're The One For Me" and "Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel".

This record was my gateway into all things hip-hop, electro, and dance.

Sorry to hijack - carry on, xhuxk!!!

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo"

Many, many UK hits. I think they won a major tv talent show in about 1972 which set them on their merry journey into British hearts. Utterly reprehensible in every way. At least it wasn't "Save Your Kisses For Me".

24 Top Hits (Ariola West Germany, c. 1979 apparently)

DSCHINGIS KHAN "Dschingis Khan" (More superstars, I'm concluding. Boney M wannabees, maybe? Or maybe not. Have heard a few other tracks, usually awesome.)
TONY MARSHALL "Ich Klau Dir Eine Strassenbahn" (Actually an "esset" character, untypable on my keyboard, instead of those two s's in Strassenbahn)
FRANK ZANDER "Captain Starlight"
BERNHARD BRINK "Frei Und Abgebrannt (How Could This Go Wrong)"
SUNNY SINGERS "Moskau" (Dschinghis Khan cover!)
CAR MEN "El Lute" (Instrumental Boney M cover!)

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo"
This was a UK #1...

You may notice a slight similarity to ABBA's Fernando...

Actually, Brotherhood of Man's big U.S. hit (among a few smaller ones) was "United We Stand." Which is indeed reprehensible, and doesn't sound Abba-like at all, obviously. (Though "Angelo," which sounds great to me, definitely does.)

I'm surprised that anyone has heard of them outside of the UK who isn't a Eurovision fanatic. BTW, "Dschingis Khan" was West Germany's 1979 Eurovision entry. And Black Lace are wankers, responsible for the awful "Agadoo" and, er, "Gang Bang".

Sailor = basically Roxy Music lite, although "Glass of Champagne" reminds me more of the Kaiser Chiefs. They had a gimmick where the two keyboard players would play an instrument that looked like two upright pianos stuck back to back, but with synths concealed inside.

I have also never heard an album by Tyla Gang but there is a comp called Blow You Out which I think is early singles and it's really good glammy pub rock.

The Best of Disco/Dance Music 7 (Rams Horn Holland, 1985)

BOYS TOWN GANG "When Will I See You Again" (Three Degrees cover by gay-bar stars who get flamier in the "Cruisin' The Street" 12-inch I've got by them)
ROBEY "One Night In Bangkok" (Murray Head cover!)
NATASCHA KING "On Ice"
MAN PARRISH & FREEZE FORCE "Boogie Down" (Man Parrish has other great singles too, obviously)
PAUL HARDCASTLE "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" (Pigbag cover!! By the "19" and "Rain Forest" guy)

Dancemaster Vol. 1 (London/Polydor U.K., 1983)

ROCKERS REVENGE "Walking On Sunshine" (isn't the more famous version of this by some band called Central Line? Or was that a different song?)
MAJOR HARRIS "All My Life"
STEVE HARVEY "Tonight (Francois Mix)"
STREET ANGELS "Dressing Up"
HOT STREAK "Body Work"
MONYAKA "Go Deh Yaka"
BOOKER NEWBERRY "Love Town"
RUMPLE-STILT-SKIN "I Think I Want To Dance With You"

ROCKERS REVENGE "Walking On Sunshine" (isn't the more famous version of this by some band called Central Line?

Central Line's one was 'Walking INTO Sunshine'

Get Up: 16 High Energy Dance Hits (Hansa West Germany, 1984)

PATTO "Black And White"]
MY MINE "Hypnotic Tango"
THE TWINS "Love System"
PHIL FEARON AND GALAXY "What Do I Do?"
KENNY JAMES "Gimme A Little Sign" (Brenton Wood cover, I think)
MANUEL DE LEO "Let's Go (Tango)"
SLIP "Mamy Blue"
QUENZO "Break-Out (Don't Leave My Baby)"
THE FLIRTATIONS "Earthquake"

wtf? I'll ask the Moderators to un-triplicate that.

The Great Glam Rock Explosion (Biff!, year unknown)

THE ARROWS "Touch Too Much" (also did "I Love Rock 'n' Roll before Joan Jett)
BARRY BLUE "(Dancing On) A Saturday Night"
KENNY "Fancy Pants"
CHRIS SPEDDING "Motor Bikin'" (later did punkier stuff with Vibrators etc., right?)
THE TEEZERS "The Best Part of Breaking Up"
JEFF ALLEN "Good Times"
JOHN ROSALL "I Was Only Dreaming"

Somebody played some Spedding on WFMU the other day...sorta like if Lemmy was the lead singer of Rockpile?!

High Fashion Dance Music (Dureco Benelux, 1983)

SANDY KERR "Thug Rock" (great title!)
STU STEVENS "Cowboy In Paris"
CLUBHOUSE "Medley: Do It Again with Billie Jean" (as in Steely Dan/Michael Jackson!)
RHETTA HUGHES "Angel Man"
CHASE "Back To Funky Town"
THE BROADS "Sing, Sing, Sing" (Gene Krupa cover)
LAFLUER "Boogie Nights" (Heatwave cover)
FRESH FACE "Huevo Dancing"
ESAVU "Breakin' Up"

High Life: 20 Original Top Hits (Polydor West Germany, 1980)

OTTAWAN "You're OK" (somebody on another thread said the dad or uncle somebody in Daft Punk is in this band!)
DOLLY DOTS "Hela Di Ladi Lo"
CHILLY "Come Let's Go"
BZN "Rockin' The Trolls" (????)
THE PINUPS "New Wave Lover"

same title, different album:

High Life: 20 Original Top Hits (Polystar West Germany, 1978)

LUV "You're The Greatest Lover"
OLIVER ONIONS "Miss Robot" (okay, probably not really so great, but I like his name and the title)
BINO "Mama Leone"
RUBETTES "Little 69" (powerpop, via the early Beach Boys I think. I also have a 45 from 1976 called "Rock Is Dead," but know nothing about them)

Heavy Metal Kids were a band fronted by Gary Holton who is most famous in the UK for his role in the Brits in Germany sitcom 'Auf Wiedersehn Pet' and died aged 33 in 1985.

Rockers Revenge is an Eddy Grant cover, sure they were a nom de plume for Arthur Baker.

Don't know anything about Booker Newberry other than that Love Town is an immense piece of early 80s soul.

Chris Spedding's now most famous for his involvement in producing the early Sex Pistol's demos.

Rubettes were a glam era group, that single must have been at the fag end of their career as they'd faded away in the UK by the mid-70s. Sugar Baby Love was a massive #1 hit in the UK in 1974 and is quintessential glam/rock n'roll revival, great tune and a neat Four Seasons pastiche too.

Sugar Baby Love

It's Belgian (Dites 33 Belgium, 1985)

EXIT "Leave It"
GUY DE SIMPELE "Feest"
CURRICULUM VITAE "The Moon Shot A Heart"
THE REPORTERS "Arabic-Funk"
LENIN SHIPYARD "The Day I Lost My Memory"

lol who calls an album "It's Belgian"? Sounds like a prop from Father Ted...

I forgot to add that Britpop miserabilists The Auteurs released a single titled 'The Rubettes' from their alabum 'How I learned to love the Bootboys'.

Radio Mars: Hits Und Stars Von Radio Mars (Ariola West Germany, 1979)

BACCARA "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD" Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" (A hit in the U.S. for Mac and Katie Kissoon)

I have finally heard a LES HUMPRHIES LP (actually two, and they are weird, all medleys, like "Immigrant Song" going straight into "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" for instance!), so I can not technically list them, but I'm mentioning them anyway.(They do "Going Down Jordan" on this sampler.)

Chris Spedding -- session man who went solo, made quite a few albums, still does. Latest I saw was with Robert Gordon. Spedding really digs the 50s-rock greaser look. Hurt featured Chrissie Hynde prior to the Pretenders. Good album, no longer have it. But do have Guitar Graffiti which still sounds great. He was also the leader of a Free-like band called Sparks with Andy Fraser. First album is good. Second album, after Fraser left, replaced the bassist with Busta Cherry Jones and was called Jab It In Your Eye. Used to see it in cutout bins everywhere.

PATTO was the band of Mike Patto. Quirky hard rock band in the early Seventies with guitar whiz Ollie Halsall. Had a heavy jazz thing going on in it. Made three albums, I think, the last which Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick used to rave about. Patto's drummer, John Halsey, would be more famously known as Barry Wom in the Rutles. I find it hysterical that they'd be on a dance hits compilation.

Heavy Metal Kids -- had the debut, never delivered on the name of the band. After that, they dropped the Heavy Metal and were just the Kids for a second one.

CHASE -- if it's the same, was an American horn rock band, one which grabbed a small piece of Chicago's action. Very jazzy and proggy, charted with a song entitled "Get It On" which isn't the T. Rex tune but which high school marching bands sometimes played at football games in the Seventies. A couple albums on Columbia, one of which -- entitled Ennea -- was a stab at a rock opera.

i like that first heavy metal kids album. i think chuck would like it.

robey was the star of my fave t.v. show friday the 13th (not based on the movies). i have a couple of her singles.

i have a middle of the road album that is pretty bad. their 2nd album, i think. even by my non-existent bubblegum standards it's bad. they have some good youtube action though. stuff not on the album i have.

I WANT ALL THESE COMPS. you lucky duck. i used to have a bunch of german comps like this, but sadly i sold them years ago.

the freez album is good. definitely worth a few bucks if you see it.

I WANT ALL THESE COMPS

^^^

Pretty sure the Chase and Patto upthread are later ones that the bands George's referring to (both of whom I'm vaguely familiar with.)

Star-Treff 71 (Star-Treff West Germany, 1971)

SIW MALMKVIST "Garten Eden"
KAREL GOTT "Lied An Die Freude"
MANUELA "Herzkloppen"
FACIO "El Condor Pasa"

Also includes a Shocking Blue song ("Never Marry a Railroad Man")! And also obviously is too old for this thread (being early rather than late '70s), but big whoop.

Street Beat (Pickwick U.K., 1982)

Q-TIPS "S.Y.L.J.F.M. (The Letter Song)"

Wasn't Paul Young in that band? LP also has a track by the RACING CARS, who I paid $2 for an old LP by last year but it bored the heck out of me. (Not to mention great songs by the Selector, Linx, Pat Benatar, Leo Sayer, Debbie Harry, Huey Lewis, and the Babys, all of whom are way too famous for here.)

Robey -- Hot Slut of the Week

Stars Und Hits Folge 2 (Bellaphon, 1973)

Most of these are probably pretty marginal, if occasionally amusing:

KINCADE "Jenny, Jenny" (some of his 45s are ickier than other ones.)
DIE FLIPPERS "Hello My Love" (not to be confused with Flipper)
SHUKY & AVIVA "Signorina Concertina"
WOLFGANG "Tingeltangel Boulevard"

I'm surprised Chuck didn't know Patto.

Like I said -- different Patto (though yeah, I don't really know the earlier hard rock one either).

And uh, Stars Und Hits is from West Germany, if you didn't figure it out on your own.

The Freez song says "Embedding Disabled by Request". It's tragedy of untold proportions. Someone should be made to answer for this inexplicable interruption of my pop culture entertainment.

Okay here's the Freez song...and it's fun!! I can't believe they had another song besides that I.O.U. one!

Freeez had a different style before they went electro with 'I.O.U' and the above (presumably a follow-up). Here's their next biggest hit ('Southern Freeez'), which reached #8 in the UK chart in 1981:

Power Hits (K-Tel West Germany 1981 -- only own this on cassette, though I assume it exists on vinyl, too)

SECRET SERVICE "L.A. Goodbye"
PRECIOUS WILSON "We Are On The Race Track"
DORIS D. AND THE PINS "Dance On"
HELEN SCHNEIDER "Shadows Of The Night" (Benatar had a hit with this in 1982, so maybe this is the original? And I guess Helen -- with or without her band The Kick, not credited here -- was basically the Kraut Benatar at the time, if not Branigan?)
RACEY "Shame"

(Tape also has two Bucks Fizz songs, plus Joe Dolce, very fun proto-Nena-like German new wave gurl Caro, Eddy Grant, Hot Chocolate, Jona Lewie, and other folks who I own good albums by, including a rather pointless version of Roy Orbison's "Running Scared" by the Fools -- had no idea they ever hit in Europe.)

chuck, you would definitely dig smokey albums too. basically a more pop version of the sweet with all the same chinnichap goodness. at least their 70's stuff is good like that (though, you know, nowhere as godly as sweet). i never ventured into the 80's with smokey. chris norman from smokie was the dude who sang stumblin' in with suzi.

Okay, I will start hunting around for their LPs. And speaking of Suzi Quatro, one of those German comps has her version of "Roxy Roller" on it! One of my favorite songs ever. Not sure if her version is more famous, or the version by Sweeney Todd (feat. Nick Gilder and Bryan "Guy" Adams) I have on 45, or the Nick Gilder solo one. But they're all totally great.

have you seen all the great les rockets footage on youtube? i know i gave you at least one of their albums:

there is so much and it's all awesome:

i have to track down ganymed stuff. just one single would make me happy. i never see anything:

Smokie were Big In Japan! Huge! Simon Frith wrote a whole(?) column about this phoenomenon or how ever you spell it in Creem. Looked like your grey morning drive made-love-in-our-Chevy-van-and-that's alright early 70s denim pop Top 40 comfort food, so I guess that might be what they sounded like? Good to know about Speddings own albums (thanks Gorge), I just knew him from all those Cale-and-extended crew albums on 70s Island Records--aye,him and Ollie Halsall AKA Ollie Haircut were the session shit fo a while--was rumored to have ghost-played on Pistols demos, and later he (Spedding) was in the Professionals with Jones and Cook, right? Car crash and didn't hear as much about him after that. Very educational thread, thanks.

Turns out Spedding also has a song called "Get Outa My Pagoda" on a German Arcade comp I've got called Hit Rocket, which I guess means he had actual hits in Germany? (Unless he didn't.)

And Scott, I will definitely check out those Les Rockets clips. They are an amazing band indeed. Still have that LP you gave me, and also a CD anthology from 1992 called Galactica I got for $3.99 at Princeton Record Exchange a few years back.

How popular was Suzy Quatro in the USA? I know she appeared in Happy Days but did she have the same level of success as she did in the UK?

Nope. Not even close. Only one Top 40 hit -- the totally atypical non-rocker "Stumblin' In" with Chris Norman, which went all the way to #4. Five more singles between 1976 and 1981 peaked between #41 (her second biggest U.S. hit, "She's In Love With You") and # 56.

Weird. I thought with her being on Happy Days she might've got a few hits.

Turns out Spedding also has a song called "Get Outa My Pagoda" on a German Arcade comp

That's from Hurt.

the dolly dots were a pretty big thing in europe (specifically, their home country of the netherlands) for awhile. they even had a movie! (that, uh, tanked.) i've heard a couple of other good songs by them, eg "love me just a little bit more" and "radio" - former is a v. good girl group throwback, latter more in an early ABBA vein. also check "hearts beat thunder" off their movie sndtrk which is really good but i don't remember how any of the other songs on it go

I just put on Smokie - Midnight Cafe it a 1976 Chinnichap Production. It's kind of fake country Peter Criss Beth Rod Stewart rock with big soft rock/glam harmonies coming in at random times.

Maybe the first time in my life I took a RSO (Rockets) album of the turntable to put a different RSo album on.

HANK MIZELL "Jungle Rock" (crazy rockabilly about jungle animals -- sound like it's from the '50s)

I love this song so much! Maybe one of the first records I ever really loved. Yeah, it was an obscure rockabilly single from the 50's that somehow managed to be a huge hit across Europe in the mid-70s. Should probably track down more of this guy's stuff myself.

GARY LOW "I Want You"

- Essentially another hit for Pierluigi Giombini, who did the comp/arr/prod honours for Gazebo (Masterpiece/Lunatic/I Like Chopin), Ryan Paris (La Dolce Vita) and Natasha King (AM-FM). Instantly recognisable production style. Giombini was all over the European singles charts from 82 to 84.

FREEEZ "Pop Goes My Love"

"IOU" was a radical shift in direction following their earlier Britfunk/jazz-funk incarnation. ("Keep In Touch" was a cult soulboy hit in 1980, "Southern Freeez" went Top 40 in 1981.) Always liked "Pop Goes My Love", which suffered by comparison with "IOU" (now, there's a Used Groove if ever there was one). Singer John Rocca had a Billboard Dance Chart #1 a few months later with "I Want It To Be Real", in very much the same squeakily skittering electro style - well worth a listen, that one.

DAVID GRANT "Love Will Find A Way"

Former lead singer with the excellent Linx (both albums recommended), his solo career was a big disappointment. First solo single "Stop And Go" was a hit, but it's utterly without distinction. He resurfaced a few years back as a voice coach on a UK reality talent show called Fame Academy.

BROTHERHOOD OF MAN "Angelo"

The "United We Stand" line-up had been completely replaced by the time they won Eurovision in 1976 with "Save Your Kisses For Me". This was their second of three number ones, to be succeeded by the even more gruesome "Figaro". This line-up is still touring today. Until you've seen witnessed their "Seventies Hits Medley" (featuring a segue from "Remember You're A Womble" - complete with glove puppet - into "My Ding A Ling"), you don't know the meaning of true suffering.

SAILOR "Stiletto Heels"

Sailor were alright. Quality novelty/vaudevillian pop. They had a minor airplay hit with a rather good song called "Traffic Jam" before charting with "A Glass Of Champagne" (covered by Scooter last year as "Jumping All Over The World"). Phil Pickett ended up co-writing "Karma Chameleon".

BOYS TOWN GANG "When Will I See You Again"

Their "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"/"Remember Me" disco medley is super-super-awesome. It took up a whole side of a two-track LP, the other track being the filthy full-length of "Cruising The Streets".

MAN PARRISH & FREEZE FORCE "Boogie Down"

Man Parrish's eponympus 1983 album is a pretty good electro set with Hi-NRG accents. Seek: "Man Made" (stark electro) and "Heatstroke" (Cowley-esque Hi-NRG which I think was written for a porno soundtrack). And of course the classic "Hip Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop)".

PAUL HARDCASTLE "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag"

God, he was dreadful. Drippy approximations of jazz-funk for the most part, which made Shakatak look positively gritty by comparision. Then he sort-of went electro, at least after a fashion, roping in Laurence Olivier and Bob Hoskins to provide voiceovers for "Just For Money", the rubbish follow-up to his chart-topping "19". He also did a rubbish remix of D Train's "You're The One For Me", which charted in 1985 and sold much better in the UK than the original. Curly perm, rolled-up jacket sleeves. You get the picture?

Also wrote and had a Top 20 hit in 1986 with "The Wizard," the last TOTP theme that anyone can remember. It wasn't very good.

ROCKERS REVENGE "Walking On Sunshine"

Yes, this was an Arthur Baker/John Robie project with Donnie Calvin on vocals. They bunged out a rap version of this Eddy Grant cover a few months later called "Sunshine Partytime" which did the business, and then there was a less successful (commerically and artistically) cover of "The Harder They Come" (with a pointlessly interminable 12" mix).

Other good 1982/3 Baker/Robie vocal electro cuts: Nairobi's cover of "Soul Makossa" (with a rap version from Awesome Foursome) and Planet Patrol's brilliant "Play At Your Own Risk"/"Rock At Your Own Risk" (see also "Cheap Thrills" and a bizarre cover of Gary Glitter's "I Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock And Roll)". But best of all, there was C-Bank's proto-freestyle "One More Shot" - the missing link between Yazoo and Shannon.

BLACK LACE "Superman"

This certainly was the English version of "Gioca Jouer"; 20 mirthless weeks on the UK charts, peaking at #9. If that weren't enough they came back to plague us in 1984 with the #2 hit "Agadoo," subsequently parodied by Spitting Image for their 1986 number one "The Chicken Song," then another top ten hit with "Do The Conga" and various lesser hits including "I Speaka Da Lingo" (clap clap), "El Vino Collapso" (clap clap) and the aforementioned "Gang Bang."

Prior to this unsolicited onset of tripe they represented Britain in 1979 Eurovision (albeit with a different line-up) oompah-oompahing their way through the flop "Mary Ann."

Subsequent to this unsolicited onset of tripe Alan Barton (the half of Black Lace who wasn't interested in making "ABC-type pop" - Colin Routh, Smash Hits, October '83) went on to replace Chris Norman as lead singer of Smokie until his death in a car crash in the mid-nineties.

PATTO "Black And White"

NOT the Mike Patto lot!!! This was an excruciatingly naff piece of Italo-pop, presumably composed in the slipstream of "Ebony And Ivory". ("Black and white, it's like day and night, there's nothing wrong just right, with black and white.")

5000 VOLTS "Doctor Kiss-Kiss"

UK studio group whose controversial first hit, 1975's "Black Is Black" ripoff "I'm On Fire," was sung by Tina Charles for a session fee but following manufactured outrage after Luan Peters mimed to her voice on TOTP (following which Ms Charles, then living in Streatham with her partner of the time, one T Horn, launched her own successful solo career). Peters sang a rather hoarse lead on "Dr Kiss Kiss" which followed "I'm On Fire" into our top five in 1976, but that was it for Les Volts.

THE TWINS "Love System"

German synth duo who basically made Italo-disco: their two big European hits were "Face To Face (Heart To Heart)" and "Not The Loving Kind" (faint traces of the latter can be found in the new PSB-penned Girls Aloud single).

"Not The Loving Kind" has some mirth-inducing lyrics, which made me think they'd been penned by some evil-minded English queen as an act of subversion: "You know you won't succeed, in winning cocks with chicken feed." "Your efforts are effete; the stake's too high for easy meat."

Anyhow, "Love System" is where they changed the formula and lost the plot. It's an attempt at quirky uptempo new-wave pop, a little bit like Sparks if we must. Weirdly, Trans-X were also making the same mistake, following "Living On Video" with the similarly awful "Message On The Radio".

THE FLIRTATIONS "Earthquake"

Ian Anthony Stephens-penned Hi-NRG comeback for the former "Nothing But A Heartache" hitmakers. Stephens also put "Searching" together for Hazell Dean, and went on to wind up NME readers with Abigail's eurobosh cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". (I met him once. Nice chap.) There was a brief craze in late 1983 for timpanis on UK Hi-energy tracks, and "Earthquake" was the best of the bunch.

Delving into the Les Rockets on youtube turned up this bit of Italo-synth-fascism. Visitors. Is there more?

DOLLY DOTS "Hela Di Ladi Lo"

Someone upthread mentioned their delightful 1984 Motown pastiche "Love Me Just A Little Bit More" - a big hit in the Netherlands, and fondly remembered to this day. Way better than Belle & the Devotions!

RUBETTES "Little 69"

The earlier hits are well-documented, but I have to make mention of "Under One Roof", which grazed the Top 40 in late 1976. Coming hard on the heels of Rod Stewart's "The Killing Of Georgie", it's another doomy tale of homophobic murder - presumably well-intended, but firmly a product of the days when any potentially sympathetic gay characters HAD TO DIE.

Q-TIPS "S.Y.L.J.F.M. (The Letter Song)"

Yes, Paul Young was their singer, joining them after Streetband (of "Toast" fame). Joyfully unabashed 1960s soul revivalism, of the Joe Tex/Wilson Pickett revivalism. I used to go and see them on Thursday nights at the Marquee in 1980, when they had a residency. Hugely enjoyable live act, who used to throw cardboard saxophones into the crowd. Inevitably, the records failed to capture their live sound.

"...of the Joe Tex/Wilson Pickett VARIETY", duh.

Man Parrish's eponympus 1983 album is a pretty good electro set with Hi-NRG accents

^^^this - seems to be really underrated among electro revivalist types, kind of a shame IMO

"The Letter Song" would, I presume, be the Joe Tex tune.

No idea that "I'm On Fire" was controversial -- just an amazingly great tune. Top 20 in the U.S.

Given what I know about rockabilly, I'm not sure how much more Hank Mizell there is to get.

Major Harris: former Delfonics singer who hit here hard with "Love Won't Let Me Wait." Someone (Matos?) told me that album, My Way, sucks. If it does, I imagine everything after 1975 is subject to the law of diminishing returns.

I have a Tyla Gang album upstairs. Never listened to it. I'll hunt around and try to report back. Their cuts on Stiff compilations ("The Young Lords," for one, as I recall) were always very entertaining, I'll say that. I think they also did "Texas Chainsaw Massacre Boogie," not to be confused with the John Denver song. (Apologies to John Leland for the joke, which I wanna say he made in a Big Boys review once about a tune called 'Fuck You.' I read a lot.)

BACCARA "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"

Baccara was a Spanish Eurodisco act and this song was huge hit in continental Europe and the Nordic countries, I think it's one of the biggest disco hits in Europe ever. I'm not sure if they ever had any other big records though. There's been at least two Finnish cover versions of this song (a straight disco version and a more humorous interpretation by the Finnish avant-garde popster M. A. Numminen), and I think most Finns between 25 and 60 will immediately recognize it if they hear it.

Other good 1982/3 Baker/Robie vocal electro cuts: Nairobi's cover of "Soul Makossa" (with a rap version from Awesome Foursome) and Planet Patrol's brilliant "Play At Your Own Risk"/"Rock At Your Own Risk" (see also "Cheap Thrills" and a bizarre cover of Gary Glitter's "I Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock And Roll)".

I'd recommend getting the whole Planet Patrol album (they only released one), as it is totally awesome (not counting the obligatory sappy ballad), one of the best electro albums ever. An interesting concept they had too, combining doo-wop group vocals with electro beats. Too bad it didn't go anywhere.

Freeez were a major UK Jazz Funk band before discovering electro-funk and hooking up with Robie and Baker. Southern Freeez as posted above, is one of the best songs ever.

I don't think Man Parrish is underrated by Electro revivalists. He's one of the tops in the canon.

An interesting concept they had too, combining doo-wop group vocals with electro beats.

See also Force MD's.

And even New Edition to some extent early on, right? But yeah, Planet Patrol were infinitely more electro than either of those groups -- Jonzun Crew-level electro. Plus they even covered a Gary Glitter song!

Anyway, thanks everybody! I feel I am much more informed now (and hope you all continue informing me.) Mike T-Diva, you are my new hero.

By the way, I also started writing again about more lost-and-found '70s and '80s Euro-hits this weekend at the now- revived link below, and hope to get to mroe soon; that thread needs all your thoughts, too:

Mostly German Old Used 45s That Metal Mike Saunders Mailed To Me

you would definitely dig smokey albums too. basically a more pop version of the sweet with all the same chinnichap goodness....Smokie - Midnight Cafe it a 1976 Chinnichap Production. It's kind of fake country Peter Criss Beth Rod Stewart rock with big soft rock/glam harmonies coming in at random times.

I gotta say, though I like most of the isolated Smokie tracks on these comps, I don't think I really hear much Sweet/Mud/Hello-type glam-rock in their sound -- not a lot of stomping or shouting or hard rock riffs. They seem more countrified soft-rock with a reggae lilt or whatever; almost remind me more of Dr. Hook or somebody than Sweet: In fact, I've probably confused "Living Next Door To Alice" (which seems more Shel Silverstein than Chinnichap to me) with "Sylvia's Mother" over the years. Probably I just need to listen to them more, though.

GARY LOW "I Want You" - Essentially another hit for Pierluigi Giombini, who did the comp/arr/prod honours for Gazebo (Masterpiece/Lunatic/I Like Chopin), Ryan Paris (La Dolce Vita)

Yeah, "I Want You" is followed directly by Gazebo's "Love In Your Eyes" on that Double Dancing LP, and I can totally hear a similarity. (Gazebo are so cool. I knew nothing about them until my father-in-law in Houston, of all people -- also a big fan of Kraftwerk and Yello, not to mention Buffy St. Marie and lots of Texas country music! -- burned me two of their CDs a couple years ago. Honest!) Also never knew that somebody behind Gazebo was also behind Ryan Paris's "La Dolce Vita" (easily one of my favorite '80s Euro/Italo-hits), but that totally makes sense now that you mention it, as well.

More acts from aforementioned Disco Fever (which, bizarrely, ends with the Boomtown Rats' quasi-punky debut hit, "Looking After Number One"):

RAH BAND -- "The Crunch" (instrumental, definitely earns its title)
THE DOOLEYS -- "I Think I'm Gonna Fall In Love With You"
DAVID SOUL -- "Silver Lady" (obviously not European. Never gave his music two seconds' thought before, but though this pegs him as just an adequate singer at best, as '70s suburban cokehead-country goes, I kind of like it. Now I'm wondering about his other stuff. He had only one Top 40 in the States -- "Don't Give Up On Us," #1 in 1977. Also, what is the deal with all of the schmaltzy/drowsy '70s pop ballads about airplanes? Were fares just really low then, so people were flying high for the first time, or what? Hit Power has a pretty forgettable one called "Silver Bird" by somebody named TINA RAINFORD. Reminds me that the character on Swingtown with a David Soul mustache, biggest sleazeball swinger on the show, is an airline pilot.)
JOY SARNEY -- "Naughty Naughty Naughty" (post-McCartney music-hall-megaphone weirdness, what?)
T-CONNECTION -- "Do What You Wanna Do" (passable disco-funk tune with an amazing drum break -- some rapper must have sampled that, right?* Whitburn says they never went Top 40 in the States, but had two smaller almost-hits. Group from the Bahamas.)
THE INNER CITY EXPRESS -- "Dance And Shake Your Tambourine"

Comp also has "Magic Fly" by Space, whose costumes look at least as robotic and alien as the Robots'. I need to put their album back on someday soon. Somebody refresh my memory -- were they art-rockers at first who just went disco by accident, or what?

* - Maybe not. Just checked the Rap Sample FAQ site, and this is the only T-Connection sample listed:

On Fire: (TK 1977)
* "Groove to Get Down"
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper"

at least as robotic and alien as the Robots'

As Les ROCKETS, I mean. Not to be confused with THE Rockets from Detroit (who I also love, and who James K. Polk also just mentioned on here last night.)

T-Connection: eight R&B chart records, including "Do" at No. 15 and "Everything is Cool" at No. 10.

Any idea how good their albums are? Or is there a decent comp? (Surprised at myself for ignoring them this long.)

I don't think Man Parrish is underrated by Electro revivalists. He's one of the tops in the canon.

I meant that album specifically but yr way more on top of this than me so my perspective might well be off anyway

Great thread indeed, recognize a few of these songs but others are mysteries. "Yes Sir I Can Boogie" was on this disco compilation, 4 CDs or something, that a roommate in college had back in 1989 which was pretty mindblowing in retrospect. First place I ever heard Disco Tex.

Man Parrish worked with Klaus Nomi, yes?

Oh, more Sailor trivia. Lead singer George Kajanus later went on to form synthpop outfit Data, recently featured on Metro Area's Fabric 43 mix.

Check out this promo photo:
http://www.sailor-marinero.com/data5.jpg

But I've never heard a single track from Sailor.

"Any idea how good their albums are?"

T-Connection albums? I think they're great. the 70's stuff is best though. their self-titled album on T.K. is a fave of mine.

and you can probably find a cheap T-Connection comp on cd somewhere.

I'll be listening to the one T-Connection LP I've downloaded, along with Tyla Gang, today. I can say I love "At Midnight"!

"Hit Power has a pretty forgettable one called "Silver Bird" by somebody named TINA RAINFORD."

i have her silver bird album and it's pretty bad. but there must be some reason why i keep it around.

T-Coonection put out a bunch of records on Capitol in the 80's, and i just never listened to those as much. I still have a couple though, i should play them, cuz i might be underrating their later stuff.

Wasn't (Noosha Fox's) Georgina Bailie's uncle the first gay character in a song the first one not to die at the end of the song?

yeah, syntax!

"I gotta say, though I like most of the isolated Smokie tracks on these comps, I don't think I really hear much Sweet/Mud/Hello-type glam-rock in their sound -- not a lot of stomping or shouting or hard rock riffs."

well, that's what i said up top somewhere. that they were more pop than rock. but their albums are worth hearing anyway, cuz the have those weird odd moments of chinnichap coolness hidden on them.

Smokey were Chinchap's attempt at making album rock, like they made singles. They were very much in a sort of "Eagles" vein.

Then they were made to modify their name, the singles scored but their albums didn't, really.

So, they became 'soft/glam'...

The rest, you know.

Gawd strewth, I'd forgotten that Sailor's Kajanus formed Data. I saw them live in 1982, supporting... um... nope, can't remember. But when I first heard Trio's "Da Da Da" on John Peel, I do remember thinking: ah yes, this sounds a bit like Data.

Another former member of Sailor was Victoria David (this being after the hits had dried up). In early 1983, she released a terrific synthpop single - co-written by Julian Marshall of Marshall Hain, produced by Andy Hill ( Buck Fizz, Bardo) - called "Am I Normal?" (as credited to "David"), which featured some of the most preposterous lyrics ever penned:

"Comes alive
Driving auto fast
Exhastavent
Loves to drive
Shifts away from that
What's got her pend
Waiting for the stop light
Nerves are very near
Asks herself a question
Suddenly sincere
Am I normal?
Am I normal?

Miles slip by
Cruising, cruising
Near the docks of Boon
But auto dies
Stalling out somewhere
Impounding doom
Tearing off composure
She is not so gay
Turns around to find herself about to say
Am I normal?
Am I normal?

Handcuffed in the back seat
She is under thumb
Car is in custody
But it still don't run
Am I normal?"

Musically speaking, it pre-dates Propaganda's "Duel" to an almost spooky degree.

I have Data's Elegant Machinery album. It definitely has it's moments. i might be wrong, but i don't think the first two data albums were even released in the u.s.

(checking release info, i notice that the dude from sailor was also in the band eclection. who also had their moments.)

BLACK LACE...came back to plague us in 1984 with the #2 hit "Agadoo," subsequently parodied by Spitting Image for their 1986 number one "The Chicken Song," then another top ten hit with "Do The Conga" and various lesser hits including "I Speaka Da Lingo" (clap clap), "El Vino Collapso" (clap clap) and the aforementioned "Gang Bang."

You know, I realize the Brits on this thread despise these guys, quite possibly deservedly. But I just want to say that all of those titles crack me up, and make me wannna check out Black Lace's oeuvre.

HELLO "Love Stealer"... somebody sent me a CD-R of their The Glam Rock Singles Collection which I haven't listened to yet

Have now, a couple times. Crazily, "Love Stealer" (which sounds not at all like Bohannon, don't know what the hell I was hearing then) might be my favorite song (out of 24) -- definitely seems to be where they come closest to hard Sweet stuff like, say, "Blockbuster." Also really like (besides the obvious "New York Groove"): "The Wench," "Do It All Night", "Bend Me Shape Me" (American Breed -- secret proto-punks??), "We Gotta Go," "Star Studded Sham" (hard powerpop with "Eve Of Destruction" melody.) Also, they do a blatant T. Rex imitation somewhere, but I wasn't paying attention to which track. And "You Move Me" swipes the "Suffragate City" riff.

5000 Volts also did a single called "Motion Man" that's worth a listen. Hoarse vocal, so must've been their 2nd lead singer (per Marcello).

Baccara were great; look for a greatest hits compilation. The beginning of their very sexy song "Darling" used to make me think they were singing about an orgy:

"Those guys from Amsterdam... Four girls from Birmingham... "

Until I realized the actual lyrics were "Postcards from Amsterdam... Phone calls from Birmingham... "

Disco Rocket (K-Tel West Germany, c. 1978-ish)

TINA CHARLES "I Love To Love" (preferable to the version I wrote about on toward the end of that-45s from-Metal Mike thread, since unlike my 45, this one doesn't have a crack all the way through it)
JESSE GREEN "Nice And Slow"

Album has an awesome first side -- starts with Sailor's "A Glass of Champagne" (which, yeah, sounds exactly like "Jumping All Over the World" by Scooter --- somebody should put together a "songs Scooter samples" mix CD right away), then Bay City Rollers "Saturday Night", Two Man Sound "Charlie Brown" (which I've somehow heard before though it's curiously not on their immortal 1992 Capital Tropical album), the Glitter Band's just-okay "People Like You And People Like Me," then Hello's just-mentioned "Star Studded Sham," etc. Side ends with "More More More" then "Love to Love You Baby" -- no way that could've been an accident.

Second side starts with PUSSYCAT (whose First of All LP I've got and like but still don't really get -- what were they supposed to be, an Abba-disco-country band or something?) and Harpo "Motorcycle Mama," has a crappy Roger Whitaker in the middle, and ends with a crappy Waterloo and Robinson (also discussed somewhere on that Metal Mike 45s thread.)

what were they supposed to be, an Abba-disco-country band or something?)

Why?? (But I like them anyway, I think. Were they the only Abba-disco-country band ever in the history of the world, or were there several others?)

And one more from Hit Machine:

VOYAGE "I Don't Want To Fall In Love Again" (sort of an adult-contemporary dance-AOR pop ballad, but tastier than that description sounds. Presumably this isn't the same Voyage who put out a self-titled geography-disco LP on Marlin in 1977, with titles like "Orient Express," "Scotch Machine," "Bayou Village," and "Latin Odyssey," but I could be wrong.)

Most curious thing about this comp is the inclusion of Telly Savalas, Jona Lewie (great music-hallish Xmas novelty "Stop the Cavalry") and Joe "King" Carrasco (!?!) on it, which suggests that all three of them may have had German hits at the same time (and oh yeah, James Brown's wild "Rapp Payback," too, which didn't even go Top 100 in the U.S.)

Why??

This reaction amuses me a bit, Chuck, I would have thought that an Abba-disco-country band would have been your ultimate band ever!

I get why you'd say that, but thing is, I AM NOT AN A&R PERSON, you know?

Btw, that Two Man Sound LP I mentioned is '82, not '92. (And "Charlie Brown," though not on it, is amazing. I might even prefer it to the Coasters' song!)

Anyone remember the song 'It Takes Two To Tango'? I'd forgotten it even ever existed, but the whole 70/80s-euro-novelty aura of this thread has somehow inducted it into muh branes. Was it Sailor, or was it someone else?

Jona Lewie (great music-hallish Xmas novelty "Stop the Cavalry")

Big hit in the UK

Learn disco on Dschinghis Khan:

"two to Tango" Richard Myhill.

Novelty hit, helped into the chart by dint of being a square record (not round)

http://i22.ebayimg.com/01/i/001/0f/fc/e957_1.JPG

Ah, good man! Didn't know about the square record thing. 'Do not adjust your turntable'? Like saw the edges off straight or something? So who was that guy anyhow?

Just a jobbing songsmith, who couldn't get his chosen lady singer to do this song (which is why he sings it in a sub-falsetto)

Had the last laugh, or did he?

Discussions on Popular of Brotherhood of Man:

Save Your Kisses For Me

Angelo

Figaro

Poptimist poster Jeff W on KENNY:

They were one of the RAK 'glam pop' (as opposed to glitter rock, before dubdobdee gets too uppity) acts that Martin and Coulter wrote for. In addition to "Fancy Pants", they had a huge hit with the excellent "The Bump" (later, much sampled) and a few other lesser hits.

They made one LP, The Sound Of Super K, which I can't vouch for quality wise. Most of it probably turns up again on the CD, The Singles Collection Plus... - this is still in print and I've half a mind to buy this myself.

More on the history of Kenny,

In 1973, Tony Kenny released Heart of Stone, a Coulter-Martin composition produced by Phil Coulter and Mickie Most, sung in a falsetto voice and released under the name "Kenny." The record was a huge success in England and he followed it up with Give It To Me Now which also charted. Despite gaining international acclaim, Tony then abandoned the name Kenny and returned to Ireland. However, the records had been so successful that producer Mickie Most, took a local English band and renamed them Kenny to capitalize on Tony's initial success.

I'm pretty sure it's this guy that's singing "The Bump", and the band who do the follow-ups...

.. he's now an 'oirish' singer in the vein of Daniel O'Donnell

Jona Lewie (great music-hallish Xmas novelty "Stop the Cavalry")

Big hit in the UK

Big hit understates it somewhat, it's one of the Christmas staples along with Slade's 'Merry Christmas Everybody', Wham's 'Last Christmas', Wizzard's 'I Wish It Could be Christmas Everyday' and The Pogues/Kirsty Maccoll 'Fairytale of New York'.

Yeah, I've heard that song just because some years back I found some sort of Xmas comp in a used CD bin -- turned out to be a UK import on EMI and among the more familiar ones (including everything else you just listed) was this Jona Lewie song, of which I knew nothing until then.

Poptimist poster Brak55 seems to agree with me on Smokie's sound:

I remember liking Smokie when I was in England in the mid-70's, although I always thought that they sounded like Dr. Hook.

Makes sense, as the UK loves Dr. Hook. Dennis Locorriere seems to tour England every year, still.

All from 1983 album midnight. All great. All never heard anything but a few singles:
Righeira / Vamos A La Playa
Kano / Another Life
Ryan Paris / Dolce Vita
Freeez / I.O.U.

stop the cavalry rules

(a million xposts)

I must have heard 'Sugar Baby Love' by Rubettes a thousand times when I was growing up but up until seeing that youtube link I always thought the screamy high bits were done by a woman.

My Dad offered to buy my brother and I a record and this was my brother's choice. I got "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of US" by Sparks and my Dad also bought "Judy Teen" by Steve Harley (who's mentioned way up thread somewhere) & Cockney Rebel. The three songs have been inextricably linked for me ever since.

MIDDLE OF THE ROAD" Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" (A hit in the U.S. for Mac and Katie Kissoon)

My Mum said this was playing on the radio at the moment of my birth. It was at #1 the following week.

(this is a proper 70s family nostalgia thread for me)

PAUL HARDCASTLE "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag"

God, he was dreadful. Drippy approximations of jazz-funk for the most part, which made Shakatak look positively gritty by comparision. Then he sort-of went electro, at least after a fashion, roping in Laurence Olivier and Bob Hoskins to provide voiceovers for "Just For Money", the rubbish follow-up to his chart-topping "19". He also did a rubbish remix of D Train's "You're The One For Me", which charted in 1985 and sold much better in the UK than the original. Curly perm, rolled-up jacket sleeves. You get the picture?

― mike t-diva, Monday, 12 January 2009 11:49 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I had no idea he "hired" Hoskins and Olivier. I'd always assumed he used samples from movies or something. I now have the phrase "fink about the money" stuck in my head :(

RAH BAND -- "The Crunch" (instrumental, definitely earns its title)

I have no recollection of that track but in my small world "Clouds Across The Moon" was huge (meaning it got played at all the school and youth club discos).

The RAH Band is not a band, fact fans:
The RAH Band was a fictitious studio based group (fictitious in that it was no group, it contained only him); RAH being the initials for Richard Anthony Hewson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAH_Band

It's no Space Oddity :)

way upthred theres monyaka go deh yaka. ive not heard this in 20+ years, yet it still pops in my head occasionally for no apparent reason. did they/he ever even have an album?

Ha just listened to this and still pretty ace electrodisco reggae.

never heard anything but a few singles:
Righeira / Vamos A La Playa
Kano / Another Life

I can personally vouch for Righeira's self-titled LP from 1983, which has both "Vamos A La Playa" and "No Tengo Dinero" on it. (Still not clear, though, whether their own "Vamous A La Playa" was a bigger worldwide hit than the Miamis' version, which is on one of my all-time favorite albums of any kind, the 1989 Baja Records compilation Electric Salsa: Hot Latin Dance Hits, which also features Fun Fun, the Gibson Brothers, Magazine 60, Finzy Kontini, Stop, and Two Man Sound.) United State of Electronica also covered "Vamos" sometime in the early '00s -- on a lime-green-vinyl 12-inch no less -- for which they deserve a pat on the back I guess.

As for Kano, they had a bunch of great singles -- "I'm Ready," "Holly Dolly," "Can't Hold Back (Your Loving)," the immortal "It's A War" -- but I've never seen an album, whether they had one or not.

Oh wow, this early Freeez stuff is hottt. Thanks Mike T. Diva!

The RAH band was reepresented by a bunch of, um, peoeple? as standins. The frontman was a tall skinny man in a balaklava who went by the name of Telescope. The moody effect was somewhat lost as he had to writhe up the bottom of the balaklava so as to yell "THE CRUNGE" and roll it back down.

Amazingly, he decided he could have a career, and released a solo single after this, the b-side was some sort of manifesto.

oh, here it is!

xpost: Wasn't Kano a male vocalist rather than a group? "Another Life" spent something like six months on the German singles charts in 83. I really like the follow-up "Queen Of Witches". And props to Righeira for kicking off the Italo-disco "woh-oh" meme (see also "Self Control", "Tarzan Boy" etc).

Kano did have an album, self-titled according to this blog post:
http://americanathlete.blogspot.com/2007/03/another-life-another-lover.html

I suspect the mp3s are no longer available, but I downloaded "I Need Love" at the time and it is very good indeed.

And according to this post on same blog, there were more Kano LPs:
http://americanathlete.blogspot.com/2007/08/cosmic-voyagers.html?showComment=1188034380000

Oh, I'm wrong; Kano were a group. I must have been confused by some of the singles sleeves.

many, many xps.
Angelo is surprisingly good.

5000 VOLTS...UK studio group whose controversial first hit, 1975's "Black Is Black" ripoff "I'm On Fire," was sung by Tina Charles

Hadn't seen this when I brought up Tina Charles yesterday; oops. And looking back at the chapter on garage rock influencing disco in my second book, I'm really surprised that I don't seem to have mentioned "Black Is Black" (by Spanish rock band Los Bravos, 1966); Belle Epoque covered it, and I'm pretty sure there were other disco renditions, too. It also shows up, improbably credited to Los Bravos themselves, on a 1986 ZYX Records album I've got entitled Italo Boot Mix Vol. 6, otherwise entirely populated by apparent Italodisco acts I've never heard of anywhere else.

Disco Explosion (Arcade West Germany, 1979)

NICK STRAKER BAND "Walk In The Park" (Pretty sure I remember the great Boston Phoenix disco critic Michael Freedberg used to lump these guys in with early '80s Brit-funkers of the Linx/Junior/Quick stripe, which makes sense from the sound, but they were apparently around a couple years earlier than the rest of the pack, at least.)
SUPERMAX "It Ain't Easy" (seemingly had a pile of German hits, a couple of which I talk abou on that Metal Mike 45s thread. This one sounds like synthy/dancy proto-Survivor hard rock -- not quite disco, not quite metal, though a few years back I probably would have hedged my bets less and called it disco-metal anyway.)
PROMISES "Let's Get Back Together" (silly high-register/high-energy '50s rock'n'roll revivalism)
JACK GOLDBIRD "Can I Reach You" (similar to previous song, though less revivalist)
SPITFIRE "Codebreaker" (I LOVE this one. Starts out like Bay City Rollers, turns into a crazed Sweet-style glam rocker albiet with less metallic riffage. Who were these guys??)
KANDIDATE "Girls Girls Girls" (Hot Chocolate type vocals atop Chic type instrumentation, cool.)

Great album. Kicks off with the catchiest Racey song I've heard yet ("Boy Oh Boy"); getting the idea they were some stellar kind of pop-rock singles band.) Also has some Alan Parsons Project post-prog proto-techno ("Lucifer"), a HARD-rocking Dr. Feelgood tough-guy bar-bruiser about being a white guy playing the black man's music ("Milk and Alcohol"), and "Are Friends Electric," credited to Tubeway Army rather than Gary Numan.

Hit Saison '79 (Ariola West Germany, 1979)

O.R.S./ORLANDO RIVA SOUND "Lady Lady Lady" (Kraut yacht rock? Okay not quite.)
DIETER HALLERVORDEN/HELGA FEDDERSON "Du Die Wanna Ist Voll (You're The One That I Want)" (Completely fucking insane mostly-but-not-entirely Auf Deutsch version of the ONK/Travolta classic, by what I'm assuming -- judging from the cover photo -- are two middle-aged comedians, probably from TV. The guy has a receding hairline, a big red bowtie, and a daisy on his suit lapel that I bet squirts water. They seem to change several of the words.)
HANNE HALLER "Goodbye Cherie" (Pretty and sprightly '60s-style young-woman pop, like "Georgie Girl" or whatever)
ANDREA JURGENS "Tina Ist Weg" (ditto; wonder if she is Udo's daughter. I never like his songs much though.)
JERRY RIX UND LINDA G. THOMPSON "Wochenende" (catchy non-disco/non-oompah dance song about the weekend.)

One thing I'm trying to figure out is why half of the German hits compilations have mostly rock/disco/Western-top 40-oriented songs sung in English, while the other half of the German hits compilations from the same time period area almost entirely traditional lieder/pre-rock-pop-style songs sung in German. You'd think the split might just be generational, where the German-language comps are just music for old people, but actually, at least two songs on this one are obviously for small children: "Wirn Sind Die Heinzelmannchen" by RETO & TONI'S HEINZELMANNCHEN, who appear to be some guy and his four puppets, and "Die Hamster" by TIMMY, who appears to be a cartoon cat of song kind. Also, this comp starts with Dschinghis Khan's theme song, which is more outlandish and weird and not-ancient-sounding than pretty much anything on the English-language comps; doesn't sound like oldster or kidster music to me. (The LP also has a blatant ripoff of the Eagles's "Lying Eyes"' guitar parts -- MICHAEL HOLM's "Ich Weiss, Du Denkst, Ich Bin Ein Schlechter Mensch" -- long title, huh? -- and a song with a melody that halfway reminds me of "Fool If You Think It's Over" by Chris Rea -- MICHAEL SCHANZE's "Das Madchen Im Spiegel.") Maybe the different kinds of comps were designed for different radio formats? Or different records labels just had different specialties? Was hoping it might be a West Vs. East Germany thing, but nope; these all seem to be from the West. But maybe tastes differed geographically within West Germany, though?

spectacular proustian rushes galore on this thread!

Disco Fever is the first album I remember listening to, ever. Here's what it looks like:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_24o5BqgMIK0/SIuFV8E-XvI/AAAAAAAABJM/abMIVsgaC7I/s1600-h/-disco_fever_-_20_original_disco_hits_a.jpg

(nb this may be too big, sorry if so)

Meri Wilson, Baccara, 'Magic Fly'... bloody ace, the lot of 'em. Found a vinyl copy of disco Fever recently and now it's framed on my bedroom wall!

Gah! too big then. Try clicking here.

One thing I'm trying to figure out is why half of the German hits compilations have mostly rock/disco/Western-top 40-oriented songs sung in English, while the other half of the German hits compilations from the same time period area almost entirely traditional lieder/pre-rock-pop-style songs sung in German

My memories of German music TV in the early eighties are pretty consistent with this - always assumed it was an age thing, but yeah, maybe it was a geographical thing, maybe split along urban and rural lines.

split along urban and rural lines

Yeah, I can totally see that being a possibility. The more trad/liederesque/auf Deutsch comps even generally seem to have a few selections inspired by the pop end of American country music, despite not being sung in English. So I can see how that stuff was maybe bigger, say, out in the German farmlands, with frauleins milking the cows. (Though that still doesn't explain Dschinghis Khan. I doubt anything explains Dschinghis Khan. Though maybe the rural areas just had more Eurovision fans.)

Yes, it was two separate markets. The more traditional German language stuff was known as "Schlager", and it more or less inhabited a seperate universe from the more international/contemporary-sounding English language stuff. A lot of UK and US hits were also re-recorded by German Schlager artists for the trad domestic market. And most weirdly of all, the British MOR/folk singer Roger Whittaker (a regular fixture on BBC light entertainment shows in the 60s and early 70s) crossed over to Schlager entirely, and enjoyed a whole second wind as a German-language recording artist (e.g. with "Abschied ist ein Scharfes Schwert" in 1983).

Did he whistle in German?

Haha, I'll tell you what explains Dschingis Khan: Ralf bloody Siegel! Together with lyricist Bernd Meinunger, Siegel has penned a record number of Eurovision entries over the years, mostly for Germany, of which this was one.

Full list: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Siegel#Eurovision-Song-Contest-Teilnahmen

His stock in trade is to work a new novelty angle every year. This might be gap-toothed identical twins singing about a penguin longing to escape from his ice floe (Papa Pinguoin), or a theatrical tribute (Theater), or a simple fresh-faced damsel acosutically strumming a song about World Peas (Ein bißchen Frieden, which won in 1982), or a jolly bunch of wallopers on a hen night (Wir geben 'ne Party), or a Turkish group (to attract the German Gastarbeiter vote) singing a song about that year's host city (Reise nach Jerusalem), or a blind singer (I Can't Live Without Music), or a bit of this-one's-for-TEH-GAYS Eurodisco (Let's Get Happy), or light operetta (On Again…Off Again), or a carefully casted multi-national sextet (including a former member of Alcazar) singing another World Peas anthem (If We All Give A Little)... you get the picture?

Mike, did you spot this one: 'Together we're strong' gesungen von Mireille Mathieu und Patrick Duffy - bet that's a corker!

RALF SIEGEL IST EIN GOTT UNTER MAENNER...

xpost: Oh God, I remember "Together We Are Strong" all too vividly. I was (briefly) dating a Swiss boy who thought it was FAB FAB FAB. He spoke no English, so one night when we heard it in a bar I provided a live line-by-line translation. Two verses in, and he was begging me to stop. We didn't last.

"Are Friends Electric," credited to Tubeway Army rather than Gary Numan.
It was released by Tubeway Army. Gary Numan went solo (not much) later.

There was also a very daft Cantonese disco version of "Dschinghis Khan" by George Lam, which I taped off John Peel in the early 1980s, as well as a Finnish version by Frederik (I've got the 7-inch).

that famous german t.v. show DISCO was always half schlager and half euro-pop if you watch stuff on youtube or look at their episode guides.

um, responding to the thing upthread.

They're still knocking out covers of Dschingis Khan to this day; here's a J-Pop cover from last year:

Not hearing many revelations, at least so far, on K-Tel's Dynamite (K-Tel West Germany, 1975) -- CATS, NICK MCKENZIE, PAUL DA VINCI, SWEET SENSATION, TREMELOES, SANTABARBARA, meh. And man, did people actually like ALVIN STARDUST's music? Don't think I've ever liked anything by him at all, though I doubt I've heard much. ("Jealous Mind" is here, has him lamely trying to croon like Elvis, sounds like.) "Dune Buggy" is probably my favorite Oliver Onions song ever, though; that's something, right? And at least the comp reminded me how much I love First Class's "Beach Baby." Plus, the "Kung Fu Fighting"/"Rock The Boat"/"Rock Your Baby" triptych is probably evidence of how eager Das Germans were to latch onto disco, in its very earliest stages.

(btw, ONK a few posts above = ONJ obviously.)

Paul Da Vinci was the original lead singer with the Rubettes - he provides the falsetto on "Sugar Baby Love" - but he left the group before it became a hit. I'm guessing the track you've got on that comp is "Your Baby Ain't Your Baby Anymore". It was promoted as "finally, in his own right: the falsetto guy from the Rubettes!", and consequently said falsetto is pushed to somewhat ludicrous extremes - plus he wasn't exactly the most charismatic of performers, so it was only a modest hit and PDV quickly faded from view.

I liked Alvin Stardust's music enough to buy his debut album The Untouchable, but it was a big let-down after the glories of "My Coo Ca Choo" and (to a lesser extent) "Jealous Mind" (featuring some Buddy Holly hiccups along with the Presley-isms?). I have a vague memory of a slinky track called "My Sweet Deutscher Girl" (sic), which might have been OK. And just after the hits dried up (at least before the more straightforwardly revivalist second flush circa 1981 on Stiff Records), Alvin put out a rather effective (and even, dare I say it, quite sexy)stripped-down cover of Cliff Richard's "Move It".

I'd rep for Sweet Sensation, though. They won a UK TV talent show called New Faces and went to #1 with a lovely tune called "Sad Sweet Dreamer" shortly thereafter. Marcel King was a talented singer, now deceased, who re-appeared on Factory a few years later with "Reach For Love". Marcello wrote about it here: http://garbocathedral.blogspot.com/2007/09/marcel-king-reach-for-love.html

Okay, well, maybe I just woke up in a cranky mood this morning; will definitely relisten to those when I have a chance. (And yeah, that is definitely the Da Vinci track on there.)

Meanwhile, back in Schlager-land:

Super 20 Hitparade (Ariola West Germany, 1977)

WENCKE MYHRE "Lass Mein Knie, Joe" (Deutsch cover of Bonnie Tyler's great "It's a Heartache," not sung in a ravished Rod Stewart-like voice but still good. Pretty sure I liked a 45 by Wencke on that Metal Mike thread. And pre-heart-eclipse years of Bonnie Tyler herself are another topic for future research. She was from Wales; probably in the Abba-country ballpark.)
ROLAND KAISER "Sieben Fasser Wein" (oompah fur bier trinken)
BENNY "Skateboard" (Awesome. Seemingly takes its "ooh-ah-ah" hook from David Seville's "Witch Doctor," one of my favorite songs of my grade school years, which as far as I know has never influenced any other music in the half century since its existence. Also, this is a song about skateboards!)
MARTIN MANN "Strohblumen" (Catchy guitared and whistled country-pop tune)
GUNTER GABRIEL "Komm Charly Fang Mich Charly" (Dark-melodied talk-rhythm country with girlie-girl backup singing; possible Johnny Cash influence?)
ROBERTO BLANCO "Wer Trinkt Schon Gern Den Wein Allein" (another ale-hoister for the Hofbrauhaus, as its title makes clear, but this one with Mexican-music-like "ay yi yi" interjections, especially interesting given Blanco's possibly Spanish surname and the fact that, in his picture, he seems to be a black man. Which doesn't add up to Mexican, obviously, but what the hell do Germans know? Also makes me wonder about the connection between German music and regional Mexican music, which is also frequently based on polka rhythms, and has its own internal urban pop-vs.-rural trad culture division.)

All in all, probably the most "country" Schlager comp I've heard. There's also a German cover of Kenny Rogers's "Lucille" by MICHAEL HOLM, plus two more songs that seem to be trying to combine Latin or Caribbean rhythms with German ones -- one by LENA VALATIS that starts out quasi-Latin, goes oompah, then comes back, and one actually called "Tanze Samba Mit Mir (Liebelei)" by REX GILDO. Maybe there was a Latin fad in Germany then or something. Also, there's another seemingly comedic man-woman act, HENRY VALENTIO + USCHI, though not nearly as funny as the ones who cover ONJ/Travolta up above. Henry does sound pretty much like an old lech, though.

Finally, how do you translate "Aus Der Funk-Und Fernsehwerbung," which is on the cover of almost every one of these German comps? (Record stores are "Schallplatten" or something like that, right? My Deutsch is totally rusty; haven't lived there since the early '80s when I was in the Army. Was kind of oblivous then to a schlager-vs.-Europop split, though it kind of rings true in retrospect.)

"Aus Der Funk-Und Fernsehwerbung" = "as advertised on radio and TV".

Did you get to listen to BFBS over there, Chuck? They had some good shows at the time, esp. a pan-European chart roundup called "Pop Over Europe" and an enthusiastic and wildly electic late night DJ called Alan Bangs.

I lived in Munich in the '80s and we never got BFBS, it was AFN all the way - Charley Tuna and Casey Kasem. German music TV shows I remember were 'Super Hit Parade' (all Schlager) and 'Formel Eins', 'Tommy's Pop Show' and 'Ronnie's Pop Show' (all modern stuff, the last one presented by a chimpanzee).

'Schallplatten' just means 'records' BTW

Yeah, I got the Casey Kasem habit big-time. And they did a weekly track-by-track R&B chart rundown which was awesome; first time I heard Mtume, SOS Band etc. I saw Formel Eins a couple of times, but no-one in my apartment owned a TV. (This was 83-84 BTW.)

I used to catch Wolfman Jack on the occasional forces radio, if the wind was in the right direction. (I'd be in England)

Mike, Formel Eins was great during that era, it was like Pat Benatar to Einsturzende Neubauten to Desireless to Big Country to Righeira to Udo Lindenburg. Good mix of stuff!

all modern stuff, the last one presented by a chimpanzee

What drugs were you on when you lived in Munich?

The acts I can remember seeing on Formel Eins: Laidback, Trans-X, Boytronic... and, yes, Righeira. It was VERY EXCITING to move to Berlin and find all this Euro-electro-Italo-NRG stuff in the upper reaches of the singles charts...

"Sad Sweet Dreamer" was also a hit in the U.S. Top Twenty?

What drugs were you on when you lived in Munich?

I swear, lots of German music tv was like this...

Man, I usually made a point of tuning into to Casey Kasem on AFN I guess, but though I certainly heard German radio (which was usually playing "Words" by F.R. David as I recall), I don't think I much listened to it. Which was dumb, obviously. A big part might be that I was going through a major American Music phase (Los Lobos, Blasters, Meat Puppets, Husker Du, Bruce, Al Green, Run DMC, etc.), the grass always being greener on the other side.

Anyway, crossing a border here:

Svensk Toppar 22 (Flora Sweden, 1974)

WENDY WIGER "Kan Ingen Tala Om For Mej Nar Toget Gar"
BENDIK SINGERS "Waterloo" (Abba translated to their native tongue)
BOSSE SAMUELLSON "Vad Har Du Under Blusen, Rut" (Very energetic polka with horn parts)
JAN HEILAND "Silt Och Slang" (doo-wop! Also, Jan is listed as the producer of the album, which makes me wonder whether these songs were genuine hits)
NORA BROCKSTEDT "Froken Ur Sang" (girl group imiatates clocks, with much ticking and tocking)
ODD BERRE "Sally Var En Reko Bud (Over-the-top rockabilly-ish r'n'r)

I left out the umlauts, slashes through o's, and circles over a's. I've got three volumes of this series, which always seem to feature a wholesomely busty blonde on the LP cover. On this one, her sequined denim shirt is half open.

Btw, somebody on poptimists pointed out that Metal Mike had done an essay on the Dutch girl trio Luv, mentioned way upthread, in the 2001 collection Bubblegum Music Is The Native Truth (in which I also have a chapter.) He did. It is called "Luv: The Uber Abba," and says they had "six top 5 singles, and four more Top 10s, over three years 1978-1980 (on the Dutch charts). with back to back #1 singles just three hits into the run." Mike recommends their first, second, and fourth LPs, plus assorted singles.

Went back and listened to K-Tel's Dynamite after Mike T-Diva suggested I'd underrated a few songs; decided these ones were better than I thought:

PAUL DA VINCI "Your Baby Ain't Your Baby" (Still feels soft at the center, but yeah, the Frankie Valli/Lou Christie high crazy falsetto parts are exciting. I actually wish Da Vinci used them more; when he reverts to mid-range, I get kinda bored.)
SWEET SENSATION "Sad Sweet Dreamer" (Yep, more falsettos! But it is so light and ethereal, no wonder it went right past me the first time through -- not to mention for the past 33 years, after it went #14 in the States. How could I not have heard this before? I must have, right?)
ALVIN STARDUST "Jealous Mind" (Yep, as much Buddy and Elvis. Plus percolation underneath that's almost a link between Gary Glitter and Giorgio Moroder.)
TREMELOES "Good Time Band" (sounds halfway between a glam-rock studio concoction and a live-and-loose hippie band. Like Ram Jam, almost, but not as good.)

The three other acts I'd never heard of before (Cats, Nick McKenzie, Santabarbara) all work some bland version of exotic Caribbean rhythms. As does Oliver Onions with his semi-reggae "Dune Buggy," but his is bubblegummier, and comes with a goofy German accent attached. First three songs on the comp -- "Kung Fu Fighting"/"The Night Chicago Died"/"Life Is A Rock (But The Radio Rolled Me)" -- were a great way to kick off my exercycle ride this morning.

Musikladen: 20 Original-Hits (Hansa, 1980)

LIO "Amoureux Solitaires"
THE PIRANHAS "Tom Hark" (pub rockers? new wavers? photos on cover and inner sleeve suggest either one or the other)
THE TEENS "Give Me More" (powerpop that could use more power, but poppy enough to get by)
SARAGOSSA BAND "Ginger Red" (sounds like they're saying "Cigarette." I wrote about a 45 I've got by them, "Big Bamboo (Ay Ay Ay)"/"I Like It", on that Metal Mike 45s thread. Fake Afrobeat pop?)

There's also another song by PRECIOUS WILSON ("Cry To Me" -- Solomon Burke cover I think) and another
by ERUPTION on the LP; Eruption one, "Go Johnnie Go (Keep On Walking John B)" is terrific -- sounds a lot like Boney M, but maybe slightly more South African disco than Jamaican disco. Really loved the Precious Wilson reggae-disco "We Are On The Race Track" song I mention upthread, too, and I was thinking -- aren't they basically the same artist? Could have sworn I'd seen albums by "Precious Wilson and Eruption" in a store sometime in my life. And sure enough, Joel Whitburn says Precious was the singer for Eruption, who he calls a "techno-funk group of Jamaican natives based in London." They had only one Top 100 hit in the U.S. between them -- Eruption's cover of "I Can't Stand The Rain," which went to #18 in 1978.

This comp also has Amanda Lear back to back with Marianne Faithful's "Ballad of Lucy Jordan," which is about as sleazy-dominatrix a segue as you could ask for. Plus girl trio A La Carte ("Do Wah Diddy Diddy" cover), who I have a good LP by, and Garland Jeffreys ("Matador"), who I have at least one good LP by. Plus it goes totally overboard on the new wave disco -- "Pop Muzik," "Funkytown," "Heart of Glass," Robert Palmer's "Looking For Clues," Roxy Music's "Oh Yeah." So some thought went into it.

The Piranhas were sort of both pub rock & new wave. I think they were from Brighton, since they were on one of the Vaultage comps. I got their album for a quid the other day but haven't got round to listening to it yet.

LIO "Amoureux Solitaires"

I'm trying to remember the connection to Sparks here, but there is one...

Some random thoughts upon relistening to Hit Tornado and Disco Rocket this morning:

Hello "Let It Rock" -- Okay, this is the Hello song (besides "New York Groove") that's got a Diddley-beat not far from Bohannon's "Disco Stomp"

Tina Charles "Dance Little Lady Dance" -- Diddley in the clave' here, too.

Bonnie Tyler "Lost In France" -- yeah, Abba-country for sure.

Champagne "Rock 'n' Roll Star" -- Big sweeping pop-drama chorus sound. I want to learn more about these folks. (Not to be confused with the folk-r&b-whatever group of the same name from Champagin, Illinois who scored with the lovely "How 'Bout Us" in 1981, I assume.)

Harpo "Rock 'n' Roll Clown" and "Motorcycle Mama" -- "Rock 'n' Roll Clown" is like the most glam sound EVER or something; reminds me of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and...I don't know who else. Maybe some Bowie and Queen and Sparks in there. Just super catchy-flamboyant pop-rock thespianism with boinging hooks bouncing over-the-top all over the bigtop. I played it three times straight this morning; can't remember the last time I did with a song. But weirdly, "Motorcycle Mama" does not sound glammy at all to me. So, was Harpo glam or not? Here is Wiki, which also lists a ton of singles and albums: "Harpo (born Jan Harpo Torsten Svensson, 5 April 1950 in Bandhagen, Stockholm), is a Swedish pop star known under the stage name Harpo. He was popular in Sweden and around Europe in the 1970s and is best known for his worldwide hit 'Moviestar' which also reached number 24 in the UK Singles Chart and number 2 in the Australian Singles Chart in 1976. Harpo has continued to work in the music business, releasing an album of new material as recently as 2005 and continues to tour to this day. He remains popular in Germany and will tour there throughout 2007." Pretty sure I've also got "In The Zum-Zum-Zummernight" on some compilation somewhere; I need to figure out where and check that out, too.

Roger Whitaker "River Lady" and Waterloo & Robinson "My Little World" -- Both less stinky than I implied upthread, I think. Waterloo & Robinson is just nice soft-rock oompah-pop, harmless enough. And I'd put the Whitaker in a subgenre called Humble-Voiced Fake '70s Country Music For Canadian Movies, maybe. Not that it was ever in a Canadian movie; just sounds like it should be. Might even be about the lake freezing and geese flying south for winter.

The Sweet "Lost Angels" -- Title = "Los Angeles," right? Very proto-hair metal, as in Poison's "Fallen Angels." I think Generation X may have ripped it off bigtime for "Friday's Angels" on their glammy second album produced by Ian Hunter, too. (By the way, Simon Reynolds has been writing about The Sweet on his blog this week, claiming that Brian Connolly was the best British hard rock vocalist of the '70s, though people have been offering other nominations which he's been flippantly shooting down one by one. Amazed nobody has nominated Phil Lynott -- If being Scottish like Connolly counts as British then Irish has to count too, right? Hell, I'd pick Jenny Haan of Babe Ruth too -- she wasn't a U.S. expat, right?)

Oh wait, didn't notice the new Friday post; somebody finally did nominate Lynott after all:

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/winding-up-sweet-appreciation-week.html

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/help-me-now-was-there-in-fact-better.html

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/gram-bam-bam-slight-return-had-more.html

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/01/winding-up-sweet-appreciation-week.html

Oops, duplicated one link, oh well.

ps) Harpo's "Rock n Roll Clown" might also have the best "ha ha ha"'s in any song this side of "Ha Ha Ha" by Flipper, unless I think of another one. ("I Am the Walrus, maybe? But Harpo's ha-ha's are hooks.)

Dave Marsh on Sailor, in The Rolling Stone Record Guide (original red edition): "Ersatz Roxy Music. Sailor's chief innovation was a calliope, the first and only band to use that instrument as a regular part of its sound. Didn't help much."

(Also, speaking of Scots, Dan McCafferty of Nazareth might be a better '70s Brit rock singer than Brian Connolly, too. Though Connolly is still way cool.)

Scotland is in Britain, xhuxk. Britain is the island. Ireland is a separate island, so not British (unless you want to piss off a lot of Irish people!).

'Tom Hark' by The Piranhas would have faded into obscurity several years ago but lives on thanks to its use by several soccer teams when their team scores a goal.

I dunno, Col. Poo; here's how Simon Reynolds hisself puts it: "Halvard Halvorsen suggests that in terms of 70s hard rock male singers--if one expanded the scope from UK to British Isles--then Phil Lynnott would be a serious challenger to Connolly." So see, even Limeys like Simon think being Brit is ambiguous!

Somebody on poptimists said that "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" (Pigbag original I assume) has become a soccer-goal anthem in recent years as well. (What's next, "We Are All Prostitutes" by the Pop Group?)

Or okay, not soccer-goal anthem, exactly. Here is Carmilesteve:

recently, due to it's overuse in adverts and for goal celebrations at football (a dreadful idea we seem to have imported), it has also become a terrace chant when an opposing player does something rubbish, viz:

DUH DUH DUHDUH
FVCKING USELESS!
DUH DUH DUHDUH
FVCKING USELESS!

The British Isles = Ireland & Great Britain & surrounding smaller islands.

British Isles != British, it is a bit confusing I admit.

Somebody on poptimists said that "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" (Pigbag original I assume) has become a soccer-goal anthem in recent years as well. (What's next, "We Are All Prostitutes" by the Pop Group?)

Yeah, Middlesbrough use it for their goal celebrations, but not very frequently this season.

When they had Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank they would use 'Jimmy, Jimmy' by The Undertones when he scored.

Anyway (re U.K. geography), I'm just a stupid Uhmuhrrican, what the hell do I know. Still, two more new old groups I think I might like, both on Disco Fever (K-Tel West Germany, 1977):

SHERBET "Howzat" (Super catchy commercial not-quite-hard AOR; not even sure how I'd subclassify this -- like, somewhere in between yacht-rock and pomp-rock, the missing link I never even imagined between "Moonlight Feels Right" and "Sister Christian" or something? Doesn't even sound especially Euro.)
RAGS "Promises Promises" (Some more poppy AOR, orchestrated not far from Sweet's "Love Is Like Oxygen", but with seemingly co-ed vocals.)

Don't like the Sailor cut on this one, "One Drink Too Many," near as much as their other two on these comps; just seems like a wussy (but not particularly swishy) cabaret thing; the roots of Brit-pop maybe. And Oliver Onions (whose song here, "Orzowei," is a weird one) turns out to be two guys. And I really like "She's No Angel" by Heavy Metal Kids. They rock hard enough, and in pretty idiosyncrtatic ways. (Martin Popoff compares them to UFO -- with whom they shared a keyboard guy -- plus the Faces, T. Rex, Slade, Uriah Heep, Alex Harvey, Pink Fairies, and Rose Tattoo. Can't say I hear the heavier of those bands on these hits, but they do throw a lot of weird rocking stuff in, regardless. Actually, I hear more Sweet in them than anything else.)

The Piranhas were sort of both pub rock & new wave. I think they were from Brighton, since they were on one of the Vaultage comps. I got their album for a quid the other day but haven't got round to listening to it yet.

Yeah, they were a Brighton band, and they had a bit of a ska influence going on too. Their other UK hit was a version of 'Zambesi', which my memory tells me was pretty bad.

xp Or maybe it's SHERBERT (that's how The Rolling Stone Record Guide spells it): "Australia's top pop group racked up nine consecutive gold albums and 18 hit singles Down Under, but it has yet to make much on an impression in the U.S. Led by a singer (Daryl Braithwaite) with a voice somewhere between Blood Sweat and Tears' David Clayton-Thomas and Chicago's Peter Cetera. Sherbert has a knack for hooks, and plays in a variety of styles, but it's nothing Three Dog Night hasn't done better."

Never heard of them 'til today!

i have the sherbert album with howzat on it and i never liked it much. was hoping it would be way more glammier and fun than it is.

and it is sherbet. i figured with such a groovy album cover...

http://3.music.bigpond-images.com/images/AlbumCoverArt/467/XXL/Howzat.jpg

i'll play it again though. sometimes i'm not in the right frame of mind. or i only play one side of a record...there are many factors involved.

i was kinda hoping they would be the aussie rollers or at least the aussie rosetta stone, but not on that album. who is the aussie rollers?

High Speed Disco (Polystar West Germany, c. 1979-ish)

CLOUT "Save Me" (Real sweet girl-group pop, from a band featuring four girls and two boys, judging from the cover photo. Holds its own well enough two songs after Blondie's sweeter-than-sweet "Sunday Girl," which is saying a lot. And it's followed by Luv's "Casanova," which actually sounds even better than Abba's "Chiquitita," which comes after that.)
ROCKY SHARPE AND THE REPLAYS "Imagination" Five-or-so-vocal part foreign-accent doo-wop with yackety Coasters sax and maybe a little "Wimoweh"/"Lion Sleeps Tonight" in its harmonies, revives the '50s way better than any of the many SHOWADDYWADDY tracks on these comps; they were just a lame-assed version of Sha Na Na right? Except I get the idea that these groups may have leaned more toward originals and less toward actual oldies covers than Sha Na Na did, unless they were just covering more obscure songs.)

Also: Belle Epoque "Jump Down" (sounds like an unacknowledged disco classic, proto-En Vogue a capella harmonizing into growling hard live-band Chic disco into salsa); Supermax "African Blood" (the Afropop move its title suggests, and a good one, despite an embarrassing chorus that goes "we are the jungle people" -- weird that there was seemingly a much bigger Afropop influence on the Euro charts than the U.S. charts in the '70s, though no doubt that's partially explained by the flow of immigration into continental countries); Oliver Onions "Sandokan" (maybe their African move, hard to tell, but a much more timid one -- still wouldn't mind hearing a best-of LP by this goofy dup though); Elton John "Song For Guy" (don't think I ever heard of this before -- it's either an instrumental or Elton's vocals keep disappearing in the mix, I'm not sure which -- also, who is Guy?)

The title High Speed Disco, as far as I can tell, translates as "Many different kinds of pop music at many different tempos," by the way.

i have a good Clout album. very Abba-esque. good songs. if you see one for a dollar somewhere, pick it up.

Disco Live (Arcade West Germany, c. 1977) is "live" in the sense that there are a few short tracks where a DJ named either Sweet Power or Gregor Rottschalk (or both) talks over snippets of Bee Gees classics and "Born to be Alive." Otherwise, it is definitely much more legitimately disco than most of the other compilations with "disco" in their titles on this thread, yet its definition of the genre is still gratifyingly cheesy: Two each songs by Boney M and the Gibson Brothers and Ottawan, one each by the Nick Straker Band, Eruption ("One Way Ticket" to the blues -- another good one by them!), Goombay Dance Band (apparent second-tier Boney Ms judging from this song and the LP I've got by them), Penny McLean, Belle Epoque ("Black Is Black"), Van McCoy.

Plus "Singin' In The Rain" (ick) by Sheila B. Devotion, whose 1980 Nile Rodgers-produced self-titled LP with the immortal "Spacer" on it I've always filed under the S's rather the D's since i'ts credited to Sheila & B. Devotion instead, which made me think B. Devotion was the name of her band, pictured with matching spacesuits on the back cover. (High Energy Disco also credits "Seven Lonely Days," which is better than "Singin' In The Rain" but not as good as "Spacer," to Sheila B. Devotion. Did her act's name change when Nile got to her?)

Finally, Disco Live also has "Love Is In The Air" by Scottish-Aussie singer John Paul Young. I never thought of that as a disco song back then, though I guess it sounds like one. In the States, where it went to #7 and topped the AC chart, I think it was just considered a pop song -- maybe even got a little stray AOR play, though I could be wrong.

Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I've never heard an entire JOHN PAUL YOUNG album, either. How good would those be? Is "Love Is In the Air" an anomaly? (He had two other almost-hits that didn't even reach the Top 40 in the States, but I'm not sure I ever heard those, either. Get the idea he's a much bigger deal overseas, though.)

Unrelated to John Paul Young but related to this thread, David Smay opines in his glam-rock chapter in Bubblegum Music Is the Naked Truth (though I'm abridging this a little): "Other glam acts successfully charted, including such noteworthy (and listenable) cuts as "I Love Rock and Roll" by the Arrows, "New York Groove" by Hello, and "Angel Face" by the Glitter Band. Then there was a ton of appalling crap by people like Barry Blue and the Rubettes and Alvin Stardust." He also claims that producer Mike Leander borrowed the big drum sound on Gary Glitter's hits from John Kongos' "Tokoloshe Man" and Dr. John. Never heard that before, and I've never heard the Kongos cut, either; only know his 1971 "He's Gonna Step On You Again," which Happy Mondays covered. So now I'm obviously curious about him, too. (He was from South Africa, apparently.)

And Scott, thanks, I'll definitely pick up a Clout LP if I ever come across a cheap one. (And that Sherbet cover you posted looks real familiar, though I don't think I've ever been tempted to buy it.)

tokoloshe man kinda sounds like he's gonna step on you again. they are both good. that whole album is cool. though i'm probably a bigger fan of cerrone's kongas than i am of john kongo. and the congos were probably cooler too than john kongo. although john kongo definitely had some dub action going on.

john kongo kind of a mix of dr. john + exuma + bubbleglam.

i'm probably a bigger fan of cerrone's kongas than i am of john kongo

Me too! And I probably still would be, even if I heard more of Kongos' stuff. Those two Kongas LPs are amazing.

By the way, I neglected to point out (and this is very important, so pay attention) that Disco Live is designed "Für die Super-Dancing-Party." It even says so on the cover!

Gold Hits (EMI West Germany, 1976)

HANK THE KNIFE AND THE JETS "Stan The Gunman" (Great single; also wrote about it on the Metal Mike 45s thread. Somewhere in between Sha Na Na/Showaddywaddy American Graffiti/Happy Days schuck -- do people realize even Midwest U.S. high schools in the '70s used to have "50s days" when you could dress up '50s-style? well, mine did anyway -- and the more hard-edged greaser dead-end-street end of pub rock, Count Bishops/Eddie & the Hot Rods. Killer metalbilly guitar sound. Did they do anything else?)

Also has another Kenny song ("Nice To Have You Home," which sounds, er, nice); Glen Campbell's "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet In L.A.)" (typically beautiful Glen, and about as "real" country as any of these compilations get, which isn't very real or very country but I kind of like that); Slick "Forever and Ever" (dull song by occasionally non-dull pop-rock band with baseball jerseys, or at least their LP has pop-rockier stuff on it -- somebody in that bubblegum book wrote an essay about these apparently failed Brit would-be Rollers and another bicentennial debut LP by L.A.'s Sparksy Kim Fowley/Earl Mankey-produced the Quick, but liked the Quick more, and I think I do too); Kraftwerk's "“Radioaktivität” (did they have many hits in Germany? I wouldn't have expected this on a hits comp but here it is); Chris Spedding's "Jump in My Car" (early Roxy playing pub rock? Dave Marsh pinpoints Spedding "to the left of Dave Edmunds and the right of Brian Eno, which is nowhere," which seems about right, yet real interesting, and I like him more than Dave does); Smokie's "Don't Play Your Rock'n'Roll to Me" (which, again, I was thinking sounded like Dr. Hook -- their singers sound real similar -- before I checked to see who it was.)

Not a lot to add to Chuck's assessment of Slik other than Midge Ure went on to form The Rich Kids, had a brief stint in Thin Lizzy and then hit paydirt as the face and voice of post John Foxx Ultravox before he saved the world with Band Aid.

Plus he was almost lead singer with the Sex Pistols but turned McLaren down.

Speaking of which, Chris Spedding also has connections with the Pistols early on, as a producer, I think.

Oh yeah, meant to mention Ure was in Slik, duh!

Super 20 -- Starparade (Ariola West Germany, year unknown)

Okay, this is strange one, since I only have the disc, not the LP cover, and the label on the disc only lists song titles, not artist names. Doubt I'll keep it, but I want to document it. Metal Mike, who sent it to me in a different cover (and who is the source for a lot of these LPs if you hadn't already figured that out), scrawled some notes about a few songs. I'll google some to see what I can find. These are the ones I like, amidst lots of schlager:

ROBERTO BLANCO "Hey Mama Ho" (Funny title. Funny funky fake Afro-pop, I guess: "hey mama hey mama hey mama ho....ohhhhh mama!" Figured out artist via google -- same dark-skinned guy who did a quasi-Mexican schlager song up above somewhere.)
BRUCE LOW "Die Legende Von Babylon" (Google was easy. Stentorian baritone light-opera singer translates Boney M's version of the Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon" into German).
GOLDIGUUGER GOLDIWEL "Das Lied Der Schlumpe" (Okay, this is easier than I thought, assuming Google isn't lying. Metal Mike classifies this one as "novelty/Chipmunks," which seems about right.)
BENNY "Bin Wieder Frei" (Metal Mike says "Jet Boy Jet Girl"; youtube says "Ca Plane Pour Moi" -- how the hell would you know; it's in German! Obviously awesome, either way. One of the greatest songs in the history of the world, no matter who does it)

GUNTER GABRIEL "Ich Bin CB-Funker" (Metal Mike sez "CB song." Hard country truckerbilly, sounds kind of like "Six Days on the Road" by Dave Dudley, in German, in the wake of "Convoy" by C.W. McCall.)
FRANK ZANDER "Disco Planet" (Think he had something upthread, too; too lazy to check now. Metal Mike calls it a "'Disco Duck' spinoff", and yeah, there's a quacky voice in there, but also a talking guy who mixes German and English and seems to mention "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "Ma Baker" and possible other disco songs from the planet. Which reminds me -- how come Santa Esmeralda aren't on any of these compilations? Surely they must have had European hits, being I believe from Spain. But maybe none of their songs hit in Germany or the U.K.?)
CHRIS ROBERTS "Du Bist Mein Madchen" (Not positive about the artist, though Roberts seemingly did a song by that name in 1978, which seems about right. Metal Mike writes "Philly early disco-lite, female vocal." Songwriters, as with the Roberto Blanco song above, are Siegel/Meinunger.)
UKNOWN ARTIST "Night Fever" ("Bee Gees cover," Metal Mike says. In German. Obviously ungooglable.)

Okay, maybe I should hang onto this album anyway. (Just noticed there's also a Chinn/Chapman composition, "Alles Braucht Seine Zeit," which Google suggests is sung by BERNHARD BRINK.)

Haven't heard any of these, but 'Das Lied Der Schlumpe' translates as something like 'the song of the slut'!

^^^ probably a pun on 'Das Lied der Schlumpfe' - i.e. the Smurf Song

Actually, oops, my bad, it is "Schlümpfe." So I guess the chipmunk-like voices are actually smurf-like voices instead. I hereby apologize to all sluts who I may have misled. And "Das Lied der Schlumpfe" Googles as VADER ABRAHAM. (Still want to hear that slut song by Goldiguuger Goldiwel, though.)

Here is the smurf song:

Ah, good old Darth Vader Abraham - all is right with the world once more. Did you notice the audience in that video Chuck? No kids as far as I could tell, just all old folks clapping along and having a merry old time - that's a hardcore Schlager crowd that is.

I especially like how there's that Munchen gasthaus table at the side of the stage, so das old volk can enjoy their bratwursts and smurfs at the same time. Also, I keep thinking Vader Abraham is some kind of rabbi, but I doubt that's an especially rabbinical congregation he's entertaining.

High Life (Polystar West Germany, 1979)

OVERDRIVE "Constantinople" (Better than the Residents version, which is the Residents' catchiest song. Well actually, this is a different song about the same topic. Lyrics about balls of fire and Roman empires and Byzantine tierras. "Constan-constan-constantine!": post-"Rasputin" history-lesson disco, with a deep voiced Tuetonic goofball guy chiming in behind the girls, just like in Boney M)
DOLLAR "Who Were You With In The Moonlight" (They played second early-'80s post-Abba proto-wonky-pop new-pop studio-pop banana behind Bucks Fizz, right? Have heard other good singles -- a couple on that 45s thread -- but never a whole LP, I don't think.)

Otherwise:

-- More good pseudo-Abba selections by both Clout ("Under Fire") and Luv ("My Guy," "Eeny Meeny Miney Moe"); the Luv ones, especially seem to have a lot of bubbly nursery rhymes in them, and "Eeny Meeny" also takes a chord progression from "Rasputin" and seems to concern a sad little boy in a schoolyard.

-- Expertly melodic sterling-silver semi-metal radio pop from Golden Earring ("Weekend Love") and Rainbow ("Since You Been Gone"). Don't think I ever even heard the Golden Earring one before, and I've got three albums by them. (Did they have lots of Euro hits? Only two in the States, of course, with eight years separating them.) In the early '80s Ken Barnes, I think it was, did the column on singles in Creem (maybe briefly New York Rocker too? Or was that somebody else?), and I remember him commenting once about how previously sodden AOR bands like Rainbow and 38 Special were figuring out real smart ways to adapt FM hard rock to a sleek pop-radio 45 format. These might be examples of that.

-- Nick Straker Band "Walk In The Park" is kind of ominous. It's dark in the park. Opening chords sound not unlike Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup."

-- Roxy Music "Dance Away" is so totally lonely-Eurodisco in both its synth rhythms and lyrics (even mentions strobe lights) that I'm kind of amazed, in retrospect, that mid-American rock stations played it so much: even ones in Detroit that handed out Detroit Rockers Engaged in the Abolition of Disco (D.R.E.A.D.) membership cards (yeah, I had one).

-- Don't think I ever heard the long (5:46) version of Peaches & Herb's "Reunited" before. Still great.

-- Don't think I had ever heard Abba's "Happy Hawaii" or Sweet's "Call Me" either. Both just okay.

-- A disco band I think might not be very good is MILK & HONEY WITH GALLI. They've had two songs on these comps so far, and I haven't liked either one.

"Constan-constan-constantine!"

Actually "constantine-constantine-constanine-ople." Whatever. Now here are a few videos I found:

Sailor "Stiletto Heels"

Booker Newberry, "Love Town"

Heavy Metal Kids, "She's No Angel"

Precious Wilson, "We Are On The Race Track"

Sherbet, "Howzat"

The Piranhas, "Tom Hark"

Chris Spedding & the Vibrators, "Motor Bikin'"

Chris Spedding, "Jump in My Car"

Hank the Knife and the Jets, "Stan the Gunman"

Racey, "Boy Oh Boy"

Dolly Dots, "Hela Di Ladi Lo"

Yeah! Yay for You Tube clips on this thread. It's hard for me to keep up with all this stuff and it really helps. Thanks.

Okay, a few more (though I am concerned about the thread loading to slow).

Supermax, "It Ain't Easy"

DIETER HALLERVORDEN/HELGA FEDDERSON "Du Die Wanna Ist Voll (You're The One That I Want)" Holy shit:

Ottawan, "D.I.S.C.O."

Eruption, "One Way Ticket"

The Pirhanas were one of those bands who had two very distinct line-ups. They were originally a hard gigging new wave band with a very slight two-tone influence. They were on the Brighton comp mentioned upthread and had a few low-fi singles from this period which remind me of the first couple of albums by The Times (Ed Ball's band). "Jilly" and "Coloured Music" is a couple I have. Then they had a van accident and hooked up with Pete Waterman. These two incidents wiped out half the band in one way or another and they re-emerged as you see and hear them in the Tom Hark video. They were still quite acceptable in this incarnation though. "I Don't Want My Body" was a good single (album version isn't as good), so are the various b-sides from this perios, which sound like they date from the first line-up. The album's pretty patchy.

After Fish left Marillion, the guitarist from the Pirhanas got a job writing lyrics on a lot of their albums.

all the early smurfs albums had father abraham on them. i never understood why. wiki would know.

Surprised that no-one's mentioned The Piranhas "Space Invaders", which I think was Autumn 1979. A cute little new-wave-pop cash-in.

Here's another version of Ca Plane Pour Moi, by a chubby Belgian comedian called Plastichke. I bought my copy in Ostend. Presumably it's sung in Flemish?

xp I swear it has never even occurred to me that there might be "early" Smurfs. You rule, Scott.

Hello, "Love Stealer"

Champagne, "Rock and Roll Star"

Robey, "One Night In Bangkok"

Monyaka, "Go Deh Yaka"

Kenny, "Fancy Pants"

Doris D. and the Pins, "Dance On"

Secret Service, "L.A. Goodbye"

Jesse Green, "Nice and Slow"

Nick Straker Band, "A Walk In The Park" (okay, maybe no "Build Me Up Buttercup" chords after all)

Jerry Rix & Linda G. Thompson, "Wochenende" (more disco than I thought)

Hanne Hallar, "Goodbye, Cherie"

Gary Low, "I Want You"

That Straker video doesn't know its proper place.

Also not sure where I heard "60s pop" in that Hanne Hallar schlager song; its melody, I guess. But the production is more modern, in a piano woman way.

Anyway, my wife says the schlagers are starting to drive her crazy, and she may well murder me if I play another album around her, but here's one more:

Hit Parade (K-Tel West Germany, year unknown)

HEINO "Und Sie Hiess Lulaei" (Hawaiian-German hybrid. Lots of aloha's and hula-hula's.
GITTE "So Schon Kann Doch Kein Mann Sein" (horn-happy girl-schlager pop)
BIMBO JET "El Bimbo" (Quasi-tropical Eurodisco, not schlager. French musicians. #1 in six European countries, #43 in the U.S. I've had the 45 for decades; even put it on an all-time Top 100 singles list once. No idea if they ever made a whole album, but some band called Los Bomberos covers "El Bimbo" on a 1975 Quebec Polydor compilation I've got called Magic Bimbo. Here is a video from 1974):

JOY FLEMMING "Ein Lied Eine Brucke Sein" (unusually warm and rich -- for schlager anyway -- proto-Branigan soul vocal, with some sultry "oh baby"s. Melody reminds me of "Forever Young" by Alphaville. Apparently a 1975 Eurovision contestant):

TEACH-IN "Ding-A-Dong" (Dutch maiden catchily ding-a-ding-donging, more Abba than schlager; youtube blurb says it won Eurovision in 1975):

GIGIOLA CINQUETTI "Ja" (More intimate, sort of torchy ballad, darkly orchestrated but with a '60s-movie-pop melody, yet oddly I don't hate it)
DIE FLIPPERS "Luana" (German Beach Boys take chords and harmonies from "California Girls," and maybe throw a little ska in there)

Back to Musik Laden, ever since Ned said above that he thought Lio had some connection to Sparks, I keep imagining I hear some Sparks in "Amourex Solitaires," but it reminds me more of Les Rita Mistouko (who I don't think existed yet)

Eruption's "Go Johnnie Go (Keep On Walking John B)," their song that most reminds me of Boney M, is about a "lonely boy from Nowheresland," but takes its melody from "Another Saturday Night" by Sam Cooke:

More Gold Hits notes:

-- Opening section of Slik's otherwise wimp-rock "Forever And Ever" sounds really art-rock; maybe a foreshadowing of Midge Ure's Ultravox future?

-- One of the repeated guitar hooks in Hank the Knife and the Jets' "Stan the Gunman" may or may not have later been stolen outright by the Stray Cats (in "Rock This Town," I think.)

-- "Motorcycle Mama" by Harpo turns out to have fairly wacky history-of-hippie-rock lyrics I hadn't noticed before:

I remember in '65 when Jimi Hendrix was still alive
Before we went to the Woodstock scene
And turn on to the rock-machine
We rode a red Harley Davidson as we tried to follow the sun.
. . .
I remember in '67 we were into the flower-power heaven
Riding up the silvery coast highway
riding up in the Frisco bay
Like Ravi Shanker I played his sitar
And Maharishi Yogi was my Guru Star.
. . .
Do you remember about Fritz the Cat
And Dylan's Leopard-Skin Pill-box hat
Sergant Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band
He is a rider through the desert sand

I had the Slik record. Bay City Rollers without the tartan, actual Bay City Rollers and sing-along hits. Ure's next band, Rich Kids, were much better. "Ghosts of Princes in Towers," the album and single are great.

The Sirens covered the John Kongoes thing on their last album.

"Tokoloshe Man"? Or "He's Gonna Step On You Again"? I don't see either title listed on the two Sirens CDs I've got. Did they call it something else? (Or is there a newer Sirens album I didn't know about??)

High Life notes:

-- Clout and Luv both sing in REALLY BIG voices; Clout's "Under Fire" is as much proto-Flashdance as post-Abba, and Luv's "My Guy" and "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" have them yelling out English nonsense words they barely seem to understand in an almost ridiculously excited way. Sounds excellent, needless to say; no wonder Metal Mike luvs them.

Wooagh, turns out Clout were South African, not to mention a totally foxy all-girl disco-rock band:

And here is Luv:

And Golden Earring's "Weekend Love" has what sounds like a few extra seconds of quasi-African stuff happening at the tail-end of its perfect radio rock.

This is the best Clout song:

Disco Explosion notes:

Racey's superpop "Boy Oh Boy" turns out to be, well, rather gay: "Oh boy, the first time we danced...and boy, when the night was over, I walked you home."

Promises of "Let's Get Back Together" fame were not only high-pitched, but also apparently Canadians (and -- holy shit, only George will have any idea how awesome this is -- their girl singer is Leslie Knauer, later of the great '80s L.A. bubble-glam girl band Precious Metal! Yep, that's her alright. Youtube teaches me something new almost every day):

Hit Saison '79 notes

I am increasingly starting to believe that the songs that I said upthread merely reminded me of the Eagles' "Lyin Eyes" and Chris Rea's "Fool If You Think It's Over" are actual cover versions instead.

Reto & Toni's Heinzelmanchen, the apparent kiddie act featuring puppets, sound something like a duet between the munchkins from Oz and Yoko Ono, doing a drinking song with lots of "hey hey hey"'s in it.

That Promises clip is very strange. They look like a typical American pop-rock band, but they are doing the European glam bounce dance move.

Super 20 Hitparade notes

JULIANE WERDING "Oh Mann, Oh Mann Wo Hat Der Mann Ur Seine Augen" has a woman starting an ending with a talked part whose rap flow for some reason reminds me of Ian Dury (circa "Reasons to Be Cheerful") and/or Tim Curry (circa "I Do The Rock"), but a more country-and-western-German version of course; at one point, she mentions both Einstein and Dr. Hook!

Gunter Gabriel's "Komm Charly, Fang Mich Charly," the countryish rap-schlager I compared to Johnny Cash above, also sounds kinda proto-Falco in a way.

The Latin/Brazilian/Afro-Caribbean counterrhythms -- from drums, whistles, horns, partying background vocals -- in a bunch of songs here (Roland Kaiser "Sieben Fasser Wein", Lena Valaitis "Iche Spreche Alle Sprachen Dieser Welt," Pepe Lienhard Band "Monika, Du") is actually less rigid and more accomplished than I gave it credit for above, and also reminds me that certain kinds of disco were basically a mix of German and Latin-American ideas, so maybe there's some connection to that here. (Roberto Blanco's "Wer Trinkt Schon Gern Den Wein Allen" is more obiviously Mex-polka, but good, too.)

Kaiser, among a bunch of German drinking people:

"Skateboard" by Benny (same young German fellow who covered "Ca Plane Pour Moi"/"Jet Boy Jet Girl" up above -- really need an album by the guy now) is probably my favorite non-cover on any of the more schlagery compilations here. There are car horns, and when he says "sea surfin'" it sounds like "sea serpent"! The youtube clip (not a performance unfortunately) actually calls it "Skateboard Uh-Ah-Ah", and there's a link to Sonic the Hedgehog battling to the Witch Doctor song on the "related videos" sidebar, so I didn't imagine that connection.

Music Power (K-Tel West Germany, 1974)

Man, this album pretty defintively demonstrates glam rock taking over the sound of the U.K. charts. It's not so much that there are great stomping songs by hard rock bands like Slade ("Bangin' Man" -- AC/DC prototype, almost, with an awesome cowbell opening, and what is it about, a horny sewer worker or somebody banging "down in that hole"?) and Nazareth (killer screeching Joni cover "This Flight Tonight") and Gary Glitter ("Always Yours") and ANGEL ("Good Time Fanny," total Slade -- how much stuff did they do this great? And is this even the same band with Punky Meadows -- because their debut LP didn't come out until 1975, right?) It's that bands and singers you always thought of as wussy seem mysteriously grow some 'nads here -- SHOWADDYWADDY ("Hey Rock'n'Roll," w/ fist-pumping chorus closer to Slade than Sha Na Na), THE GLITTER BAND ("Angel Face" -- what was it with glam bands and angels anyway? -- with a ram-jammy riff that keeps mechanically leaving and coming back like some progentior of big-beat techno almost -- did they do other stuff this good?), John Kincade from all those schalger comps ("Til I Kissed You" -- didn't like the 45 on that Metal Mike 45s thread, but even then I liked the crunchy opening riff and now the rest is growing on me), DANIEL BOONE ("Love Spell," really proto-METAL, with tempo slowdowns into parts that sound almost doom-rock-like, wtf?) Plus the Rubettes do their aforementioned high-falsetto doo-wop bubble- rock "Sugar Baby Love" on here. It all adds up.

Also like:

BARRY BLUE "Miss Hit And Run" (maybe he's mentioned among the sub-glammers upthread or maybe not; anyway, this is a really sweet Beach Boys rip.)
THE JAMES BOYS "Hello Hello" (more bubble-glam, from squeaky little kids -- the Jonas Brothers are pretty good, but they'd be even better if they sounded like this...or at least like they do on the K-Tel album -- voices seem a little thin and strained in this vid):

DAN THE BANJO MAN "Dan the Banjo Man" (reasonably wobbly/jaunty instrumental, not notably banjofied; context seems to have been...clowns, what?, actually I haven't decided how pointless this is):

Also realized while listening to this that I really should explore the Hollies someday ("Air That I Breathe" is almost a Bowie ballad at points, and "Son Of A Rotten Gambler" has hard country-rock guitar.) And "Honey Honey" may well be the most sexually explicit hit that Abba ever had.

Okay, according to youtube comments (to a video not especially worth looking at), the Angel here is a different, non-Punky-whipping Angel: "this song got to No. 13 in Germany in 1974 - so not a complete flop!! ...Angel was produced by Sweet guitarist Andy Scott and Sweet drummer Mick Tucker. This song was written by Andy Scott. The other Angel single 'Little Boy Blue' was also written by Andy Scott.."

Apparently "Hey Rock'N Roll" was Showaddywaddy's first single; guess it was all downhill from here:

Glitter Band, "Angel Face" -- so were these guys, basically Gary Gliter's band sans Gary, or what?

Yes. "Angel Face" was about their best. I have a 'best of' album. It's solidly fair, not much more. Put them and Mud together and you still don't have Sweet or Slade competition. Maybe Suzi Quatro though.

Hit Parade notes

HENRY VALENTINO "Ich Hab Dein Knie Geseh'n" (Okay, didn't really notice this one before. Valentino sings in a really gruff music-hall voice atop lots of tubas and Johh Philips Sousa-type march rhythms, and there are scratchy voices behind him that sound like taken from an Irish American 78 from the turn of the century, which I assumed was just my imagination running wild until I noticed that Valentino was saying things about "neun-zehn-hunderd-zehn" and "gramophones", "stereo" and "discoteche." So maybe the scratchy voices are meant to sound like 1910 gramophone voices? Non-foot-fetish parts of vid below suggest I'm on to something.)

-- But there's also clearly a strain of schlager (possibly all Eurovision stuff?) that leans toward exuberant, upbeat, girl-pop - not grandmotherly at all. I'd put songs here from Siw Inger, Gitte, and Teach-In (posted vid up above) in that category.

Super 20 - Starparade notes:

(This is the album that came to me without a cover.)

EL PASADOR "Amore Mia (Amade Mia, Amade Mio)" (Google says that's the artist anway; seemingly Italian, though I could be way off on this one. Ominous hushed proto-goth male Eurotrash voice oh-oh-ohs, evolves into a super-emotional bolero-ish thing)

LENA VALAITAS "Oh Cavallo (Don Quichote)" (Sounds like a kids TV song -- sort of Xuxa-like: cute, with a sort of English countryside reel or jig fiddle clippity-clopping, and children yelling "hey!" now and then, and quite possibly lyrics about a donkey.)

WOLFGANG PETRY "Gianna (Liebe Im Auto)" (As in, sex in a car? Sounds like early '80s girl/boy pop, with a jaunty semi-ska rhythm. Very bright and bouncy. Dude has a extremely bushy mustache and Afro, too):

Then there's that song "Disco Planet" that Metal Mike compared to "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees. The DJ guy talking to the duck has this real evil, cackling voice, like he's Vincent Price to the duck's Michael Jackson. And I say "DJ guy" because he drops all these names of songs, like he's doing a countdown -- just noticed "Yes Sir I Can Boogie," and something about "Queen of Disco Town," whatever that is. The duck occasionally sings a girl-group-ish melody; the disco beat comes and goes; the DJ laughs at us.

This is one of the best threads ever. It's like a "secret history" lesson.

Thanks! It's also, at times, one of the drunkest. (Glad somebody has a use for it, though.)

Anyway, more on Music Power:

-- Uh, guess that "Banjo Man" instrumental by those clowns is pretty useless after all. I hereby apologize for it.

-- The non-Punky Meadows Angel song sounds, not surprisingly given its origins, a lot closer to (the slightly artier/proggier/arier) Sweet than Slade, I've since realized.

-- The thing about the Hollies' "Air That I Breathe" that reminds me of early space-ballad Bowie is some of the vocal inflections. No idea whether anybody's pointed that out before, but now it's almost all I hear.

-- For some reason this '74 comp includes a (typically lovely) Drifters song called "Kissing In the Backseat Of The Movies" that was never a hit in the States. I assume it's actually from an earlier decade (like that Hank Mizell "Jungle Rock" song up above), unless they reunited. No idea why it hit so late in Germany.

-- There's a line in "Honey Honey" by Abba that I keep hearing as "And honey, to say the least, you've got Double D's." Internet lyric sites say the words are actually "...you're a doggone beast" instead, which is maybe even funnier.

-- "Always Yours" by perv Gary Glitter has a riff that sounds a lot like Adam and the Ants several years later (who I figured are also the band that may have ripped off the Hank the Knife and the Jets riff that I'd thought had later gotten ripped off by Stray Cats instead. The Ants' song "Goody Two Shoes," I think.)

-- That Barry Blue "Miss Hit And Run" Beach Boys rip is more than just sweet -- it's a rock'n'rolling car song, with engines revving and powerchords the Beach Boys would never have put in there. Sounds great. Sadly can't find a youtube clip.

-- Also can't find one for "Love Spell" by Daniel Boone, which is the song on here that's been really killing me. "You got me in a love spell, woman"....what the hell, had somebody bought him a copy of the first Dust album for Christmas?

I think it's well-documented that Adam & the Ants raided Gary Glitter's two drummers playing tom toms (no hihat) feature and also the guitar sound.

Super Hits 78: Vocal & Instrumental (SR International West Germany, 1978)

PEGGY MARCH "Oklahoma" (Real nice quasi-country sung in German -- so does that mean formerly "Little" Peggy wound up shooting for stardom there once her star faltered in the U.S., as somebody said above that Roger Whitaker did? Not that I know all that much about Peggy March to begin with, beyond her great 1963 #1 "I Will Follow Him" at 15 years old; looks like she had two other, much smaller Top 40 hits later that year, after which her career took a quick nosedive. Really, the main thing I know about her is that Richard Meltzer includes her in a genre called "march rock" in Aesthetics of Rock.)
TRUCKSTOP "Die Frau Mit Dem Gurt" (Took me mere seconds of listening to this fast country talker to realize country-rock Canadians the Road Hammers did it as "Girl On A Billboard" on their album last year. But I don't think a "gurt" is a billboard. No idea what the original version is. Or who Truckstop are for that matter, but they sound sehr gut.)

Thing is, for a two-disc set, that's all that I really cared about. There's a good ethereal Baccara disco song called "Darling," Amanda Lear doing her usual proto-Broken English Marianne Faithful decadence schtick in "Follow Me," Robin Zander's DJ-and-duck (or maybe robot?) "Disco Planet" and Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" again. But not much to convince me that keeping this twofer would be more useful than employing its inner sleeves elsewhere.

Mainly, what there is is ORCHESTER TONY ANDERSON doing singerless elevator Muzak MOR versions of a fairly wide-spanning variety of material (that's the "instrumental" of the LP title), interspersed among all the way more legit sung songs: "Mull Of Kintyre," "Love Is Like Oxygen" (!), "Black Is Black," "Singing In The Rain," Chic's "Dance Dance Dance" (not bad actually), something called "Mein Verein Ist Spitze" that sounds like swirling circus music with lots of handclaps, something called "Dancing Party" that sounds based on Gary U.S. Bonds's "Quarter To Three," something called "For A Few Dollars More" credited to Chinn/ Chapman not Ennio Morricone (yet boring anyway), something called "House of The Rising Sun" that doesn't seem to be that one, something called "Amada Mia, Amada Mio" with a sort of "I Feel Love" synth rhtyhm and space-age-bacherelorette-pad girls la-la-la-ing, plus a few songs I never heard of before. It sounds intriguing on paper, probably, but out my speakers it got tiring faster than you'd think.

(Frank Zander, I mean, obv. Not the Cheap Trick guy.)

Zander's DJ-and-duck (or maybe robot?) "Disco Planet"

Wait, I figured it out! It's not a duck or a robot! It's a space alien! "Disco PLANET", get it? (And the martian voice is strictly in the lineage of whatever Buchanan & Goodman martian tracks came before, and Newcleus and Lil Wayne ones etc. later.)

(Also, speaking of space aliens, when I say the Hollies' vocal inflections in "Air That I Breathe" remind me of Ziggy-era Bowie, I'm talking about how quivery they are. Or something.)

Didn't even make it through Svensk Toppar 4 (Triola Sweden, 1969) or Svensk Toppar 15 (Flora Sweden, 1972), though the latter was clearly more upbeat pop and less MOR, plus had covers of Daniel Boone's "Beautiful Sunday" and Neil Diamond's "Song Sung Blue" on it. Prefer the girl on the cover of 4, though, who is wearing a paisley miniskirt in a hay loft and quite leggy.

Metal Mike Saunders, on these compilations in general:

since i'm really tweaky/picky about saving/keeping V/A comp lps...something like the two "keep it" criteria being either (1) great sides i don't own anywhere else, or (2) genre collections, or (3) an entire side that plays straight through

so you trumped Paige in being the back-up to route all the 75-cent (50e, at last spring's 1.50/euro peak exchange rate when we were there) v/a lps. ALL FROM THE SAME STORE. i think they're stickered with that 50e price

And on Les Humphries (mentioned briefly upthread, and who he also sent me three LPs by):

the only lps in that whole box that didn't average out to "50cents/ea" were one or two of the super neat LES HUMPHRIES medley-lps from 1970-71-72. (there's many but the earlier they are, the better). which cost anywhere from $3 to $10, can't remember (at $1.50/euro) but i accept sliding-scale valuation. (everything else, just figure a 50 cent/lp average, all loosely screened since i keep the REALLY good stuff, don't even ask cause you don't wanna know).

Little Brown Man (their original, and i badly need the full 45 version if there is one) comnig right after its prototype, the radically re-arranged (for the better, and better played also i say) Brown Sugar is a true alternative musical unvierse ( = germany) mindfuck! then i believe the very next track (starting the next medley) is an excellent Badfinger cover.

they REALLY had some cool sounding gear (guitars/amps/drums) in that band. i have no idea where/how they recorded, but it sure sounds all-live, straight to 8-track (like black sabbath's first two albums, uriah heep's first three albums inc Look At Yourself, etc). with Les angling to pay his rent with that humungous menangerie of band members, you can bet (1) he paid for and owned the masters like Dave Clarkin 1964-x, and (2) recorded super fast and cheap. fuck, for all i know he arranged the whole damn thing on SHEET MUSIC, people who read music? i can't imagine 12 people doniog "head arrangements" except maybe for strict vocal-ranges like the beach boys (or any regimented white vocal group pre-beatles).

i haven't burned the time grinding through their Youtube clips to see if one ever clearly shows what equipment their guys on gtr/bass/drums/keyboards are using.

too bad Les was too young for the 80's synth/keyboards/Fairlight era.

Some work though (and they probably just made this thread impossible to load, oh well.

Not quite but close. One of my browsers crashed but not the other. You're work here isn't over.

George was referring to the thread-crashing Metal Mike emails I'd posted, which had way too many youtube links to keep things unfrozen. So I asked the mods to delete my posts, which they did, and here is Metal Mike again, without those links. (He starts off the first one by quoting Wikipedia):

1. ARABESQUE
http://www6.plala.or.jp/arabesque DISCOG SITE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesque_(group)

"The all-girl trio Arabesque was created by two Frankfurt-based German producers at the height of the disco era in 1977. After one album and a few singles that had found surprising success in Japan, the producers changed the lineup, keeping Michaela Rose and replacing the two other girls with Jasmin Vetter and Sandra Lauer. Vetter, a former gymnast, also became the trio's choreographer and Lauer, soon to be billed simply as Sandra, assumed the position of a lead vocalist. The first single of the updated Arabesque, Hello, Mr. Monkey went to number one in Japan. The Far East remained the band's biggest market, with numerous albums and compilations released over the years. However, Arabesque's success in their homeland was very modest, with only one single, Marigot Bay, entering the German charts at number eight in 1981"

"6 million albums sold in Japan"!

songs i like off Youtube (i have the first lp/finnish pressing from a junk bin, with the earlier hit disco-era singles): Young Fingers Get Burnt LP7 (A-side)
Hit The Jackpot LP6 (A-Side)
Make Love Whenever You Can LP4 (A-side**)
Peppermint Jack (1979) LP2 (A-Side)
Rollerstar LP3 (B-side of High Life)
Like a Shot in the Dark LP5
I Don't Wanna Have Breakfast With You LP4 (B-side** japanese) (B-side german In For A Penny)
Parties in a Penthouse LP3 (B-side german of Take Me Don't Break Me)
Billy's Barbeque LP5 (A-side)
Jingle Jangle Joe* LP3
Prison of Love* LP7LPs
1978 Friday Night
1979 City Cats
1980 Marigot Bay
1980 IV
1981 Billy's Barbeque (In For A Penny)
1981 Caballero
1982 Why No Reply
1983 Dance Dance Dance
1984 Time To Say Good Bye
Caballero*

more Metal Mike:

another really cool act i may have flat out forgot to look for (in the large alpha-betized LP proper-price racks) in the berlin/hamburg/oslo record stores last May was early-mid 70's German glitter-rock band TIGER B. SMITH

i actually have/bought a 10-cent bin copy of the 2nd lp, american pressing (on Janus) at Moby Disc on ventura blvd, late 70's. funnny, it was spot-checked/audited once only, and misfiled it (forever, until just now) into the "crap, what is this?" misc uncategorized section. since it had a rather confusing cover, not clear if it was a real act or some "fake band" or "rock/disco studio creation, not a band" (as late as the late 70's, america had not yet figured out that the "fakeness" of much UK74 glitter rock was actually a badge of "authenticity," ie fake being a criterion for true UKglitter's 2nd-wave. and don't forget that lousy In-Betweens 45s. or the earliest (and lousy) Bolan and Bowie 60's 45s. when they're actually a German heavy rock/prog rock thing that jumps into "glitter rock" in 1974 (like all the UK hasbeen/neverwas schlubs in 1973-74). "Album: "Tiger Rock" originally released on Vertigo (german only).
No domestic release in the U.S.
Progressive/Glam Rock from Germany" 1st lp goes for over $150 on german ebay in just VG+/VG+ , ie a Vertigo label heavy/prog rock band collectible. (just 5 songs, one of them 10+ minutes) "Album: "We're the Tiger Bunch" released in the U.S. on Janus Records, 1975.
Progressive/Glam Rock from Germany
The album cover was issued in the U.S. the same as the 1972 release of Tiger Rock. Category: Music" (9 songs, almost all of them conventional length) no particular value for the US pressing on Janus/1975. ten years ago it wasn't even listed as a "price guide album." (from a Youtube top 10 german heavy/prog albums list/clip)

As you may notice by watchin´this, my favourite German label is Philips and favourite year is 1971 when it comes to heavy progressive Krautrock, as always many great bands didnt find space here. Blackwater Park, Armageddon, Message, Tiger B Smith, Kin Ping Meh, Asterix and Gift, fell just outside this list." ======================================= NEWTON FAMILY as mentioned some time back (to chuck) my Youtube checklist of the best songs/youtube by the 70's-80's-beyond NEWTON FAMILY from Hungary (no lps turned up in the cheap lps on last year's trip). i have just one, one of their best (ie, most Abba-disco-like) lps (MARATHON), in a east european issue, from a local thrift store a looong time ago, maybe early 90's. indications are that only a tiny percentage (even less than Aqabesque) of thier material is ABBA-sound (i.e., eurodisco era ABBA)

Only a couple such comps worth noting in this year's big Metal Mike giveaway box. Only getting to the first one now.

Die Grosse & Aktuelle 72/3 Star Parade -- wouldn't call any of these quite "excellent", but whatever:

DALIAH LAVI "Ich Glaub' An Die Liebe" - part of this sounds sort of like the part of "Uncle Albert" where Paul McCartney and Wings sing about "hands across the water." The rest sounds sort of like something else schmaltzy and early '70s I can't place.
NEW KEY "Oh Ich Will Betteln, Ich Will Stehelen" -- song leaves no impression at all, but still worth noting since all the other artists get photos of their faces on the cover and New Key only get a drawing of a key. Maybe they were a TV show or something?
WINDOWS "How Do You Do" -- previously noted on German 45s from Metal Mike thread, I think; catchy Auf Deutsch cover of catchy 1972 U.S. hit by Dutchpeople Mouth & McNeal
ANITA "Glück In Der Tasche" -- Cute sweet high-pitched but bravely sung bubble-polka by apparent (judging from cover photo) pre-teen
POP TOPS "Suzanne, Suzanne" -- Minor-key partial "Jolene" (Dolly Parton) soundalike by biracial sextet who might've been mentioned upthread somewhere
BIG SECRET "Samson & Delilah" --My favorite track on this album; proto-Abba Europop oompah with a slight (maybe imagined) Caribbean lilt by female duo who, judging from their small cover photo, might be of either Far or Middle Eastern (or Pacific Islander) ancestry
KAREL GOTT "Gute Nacht, Freunde" -- Attempt at lounge jazz in German; not horrible, considering

Eurovision Gala: 29 Winners - 29 Worldsuccesses (Polygram Portugal double LP, c. 1982)

Again, mostly not great, but at least halfway likeable:

TEDDY SCHOLTEN "'N Beetje" -- Jaunty skip-through-the-tulip-patch Alpine girl-pop, Netherlands 1958
ISABELLE AUBRET "Un Premier Amour" -- French girl-pop with a minor key Middle Eastern lilt, from 1962
FRANCE GALL "Poupe'e De Cire, Poupe'ee De Son" -- Exuberantly sung music-box-swirling Serge Gainsbourg cover, from Italy in 1965. (I like it way more than Metal Mike, who writes on the LP gatefold, in red and blue felt-tip marker, "Kill kill make it stop! No no noooo I hate bad French 'ye-ye' shit i.e. everything but Francois Hardy")
SANDIE SHAW "Puppet On A String" -- U.K. 1967; Nice oompah doompah beat but her singing is almost as lame as Metal Mike says; no idea if that's typical of her
MARIA ROSA MARCO (SALOME) "Vivo Cantando" -- Quasi-Latin percussion and backup tough-guy gang shouts behind loud if otherwise inconsequentially voiced Spanish lady who knows how to repeat chorus hooks and make them stick, from 1969
DANA "All Kinds Of Everything" -- These are a few of her favorite things, several of which have to do with the sea (though the list gets more generalized and therefore less interesting as she goes on), Ireland 1970 with a decent vocal trill to it.
TEACH-IN "Ding-a-Dong" -- "The world is sunny, everything is funny": Excellent, super catchy, slightly dark fake Abba from the Netherlands in 1975, just a year after "Waterloo"
YITZHAR COHEN & THE ALPHA BETA "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" -- By far the most exotic sounding song on the album (Middle Eastern go-go-dancer pop, with disco strings and brass and Boney M harmonies), and one of the best, from an Israeli band featuring six people in the gatefold photo; 1978.
GALI ATARI & MILK & HONEY "Hallellujah" -- More Israelis, from 1979; simple and pretty boy-girl harmony two-finger-piano probably secular praise-pop and builds with the fake jazz horns.

Also has Lulu "Boom Bang A Bang" (more Brit oompah), Abba "Waterloo," Brotherhood Of Man "Save Your Kisses For Me," Bucks Fizz "Making Your Mind Up" (Metal Mike: "Abba break up, and this is all the entire UK can come up with? Laame!")

Hah, just noticed I wrote this upthread, almost two years ago:

A disco band I think might not be very good is MILK & HONEY WITH GALLI. They've had two songs on these comps so far, and I haven't liked either one.

Actually, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure Metal Mike sent me a full LP by them a few years ago, too, and that seemed pretty marginal as well.

Also upthread two years ago (I might be being redundant all over the place, but all the youtube clips I posted make the thread un-openable, so I'll never know):

TEACH-IN "Ding-A-Dong" (Dutch maiden catchily ding-a-ding-donging, more Abba than schlager; youtube blurb says it won Eurovision in 1975)

So much win here, but I think Clout might be the winningest. (Weird how so many of the choruses represented don't qite deliver on the verses, though.) I know it's a pretty catholic selection to invent an umbrella for--beyond K-tel--but tell me, someone in NYC has a DJ night devoted to genius Euro bubblegum, right?

...also kinda shocked that "Amoureux Solitaires" isn't some meticulous pastiche from like two years ago...

Norkse Topp Artister (Nor-Disc 1968 -- record label logo is a cool long dragon-like Viking boat with records on the side!) has songs that appear to be (presumably Norwegian) covers of:

"Hello Muddah Hello Faddah!"(BIRGIT STRØM's "Brev Fra Leier'n" -- do kids in Norway even go to American-style summer camps with alligators in the lakes and play baseball there? If not, how would this song make sense? It's such an American song. Unless it is a different parody of Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" entirely, but the vocal cadence sure sounds taken from Alan Sherman)
"Que Sara Sara" (NORA BROCKSTEDT's "En Gang, Et Sted" -- 90 percent sure I guessed this melody right anyway)
"Sloop John B" (VESTLANDSDUOEN's "Eg Hadde Ein Goin Ein Bat" -- unless both Vestlandsduoen and the Beach Boys stole the tune from the same ancient public domain sea chantey)
"Guantamera" (ANNE KARINE's "Guantanamera" -- not sure how relevant that song could be in Norway, either)

Also cute sounding:
WENCHE MYHRE's "Jeg Har Vǽet Sånn Fǿr" (pretty sure I also approved of her "Komm Allein"/"17und4" single on the German 45s from Metal Mike thread)
and even more so
TOII STØA's "Tjakkaboom, Tjakkaboom" (sounds like "chick-a-boom chick-a-boom")

Also
NORA BROCKSTEDT's "En Gang" Et Sted" sounds like bullfight music
ǺSE KLEVELAND's "Fritiof Och Camencita" sounds like her vocal style might've influenced Nina Hagen, according to my wife.

All these singers are women, though there is one middle-aged male/female duo among the dozen acts pictured on the cover (otherwise, ten women and one female trio, ranging in age to twentysomething to elderly. No way to tell which photo is which artist, though.)

Hit-Palast (Teldec W. Germany 1982)

F.R. DAVID "Words" -- I remember this super pretty singer-songwriter pop number being on German radio all the time when I arrived there in 1982. Almost made me happy to be there too! Barely gave it another thought for the next three decades, but now I own it, and I know nothing else about F.R. David (though I should probably google him.*) The song's not as great in reality as it is in my memory, but it's still really nice.

Otherwise this comp has a few obscure and pleasant girl-group/Abba-like acts I never heard of before (HORNETTES, BABE), a few less pleasant adult-contempo Euro ballad crooners I never heard of (RENEE & RENATO, PANARAMA, SALVA), a mysterious band covering "Another Brick in the Wall" whose picture on the cover shows them dressed up in KKK/executioner/Mentors-like black capes and hoods (PINK PROJECT), plus famous and almost-famous names names (Hall & Oates, Madness, Haysi Fantayzee, Adam Ant, Madness, A Flock Of Seagulls, Toto, Yazoo, Eddy Grant After The Fire, Eruption, Sharon Redd, etc.)

* OK, just did. Here's Wiki:

F. R. David (born Elli Robert Fitoussi, 1 January 1947, Menzel Bourguiba, Tunisia) is a Tunisian-born French singer.
During the early 1970s, he was a band member in the French rock band, Les Variations. His personal "trademarks" are his sunglasses and his guitar (a white Fender Stratocaster). His most recognised song was his hit "Words" (1982), which sold eight million Carrère records across the world, topped charts around Europe in late 1982, and reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart in Spring 1983, going on to becoming the 22nd best selling single in the UK during 1983.
The track's eventual UK success was caused by its exposure on BBC TV's Top Of The Pops. The disc was featured on the first edition of a special Euro-slot incorporated in the TV program. The song is a catchy, slightly plaintive mid-tempo ballad sung in a slender, high-pitched voice.

More, from "Words"' own Wiki page:

It was a huge European hit, peaking at #1 in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Norway.

Pink Project Wiki is interesting too, though I didn't notice the song sounding especially Italodisco or like Alan Parsons; maybe I need to listen again:

Pink Project is the name of an Italo disco production created, like its contemporary Kano, by Italian composer/keyboardist/producer Stefano Pulga, together with his colleagues Luciano Ninzatti (also guitarist/programmer), Matteo Bonsanto (keyboardist) and sound engineer Massimo Noè. Their biggest hit, which also provided them with their name, was a mashup - one of the very first such creations, actually, in Italy - entitled "Disco Project".
"Disco Project" was born out of the mixes that Pulga used to create during his club nights. In early 1982, he and Ninzatti had realized that Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall (Part II), which was a big hit in Italy in that period, and The Alan Parsons Project's equally popular "Mammagamma" had the same tempo and, in some sections, the same key. Plus, in light of Parsons' long-standing association with Pink Floyd - he engineered the band's historical Dark Side of the Moon album - APP's instrumentals (starting from earlier ones, such as "Lucifer" and "The Gold Bug") were often mistaken for Pink Floyd by Italian club goers and 'dance' fans in general.

wait, you didn't think their italodisco cover of alan parsons sounded like italo or alan parsons? or another song by them. i love that whole album. or double album.

i bought that album at funkomart in philly, like, 20 years ago! i think it was a dollar. they had such great stuff in that store.

that album with "words" on it is really good, by the way. do you need a copy? i've had one in the store forever. also picked up, like, ten german hits/schlager/disco comps a couple weeks ago if you want some of those. quality varies.

oh and i picked up the Les Variations album Moroccan Roll recently (not to be confused with the later brand x album with the same title) and i like it a bunch. worldmusic/rock/psych fusion thing.

oh wait okay i see it was the pink project floyd cover on that comp of yours.

chuck, you REALLY need the Domino album by Pink Project. if i ever see another copy i'll send it your way. the album opens up with a disco mash-up of der kommisar and da da da.

Renee & Renato was kind of a novelty/joke number 1 in the UK, tho I'm sure lots of people bought it sincerely too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9e_and_Renato

can't find the original video on Youtube. it was quite funny.

Scott, the Pink Project track on this comp is called "Disco Project," but it sure just sounded like a Pink Floyd cover to me, the two times I've listened. I will relisten though, and report back if I'm wrong. Maybe they just included an excerpt of the entire mashup? Or maybe I was too busy cooking pasta to notice how cool it was, who knows. Anyway, I own zero F.R. David or Pink Project albums, have never heard any, and of course I would welcome them and any schlager-disco you wanna send!

disco project is an alan parsons/floyd mash-up. it starts out with APP. first the chicago bulls theme and then mammagamma and then pink floyd.

to be honest, alan parsons could have made way better italo than most italo music people if he had wanted to.

Yeah, you are right about the mashup - definitely hear the Italo at the beginning now. Part of my problem, though, is that I wouldn't know a Alan Parsons swipe if somebody knocked me over the head with one. I am so non-APP-literate. You're going to think I'm lying, but I never even heard of "Mammagamma" before today, I swear.

Anyway, that Pink Project track is pretty sweet after all, but I bet I'd like it way more in the context of an album (especially one with Falco/Trio mashups on it.)

Relistened to the Renee & Renaldo track, too, and am still not getting the joke, if there really is one, at all. Just sounds like a bel canto style old-people Tin Pan Alley schmaltz duet to me. Don't hate it, seems competent enough, but I'm missing what's funny about it. Just kitschy I guess? But maybe if I saw the video, I'd get it.

i love APP records. i like them for the sounds. i dunno, i'm just a fan. i love his production work. the stuff he did with pilot and the hollies. you should be able to get the first ten APP albums for ten bucks. i like all those albums! they're weird and cool and sound so massive. pop-prog at its finest. and disco beats and all kinds of beats and cool guitars and completely anonymous singing and just fun in the sun if you are me.

yeah the joke with Renee and Renato was he was a bit of a chubby middle-aged dude and she was a younger woman, the video was a cheap soft-focus Mills and Boon looking thing and the DJs presenting Top of the Pops who were probably as old as he was could all have a knowing giggle as it sat there amongst all the New Romantic and synth pop and smart young people music of 1981.

should have said "joke" really.

The Hit Factory: The Best Of Stock Aitken Waterman (Stylus U.K., 1987)

I guess this counts on this thread? It's almost all hits, apparently, but (outside the two Bananaramas and one Rick Astley), mostly not big U.S. hits. And it looks K-Tel-ish. On the other hand, the songs all share a similar sound, obviously, in ways a K-Tel comp's songs wouldn't. Anyway, whatever. Favorite song I either didn't know or hadn't heard in a million years is "FLM" by MEL AND KIM; I have no idea what "FLM" stands for, but I always liked "Respectable" too, and I'm pretty sure I never heard an entire Mel and Kim album but now I kind of want to. Likewise Hi-NRGized "Whatever I Do" by Hazell Dean is great too, but I have an album by her already. Next favorite new one to me is "Toy Boy (Extra Muscle Mix)" by SINITTA, post-early-Madonna slightly r&b bubblegum girl-twirl by somebody who I never knew was Miquel "So Many Men So Little Time" Brown's daughter, much less (according to Wiki) both Simon Cowell's and Brad Pitt's ex-girlfriend.

Also fairly likable: The songs by PRINCESS (on here twice), CAROL HITCHCOCK (a Kim Wilde style disco-pop cover of the Tempts/Rare Earth's "Get Ready"), and MANDY, none of whom I'd ever heard of before, I don't think. Somewhat tolerable: The ones credited to MONDO KANE FEATURING GEORGIE FAME ("New York Afternoon," sort of adult-contemporary quasi-reggae with a decent schlock melody -- makes me wonder whether Georgie Fame's older stuff was ever any good, but doesn't make me wonder that much) and "Roadblock" credited to STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN themselves, more a production collage than a song, and passable at it but not near as audacious as say "Pump Up The Volume". Which leaves a horrible charity "Let It Be" cover by all-star group Ferry Aid (feat. Kate Bush, Paul McCartney, and Boy George, among others, the cover says), and a catchy Samantha Fox tune that I probably heard before, though maybe not a in this (not particularly jump-blues) "Jump and Jive" mix.

SZTÁROK A GYERMEKEKÉRT (Gong Hungary 1985)

This one is pretty great! SZTÁROK is now officially my new favorite rock sub-genre! Also it looks like they sold square-inches of ad space to something like 144 (sometimes alphabetically arranged) Hungarian companies (6 up x 6 across x 4 pages) with very snappy logos for the back cover and inner sleeve -- quite the innovative funding and revenue concept!

SARAGOSSA BAND --Shake it to the right shake it to the left bubblegum dance music. I have more or less liked every song I've heard by this mysterious cheeseball worldbeat band, I think -- "Ginger Red" on some other compilation way upthread, "Big Bamboo (Ay Ay Ay)" and "I Like It" on some 45 I somehow got somewhere. Haven't totally loved any of them, though. (The one they do here is called "Agadou," which title sounds familiar so maybe I already have it somewhere else, too.) In the picture on the cover there are eight people in the band -- probably seven men, one woman; five lighter-skinned, three darker-skinned; four or so with Hawaiian shirts.

UNIVERSAL MOVEMENT -- "Subway Dancin": I love this one! Some kind of stretched-out disco-breakdance production pop, lots of rhythm at the beginning before anybody starts singing; okay, just realized there's a sort of less steely and severe "Axel F"/"Rockit" electro-hop thing going on, and duh, the words are about breakdancing: "Subway dancin', what a fascination/Subway dancin', breakdance at the station," plus a rapper who seems to be calling himself Whiz Kid coming in now and then to tell you to do the rock and the freak, neat! Europeans pretending to be from the South Bronx? Long song, too, with more false endings than any K-Tel track I've ever heard, probably, and finally a cheesy obligatory "rock" guitar solo at the end, but all melodically sweet and lovely in that early '80s post-disco ("boogie") r&b way that totally lures you in and lets you bask in its bottomless warmth and rhythm -- could be eight or nine minutes, easy; has to be a 12-inch mix.

CHARLES AMOAH "Sweet Vibration" -- More dance-on-the-sidewalk scratch-boogie pop; wow, Hungary was totally getting funky in the mid '80s! Actually, this sounds more like a post-Chic or post- Slave type r&b band than the previous song, but with a European accent talking about what his doctor recommended. And ha ha, now he's talking about "aaaaaaaaaaaaah......scratch"-ing! His back, what a joker! And this one has a better (and longer) gratuitous guitar solo than the Universal Movement one, too -- followed by lots and lots of genuine scratching!

THE TWINS "The Wild Romance" -- Fey swishy male synth-pop duo with a sax solo; reminds me of the Pet Shop Boys or Alphaville or somebody, but somehow having Central European accents makes these guys seem more warm-blooded and less detached. (Alphaville were Germans, actually, but they only sounded warm-blooded some of the time.)

MP "I Hav' An Rendez-vous" -- Actually I'm not sure whether that hyphen belongs in the title, or whether they just split it up because they ran out of room on the sleeve where the title is listed, which might well be a first. (Okay, just checked the actual label -- the hyphen stays!) Anyway, MP (as in Miltary Police??) is clearly a Falco wannabee, hopefully a Hungarian one. Rapping, continentally and gutterrally, about who knows what. With scratches, and what sounds like pigs grunting, and somebody mixing in "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles once.

PALAIS SCHAUMBURG "Easy Go" -- What the heck are these guys doing on there? I always figured them for super avant-garde Neu Deutsche Welle weirdos (the only other song I have by them is on a comp LP also featuring Der Plan, Einsturzende Neubauten, Malaria, Ja Ja Ja, etc.); does being on this compilation mean they wound up selling out with actual hits somewhere? Like...Hungary, for instance? Anyway, this track is sort of odd, like for instance when the Pigbag/Dirty Dozen Brass Band horn-fart charts come in, and there's something off-kilterishly Nina Hagen like about the female backup part, but mostly it's just your usual Numan/Dolby science-class-pop robotics. Still glad it's here.

CATERINA VALENTE "SOS - Wir Bauen Ein Dorf Aus Liebe" -- Post-Abba schlager hausfrau makes you cry in your Pilsner during the verses, then bounce around in your seat and sing along and clink steins and order more bratwurst during the la-la-la chorus. In the gasthaus. Wearing a dirndl, most likely.

Tolerable ballad schlocksters: Riccardo Fogli (singing foreign), Bernie Paul (singing English --actually he's not all that tolerable maybe), Uwe Adams (foreign - the foreign-schlockers are winning), Cebra (still better than Bernie Paul.)

Best Band on the Compilation (who I already have a big pile of albums by) Award: Boney M, who do "African Moon"

"FLM" by MEL AND KIM; I have no idea what "FLM" stands for

as far as i can remember... and i'm almost ashamed to admit this, I think it stood for Fun, Love and Money.

It did indeed stand for Fun, Love and Money... as stated in the lyric!

The Twins: they had two big Euro hits in 1983 - "Face To Face (Heart To Heart)" and the wonderful "Not The Loving Kind". The lyrics to the latter are particularly OMGWTFLOL: "You know you can't succeed / in winning cocks with chicken feed" ... "Your efforts are effete / the stake's too high for easy meat / why don't you just admit defeat?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAdqNexE4Is

Ha, that's awesome. I never even heard of them before.

square-inches of ad space to something like 144... Hungarian companies (6 up x 6 across x 4 pages)

Uh, guess these ads would be two square inches each, not just one, since the LP cover is a square foot. (Estimating distances was never my long suit.)

Roadblock" credited to STOCK AITKEN WATERMAN themselves, more a production collage than a song, and passable at it but not near as audacious as say "Pump Up The Volume".

funny you should mention "Pump", as it used a sample from "Roadblock" which SAW spotted & sued for. I think non-UK versions had the sample stripped out?