SMASH HITS Singles - October 1982

http://i.imgur.com/wXUnOiB.png

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqiswAZfVPp6y9JOGuVzdrV2flUOmkAK

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5sNtc30nxV87kshoQDuY0W

Loved, loved, LOVED "The Apple Stretching", which is the only one of these that I bought at the time - plus there's "Nipple To The Bottle" on the flip, which the DJ at our favourite club played every night for several months. "The Apple Stretching" remains the Grace Jones track that I love the most; I find it immensely evocative.

"Ooh La La La (Let's Go Dancin)" reminds me of Saturday nights at the Marcus Garvey centre in Nottingham circa 1985-6, which was mostly lovers rock, but it always slotted in well. Kool & The Gang had started to bang out too many variations on the same formula, but this one is pure joy.

I initially viewed "The Day Before You Came" as a minor curio, but the (actually quite bad) 1984 Blancmange cover brought me back to it for a re-evaluation.

The Belle Stars, Piranhas and Bauhaus covers smelt of artistically pointless, anything-for-a-hit desperation.

Hard to not vote for one of Abba's finest

torn between Eat Your Heart Out and Old Town

okay its The Day Before You Came for sure, along with Atlantic City. next up probably Peek A Boo which is really underrated in the devo singles catalogue.

'Child Come Away' is pretty leftfield for Kim Wilde huh

Wazi and the Bambetis - Waw Dieure Dieuf (Thank You Very Much) (no youtube?)

Enjoyed the reviews, Phil Lynott one made me chuckle. Good old Fred Dellar.

The Wazis track wasn’t what I expected, hints of Ze. No bad thing of course.

Not a great week: too many covers, too much surface jollity. My best discovery is the Kim Wilde, which I missed at the time as it broke her run of hits, peaking at 43.

the Kim Wilde is pretty good.

I remember loving Phil Lynott’s “Old Town” (a Dutch radio hit), and yes, good track - olá!.

not sure what to vote, really.

felt at the time that the hits off Kool & The Gang’s As One album were a notch or two below the one-two-three punch from their previous Something Special (“Take My Heart (You Can Have It If You Want It)”, “Get Down on It” and “Steppin’ Out”), but “Ooh La La La” is definitely very enjoyable (and so is “Big Fun” on the parallel US poll).

“The Apple Stretching” is very good, but I agree with the review that it’s not really a single (Living My Life a fantastic album obviously).

that leaves “The Day Before You Came”, great of course, but as Abba classics go, it’s not among their absolute best for me. in fact, it would be my pick for most overrated Abba song and I don’t really want to vote for it for that reason. my name ain’t Tom but I sure can be petty.

(the W&W looked very intriguing, with its Wolof(?) title and “Dakar Disco” hype (and there is a chant buried in there somewhere), but while the production is interesting the actual song is pretty bad (not to mention the lyrics))

i agree this is a weak week

put “My Jamaican Guy” or “Nipple To The Bottle” in the mix instead of “Apple Stretching” and this would all be very easy

(listening to Living My Life now)

I have a good one, forks, if you don't mind me going up next. Even a weaker week can throw up some useful connections, though.

Actually I could send you the week in question in advance if you wanted to do the spotify part of it. I don't use spotify although I did for a while. I have your email address ofc.

Go for it jed

i have very warm, fuzzy feelings about that phil lynott song and the video just makes me want to give him a big hug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OcIqwmSaY

so I wasn’t the only one - ola!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Closing shortly so here's your next selection to explore:
SMASH HITS Singles - May 1984

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

dang, surprise winner

Atlantic City, I choked on a shrimp. Remember?

the wrong town won

Slight week, for sure. When it's between The Boss and Boring Bob...

I'd have voted Kim, but I missed it this time.

oh dear, I had missed “Zambezi” among the runner-ups. were the Piranhas secretly the Lurkers all along?