The Greatest Hits (Texas album) Poll

not included: the Wu-Tang version of Say What You Want (a banger, even though it's not in key with itself); the bizarrely great Sunship garage remix of "In Demand"; the unexpected disco thwomp of Giorgio Moroder's mix of "Summer Son" - definintely all worth celebrating but not in the spirit of a Greatest Hits poll.

White On Blonde was one of the first albums I was gifted for myself, although in retrospect it was clear it belonged to my parents as much as me. Those singles were ubiquitous for a year, and with good reason. It's easy to slag them off as a band for being a bit safe, a bit middle of the road, a bit familiar - but if it was that easy to write songs as catchy and instantly familiar as some of these then every band wanting success would do it.

Some of these are excellent. In the late 90s so many bands tried to faux-Motown but none came as close as Black Eyed Boy. Summer Son and Say What You Want are more than generous with their hooks, Inner Smile is such a jubilant, joyous rushy mix of love and lust, and Put Your Arms Around Me is a great rock ballad.

the wonky off-keyness of Say What Wu Want is a huge part of its charm

i feel like i have to vote for Halo which is such a gigantic chorus but maybe i think this over

It's easy to slag them off as a band for being a bit safe, a bit middle of the road, a bit familiar - but if it was that easy to write songs as catchy and instantly familiar as some of these then every band wanting success would do it

100% this - I was pretty much exactly the right age (15-18ish) to be quite snotty about Texas during their late-90s commercial renaissance while simultaneously really enjoying about 75% of their single output

Inner Smile is poss the true answer here but I'm going to throw a vote at When We Are Together for the gorgeous tumbling verse-cadences. When choosing singles from The Hush they obviously really didn't want to risk deviating from the WoB formula - single 1: slinky shuffle, single 2: polite rocker, single 3: euphoric fauxtown. Nothing wrong with this!

This GH came too early to include Sleep with Paul Buchanan but that's another massive charmer

This article is about the Scottish musician. For the Australian sex worker, see Sharleen Spiteri (sex worker).

As I said in the Now thread "Inner Smile" is my favourite Texas song, but it's possibly also my favourite Gregg Alexander song, so woozy. I dooo get why the yeah-yeah-yeah would grate but idk I just find does really sound like real happiness, not at all forced, it's like 3 minutes of smiling eyes and stomach butterflies. This is also the quality that powers "Life Is a Rollercoaster" which is similarly airy and beguiling (so much so Ronan decided to stop singing in that annoying throaty way he always had).

Good loping StoneBridge remix of "Inner Smile" too

I like most of the imperial phase singles just fine but it's the handful of more upbeat ones that do it most. "Summer Son" puts those tolling Trevor Horn bells to better use than Steps, and "Black-Eyed Boy" is a superior Motown-but-not-soul semi-pastiche, probably better for being by Texas than by more self-conscious Britpop also rans. Great intro. As for the early stuff I guess "I Don't Want a Lover" is superior to anything Simple Minds were doing in 89.

Texas are exactly the sort of band that are due a revival among younger listeners who don't care that they were ubiquitous uncool MOR in the heyday. I guess a lot of the stuff that's 'in' though was big in America and this is why Texas (and others, e.g. the Corrs) don't get mentioned.

know nothing about this band. summer son sounds like a great lost st et song. there’s probably tons of 90s uk pop i’ve never heard that sounds like this?

the only Texas song I know is Jacques Lu Cont’s breathtaking cinematic remix of “what about us”

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

I'm quite allergic to Texas, but the song they did with Rae & Christian is very pretty. The downtempo hip-hop arrangement suits her vocals more than dad rock chug, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89gHiitsWGY

“Prayer for You”

…because it’s less glossy than the other singles I’ve heard, more akin to K.T. Tunstall / Alannah Myles, that kind of thing that sounds like a band playing beginning to end rather than a studio job.

Texas played my uni in Freshers Week when I Don’t Want A Liver was getting a big push by the record company. Think that Gun were the support act? That was during the height of my Big Black / Butthole Surfers fandom so needless to say I wasn’t having any of it. Later on my wife bought White On Blonde from Asda and she used to have it on pretty heavy rotation in her Nissan Micra. I did quite enjoy that tbh. This is all just anecdotal jibber-jabber obviously, but it does make me wonder if there was really all that much difference between Texas and say, the Afghan Whigs other than one had a haircut like my mum’s. Anyway, Say What You Want

lol typo

As I said in the Now thread "Inner Smile" is my favourite Texas song, but it's possibly also my favourite Gregg Alexander song, so woozy.

haha wow did not realize this but relistening this is totally a companion piece to "You Get What You Give"

The downtempo hip-hop arrangement suits her vocals more than dad rock chug, I think.

Sharleen did a nice disco-house track with Roger Sanchez, "Nothing 2 Prove". Definitely her voice lends well to that sort of record which is probably why Texas are remixed very well.

This has to be "Say What You Want" for me, what a jam. I do find there's an uncredited lift of Prince/Martika's "Love Thy Will Be Done" in it though.

At the time it would have been Black Eyed Boy or maybe When We Are Together. After reminding myself of some of their singles this morning, I'm going with Halo. Great string arrangement and nice Pretenders vibes on that one.

Great piece on the Wu Tang collaboration https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/dec/15/sharleen-spiteri-homegirl-texas-wu-tang-clan-became-pops-weirdest-pals

The Brits performance is great too.

It was!

That Guardian piece is very charming!

Were Texas the last significant beneficiaries of the Chris Evans Radio 1 Breakfast Show effect? He threw his weight behind Say What You Want at a point when they seemed entirely washed up; it crashed into the top 5 in January 97 and by the end of that month he'd stormed off R1 permanently

Possibly missing some crucial other promotional x-factor but at the time it was unclear to me why Texas were suddenly and immediately glossily massive. Their early 90s albums didn't really do anything and since the previous one we'd had Parklife and Oasis and the Spice Girls etc. Was a devoted fanbase clamouring for their return at this point - is there any affection for the pre-WoB material?

Brits love a plucky underdog/comeback story. Helps it’s a fantastic track which moves on from their earlier work and the Chris Evans effect was huge. He was even able to help The Divine Comedy get a top 20 hit.

Then Meth started rhyming over it, with these lines about pirates and bottles of rum, because that was his perception of the UK back in those days.

Gregg Alexander did a lot of stuff with the same blissed-out woozy vibe at this time, The Game Of Love and Murder On The Dancefloor as well as the Ronan Keating songs that not even Ronan Keating can ruin

there’s probably tons of 90s uk pop i’ve never heard that sounds like this?

it's strange - I think Texas very quickly became a lazy shorthand for popular, beige, unexciting music. Because in their imperial phase (White On Blonde and The Hush) their music was everywhere, the music feels very familiar and safe by drawing on obvious pop/rock traditions, and there's nothing very edgy or provocative about them. I bet even fans would struggle to name the members who aren't Spiteri. If Dido hadn't happened they'd have probably had more of these criticisms.

But I can't actually think of 90s UK (or big-in-the-UK) pop that sounded quite like them at their peak. The Corrs were a trad band who got the glossy Mutt Lange treatment, Dido's music was too trip-hop and post-electronica to align, singer-songwriters like David Gray or even Robbie Williams were probably equally as big commercially but more concerned with moves of authenticity. Gabrielle, or Emma Bunton's "What Took You So Long?" have the same Radio 2 ease but I think Texas were just a little bit odder. The Wu Tang and Rae & Christian remixes didn't happen by accident after all.

also I cannot find it now but there was definitely a t-shirt in Dean Blunt's merchandise range which was just a print of Spiteri and Method Man at the Brits and I was furious when I missed out on it

wow that brits performance is something and wonderful details from the guardian piece

spiteri has mad chops for hitting the notes on that completely off key sample

Great posts from boxedjoy

I haven’t listened to White on Blonde since the year of its release but I’m excited to do so now

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