On the "Cookd & Bombd" website's forum, there's a thread for us to list our 1000 fave singles. I've previously posted many of my faves from that forum on my own blog. Here's some more...
PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS "Band On The Run"
PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS "Band On The Run"
Released 28 June 1974
Chart Position: #3 (what????!!!! It’s a crime.)
I blame my Mum. There was this album in the front room where the stereo was, when I was about 4 or 5 years old. The album had a cover (right) featuring loads of blokes dr
essed in black frozen still under a big searchlight. I recognized some of them: Parky, that man from the dog food advert, some boxer bloke, and Count Dracula. I’ll always remember that cover, but even more I’ll always remember the music on the album, which captivated me, even at that age. "Jet"!! I'd sing jumping up and down years before Alan Partridge fell off his bed doing so in a Linton Travel Tavern. There was also that "Bluebird" song… some weird thing about "Mamounia", and a song about Picasso, whoever he was. Years later on listening again, I discovered the delights of the Lennon pastiche "Let Me Roll It" which passed me by as a child, but then and now there was always this one song..
The title track and sing
le "Band On The Run" always takes me back to those days in Fleetwood, and it's been with me ever since, the melancholic "stuck inside these four walls" lyric really hitting home at difficult times. But most of all it's the ambition of McCartney that I love, mastering the art of the three-act song long before Queen thought of "Bohemian Rhapsody". That perfect pop moment? It's the "Live & Let Die"-esque horns and orchestral instrumental bit before the main part of the song.
Of course the making of the album was fraught with problems, but these are well documented elsewhere, so I won't bother. All I say is this is just a master songwriter at the top of his game, and for that we can forgive him all manner of fiascos such as songs about frogs, Chevy Chase film songs or marrying an evil witch.
No YouTube link - you know what McCartney looks and sounds like, for gawd's sake. Whaddya want, spoonfeeding?
Garbage? Where do I start?
Back in 1995 when I first heard about a new band who sounded a bit like the sorely missed Curve, and Nirvana producer Butch Vig’s name was involved, I was interested. I missed out on the limited releases of their first singles “Vow” & “Subhuman”, but I was there for “Only Happy When It Rains” which was purchased promptly on release day, as was the eponymous titled album. Couldn’t give a monkeys about the press of the time saying that they were cold, soulless, unlovable even (blimey, the same press were championing Dodgy and Menswear at this time, so I could take or leave what the likes of the NME said). Garbage pressed the right buttons with me. Great singles, beautifully designed artwork on the sleeves, great live, especially on that first tour of the UK. Cheers, sorted.
Even down the line with the release of the patchy third “Beautiful Garbage” album, they were still interesting, with some great individual singles off that one (“Cherry Lips”, “Androgeny”), before it went a bit Pete Tong with their (possibly) last album. But I’m here to champion a single, and there was a choice of about five. I managed to narrow it down and although I love the Pretenders-stealing “Special”, I have to be bleedin’ obvious and go with...
“Stupid Girl”.
Released 1996
Mushroom Records
Chart Position #4
Surprisingly for such an obviously catchy track it was the fourth single from the debut, but it’s obviously all about timing as it became their biggest hit up to that point. A stomping drum loop (I will hold my hands up and say I didn't recognize the Clash sample) followed by that familiar chiming guitar riff before Shirley Manson’s prowling voice on the verses drags you into a disparaging putdown of some unnamed female’s lifestyle. A gorgeous key change in the bridge leads into the chorus, all punctuated by choppy “Orange Crush”-esque guitar riffs. One of the great dumb-ass bass lines as well. All this packaged in a smart fabric sleeve for extra collectability. Yum. [Must mention the great video as well, allegedly created by putting the finished film footage into the bathtub to create that authentic scratchy shit feel.]
By law, I've got to pick a PSB tune. But which one? It's an almost impossible task to choose one, as there are at least eighteen which you could have from their Premier league table of top tunes. Even their lesser singles are way above the standard of other inferior pop combos. And of course as soon as I pick one, Ciaran from the Forum goes and posts it before I can even string a sentence together. Bah.
So I think I’m safe to pick "So Hard", their first single of the Nineties.
PET SHOP BOYS "So Hard"
Chart Position # 4
Parlophone
Released September 24th 1990
I don’t consider it an obvious choice - if you asked anybody to name five PSB songs in a Family Fortunes type way, I’m sure this wouldn’t be up there on the board. But I love it, it still sound fresh, and for a single from 1990 it hasn’t dated, because it sounded so retro at the time. The move of bringing Harold “Axel F” Faltermeyer in as producer meant that Neil & Chris had access to his wealth of old-skool electronic equipment, which was used superbly on this single, with the thumping pumping analogue keyboard rhythm somewhat reminiscent of the work of Donna Summer & Georgio Moroder (a deliberate ploy on their part as Faltermeyer was Moroder’s engineer), and the orchestral stabs sounding as if they were nicked from a bad Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who episode. It all works superbly.
The lyrics? Ah well, goes without saying, the usual excellence, being a song about cheating (the line about contact magazines marking it out as a gay relationship but it doesn’t have to be), with killer lines such as “I’m always hoping you’ll be faithful, but you’re not I suppose / We’ve both given up smoking, cos it’s fatal, so whose matches are those?” And that last chorus after the instrumental break just gives me the goosebumps.
The track is a bit of an oddity really, as whilst it’s a bit downbeat, it isn’t really truly representative of the album to follow though (“Behaviour”), as there’s really nothing on that which sounds like this. Throw in another excellent Mark Farrow sleeve, the fantastic b-side “It Must Be Obvious”, a just-before-they-were-famous KLF & David Morales on remixing duties for the 12” remixes, a moody Newcastle based video and their legendary Wogan appearance (as spoofed on “The Mary Whitehouse Experience” – “Neillll! I said I was sorry about the toilet”) and you’ve got the perfect pop package.
Did the Pet Shop Boys ever get better than this? I don’t think so. Untouchable.
Here's a TV performance of the song:
10CC. Never fashionable but they made some downright brilliant singles. “I’m Not In Love” has already been covered in the thread way back, so I can’t do that, “Dreadlock Holiday” is a bit obvious due to the Boosh & Soulwax, but there’s plenty of other suspects I can pick on. Such as…
“I’m Mandy Fly Me”
Recorded 1975, Strawberry Studios, Stockport, Cheshire, England
Released Mercury Records 1976
Reached #6 UK Charts
This song is all over the place, in a way that most groups don’t dare attempt these days. Nearest equivalent I can think of would be Radiohead's “Paranoid Android”, in that halfway through it totally changes tempo with a flamenco-stroke-prog rock Mike Oldfield-esque guitar solo, before getting back to the original tune. Strange “eeeeeeuuwwwwwoooooooooooooooo” noises abound, with trademark harmonies and Eric Stewart’s everyman vocal carrying you through the song.
What’s the song about then? Well, it’s inspired by an Airline advertising campaign slogan from the 70s "I'm........Fly Me...." featuring pretty air hostesses. Basically bloke sees poster with Air Hostess Mandy, gets on plane, said plane crashes into tropical sea, bloke almost gets devoured by shark, aforementioned Air Hostess Mandy rescues him, she is then herself (presumably) eaten by the shark, bloke finds himself back in front of poster being wistful. Did she exist? Was it all real or a dream? Ahhhhh.
Sounds better than I described it. Honest.
10CC do often encapsulate all that’s good and bad about mid 70s rock; sometimes too sweet, sometimes too smug and arch, but often brilliant and ambitious. This track walks the tightrope and never falls off once.
Fascinating fact no 345: The intro features one of the bridge sections of the band's 1973 song "Clockwork Creep", whose lyrics which go "Oh, no you'll never get me up in one of these again / 'Cause what goes up must come down", is rendered soft and tinny, as if heard playing from a portable transistor radio. The song is regarded by some fans as a continuation of the story within "Clockwork Creep", whose subject was a bomb hidden on an airliner.
And finally for now... POP WILL EAT ITSELF "Can U Dig It?"
RCA
Chart Position #38
Released 1989
The first "indie" single I bought with money earned from a real job was the Sundays "Can't Be Sure". So that's my Indie cre
d established. However, I'd love to say I was buying stuff by the more fashionable Stone Roses in 1989, but no. I'd latched on to this band of unfashionable nutters from the Midlands who were on the ascendant along with the likes of the Wonder Stuff and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.
I always loved singles with daft samples on. Still do. So when this arrived I was hooked. Everybody I knew thought they were shit, but I knew better. This is the future, you mark my words. Ahhh. Stupid samples of Baccara, references to Robert Crumb and Alan Moore, vague pre-Berlin wall falling lyrics, and the keyboard riff from "Funky Town". Why? Because you could. It's a record for Comic Store Guy really. It still holds up, as does the accompanying album. It's a great hybrid of hip hop and bad metal. Fantastic record sleeves and t-shirts as well by Sheffield's Designers Republic .
Unfortunately, the legacy of the Poppies appears to be that they made the likes of Carter USM possible. Never mind. Grebo, we love you.
Chart Position: #3 (what????!!!! It’s a crime.)
I blame my Mum. There was this album in the front room where the stereo was, when I was about 4 or 5 years old. The album had a cover (right) featuring loads of blokes dr
essed in black frozen still under a big searchlight. I recognized some of them: Parky, that man from the dog food advert, some boxer bloke, and Count Dracula. I’ll always remember that cover, but even more I’ll always remember the music on the album, which captivated me, even at that age. "Jet"!! I'd sing jumping up and down years before Alan Partridge fell off his bed doing so in a Linton Travel Tavern. There was also that "Bluebird" song… some weird thing about "Mamounia", and a song about Picasso, whoever he was. Years later on listening again, I discovered the delights of the Lennon pastiche "Let Me Roll It" which passed me by as a child, but then and now there was always this one song..The title track and sing
le "Band On The Run" always takes me back to those days in Fleetwood, and it's been with me ever since, the melancholic "stuck inside these four walls" lyric really hitting home at difficult times. But most of all it's the ambition of McCartney that I love, mastering the art of the three-act song long before Queen thought of "Bohemian Rhapsody". That perfect pop moment? It's the "Live & Let Die"-esque horns and orchestral instrumental bit before the main part of the song. Of course the making of the album was fraught with problems, but these are well documented elsewhere, so I won't bother. All I say is this is just a master songwriter at the top of his game, and for that we can forgive him all manner of fiascos such as songs about frogs, Chevy Chase film songs or marrying an evil witch.
No YouTube link - you know what McCartney looks and sounds like, for gawd's sake. Whaddya want, spoonfeeding?
Garbage? Where do I start?
Back in 1995 when I first heard about a new band who sounded a bit like the sorely missed Curve, and Nirvana producer Butch Vig’s name was involved, I was interested. I missed out on the limited releases of their first singles “Vow” & “Subhuman”, but I was there for “Only Happy When It Rains” which was purchased promptly on release day, as was the eponymous titled album. Couldn’t give a monkeys about the press of the time saying that they were cold, soulless, unlovable even (blimey, the same press were championing Dodgy and Menswear at this time, so I could take or leave what the likes of the NME said). Garbage pressed the right buttons with me. Great singles, beautifully designed artwork on the sleeves, great live, especially on that first tour of the UK. Cheers, sorted.
Even down the line with the release of the patchy third “Beautiful Garbage” album, they were still interesting, with some great individual singles off that one (“Cherry Lips”, “Androgeny”), before it went a bit Pete Tong with their (possibly) last album. But I’m here to champion a single, and there was a choice of about five. I managed to narrow it down and although I love the Pretenders-stealing “Special”, I have to be bleedin’ obvious and go with...
“Stupid Girl”.
Released 1996
Mushroom Records
Chart Position #4
Surprisingly for such an obviously catchy track it was the fourth single from the debut, but it’s obviously all about timing as it became their biggest hit up to that point. A stomping drum loop (I will hold my hands up and say I didn't recognize the Clash sample) followed by that familiar chiming guitar riff before Shirley Manson’s prowling voice on the verses drags you into a disparaging putdown of some unnamed female’s lifestyle. A gorgeous key change in the bridge leads into the chorus, all punctuated by choppy “Orange Crush”-esque guitar riffs. One of the great dumb-ass bass lines as well. All this packaged in a smart fabric sleeve for extra collectability. Yum. [Must mention the great video as well, allegedly created by putting the finished film footage into the bathtub to create that authentic scratchy shit feel.]
By law, I've got to pick a PSB tune. But which one? It's an almost impossible task to choose one, as there are at least eighteen which you could have from their Premier league table of top tunes. Even their lesser singles are way above the standard of other inferior pop combos. And of course as soon as I pick one, Ciaran from the Forum goes and posts it before I can even string a sentence together. Bah.
So I think I’m safe to pick "So Hard", their first single of the Nineties.
PET SHOP BOYS "So Hard"
Chart Position # 4
Parlophone
Released September 24th 1990
I don’t consider it an obvious choice - if you asked anybody to name five PSB songs in a Family Fortunes type way, I’m sure this wouldn’t be up there on the board. But I love it, it still sound fresh, and for a single from 1990 it hasn’t dated, because it sounded so retro at the time. The move of bringing Harold “Axel F” Faltermeyer in as producer meant that Neil & Chris had access to his wealth of old-skool electronic equipment, which was used superbly on this single, with the thumping pumping analogue keyboard rhythm somewhat reminiscent of the work of Donna Summer & Georgio Moroder (a deliberate ploy on their part as Faltermeyer was Moroder’s engineer), and the orchestral stabs sounding as if they were nicked from a bad Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who episode. It all works superbly.
The lyrics? Ah well, goes without saying, the usual excellence, being a song about cheating (the line about contact magazines marking it out as a gay relationship but it doesn’t have to be), with killer lines such as “I’m always hoping you’ll be faithful, but you’re not I suppose / We’ve both given up smoking, cos it’s fatal, so whose matches are those?” And that last chorus after the instrumental break just gives me the goosebumps.
The track is a bit of an oddity really, as whilst it’s a bit downbeat, it isn’t really truly representative of the album to follow though (“Behaviour”), as there’s really nothing on that which sounds like this. Throw in another excellent Mark Farrow sleeve, the fantastic b-side “It Must Be Obvious”, a just-before-they-were-famous KLF & David Morales on remixing duties for the 12” remixes, a moody Newcastle based video and their legendary Wogan appearance (as spoofed on “The Mary Whitehouse Experience” – “Neillll! I said I was sorry about the toilet”) and you’ve got the perfect pop package.
Did the Pet Shop Boys ever get better than this? I don’t think so. Untouchable.
Here's a TV performance of the song:
10CC. Never fashionable but they made some downright brilliant singles. “I’m Not In Love” has already been covered in the thread way back, so I can’t do that, “Dreadlock Holiday” is a bit obvious due to the Boosh & Soulwax, but there’s plenty of other suspects I can pick on. Such as…
“I’m Mandy Fly Me”
Recorded 1975, Strawberry Studios, Stockport, Cheshire, England
Released Mercury Records 1976
Reached #6 UK Charts
This song is all over the place, in a way that most groups don’t dare attempt these days. Nearest equivalent I can think of would be Radiohead's “Paranoid Android”, in that halfway through it totally changes tempo with a flamenco-stroke-prog rock Mike Oldfield-esque guitar solo, before getting back to the original tune. Strange “eeeeeeuuwwwwwoooooooooooooooo” noises abound, with trademark harmonies and Eric Stewart’s everyman vocal carrying you through the song.
What’s the song about then? Well, it’s inspired by an Airline advertising campaign slogan from the 70s "I'm........Fly Me...." featuring pretty air hostesses. Basically bloke sees poster with Air Hostess Mandy, gets on plane, said plane crashes into tropical sea, bloke almost gets devoured by shark, aforementioned Air Hostess Mandy rescues him, she is then herself (presumably) eaten by the shark, bloke finds himself back in front of poster being wistful. Did she exist? Was it all real or a dream? Ahhhhh.
Sounds better than I described it. Honest.
10CC do often encapsulate all that’s good and bad about mid 70s rock; sometimes too sweet, sometimes too smug and arch, but often brilliant and ambitious. This track walks the tightrope and never falls off once.
Fascinating fact no 345: The intro features one of the bridge sections of the band's 1973 song "Clockwork Creep", whose lyrics which go "Oh, no you'll never get me up in one of these again / 'Cause what goes up must come down", is rendered soft and tinny, as if heard playing from a portable transistor radio. The song is regarded by some fans as a continuation of the story within "Clockwork Creep", whose subject was a bomb hidden on an airliner.
And finally for now... POP WILL EAT ITSELF "Can U Dig It?"
RCA
Chart Position #38
Released 1989
The first "indie" single I bought with money earned from a real job was the Sundays "Can't Be Sure". So that's my Indie cre
d established. However, I'd love to say I was buying stuff by the more fashionable Stone Roses in 1989, but no. I'd latched on to this band of unfashionable nutters from the Midlands who were on the ascendant along with the likes of the Wonder Stuff and Ned's Atomic Dustbin.I always loved singles with daft samples on. Still do. So when this arrived I was hooked. Everybody I knew thought they were shit, but I knew better. This is the future, you mark my words. Ahhh. Stupid samples of Baccara, references to Robert Crumb and Alan Moore, vague pre-Berlin wall falling lyrics, and the keyboard riff from "Funky Town". Why? Because you could. It's a record for Comic Store Guy really. It still holds up, as does the accompanying album. It's a great hybrid of hip hop and bad metal. Fantastic record sleeves and t-shirts as well by Sheffield's Designers Republic .
Unfortunately, the legacy of the Poppies appears to be that they made the likes of Carter USM possible. Never mind. Grebo, we love you.
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