Betsy Cook – Love is the Groove
Sometimes, even when you make a really great album, have a bit of a marketing budget, get a modicum of radio play and have a label willing to put out […]
Kelly Clarkson – Catch My Breath
There’s a slightly strange phenomenon in pop that I like to call Crap Single From a Greatest Hits Syndrome and it is surprisingly common. Many such collections are marred by the inclusion […]
Susanna Hoffs – My Side of the Bed
A certain type of person will thrill with anticipation when they look at a song’s credits and see the names Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, because they know that unless things have gone horribly, […]
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – If You Leave
This song takes me back to the time I wanted to go to the high school prom but I didn’t think I was good enough compared to all the rich kids. My dad […]
‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
It’s to our great shame as a nation that ‘Til Tuesday never made it big in the UK. They had the haircuts – presumably bought at a car boot sale held […]
Diana Vickers – Cinderella
Well now, this is sad. And not a little ironic. Diana Vickers enjoyed something of a Cinderella story herself, bringing a barefoot breathy quality to 2008’s X Factor before doing a triumphant West End […]
Penguin Prison – Don’t Fuck With My Money
I’m never too sure about the word “fuck” in pop. Its use always feels slightly like an act of self-sabotage in that your record either gets saddled with a bleeped out […]
Sarah Cracknell – Ready or Not
Solo careers are a tricky thing – just ask Rachel Stevens. Sometimes people go it alone purely for purposes of artistic expression, sometimes they’re refugees from a recently imploded band, and sometimes they’ve […]
Cyndi Lauper – My First Night Without You
…in which Cyndi Lauper channels Ben E. King and demonstrates what it would be like to have someone go through a complete emotional breakdown right in front of you, all in the space of three minutes. […]
Frazier Chorus – Nothing
Frazier Chorus, we hardly knew thee. Gosh, remember the trend for slightly fey indie bands discovering drugs and going a bit dancey? It was quite the thing in the early […]
France Gall – Ella Elle L’a
. FRENCH POP ALERT! You can count on one hand the number of French-language hits that made the crossover to the UK charts. Joe le Taxi. Voyage Voyage. Dominique. Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus. […]
ABC – Ocean Blue
Perceived wisdom has it that ABC went a bit rubbish after The Lexicon of Love, and although I hate to say it, perceived wisdom was perhaps onto something. No doubt there are […]
Betty Boo – Hangover
It’s fair to say that in 1993 there weren’t many people clamouring for a Betty Boo country single. Less charitable folk would say there weren’t many people clamouring for […]
Mutya Keisha Siobhan – Flatline
The memory of this one is still a little painful. I was so convinced this was going to be a no.1 smash that it upsets me to have to include […]
Act – Snobbery & Decay
Take one German pop star, a Scottish "intense, weirdo-electronic-noise-merchant" (Smash Hits, 1985), stick them on the most exciting label of the decade and what do you get? Total amazingness.
Roxette – You Don’t Understand Me
The reason why this song wasn’t a hit is because Roxette were deeply, deeply unfashionable at the time of its release – though there is a strong case to be made […]
Roisin Murphy – You Know Me Better
There’s a certain kind of satisfaction to be had in liking an artist who never quite crosses over into the mainstream. A perverse satisfaction, sure, but you get to feel […]
Fleetwood Mac – Seven Wonders
Most people, if asked, would say that Seven Wonders was a proper hit, so familiar has it become; and if you lived in America you’d be right, because it made a fairly respectable no.19 there. […]
Everything But the Girl – Come on Home
It has never been easy to be an Everything But the Girl fan. Time and again we’ve watched as inferior acts enjoyed enormous success while Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn were just sort of there, […]
Into the Popvoid 