Belinda Carlisle – Fool For Love
Sometimes I really do wonder what goes on when record company types are trying to decide on what singles to pick from an album. It is, of course, a very […]
Bananarama – More Than Physical
Choosing a follow-up single to a massive hit is a decision always fraught with danger. As a man who spends way too much time thinking about what singles should be […]
Tracie – (I Love You) When You Sleep
Building the perfect pop star from scratch has never been easy. Whether it’s some shady Svengali-type exploiting a precocious singing talent they’ve stumbled upon at a holiday camp karaoke competition […]
Foreigner – Urgent
I’ve never been what anyone could even remotely describe as a ‘Classic Rock’ fan. All that posturing and ‘axe grinding’ never really appealed to my predominately pop-orientated palate. Okay, I […]
Agnetha Fältskog – Wrap Your Arms Around Me
Going solo must be absolutely bloody terrifying, don’t you think? It’s no wonder Nadine Coyle was so reluctant to let Girls Aloud go given that the battlefield of music is littered […]
Colourbox – The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme
Some records are like tiny fizzing petri dishes crawling with cultures which will eventually find their way, well, everywhere – Donna Summer‘s I Feel Love is the most obvious example – but not […]
The Grateful Dead – Touch of Grey
Can a band be considered to be one of the most successful in the world without ever having had a hit single? The answer is, of course, yes, but the […]
Alison Moyet – Ordinary Girl
I think we’re all quite used now to the notion that pop stars and their employers often don’t enjoy an easy working relationship, and in many cases it appears to […]
Prelude – Platinum Blonde
There’s only one thing I love more than a days-of-the-week countdown in a lyric – think Cherrelle and Alexander O’Neal’s Saturday Love or Craig David’s 7 Days – and that’s […]
Fra Lippo Lippi – Come Summer
What’s in a name? Quite a lot if the history of pop music is anything to go by. In the 1960s and 70s, it was deemed necessary for aspiring pop […]
Def Leppard – Photograph
When I was a teenager we moved to the countryside, which meant that my ten minute walk to school became a twenty minute drive in the company of my brother. […]
Sting – We’ll Be Together
Why does everyone hate Sting? Ok, let me re-phrase that. Why did British singles buyers hate Sting? One more question and then I’ll move on to make my point. How […]
Swimming with Sharks – Careless Love
If you’re of a certain vintage, you’ll almost certainly remember half-page adverts in Smash Hits promoting an exciting sounding new band called Swimming with Sharks, and thinking to yourself “gosh, […]
Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn – One Day
It appears some artists just aren’t suited to life in the spotlight. The initial rush of success, and the recognition which follows, can rapidly subside. In my youth, this often […]
Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed
From a certain point of view, Britain was a thoroughly miserable place to be in the early 1980s, and it’s tempting to think that we passed on the Go-Go’s because we […]
Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl
Fortune does not always favor the overly-ambitious, particularly when it comes to film and TV actors who want to be pop stars. For every Kylie Minogue, emerging from the protective […]
Liza Minnelli – Don’t Drop Bombs
"I'd rather not have to hear about your other girls on your expense account."
Deacon Blue – Loaded
Nothing – not even a cold macaroni pie from Greggs – makes this ex-pat Glaswegian well-up like the opening bars of Deacon Blue‘s 1987 debut Raintown. It probably helps that the record […]
Randy Crawford – Can’t Stand the Pain
A lot of pop songs are sprints of one sort or another, racing to the finish line within three and half minutes – but it’s good to have a marathon now and again isn’t […]
Eighth Wonder – When the Phone Stops Ringing
It’s often said (by me) that there’s nothing new in pop, and this is especially true when it’s something old. In the case of Eighth Wonder‘s When the Phone Stops […]
Into the Popvoid 