Whitney Houston – You Give Good Love
Probably the two most common words in modern music are “yeah” and “baby,” and strangely these tiny four letter words can often be the thing that elevates a song to greatness. […]
Heaven 17 – Let Me Go
In the world of pop there are only two things more frustrating than remembering the precise moment you decided to put someone else’s song on the B-side of your multi-million […]
Sheila E. – The Glamorous Life
In 1984, Prince Rogers Nelson, aka Prince, was at the height of his creative powers. His magnum opus, Purple Rain, had topped the charts around the world and generated hit […]
The Lover Speaks – No More “I Love You’s”
Here’s a song that actually was a gigantic hit – just not for the people who deserved it. You may recall that in 1995 Annie Lennox ran out of steam creatively […]
Yello featuring Shirley Bassey – The Rhythm Divine
In the mid to late eighties there was a bizarre sort of supermarket trolley dash by male pop stars seemingly hell-bent on scooping up every past-their-sell-by-date-but-still-safe-to-consume female diva from the sixties […]
Carly Simon – I Get Along Without You Very Well
The standards album has become an emergency career rescue stand-by in recent years, but when Carly Simon released Torch in 1981 it was something that hadn’t really been done by […]
Joni Mitchell – My Secret Place
Street bravado...carry me.
Frida – I Know There’s Something Going On
Some records are so embedded in your brain that you refuse to believe they even came close to falling over the edge into the Popvoid and you’ll argue, with the […]
Shakespears Sister – Run Silent
When the news broke in 1988 that Siobhan Fahey was leaving Bananarama I was positively aghast. The ‘rams were – and remain – my all time favourite girl group and it was […]
Belinda Carlisle – Mad About You
What makes the perfect summer single? While there are many recipes for summertime pop success, a few key ingredients are essential: 1. A swooping, joyous chorus that builds gradually and frenetically […]
Kate Bush – Suspended in Gaffa
A luxury most pop stars don’t enjoy these days is the freedom to do whatever the hell they like and hang the consequences. In 1982 and nearly five years into her career, […]
Rachel Sweet – Hairspray
One of the saddest things about a song not being a hit is that you almost never get to dance to it anywhere other than your own kitchen or living […]
The Indian Givers – Fake I.D.
One of the great forgotten pleasures is the ritual of going into a record shop on a Monday morning and flicking through the new releases. The late eighties were an especially great […]
Madonna – Spotlight
A few years ago I wrote a thing about the challenges Madonna faced as she entered the fourth decade of her career, and I ended it by asking the question: “if Madonna […]
Peter Gabriel – In Your Eyes
It’s often the case that the best song on an album doesn’t get released as a single (see: Fever by Kylie Minogue) and I always used to tut when this happened […]
Michael Sembello – Maniac
Let’s play a game of doppelgänger intros – 80s edition. I always have a moment of exquisite confusion when this comes on in a club – which admittedly hasn’t happened in a long time […]
New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
The best pop should be exciting – it should make you run around the house or hurtle to the dance floor as soon as you hear the opening bars, and it should […]
Stevie Nicks – Stand Back
Here she comes again – and this time it’s a solo Stevie Nicks effort, and boy does she mean business. Yes, it’s the brilliant Stand Back – and the story of this song is […]
Prefab Sprout – Hey Manhattan!
Prefab Sprout – the perennial bridesmaids of the British music scene. Despite being eminently loveable, and with a sizeable dowry of ace tunes, they never quite made it to pop’s altar to […]
Aretha Franklin – Another Night
1985 saw the legendary Aretha Franklin well into the third distinct phase of her career. Starting out in 1961 as a gospel artist on Columbia Records, her move to Atlantic in 1967 saw […]
Into the Popvoid 