THOMAS DOLBY

EUROPA AND THE PIRATE TWINS
(ORIGINAL EXTENDED 12" VERSION)

Europa And The Pirate Twins was released on 10th October 1981 and is Thomas Dolby's first single for Decca on their Parlophone label after releasing material on his own independent label Armageddon records. Europa peaks at #48 on the UK singles chart while later that year in May 1982 Dolby releases his debut album titled The Golden Age Of Wireless where it peaks at #65 in the UK which peaks at #13 in the US. It is not until after the single release of She Blinded Me With Science in the US that Europa And The Pirate Twins finally makes its US singles debut and it peaks at #67. Great synth tune!

EUROPA AND THE PIRATE TWINS
(ORIGINAL EXTENDED 12" VERSION)

80's CHRISTMAS CLASSICS

CAPTAIN SENSIBLE
ONE CHRISTMAS CATALOGUE

Another Yuletide treasure for you! I know I say many songs are one of my favourites, but this one truly is!!

Captain Sensible's 1984 single, "One Christmas Catalogue" is not only, in my opinion, the top Christmas song of the 80's, but is also one of the best pop songs of the 80's. It's synth pop intermingled with overdubs of sound bytes from distant Christmas movies of the past, create a nostalgic overload. "One Christmas Catalogue" is a classic 80's track that deserves much more airplay during the holidays.

ONE CHRISTMAS CATALOGUE

THE POINTER SISTERS

AUTOMATIC
(ORIGINAL SPECIAL 12" REMIX)

BONUS:
PINBALL NUMBER COUNT
(DJ FOOD RE-EDIT)
(BRACES TOWER ELEVEN-TWELVE MIX)

The Pointer Sisters were originally from Oakland, California, USA and have a music career spanning over three decades with their greatest success achieved during the 1980's. Their repertoire has included diverse genres as pop music, R&B, jazz, bebop, country, soul, funk, dance, new wave and rock.

Automatic was a funky New Wave-styled dance number, released on the Planet Records label in 1984. The song became one of the Pointers' signature tunes and was the first of four consecutive top ten singles from their multi-platinum landmark album, Break Out. The song, which features Ruth Pointer's deep lead vocals, soared to number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and number two on the U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and U.S. Hot Dance Club Play charts. It repeated that success in other countries such as Canada and England (where it made it to number two only kept from the top spot by Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax"). The song also became the Sisters' only #1 in the Republic of Ireland.

The Special 12" Remix was done by the in-demand 80's DJ and Remixer John 'Jellybean' Benitez.

AUTOMATIC (ORIGINAL SPECIAL 12" REMIX)

We are going back before the 80's here with these bonus tracks from the Pointer Sisters but I thought it would be a shame not include these little numbers (no pun intended) with this post considering that it will appeal to most thirty-something BA80's followers and children of the original Sesame Street.

In 1972, The Pointer Sisters provided the vocals on the soundtrack to Pinball Number Count which was a collective title referring to 11 one-minute animated segments on the popular PBS children's series Sesame Street that teach children to count to 12 by following the journey of a pinball through a rather fanciful pinball machine. The track, which was composed by Walt Kraemer and arranged by Ed Bogas, was originally produced in 1972 by Imagination, Inc. in San Francisco, California for the Children's Television Workshop but made its debut on Sesame Street in 1976. Since the days of early Sesame Street the Pinball Number Count has become a staple in pop culture and upon it being heard you can guarantee a sing-a-long.

PINBALL NUMBER COUNT (DJ FOOD RE-EDIT)

PINBALL NUMBER COUNT (BRACES TOWER ELEVEN-TWELVE MIX)

A video edited together using the the different segments from Sesame Street and the DJ Food Re-Edit.

For the Braces Tower Mix a video was made using a clever combination of footage from Sesame Street and The Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine.

80's CHRISTMAS CLASSICS

THE WAITRESSES

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING
(ORIGINAL 12" LONG VERSION)

One of the problems with Christmas is that it's the time of year when the radio waves and your audio environment around you fills up with so much crap Christmas music with most of the contemporary holiday songs are being shite! But luckily there were some bands that rescued us from this annoyance and gave us some top quality festive songs. This track by The Waitresses has to be one of the best written Christmas songs in the last 30 years. It has a good groove, excellent horn section, the lyrics are good and it doesn't drive you crazy!!! A modern classic!!

Christmas Wrapping was released and recorded in 1981 for the various artists holiday compilation album A Christmas Record on the band's label, ZE Records. The group then included the track on their 1982 EP I Could Rule the World if I Could Only Get the Parts and has since been included on other numerous holiday compilation albums.

The song is narrated from the point of view of a busy single woman who is adamant that she will try to sit-out the exhausting Christmas period, not participating in the traditional Christmas activities, except for making dinner. She reveals that, during the course of the year, she has attempted to meet up with a man she encountered in a ski shop the previous year. Despite the couple's attempts to meet, a succession of mishaps conspires to keep them apart. Finally on Christmas Eve, while the protagonist (after stating that A&P provided her with "the world's smallest turkey") is doing last-minute shopping for cranberries at a local convenience store, ends up running into the man after discovering that he, too, forgot to buy cranberries.

This coincidence seems to hint that the narrator, and therefore the listener, shouldn't completely abandon their faith in the magic of Christmas.

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING (ORIGINAL 12" LONG VERSION)

Here's an interesting article I found on the track.
How An Obscure 80's Punk Band Created A Christmas Classic

BLONDIE

HEART OF GLASS
(ORIGINAL 12" DISCO VERSION)
(INSTRUMENTAL DUB VERSION)
(BLONDIE VS EDISON VOCAL MIX)
(BLONDIE VS EDISON QUATTRO MIX)

Heart of Glass was originally recorded in 1975 under the name "Once I Had a Love," and was much slower with a blues/reggae vibe to it. The song was frequently performed on tours, then was re-recorded with the same title in 1978, when the song was made a bit more rock-oriented. When Blondie recorded the album Parallel Lines, disco was big on the music scene, and producer Mike Chapman decided to give the song the disco twist that made the song what it is today, and one of the best-known Blondie recordings. For the single release the track was remixed by Chapman with the double-tracked bass drum even more accentuated. The song was released in January 1979, and reached number one in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The versions appearing on the 7" single issued in early 1979 varied from country to country, some used the regular album version, others an edited album version and others an edited version of the 12" Disco Mix, which is the one usually found on current hits compilations.

Almost immediately after its release, "Heart of Glass" became the subject of controversy because of its disco sound. At the time, Blondie was one of the bands at the forefront of New York's growing New Wave musical scene. Suddenly they found themselves accused of "selling out" for releasing a disco song and made the band pariahs in the eyes of many of their fellow musicians in the New York music scene. The band was accused of pandering to the mainstream that many punk/new wave bands at the time were actively rebelling against.

There was also the issue of the use of the expression "pain in the ass" within the lyrics which, at the time, did not sit easily with the hierarchy at the British BBC. The radio version changed it to "heart of glass." In Australia, the song was banned from radio for its "strong language."

HEART OF GLASS (ORIGINAL 12" DISCO VERSION)

HEART OF GLASS (INSTRUMENTAL DUB VERSION)

HEART OF GLASS (BLONDIE VS EDISON VOCAL MIX)

HEART OF GLASS (BLONDIE VS EDISON QUATTRO MIX)

The accompanying music video was filmed at Studio 54 in New York City.

80's CHRISTMAS CLASSICS

MAX HEADROOM

MERRY CHRISTMAS SANTA CLAUS
(YOU'RE A LOVELY GUY)

Since we are in that seasonal time of year of Christmas cheer, I thought I would post a few 80's Christmas classics in the days leading up to when we all get some new socks, underpants and cheap cologne. The Christmas songs are not particularly extended or remixed, but are just a bit of Christmas fun and what better way to begin than with Mr. Super 80's himself, Max Headroom!

The computer-generated sci-fi star was best known musically for appearing on the Art of Noise record Paranoimia, but in 1986 he eventually got around to doing his own Christmas single, which is fairly smarmy even for Max, but never mind, it's Christmas!! This is quite a rarity and very hard to find these days. Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS SANTA CLAUS
(YOU'RE A LOVELY GUY).mp3

And of course we can't go without seeing the video!

WALL OF VOODOO

DO IT AGAIN
(ORIGINAL EXTENDED 12" MIX)

Wall of Voodoo were a New Wave group from Los Angeles, USA and had a sound that was a fusion of synthesizer-based New Wave music with the spaghetti western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone.

Wall of Voodoo had its roots in Acme Soundtracks, an unsuccessful film score business started by Stan Ridgway, later the vocalist and synth player for Wall of Voodoo. Acme Soundtracks office was across the street from the Hollywood punk club The Masque and Ridgway was soon drawn into the emerging punk/new wave scene.

In 1983 Ridgway and two other members of the group left the band which was soon after the success of their only Top 100 hit Mexican Radio. Andy Prieboy soon replaced Ridgway as lead singer and with the addition of a few new members, the band went on to record to 3 more albums.

In 1987 Wall of Voodoo's album Happy Planet was released. It was the second album to feature Prieboy as lead singer and the band's fifth record overall. The Beach Boys cover Do It Again was the obvious choice for the first single however it failed to chart. Despite this I don't think you will find a better cover of a Beach Boys' song anywhere.

DO IT AGAIN (ORIGINAL EXTENDED 12" MIX).mp3

I had not seen the video for Do It Again until now and was surprised to find that back in '87 they managed to get Brian Wilson to make quite a substantial appearance in it. Some stills from this video were also used on the sleeve cover for the 12" single.

CAMEO

CANDY
(ORIGINAL FULL LENGTH 12" VERSION)
(ORIGINAL UK 12" REMIX)

Released as a single in 1986, Candy was the followup to Cameo's hugely successful Word Up! which was also the title of the the band's album that year. The song reached #1 on the R&B charts and #27 in the UK top 40 singles chart.

This is one of my favourite funk tracks of the 80's and is also a highly underrated Cameo song which I think equals Word Up!

CANDY (ORIGINAL FULL LENGTH 12" VERSION).mp3

CANDY (ORIGINAL UK 12" REMIX).mp3