Worth Another Listen - Benny Mardones

Benny Mardones, then and now.

In 1980, an unknown songwriter named Benny Mardones shot up the Billboard charts with a Top 20 hit, Into The Night. The song was all over the airwaves, and the single sold well. It was a favorite at dances and seemed like a popular 'make out' song. Mardones' raspy voice was perfect for the power ballad. Unfortunately, Mardones only found himself on the charts one other time, and that is in 1989 when a radio DJ decided to do a 'Where Are They Now' segment on him, and once again his only hit, Into The Night, hit the charts once again. This seemed to be a movement across the country, and it again hit the Billboard Top 20.



This left Mardones in an interesting position. He falls decidedly into the 'One Hit Wonder' category, with just one song on the charts, yet he had two hits with that one song, nine years apart. There are estimates that Into The Night has been played on the radio more than 4 and a half million times. It appears Mardones still tours, and recently released a new album, Let's Hear It For Love. To find out what Benny has been up to, click here.

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Worth Another Listen - The Human League

The Human League? It took me this long to get to The Human League? I know, seriously, how could I have any credibility at all, right? Oh well, I'll have to get over it and do this. The Human League formed in 1977 in Sheffield, England. Singer Phil Oakey has been fronting the band since the beginning, when it was an all-boy band. In 1980, Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall joined the band, and since 1987 the three made up The Human League from then to this day, with a revolving roster of musicians.



Here in the US, the League took off in 1981 with the release of their third album, Dare. After not charting with a previous single to going to #1 in the Billboard charts with Don't You Want Me Baby, the high-energy, high-concept song open to interpretation, be it about love gone wrong, or a demented stalker's tale.



They followed up that smash with two #2 singles, 1982's Mirror Man and 1983's (Keep Felling) Fascination, both from a 1983 EP Fascination. In 1986 they had their next trip to #10, Human, from the album Crash.



In 1984, singer Phil Oakey recorded a song he had written for the soundtrack for a movie, Electric Dreams. Super-Producer Giorgio Moroder took the helm of the single, Together In Electric Dreams, which rose to #3 on the UK charts, and well in the US charts. Frankly, I loved this song.



Until this moment, I have been ignoring the fact that is was the 80s, and there were some incredibly bad hair going on, and Phil certainly sported his fair share. In the early days, he had this bizarre mullet, only it was business on the left, party on the right, with the short crop on one side, and a big swoop that continued to almost shoulder length hair. Thankfully, he finally moved away from that look.




The last song to hit the US charts was 1990s Tell Me When from the album Octopus. The Human League released their last album in 2001, entitled Secrets. But Phil, Susan and Joanne still tour together, and say they enjoy it and will continue on as long as people show up to see them. To find out more about The Human League, check out their official website here.

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Woth Another Listen - ABC

ABC help to usher in the New Wave Era of music in 1981, utilizing highly theatrical videos and performances. They were part New Romantic and part Glam Rock, with bombast and costumes in abundance. They started out in 1980 with Martin Fry handling the vocals, Mark White on keyboards, Mark Lickley on bass, David Robinson on drums, and Stephen Singleton on saxophone. ABC produced 8 studio albums, one live collection, and 3 greatest hits collections. They were far more popular in the UK than the US, scoring twice as many Top 40 singles in the UK, 10 vs 5.




The look of the band changed almost as often people in it. Fry is the only member who managed to stick around, although David Palmer showed up in 1982 and is still with Fry today. While Tears Were Not Enough was the first single, it was the second that established them on the radio. Poison Arrow started getting radio play and the video was picked up by MTV and started rising in the charts.

ABC - Poison Arrow
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Following the time spent as New Romantics with their jaunty suits, by the time the third CD came around, ABC had moved to a more glittering and theatrical look, somewhere between glam and club. The video for Be Near Me is the epitome of the look, as you can see.

ABC-Be Near Me
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I'll be honest, ABC had fallen off my radar after 1987's Alphabet City, which didn't grab me. I loved the the lead single, When Smokey Sings, one of my favorites from the band.

ABC - When Smokey Sings
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ABC still tours today, and released a CD in 2008, a fact I was blissfully unaware of, so I have nothing to add. To catch up with ABC and Martin Fry, you can check in with the official website here.

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Worth Another Listen - Naked Eyes

In 1983 a British synth-pop group seem to come out of nowhere with an unusual cover of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song, Always Something There To Remind You. It was strange, for I instantly recognized the song as a former Dione Warwick song, could sing along and just loved it.So I went out and bout the album [yes, I was still buying vinyl at that point] and just loved it.

Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me
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Naked Eyes were Pete Byrne on vocals and Rob Fisher manning the keyboards. They secured a second hit in the US with Promises Promises, which had a more soulful feel than the Bacharach pop song. They put out a 2nd album, Fuel For The Fire, in 1984, which had some moderate success on the charts. Soon they parted ways, with Fisher joining another British group, and Byrne writing for others, including the Olsen Twins song, I Am The Cute One.

Naked Eyes - Promises Promises


In 1997, keyboardist Fisher passed away following a blattle with cancer. Since then Byrne has enlisted the aid of others and is working on another Naked Eyes release. You can learn more about Naked Eyes from their official website, found here.

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Worth Another Listen - A-ha

In a recent post I mentioned the Scandinavians taking over American pop music, and you might think I was coming up with something new. Well, hardly. First there was ABBA, the Swedes who ruled the airwaves for a while. And there was A-ha, the band of gorgeous Norwegian boys singing the catchy and bright pop song, Take On Me. Not only were they fun to look at, their video was pretty amazing for the time, with the combination of live action and animation, pretty new stuff in 1985. This lead to the song being number 1 in the charts throughout much of the world.



They followed that up with The Sun Always Shines On TV, which was slightly less successful, although it did top the charts in the US. A-ha were Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. Well, that is a bit of a misstatement, as A-ha is still together, playing shows and releasing new material this year, via a CD entitles Foot of the Mountain. I know nothing about it, as the last time the band scored something in the Top 100 here was in 1986.



To catch up with A-ha and all they've been doing, go to their official website here. From some of the picture, they are still looking awfully good!

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Worth Another Listen - The Jam

I had done an earlier post about Paul Weller, the British singer/songwriter whose career I followed from group to group before his solo career. The first I knew of Weller was when he was part of the New Wave/Punk band, The Jam. Weller was joined by Bruce Foxton and Rick Butler to make up The Jam. They were one of several young bands who looked back to the music of the British acts of the late 50s & early sixties, reclaiming the concept of 'mods' and put in their own spin. They seemed to be part early The Who and part Jack Kerouac, part of the 'beat generation,' only on steroids. They blazed strong in the musical sky, amazing considering they released albums for a scant 5 years, from 1977 to 1982.



In those 5 years, they put out 6 albums and went on several tours, which resulted in 3 live albums. And, as the music industry can do so well, there are 14 compilation albums, as well as 3 separate box sets. The music was rich and textured, while maintaining a raw and emotional edge all delivered at a breakneck pace, hallmarks of the punk movement. Here is a clip of The Jam performing Eaton Rifles live.



Later in the run, you could see the direction Weller was taking with the music, and it was in the direction that would later be played by the Style Council. For me, this evolution was evident in A Town Called Malice.



You can find more about The Jam at their official website here.

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Monday Morning Pick-Me-Up - New Order

A quick shot of musical caffeine to lift you up on a Monday morning - New Order's Blue Monday.

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Worth Another Listen - Prefab Sprout

I was such a fan of Prefab Sprout way back when, and was snagged by the pure pop magic they made. When Love Breaks Down came out in 1985, and I was so there and bought the Steve McQueen album. It was produced by Thomas Dolby, featured earlier on the blog. I have to admit, however, that I lost track of the band in the early 90s, and assumed they were history. In writing this post, I discovered they released music in the 2000s, and are working on some new stuff.



The following is The King of Rock 'N Roll, from the 1988 album, From Langley Park to Memphis.



The 'unofficial' web home for Prefab Sprout can be found here. Their MySpace page can be found here.

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Sunday Worship - Caravan Of Love

I love the Housemartins, who were together for far too short a time. But this a cappella version of Caravan of Love certainly had me thinking they were special. Part revolutionaries, part Christian soldiers, the Housemartins did their thing in the mid 80s, preaching God and Karl Marx as the answer.

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Worth Another Listen - Feargal Sharkey

You gotta love Irishman Feargal, who rose to frame when it was more important to have a vibrato that could take out a redwood than it was to have lovely tone. He rose to fame as the lead singer for the punk band The Undertones, went on to a solo career that included the hit song A Good Heart, and then settled down to become a record executive. Proved an interesting look and sound and the right promotion could sell just about anything.

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Worth Another Listen - Meatloaf

I don't think we could have possibly made it to the end of a party during my freshman or sophomore year of college with listening to Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf. After imbibing or whatever of the substances available to us, there would always hit that point in the party when someone would put the record on the turntable, and we would go wild with delight. And there was no more fun time when you were of questionable sobriety and performing Paradise By The Dashboard Lights with friends. Good times!

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Worth Another Listen - Belouis Some

Belouis Some was an interesting looking man with quite the style and voice. I really dug him, although here in the States he kinda disappeared. Another of the seemingly endless stream of British New Wave artists to hit the American charts, I remember the song Imagination as one I would play over and over, his voice filled with interesting nuance and phrasing.



There was also the slightly less interesting Some People, filled with as much double entendre as it was with the emotional wallop of Imagination. But I did enjoy it!

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Worth Another Listen - The Blow Monkeys

When the New Wave artists hit the scene in the 80s, I was so all over them. It included The Blow Monkeys, a British band who started with lots of promise, but ultimately came up as light as many of their counterparts from the era. They pulled the 19th Century British Schoolboy image for all it was worth, and it certainly gave me a chance to give them a long look - and enjoy their early stuff. That included the song Digging Your Scene.



The Blow Monkeys are back, so to speak. Sadly, I don't think anyone missed them. But I did enjoy their first outing! Just let it go, boys!

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Worth Another Listen - Escape Club

Since this is a busy week for me, I was thinking I would just drop some video cuts on the blog and hopefully they would be fun.

Back in 1988, there was a British band filled with pretty boys called The Escape Club. Predominately a one-hit-wonder, they were known for the song Wild Wild West, which was a blast, and I danced to on more than one occasion in the clubs. The Group called it quits in 1992, but has apparently gotten back together. You can visit their MySpace page here.

Escape Club - Wild Wild West
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Worth Another Listen - The Cure

I have been a fan of The Cure for far too long. I remember going to see them play in the 80s, going to a variety of locations. In the early 80s, I was finishing up college, coming to grips with being gay, and loving 'New Wave' and punk music. Started out with The Police and Horselips, and moved on to The Cure. I owned Boys Don't Cry and went to see them when I could. Living in NYC, I remember seeing them at Madison Square Garden, which had the most magnificent sound system, and at Pier 84, located on the Hudson River near the Intrepid museum and the departure of the Circle Line Tours. I think it was the summer of 1986 I went to Pier 84 alone to see The Cure, and 10,000 Maniacs [with Natalie Merchant] opened for them. This was an odd pairing, and the large number of goth boys and girls looked lost as Natalie sang their particular brand of California Angst. The line to buy beer was long, I should know, I was in it a few too many times. But when the first strands of the particularly peculiar meld of pop, rock, angst and Jean Genet popped out of the speakers, all was right with the world.


A view of Pier 84 from the Hudson River

Earlier that spring, I had broken up with my boyfriend of six years, and was asserting my independence. I was going out alone, drinking, and living the life of a New Yorker. I drank a bit too much - which was fine, I was taking the subway home to Brooklyn - and remember cozying up to the speakers and feeling the base making my chest vibrate. Of course, I wasn't giving any thought to the walk from the piers to the subway, but who cared, I was loving life. If I remember correctly, they opened with Inbetween Days.



Fast forward 22 years, and I went to see the Cure last year, this time in Philadelphia with my niece, whom I had made into a Cure addict way back when. I can't tell you how excited I was. 65daysofstatic opened for them, and were really incredible. But then the boys of The Cure hits the stage, with their trademark light shows and killer sound system. They were outrageously great and played for just over 3 straight hours. There was the great old stuff, and some cool new songs. Sure they looked older - I wasn't exactly drinking from the fountain of youth the past two decades - but the show was fantastic. The following is a video from the very show we attended.



To remember the good old days with The Cure, you can visit their website.

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Worth Another Listen - King

OK, I was crazy about this group way back when. King, led by lead singer Paul King, the band sported incredibly 80s fashions down to the Doc Martens on their feet. The other band members were Mick Roberts, Anthony "Tony" Wall and Jim "Jackal" Lantsbery. The mixture of gawky movement and an abundance of hair products, the band burned brightly for just a few years, enough to whet my whistle and went their separate ways. Paul King turned up on MTV as a VJ in the early 90s, and now works for MTV & VH1 in Europe.



I felt for sure the band must be gay, with a song like Love & Pride, right? Well, not so much, but I loved the music anyway. The 80s were a deceptive time, as many of the str8 boys seemed to aspire to be drag queens with big hair and makeup. Or were they trying to be Cher? Or did any of the people I consider the quintessential acts of the 80s have a clue what they were up to?



Following you will see a video for Alone Without You, and there was also the single Won't You Hold My Hand Now. I bought both King CDs, Steps In Time and Bittersweet, and loved them dearly. I still listen from time to time. I have to admit I had no clue Paul King had put out a solo album, so now I have to go looking for that. It was, from all reports, a commercial failure, which led to the gig with MTV.



Paul King has a fansite set up and can be found here.

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Worth Another Listen - Vitamin Z

Top: Geoff Barradale, Nick Lockwood & David Rhodes.
Bottom: Left - Geoff; Right - Nick.

Vitamin Z formed in 1982, with singer Geoff Barradale and bassist Nick Lockwood of Sheffield, Endland, making up the nucleus of the band. Later, they added guitarist David Rhodes. They were basically one-hit-wonders in the music business, but for my heart, they were so much more. I love the smokey edge to Geoff's voice, his turn of a phrase, the emotion-laden strain of his vocals. And Nick, well, he was just so darned hot.



The put out two albums; Rites of Passage in 1985, and Sharp Stone Rain in 1989. Both releases contained different versions of the single, Burning Flame. I, of course, have both, and enjoy them greatly. Rites has one of my favorites, Casablanca, with it's Middle Eastern flair and rhythms. Wish I could share more, but I am having a tough time finding other videos to embed, so I will leave you with a few clips of some other fantastic songs.










Bottom: David, Nick & Geoff.

To find out more about Vitamin Z, go to the official website.

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