Tina Turner’s big hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It” was originally recorded by Bucks Fizz after it had been offered to Phyllis Hyman, Donna Summer and Cliff Richard. When Bucks Fizz were set to record the song the producer told the band’s Jay Aston that the song was not suited to a female vocal and required a stronger male voice. So ultimately it was Bobby G who took the lead vocal. That the song’s biggest hit came from Tina Turner, a female singer, is rather amusing I think.
Tina’s version was the third single to be taken from her mega selling album ‘Private Dancer’. It reached number 3 in the UK charts in 1984 and made it to pole position in the US, Canada and Australia.
Regular readers of this blog will know that the 80s is my least favourite musical decade. however there were certainly some musical gems released in that dastardly period. Notably one of my favourite albums of all time; “Lexicon Of Love” from one of Sheffield’s finest bands, ABC in 1982. It was masterfully produced by Trevor Horn with stunning arrangements from Anne Dudley. For me this album really hasn’t aged at all.
Lead singer and now the only original member left wrote most of the songs from the experience of being dumped by his girlfriend. But there is an excellent piece of trivia relating to one of the wonderful singles spawned by the album, “The Look Of Love” that I only heard about recently. Just after the line ‘When your girl has left you out on the pavement’ you can hear a female voice in response singing ‘goodbye’. Apparently this word is performed by the girl who dumped Martin Fry. Apparently Trevor Horn felt that this was a good idea. I have done a little research to find out the name of this woman, but I have so far drawn a blank. So if you are her or you know who she is I would love to interview her about her part in music history!
The single reached number 4 in the UK charts and number 18 in the Billboard charts in the US. It went further in Canada and France where it reached number one. It was also a big success in the US Dance Chart were it also hit the top spot. The ‘Lexicon Of Love’ album went to number one in the UK album chart and achieved the same in both New Zealand and Finland.
The pa-pa pa-pa theme tune, played in cinemas before the ads to promote the Pearl and Dean company, is called Asteroid. The tune was composed by Peter Moore. I never knew it had a name; did you?
It was certainly an ear worm for UK cinema goers and provided a great sample for Goldbug‘s cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love” from 1996. The song reached number 3 in the UK charts. Of course an earlier cover of the song by CCS became the Top Of The Pops theme for many years too. Goldbug took their name from a computer virus.
Since the first time I saw him play live in 1976 I have seen David Bowie ten times. One of those occasions was at Earls Court in 1978. I am not sure whether I was at the third show, (I think I was at the first), but representatives of Bromley Borough Council were. They presented Mr Bowie with an unpaid rates for the princely sum of £38.31. Does that make him the Tight White Duke? Incidentally if there is a remote possibility that the council official that presented that outstanding bill to Mr Bowie is reading this I’d love to interview you.
Take that Bromley Council, I’m a black belt in origami
Only one member of ZZ Top actually played on their massive hit “Legs”. Billy Gibbons of the band provided the vocal and played guitar on the track. All the other instruments were played by engineer Terry Manning. Personally I find it more amusing that the only member of the band without a beard was the drummer; his name is Frank Beard!
The late and incredibly great Jeff Buckley was once a roadie for the Commitments and this is apparently how he secured his residency at the Sin-e in New York. I know that Noel Gallagher was a roadie/ guitar tech for the Inspiral Carpets before he joined Oasis and the Meatloaf played a roadie in the 1980 film ‘Roadie‘ (which also featured appearances from Blondie, Alice Cooper and Roy Orbison). There have also beeen a few songs about roadies too. But I’d love to hear from you with any other stories of roadies who went on to find fame themselves.
Last year I published a post about Bruce Springsteen having written the song “Hungry Heart” for the Ramones. Click here to read that post. I read recently of some other songs that were supposedly written with other artists in mind.
First there are two from the Eurythmics. Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox wrote “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)” for Stevie Wonder. Stevie never recorded it although he did supply the harmonica break on the song. The band originally had Tina Turner in mind to join them on “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” but she allegedly felt it was too feminist and the gig became Aretha Franklin’s. Seriously? Tina thought it was too feminist?
WTF? Miss Stevie turned me down????
Finally, and this one surprises me assuming it’s true; Prince wrote “Purple Rain” hoping to get Stevie Nicks to record it. Maybe it’s not too late. If you’re reading this Stevie Nicks (highly unlikely I know) then let’s hear it! I would love to hear of any ‘written for others’ stories that you might have.
The working title for the Beatles classic “Yesterday”, well at least until the lyrics were completed, was ‘Scrambled Eggs‘. I’m sure that many of you know that already. But did you know that Paul McCartney also tried to collaborate with Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonics Workshop. Delia created the Doctor Who theme and McCartney wanted her to replace the string quartet of “Yesterday” with a full on electronic sound.
If that had happened maybe Kraftwerk, Can and the like would not be seen as influential as they are. Imagine if the Beatles had also invented electronica. What kind of music world would that have given us? If you want to read this story on the NME site click here.
If anyone has made, or can find, a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme and the Beatles “Yesterday” I would love to hear it. I certainly can’t find such a mash-up, but I have found a couple that use either “Yesterday” or the Doctor Who Theme.
I have come across many songs that refer to Super Heroes which got me wondering how many songs there are that refer to super villains. I can think of only two right now;
“Magneto And Titanium Man” – Wings. This song focusses on super villains from the Marvel universe and in addition to Magneto and Titanium Man who are included in the title the lyrics also mention the Crimson Dynamo. Magneto has for a long while been the nemesis of the X Men and the other two have done battle with Iron Man on a few occasions.
“Brainiac‘s Daughter” – Dukes Of The Stratosphear. The Dukes was a side project emanating from XTC. Brainiac is possibly the greatest of all of Superman’s enemies. Superman is of course part of the DC Comics universe.
A special mention should go to “Batdance” from Prince, largely because some of the dialogue from the film that is included on the track comes from Jack Nicholson as the Joker, who is of course one of the most infamous of Batman’s villainous enemies.
I would love to hear from you with any other songs that feature super villains.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 