Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

Enjoy this week's selection of a ride through various genres.

1958: Big Bopper

1970: Chicago

1978: Human League

1972: Seals & Croft

1991: Pearl Jam

1965: The Yardbirds

1978: Donna Summer

1958: Bo Diddley

1982: The Jam

1966: The Lovin' Spoonful

1969: John Lennon

1976: Blue Oyster Cult

1986: Run DMC

1989: Public Enemy

1974: Dobi Gray

1974: Stevie Wonder

1979: The B-52's

Red Desert

 

The Vacant Lots is a Brooklyn, NYC based post-punk, electronic duo that is active since a decade and made some albums that are far over the average. A few name them as the devisee of Suicide. But you can't compare them with the synth-punk pioneers Alan Vega and Mercury Rev although you can hear fragments of their sound in their music. They have also influences of New Order, Pet Shop Boy and Human League in their songs. Red Desert is a song that could appear on any album by Sonic Boom and this is astonishing because Peter Kember mastered a few of their albums.  

And Disintegration could be song that was played often when it was released 30 years earlier.

Penthouse, Pavement And More

 

Back in 1981 Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, former members of Human League formed in Sheffield together with Glenn Gregory on vocals Heaven 17, one of the pioneers of new electronic synth pop. They came up with the first wave of new wave bands and brought back funk into music. It was new and irritating to the guitar based music that was released at this time but you couldn't detract from the groove and funky sound of (We Don't Need) This Fascist Groove Thang that was played in every good discotheque in the 80's. It was also a political statement because the single's condemnation of the political leaders Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan proved an ill-fated move. And also these meaning made it an hit here in Germany.

Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang

The song was originally wrote for the B.E.R.-project and was also released on their debut album Penthouse and Pavement which became a classic in electronic music. How great the song on this album are is shown by a remix of Play To Win by New York DJ's Martinez Brothers who had a big success in Ibiza.

Heaven 17 - Play To Win (Martinez Brothers Edid)

On their second album they created on of the best songs from 1982. Let Me Go is still one of those songs I return from time to time and I think it is a perfect track. Sometimes it is simple to create a great song when you have a bubbly bassline, dubby drums and the chopping up of the lyrics.

Heaven 17 - Let Me Go

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

These days Empire State Human by Human League shuffled up on my mobile phone when I was on the way back home from work. Listening to this very old song made me want to listen to their first record from 1979 once again. I bought this record without knowing anything about Human League because I was fascinated by the cover. The cover shows the feet of a man and two woman seemingly dancing on a number of babies. The music I got was far away from most I ever heard before. Strictly electronic sounds with a lot of rhythm and melodies got this record on heavy rotation in these days. Looking back after decades I have to say it was probably industrial before industrial was born.

Human League - You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

And here is the original from 1964 by the Righteous Brothers:

Who's Afraid Of The 80's? Pt 3

Listening to this almost 40 years old record memories came back to these days. This record was unique to these days. Seldom had a record that gave me an overview of what music could be. It was a bunch of styles all over genres and made me searching for more of this.

It was the first time I listened to electronic music and it was far away of my musical favourites. Human League introduced me to what electronic music could be. Using simple chords and adding hypnotic hooks they made a classic song and they had to match this with their later songs.

Human League - Empire State Human

This record brought me also to bands playing classic rock. I loved them from this song on, bought the older vinyls of their first band Kursaal Flyers and their later albums. They got little success with Starry Eyes a few years later. I still remember them as one of the best and forgotten pub rock bands.

The Records - Girl

There were a few classic and almost perfect pop songs on this record. One of them was by Cowboys International an almost forgotten band which never made a big success. Their first full length record The Original Sin is still a classic in late 70's British pop movement. Later lead singer Ken Lockie appeared as a background singer by the early Simple Minds.


cowboys international - aftermath von ShaniquaOsburn