The History Of Pop Part 13 AKA Acieeeed! Acieeeeed!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Our friends at Now squeeze the lemon of 1988 for one final time in a compilation perhaps most notable for the sequencers allowing their granite mask to slip for a DO YOU SEE moment at the end of disc 2. To my eyes few golden greats but a melange of covers, ill-judged revivals, former Go-Gos, new boy bands, big hippie goths, lip-synchers, blondes, thick accents and Level 42 that should at least provide fertile comments box mulch.

Now 12 saw Salt N Pepa and S Express run neck and neck for a good 25 votes until "Push It" pulled ahead. Tiffany and the Timelords close behind, Sabrina beaten by Morrissey. Glen M and "the Wets" (o horror) fighting it out for worst. Lu Cont vs The Beatles? Tomorrow Never Knows, Hey Jude, ROCKTOPUS' Garden, Free as An Bird. Oh dearie.


[Poll #648625]

Comments

YOU ARE AN OCEAN WAVE MY LOVE...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of rub on here but nothing actually THAT awful, except 'A Groovy Kind Of Love' perhaps but I can't seem to really stir up real hate for that myself.

I can't remember how the Duran song goes. Or the Human League one.

Re: YOU ARE AN OCEAN WAVE MY LOVE...

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

a slight rally of interest from me over last NOW's plummet (in terms of number of boxes ticked)

Re: YOU ARE AN OCEAN WAVE MY LOVE...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think "A Groovy Kind Of Love" is OK in a kind of hamfisted way.

Re: YOU ARE AN OCEAN WAVE MY LOVE...

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

An OK Kind Of Rub

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

erasure cannot win surely!!? *jabs repeatedly at bobby mcferrin button*

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

close between yazz and wiedlin there (for me).

Breathe - Hands To Heaven??

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I remember it! And voted for it. Soulful boyband pop, not bad.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

me also, i think i may haf seen them at an roadshow of some description...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This could be a close one.

"Kiss" - pop classic, embarassing novelty, or both? (or neither?)

Transvision Vamp ditto.

Was this some kind of era for knowing chart pop I wonder?

I quite fancied the laydee from All Abt Eve.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

and oh look, you end up on LIVEJOURNAL. Coincidence, or something more sinister?

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

He's got a point. Are you a special snowflake?

Kiss - weak, bombastic and humourless compared to Prince's sneaky and subtle effort.
- as Stevem notes, probably made Tom Jone think 'hhhmmm, sticking around and piggybacking hapless popular artists for chart success. Sounds good, yes?' so CANNOT BE FORGIVEN.

I AM A GALLEY SLAVE MY WUB

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

My problems with 'Kiss':

Art Of Noise officially 'becoming' a joke, or rather the joke no longer being 'funny'

Tom Jones re-invention at this point a chilling portent of what was to come in the 90s and 00s

Prince did it better obv.

Re: I AM A GALLEY SLAVE MY WUB

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah this is all fair enough, and it's no "Peter Gunn" either. Props to Tom Jones though for sustaining his ironic career longer than his actual career.

(or was there even a difference)

Re: I AM A GALLEY SLAVE MY WUB

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

No

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I definitely had this one. Remember pretty much everything on it, lucky me. Think I even like 'she makes my day' at the time. Forgive, I knew not etc...

Only 5 votes for 'The Harder I Try'? Fools.

10 votes for the ffing Proclaimers. What kind of madness is this.

('Good life' should win, just for the shiny middle eight M1 bit. But it's not going to, of course. Pah)

IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'She Makes My Day' is one of those songs that pops up in my head now and then, inexplicably. There are only three good Robert Palmer songs (four maybe including 'I Dream Of Wires') that I know of and this bain't be one.

Re: IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. Always annoying. Low-key, slightly whingy 'soulful' ballad thi--GETOUTGETOUT.

Wee Papa Girl Rappers though. Have just put that on (aged top 40 cassette)and my god is it good.

WEE PAPAS RULE THE DANCE

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

hell yeah.

Re: IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Wee Papa Girl Rappers never put a foot wrong, by virtue of having only released three or four singles (inc. a cover of 'Uptown Top Ranking' or did i dream that?) and they all being rather good.

Re: IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

No, I'm pretty sure I remember that. Although we could eb suffering from group hallucination.

'Blow the House Donw', though? HOW good?

Re: IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Their LP - The Beat, The Rhyme, The Noise - is awesome too.

I don't remember any cover of 'UTR' tho.

Re: IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

not getting them confused with louchie lou and mitchie one (sp?) are you?

Re: IN A BRAND NEW FASHION INNA DANCEHALL STYLE WEE RULE

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

gah. quite possibly. duh.

BTHD still ace tho'

IF YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A DRUG, NOW YOU KNOW YOU'RE WRONG

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I do think the listing of Duran Duran after Transvision Vamp is INSPIRED. Are there any other examples of this meta-hilarity within the NOW! tracklistings?

Re: IF YOU THOUGHT IT WAS A DRUG, NOW YOU KNOW YOU'RE WRONG

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Patience grasshopper.

I had forgotten how great the Acieed lyrics were.

The Human League song is a nice touch too.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

The video to 'We Call It Acieeed' is also brilliant. Dancin' Danny D actually dancin' etc.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

To my eyes few golden greats

Oh I don't know. This looks like a good NOW to me. I own:

Yazz
"Wee"
PP (not keen on this one actually)
AA Eve
Acieeeeeeeeeeeed
"Teardrops"
B. Ferry (but this, like The Hollies, is a re-release due to a TV ad or something so doesn't count)

and I like a few of the others (Jane W, Robert P, Bobby McF, Yello, "Big Fun" and... Phil Collins, which is one of the very few modern i.e. post-1959 pop records that my late mum ever liked. I had to tape it for her.)

[thenipper.livejournal.com]

I feel compelled to point out that the Womacks' 'Teardrops' contains the only mention of Everett True in a top ten hit.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

nobody knew or cared who he was so they had to loop that bit for effect (LOLZ)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't actively know how any of these go except WPGRs and Yazz, I'm voting almost entirely on principle here.

[juror8.livejournal.com]

You don't know how "500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be)" goes?! I despair for the youth of today.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of it or that band it's by until today. I didn't pay attention to music before I was born, you see.

[juror8.livejournal.com]

Stop pretending you're 17. Your youthful good looks aren't going to last forever.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I can still pass for 16, thankyou very much.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Why isn't "Can I Play With Madness" on there? It got to number 3, and is way more pop than most of these.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Because it was on the previous Now, Jel.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Phew, that's good to know.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

It may not be too late to go back and vote in all of the preceding Now polls, jel! (It is too late for those votes to be counted, however.)

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

I should have voted for Transvision Vamp as the best. :(