Sardonicus reviews a bunch of old 45s

Sardonicus

Sardonicus

HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE
Pronouns
He/Him
Joined
Dec 28, 2024
Messages
3,923
Location
Aunt Gladys's Basement
So, I've inherited all the old records that my Mum & Dad bought back in the 80s & early 90s, along with a bunch of singles I got for Christmas as a very young child, plus a few others I bought with birthday money at Woolies back in the day, etc.

I've no idea if there'll be any interest in this thread but after a TOUGH last year :(, I'm going to use it as a nice little nostalgia-fest reviewing a bunch of singles I grew up hearing. Some are good, some are bad, some absolutely CRINGEWORTHY :D

If there's any engagement with this, I can also carry on with a box of old 45s a record collecting friend of mine passed on to me that contain an equal mixture of old school classics & ABJECT HORRORS :disco:

I'll try to review one or two a day so this could go on for QUITE SOME TIME.
 
Belinda Carlisle - Leave A Light On b/w Shades Of Michaelangelo (1989)

UK chart peak - Number 4

20250224_130006.jpg



I remember LOVING KYLIE singing "I Should Be So Lucky" in the playground back when I started school, but I didn't start properly liking music till I randomly started watching an old TOTP with my Mum & Dad in late 1989 - Black Box topped the charts & a whole host of equally :disco: songs such as Sydney Youngblood, Leila K & Technotronic all featured. I got this little bunch of 45s for Christmas that year after I began obsessively watching every episode from then on :Dalong with the "Monster Hits" album which is basically 30 odd slices of 1989 POP FABULOUSNESS in one compilation.

So, this bunch of singles basically screamed BUDDING HOMOSEXUAL, starting with one of Belinda's biggest UK hits. Apparently that's George Harrison on the slide guitar which I had NO IDEA about :o

I actually prefer some of the lesser hits from the "Runaway Horses" album such as the title track, "Summer Rain" & "Vision Of You" but this really is UNDENIABLE still, one of an absolute GOLDEN RUN of Rick Nowels/Ellen Shipley penned hits from this time that suited Belinda's voice like a glove. The B side is also the closing track from the album, penned by Belinda with former GoGos bandmate Charlotte Caffey. It's a sweet little ballad although doesn't really sit that well amongst the hits-heavy album it's taken from - I wonder if this was added on as it was the sort of song she'd have preferred to be doing?

I'm also fairly sure this was her last big American hit - maybe @Joseph could confirm?

Also, CLEAVAGE AHOY on the cover :disco:
 
Yeah, Leave A Light On For Me is a banger. I wanted to be Belinda Carlisle when I grew up. Didn't work out. Can't even play drums. :(
 
Sardonicus said:
Belinda Carlisle - Leave A Light On b/w Shades Of Michaelangelo (1989)

UK chart peak - Number 4

View attachment 33653


I remember LOVING KYLIE singing "I Should Be So Lucky" in the playground back when I started school, but I didn't start properly liking music till I randomly started watching an old TOTP with my Mum & Dad in late 1989 - Black Box topped the charts & a whole host of equally :disco: songs such as Sydney Youngblood, Leila K & Technotronic all featured. I got this little bunch of 45s for Christmas that year after I began obsessively watching every episode from then on :Dalong with the "Monster Hits" album which is basically 30 odd slices of 1989 POP FABULOUSNESS in one compilation.

So, this bunch of singles basically screamed BUDDING HOMOSEXUAL, starting with one of Belinda's biggest UK hits. Apparently that's George Harrison on the slide guitar which I had NO IDEA about :o

I actually prefer some of the lesser hits from the "Runaway Horses" album such as the title track, "Summer Rain" & "Vision Of You" but this really is UNDENIABLE still, one of an absolute GOLDEN RUN of Rick Nowels/Ellen Shipley penned hits from this time that suited Belinda's voice like a glove. The B side is also the closing track from the album, penned by Belinda with former GoGos bandmate Charlotte Caffey. It's a sweet little ballad although doesn't really sit that well amongst the hits-heavy album it's taken from - I wonder if this was added on as it was the sort of song she'd have preferred to be doing?

I'm also fairly sure this was her last big American hit - maybe @Joseph could confirm?

Also, CLEAVAGE AHOY on the cover :disco:
Click to expand...

It peaked outside the top ten in the US and was considered a disappointment, but it was her penultimate top 40 hit, the aforementioned Summer Rain was her last.
 
I love Leave a Light On. It's pretty untouchable but, yes, beaten by a few other songs on that spectacular album, which I have spouted about elsewhere on here.

Side fact: I spent a long time (we're talking a couple of years), playing this endlessly to make it #1 on our local pub's jukebox. I have no recollection why that song, but I managed it eventually. :disco:
 
Shades Of Michelangelo could appear to be her greatest ever hit to the uninitiated with the amount of Belinda hits compilations it crops up on.
 
It's notably the only song on Runaway Horses that, I think, couldn't have been a hit.
 
She really tried to make that album do something here in the US but nothing really worked besides LALO

That said, I just assumed the prior album sold boatloads here but apparently only went platinum and charted outside the top 10 even with the massive singles it contained.
 
She was always bigger over here, which is weird, considering it was entirely the reverse for the Go-Go's.
 
Tina Turner - I Don't Wanna Lose You b/w Not Enough Romance (1989)

UK chart peak - Number 8

20250224_153915.jpg


A gentler, radio friendly follow up to "The Best", a song everyone always assumes topped the charts due to how UBIQUITOUS it was on commercial radio, sports events etc for years, but only got to number 6. The album both singles were taken from, "Foreign Affair", was a huge seller & continued to churn out further hits well into 1990.

"I Don't Wanna Lose You" sounds a little bland to 2025 ears, perfectly passable & inoffensive with Tina's powerful vocals lending it a bit of extra credibility, but not one that would be bothering my Tina top 10 these days. The B side was written by Dan Hartman, but rather than a Tina fronted disco BANGER like "Love Sensation" ( :disco: ) it's a yawnsome synthy ballad that screams ALBUM FILLER. How disappointing.

I think this was really the peak of Tina's solo career in the UK, with a number 1 album, a plethora of hits & a greatest hits in 1991 that sold by the truckload. I'm not sure if she still had the same status in the USA but she was a MEGASTAR in Europe at the time. There was another chart topping album in 1993 tying in with the "What's Love Got To Do With It" biopic plus a further top 10 hit, but that one was written by Lulu so let's SWIFTLY MOVE ON.
 
Last edited:
Foreign Affair was another like Runaway Horses which sold gangbusters in Europe, but was a bit of a flop in America.

I Don't Wanna Lose You is definitely a bit on the bland side of Tina, but I do love the campy drawl of the opening line: "Women of a cer-her-tain aaaaaaage..."
 
VoR said:
Foreign Affair was another like Runaway Horses which sold gangbusters in Europe, but was a bit of a flop in America.

I Don't Wanna Lose You is definitely a bit on the bland side of Tina, but I do love the campy drawl of the opening line: "Women of a cer-her-tain aaaaaaage..."
Click to expand...
I had no idea what that lyric meant as a child but unfortunately I'm now OF A CERTAIN AGE myself :(
 
  • Care
Reactions: VoR
I don’t think we even got that Tina single here. I know that album “flopped” here with only going gold but she made a ton of money off The Best I’m sure because it was played to death in advertising here.
 
Leave a light on is one of the most perfect pop songs of all-time for me. I'd say it's probably my favourite of hers.
 
Oh, I love I don't wanna lose you! Although not as much as I love the similarly titled Gloria Estefan song that came out a few months earlier!
 
Joseph said:
I don’t think we even got that Tina single here. I know that album “flopped” here with only going gold but she made a ton of money off The Best I’m sure because it was played to death in advertising here.
Click to expand...
But I just looked and she’s not a writer on it so maybe not
 
Runaway Horses singles rank/rate

11 Summer Rain
10 (We Want) The Same Thing (Remix version)
10 Leave a Light On
09 Runaway Horses
09 La Luna (Love this, and I know she does too, but WHAT possessed them to think that it was a hit?! :D )
07 Vision of You
 
VoR said:
Runaway Horses singles rank/rate

11 Summer Rain
10 (We Want) The Same Thing (Remix version)
10 Leave a Light On
09 Runaway Horses
09 La Luna (Love this, and I know she does too, but WHAT possessed them to think that it was a hit?! :D )
07 Vision of You
Click to expand...
Yeah I like "La Luna" but it's a PERPLEXING choice for the 2nd single in the UK considering what else there was to choose from. Maybe release it as single number 6 to try to MILK some extra album sales.

Entirely disagree with the ratings for "Runaway Horses" & "Vision Of You" - both 11s, the former is probably my favourite Belinda song these days!
 
11 Leave a light on
10 (We want) the same thing (single remix)
10 Summer rain
09 Vision of you
09 La Luna
08 Runaway horses
 
Sardonicus said:
Yeah I like "La Luna" but it's a PERPLEXING choice for the 2nd single in the UK considering what else there was to choose from. Maybe release it as single number 6 to try to MILK some extra album sales.

Entirely disagree with the ratings for "Runaway Horses" & "Vision Of You" - both 11s, the former is probably my favourite Belinda song these days!
Click to expand...

They went with La Luna thanks to the time old UK tradition of releasing slower songs in the run up to Christmas, though Vision of You would surely have been a better choice if that was, indeed, the reasoning. It entirely derailed the album though, and it wasn't til "(We Want) The Same Thing" as single number 5 that it began to really sell. Though why the UK left Summer Rain until single six I don't know- it even had the video ready from the US release. Bizarre.

11 Summer Rain
10 Runaway Horses
10 Leave A Light On
10 Vision of You
10 La Luna
10 (We Want) The Same Thing (Single Version)

10 Valentine
09 Deep Deep Ocean
08 Whatever It Takes
08 Shades of Michelangelo
 
La Luna is my mum’s favourite Belinda song. I always imagined it was her stab at having a La Isla Bonita / Who’s That Girl kind of hit, plus Glo Estefan had two huge albums out just before she was bound to have been recording some of this album so I like to think that was part of the reason too.
 
BoysForSeles said:
La Luna is my mum’s favourite Belinda song. I always imagined it was her stab at having a La Isla Bonita / Who’s That Girl kind of hit, plus Glo Estefan had two huge albums out just before she was bound to have been recording some of this album so I like to think that was part of the reason too.
Click to expand...

Oh it's MARVELLOUS but the Latin angle I always found really JARRING with the (admittedly glorious) "Now I walk along the streets of Marseilles..." middle 8.
 
Martika - I Feel The Earth Move b/w Alibis (1989)

UK chart peak - Number 7

20250224_171843.jpg

Doesn't she look fabulously late 80s on the cover here :disco:

Martika had topped the US charts & reached the UK top 5 with the self-penned "Toy Soldiers" earlier in the year, so of course the follow-up was that old record company STAPLE, a nice safe cover version. Except this decides to go in a different direction to Carole King's untouchable original by giving it a none more 80s kick up the BACKSIDE as a bouncy, hugely energetic pop-dance fusion, & ALL THE BETTER for it too. I've no problem with cover versions that try something new & show a little CREATIVE DISRESPECT. It's the pointless soundalikes that I've no time for.

This still had me bounding around the living room giving it some WELLY all these years later :disco: It's backed by "Alibis", all sax & synths, a song that immediately places you in the late 80s. Maybe it's dated but I don't care. It's GREAT, from the fed-up with your shit spoken word intro to the bit at the end where it all breaks down as she sings the chorus. I'm not sure what the musical term is for it but it happened in loads of songs at this time & it always TAKES ME BACK to those HALCYON DAYS.

I never bothered with either of Martika's albums but I do remember Prince penned a hit for her in 1991 with "Love...Thy Will Be Done" which I found a bit BLAND & INSIPID, although I loved the follow-ups "Martika's Kitchen" & "Coloured Kisses" which was her last UK chart entry peaking at a frustrating number 41 in early 1992. I've no idea if any other songs saw success in the USA, or is she a total one hit wonder there?

Martika herself appears to have entirely disappeared from VIEW. Even when Eminem sampled "Toy Soldiers" in the 2000s I don't remember any public appearances or interviews. I feel like I read somewhere that she refused to record again after her relationship with Prince ended, but I could be totally making that up. Seems a shame to see your musical career be ALL OVER by age 22 :( She had STAR QUALITY IMO.
 
Was listening only last week to the A Journey Through SAW podcast bonus material with the guy who discovered her talking about the strategy behind her first album and how they had to push for Toy Soldiers to be a single as it was considered so left field.

Both albums are worth a listen- the first is wall to wall pop goodness and the second has higher highs but a bit of filler too.

The first album was a fairly big hit in the US, though Toy Soldiers was the only mega hit. The second one tanked, despite Love…Thy Will Be Done being a top ten. The producer said that was the end of her as it cost a lot to produce (hello, Prince) but lost money and they didn’t renew the contract. She claimed burn out and disappeared and that was that. She probably earns enough off Toy Soldiers (thank you, Eminem) to not care.
 
Can’t believe you find Love…Thy Will Be Done insipid, though. It’s marvellous.
 
The Martika singles were all fab, she was lumped in with Debbie Gibson and Tiffany at the time without hitting their peaks but was a little more credible I think. ‘Cross My Heart’ feels like a hit too because Eighth Wonder had a hit with it in the UK. The days of multiple acts recording a track. Tracie Spencer also put a version out the same year as those two but the writer said it was always for Martika in his mind.
 
Sardonicus said:
On paper it's the sort of thing I'd expect to LOVE but it's never clicked for me.

I'd rather COME & GET SOME, IN MARTIKA'S KITCHEN, BABY :disco:
Click to expand...

Also OBVIOUSLY magnificent :disco:

See also their other collaboration, Don’t Say U Love Me. JUST as good.

Love…Thy Will Be Done is beautiful. Based on a poem she wrote that Prince set to music rather than his usual trick of handing his acts completed stuff. He does a good version of it too on the Originals album.
 
BoysForSeles said:
The Martika singles were all fab, she was lumped in with Debbie Gibson and Tiffany at the time without hitting their peaks but was a little more credible I think. ‘Cross My Heart’ feels like a hit too because Eighth Wonder had a hit with it in the UK. The days of multiple acts recording a track. Tracie Spencer also put a version out the same year as those two but the writer said it was always for Martika in his mind.
Click to expand...

Martika wrote a lot of her stuff, though I don’t think she had the full musical talent that Gibson had. That first album is just as poppy as those other teen girls, but the outlier, Toy Soldiers, being the biggest hit (about drug addiction no less) meant she escaped the brush and they definitely vamped her up for album two.
 
If You’re Tarzan, I’m Jane is the great lost single from that first album. Gloriously demented :disco:
 
Kylie Minogue - Never Too Late b/w Kylie's Smiley Mix (1989)

UK chart peak - Number 4

20250224_221027.jpg


Exhibit 4 of the MOUNTING EVIDENCE that your son will be a FUTURE HOMO, MR & MRS S :D

Obviously Kylie's career & all her many reinventions & comebacks have been discussed to death. This one was never a TOP FAVE, but I asked for it for Christmas because I just loved Kylie so much.

It brought her run of top 2 singles to a halt & at the time I think was likely dismissed as JUST ANOTHER SAW single, but time has been kind to "Never Too Late", yes it's a generic SAW production but it's just a perfect little capsule of the time & what they were able to do so well. It's catchy & cheery with ever so slightly dark lyrics & it always PERKS ME UP NO END.

There was only one more single, "Tears On My Pillow" from this era before Kylie met Michael Hutchence & emerged with a much RAUNCHIER image in mid 1990, so it's also a little bit of a goodbye to the first incarnation of Kylie as a pop star. Quite right too, as another album of the same would have almost certainly seen rapidly DIMINISHING RETURNS.

It's a shame that Kylie became so uncool to like almost overnight sometime in 1991. I distinctly remember her going from being MUCH LOVED to PERSONA NON GRATA at junior school & I'm not sure why as she was clearly releasing career best material at the time. We all know that the 4 "Rhythm Of Love" singles should have been weeks long chart toppers & I can only assume this backlash is why they underperformed. Maybe the public were a little sickened with her & press attention had reached saturation point, I don't know.

"Kylie's Smiley Mix" chucks together "Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi", "Turn It Into Love", "I Should Be So Lucky" & "Got to Be Certain" in a rapid fire 3 & a bit minutes, mixed by Tony King who she later collaborated with on "Keep On Pumpin' It" - it's a genuine little curio as I doubt it's appeared anywhere else & I don't think SAW were known for being generous with the UNIQUE B sides. The abrupt ending on "Got To Be Certain" spoiled the actual song for years though as I always expected it to cut out after the first chorus like it does here :angry:
 
Martika is one I always wished had a bigger career because she seemed so cool in interviews back then and she has an amazing voice. I also remember liking her on Kids Incorporated.

I scanned through the albums her and her husband did in the early 2000s but nothing stuck out as a must listen again to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom