Three of a Kind #83

Three videos from 1984's Now That's What I Call Music 3 VHS today - all of which are ace, and none of which made it on to the actual record! This was a curious quirk of the early Now releases - presumably because of rights issues, or the expense, or whatever, a lot of the songs from the bigger artists that appeared on the albums never actually made it on to the accompanying videos, and were instead replaced by contemporaneous songs from less famous (i.e. cheaper) acts. (The fact that these replacement tracks were often superior to the ones they were standing in for was, well, just a lovely bonus, really.)

Anyway, let's compare and contrast the track listings for Now 3 the album and Now 3 the video, shall we? Why not. All hail the god of copy and paste!

NOW 3 THE ALBUM:

Side One

Duran Duran : "The Reflex"
Nik Kershaw : "I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me"
Sister Sledge : "Thinking of You"
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark : "Locomotion"
Ultravox : "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes"
Howard Jones : "Pearl in the Shell"
Blancmange : "Don't Tell Me"
Phil Collins : "Against All Odds"

Side Two

Frankie Goes to Hollywood : "Two Tribes"
Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel : "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)"
The Special A.K.A : "Nelson Mandela"
Womack & Womack : "Love Wars"
The Style Council : "You're The Best Thing"
Bob Marley & The Wailers : "One Love"
Bronski Beat : "Smalltown Boy"

Side Three

Queen : "I Want to Break Free"
Cyndi Lauper : "Time After Time"
Alison Moyet : "Love Resurrection"
The Bluebells : "Young at Heart"
Bananarama : "Robert DeNiro's Waiting"
Propaganda : "Dr. Mabuse"
Tina Turner : "What's Love Got to Do with It"
The Flying Pickets : "When You're Young and in Love"

Side Four

Wham! : "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"
The Thompson Twins : "You Take Me Up"
The Weather Girls : "It's Raining Men"
Gary Glitter : "Dance Me Up"
The Art Company : "Suzanna"
Madness : "One Better Day"
David Sylvian : "Red Guitar"

NOW 3 THE VID:

1. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Locomotion
2. Simple Minds - Up On The Catwalk
3. Thompson Twins - You Take Me Up
4. Madness - One Better Day
5. Farmers Boys - In The Country
6. Helen Terry - Love Lies Lost
7. Loose Ends - Emergency (Dial 999)
8. Working Week - Venceremos
9. Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It
10. Phil Collins - Take A Look At Me Now (Against All Odds)
11. Talk Talk - Dum Dum Girl
12. Kajagoogoo - Turn Your Back On Me
13. Gary Glitter - Dance Me Up
14. The Mighty Wah! - Come Back
15. i-Level - Our Song
16. Limahl - Too Much Trouble
17. Flying Pickets - When You're Young And In Love
18. Thomas Dolby - I Scare Myself
19. Blue Nile - Tinseltown In The Rain
20. David Sylvian - Red Guitar

Oh, and have a squiz at this, the original TV advert promoting the album - with a voiceover from that renowned fan of eighties pop Brian Glover!



But back to the respective track listings. Quite a bit of difference there, to say the least, with a whopping 12 of the 20 tracks on the video failing to make the actual record(s). Cripes, though, what an especially strong line-up the vinyl version of Now 3 had. It's hard to pick any weak links really (although I must admit I've always had a strong dislike for It's Raining Men despite the fact that it's essentially just a bit of harmless disco fluff; oh, and the less said about Gareth Glitter nowadays the better!).

But yes, a mostly fantastic double album and one of the finest in the entire series, for me. And, although vastly different, the video definitely has its moments as well. The ones I've chosen today are all good (at least I think so), but my absolute favourite just has to be the Talk Talk one, sung live, and featuring a rather addled/stoned spoken-word preamble from singer Mark Hollis, in which he comes across not unlike ex-Portsmouth F.C. manager Tony Adams at a post-match press conference!

Talk Talk - Dum Dum Girl (Trousers)






For more 80s video-based nostalgia visit the excellent Tracklister blog, where Mick has been busy uploading and posting some rarely-seen music video gems.

Three of a Kind #80

We've done Now That's What I Call Music 1, so let's move not-all-that-swiftly on to Volume 2, shall we? Why not. As I'm admittedly overly fond of saying, this was the first album I ever owned. Certainly I'd already collected a dozen or so singles by this point - Joe Dolce's Shaddap You Face, Kraftwerk's The Model and the 1982 England World Cup Squad's This Time (We'll Get It Right), to name but three - but Now 2 was the first record that made me utilise the 33rpm switch on my turntable. Here's the full track listing.

Record One Side One:

1. Queen - Radio Ga Ga
2. Nik Kershaw - Wouldn't It Be Good
3. Thompson Twins - Hold Me Now
4. Matt Bianco - Get Out Of Your Lazy Bed
5. Carmel - More More More
6. Madness - Michael Caine
7. Flying Pickets - Only You
8. Nena - 99 Red Balloons

Record One Side Two:

9. Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun
10. Tracey Ullman - My Guy's Mad At Me
11. Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride
12. Julia & Company - Breaking Down (Sugar Samba)
13. Joe Fagin - That's Living Alright
14. Hot Chocolate - I Gave You My Heart (Didn't I)
15. Snowy White - Bird Of Paradise

Record Two Side One:

16. Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Relax
17. Eurythmics - Here Comes The Rain Again
18. Howard Jones - What Is Love?
19. The Smiths - What Difference Does It Make
20. Fiction Factory - (Feels Like) Heaven
21. Re-Flex - The Politics Of Dancing
22. Thomas Dolby - Hyperactive
23. China Crisis - Wishful Thinking

Record Two Side Two:

24. David Bowie - Modern Love
25. Culture Club - It's A Miracle
26. Rolling Stones - Undercover Of The Night
27. Big Country - Wonderland
28. Slade - Run Runaway
29. Duran Duran - New Moon On Monday
30. Paul McCartney - Pipes Of Peace

Straight away it suffers in comparison to its more illustrious predecessor - Vol. 1 having contained, by my reckoning, ten UK number ones to Vol. 2's paltry four. But is the second instalment really that much poorer than the series opener? Well, yes, frankly. I mean, Snowy White's Bird Of Paradise? Tracey Ullman's pointless Madness cover My Guy's Mad At Me?? (Mary Wells had obviously claimed dibs on the use of My Guy as a song title two decades previously.) Re-Flex's The Politics Of Dancing?! Purlease!

Even some of the more well-known songs on this volume leave me cold now. I really, really hate Radio Ga Ga for example. Even as a feckless child I realised what a load of pompous drivel that was. And maybe they've just been played to death in the intervening quarter of a century (in fact, they definitely have) but Relax and Girls Just Want To Have Fun really get on my wick now too. Whereas the only good thing about It's A Miracle is it's not The War Song. Humbug!

But it's not all bad news; far from it, in fact. I mean, look! What Difference Does It Make is on there! (The fact that I was far too young and stupid to realise its genius at the time is neither here nor there.) And, erm, Wouldn't It Be Good. (Oh come on, you know you love it really!) Incidentally, Nik Kershaw was married to the daughter of an English teacher at my school. Or am I thinking of Howard Jones? No, Nik definitely never married him. Ho and indeed ho.

I also muchly like these three songs (which is probably just as well bearing in mind that I'm sticking them up as mp3s here).


Julia & Company - Breakin' Down (Sugar Samba) mp3

Thomas Dolby - Hyperactive mp3

Slade - Run Runaway mp3

More Now/Music-based madness to follow at some point in the future - possibly!

Now that's what I call a re-release

In an era when classic albums (and plenty that weren't much cop to begin with, to be honest) are being re-issued left, right and centre, the humble compilation album has, it seems to me, had a bit of a raw deal. But no more! Yes, 80s pop fans everywhere will be rejoicing at the news that EMI have this week re-released the original volume in the Now That's What I Call Music series, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its original release. So, for the first time ever, Now 1 is available in the new-fangled compact disc format. Fancy!

For those of you who weren't weaned on these albums, the Now That's What I Call Music series traditionally provides a snapshot of what the UK pop charts look like in the month or two before any given Now release. Released at the fag end of 1983, Volume 1 had an especially strong track listing, bearing in mind that it had the pick of the whole of the preceeding year's chart output to choose from (rather than, as with later albums, just the last few months' worth). Here's how the runners and riders lined up:

Side 1
1. Phil Collins - You Can't Hurry Love
2. Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know
3. UB40 - Red Red Wine
4. Limahl - Only For Love
5. Heaven 17 - Temptation
6. K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Give It Up
7. Malcolm McClaren - Double Dutch
8. Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart

Side 2
9. Culture Club - Karma Chameleon
10. Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance
11. Kajagoogoo - Too Shy
12. Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow
13. Men At Work - Down Under
14. Rock Steady Crew - Hey You (Rock Steady Crew)
15. Rod Stewart - Baby Jane
16. Paul Young - Wherever I Lay My Hat

Side 3
1. New Edition - Candy Girl
2. Kajagoogoo - Big Apple
3. Tina Turner - Let's Stay Together
4. Human League - Fascination
5. Howard Jones - New Song
6. UB40 - Please Don't Make Me Cry
7. Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack - Tonight I Celebrate My Love

Side 4
8. Tracey Ullman - They Don't Know
9. Will Powers - Kissing With Confidence
10. Genesis - That's All
11. The Cure - The Love Cats
12. Simple Minds - Waterfront
13. Madness - The Sun And The Rain
14. Culture Club - Victims

And now all this can be yours - yours! - on the fancy two-disc re-release. I'll certainly be buying myself a copy anyway - at the time the album came out originally my pocket money just wouldn't stretch to it, and I had to wait until Now 2 before I was finally able to get my grubby little mitts on one of these albums, when I received it as a birthday pressie. (First album I ever owned, that was, and I played it to death!)

Anyway, no mp3s today, but here're some of my favourite Now 1-related vids.

Malcolm McClaren - Double Dutch


Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance


The Rock Steady Crew - Hey You (The Rock Steady Crew)


Tracey Ullman - They Don't Know


Buy the album