Get away

"Party all summer long with The Holiday CD - 16 original hits!" boast CBS Records on the front cover of their 1987 funtime compilation. If we must, CBS, if we must. But something's wrong with this picture. Take a closer look at the track listing below and tell me what's wrong with it (apart from the obvious).

1) Wham! - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
2) Mel & Kim - Respectable
3) Bananarama - Venus
4) The Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way
5) Miami Sound Machine - Dr Beat
6) Kool & The Gang - Fresh
7) Spagna - Call Me
8) Boney M - Hooray, Hooray, It's A Holi-Holiday
9) Typically Tropical - Barbados
10) Ottowan - D.I.S.C.O.
11) Ryan Paris - Dolce Vita
12) Modern Talking - Brother Louie
13) Modern Romance - Everybody Salsa
14) Denise LaSalle - My Toot Toot
15) K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Give It Up
16) Opus - Live Is Life

You're absolutely right, it's the choice of Wham! song: Wake Me Up Before You Go Go? Pfft! Maybe I could have let this go if Wham didn't have an actual, completely obvious song tailor-made for a holiday compilation in their repertoire. But I mean, hello, does Club Tropicana not ring any bells? The drinks are free, and there's enough fun - and sunshine - for everyone. Either the decision to eschew that in favour of Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (on holiday?) was one serious piece of lateral thinking or someone's missed a song title open goal here.

Now, you might argue that dredging up the whole subject of a mildly contentious choice of song on an obscure summer compilation almost a quarter of a century on is only exacerbating matters; hell, you may even say that it's an utter irrelevance in an age where there are a million more serious things to get het up about; but by gum this rankles with me. What were they thinking?

Anyway, I need to calm down. Here's some more holiday music!

Pullover - Last Christmas mp3

For more on Pullover click on their label at the bottom of this post and you'll be whizzed away to a post I wrote about them a few years ago. Before you go, here's another of their songs which, while not being suitable for a holiday compilation in any way, is also dead good.

Pullover - Holiday mp3

They think it's Pullover - it is now!

Ahh, the traditional British seaside holiday - you just can't beat it. Inexplicably unsuccessful mid-90s Fierce Panda signings Pullover would seem to concur - certainly if their fabulous 1996 single Holiday is anything to go by. The video's great fun, too. (ten bonus points to the first person who can successfully identify the English seaside town featured in the video!)



(can you believe that clip's been up on You Tube for over six months, yet has only been viewed forty-three times so far?)

A bit more info on Pullover, gleaned from their MySpace page: Carol Isherwood sings, Lee Damarell plays the bass guitar, Michael Malley plays the guitar and Joe Duddell plays the drums. They're from Manchester, have recorded two albums - the first of which never saw the light of day due to record company problems (how frustrating); there is better news about the second, however. They promise that All You Need Is Love will be released soon on their own Knitwear Records label. I just hope this pans out for them. A decade plus is a hell of a long time to be waiting for your first album release, after all.

In the meantime, here are a couple of Pullover MP3s to tide us over. The first, White Horses and Shooting Stars, is my favourite song of theirs, a gorgeous, life-affirming number encouraging the listener to believe in themselves, follow their dreams and never settle for second best. A trifle quixotic, maybe, but very well-meaning and uplifting sentiments, and a great song to boot.

The second track is the aforementioned You Tube favourite Holiday, which brings us right back to where we started from, to paraphrase Maxine Nightingale.*

(*I very nearly said Sinitta, there, but thought better of it in the end!)

Pullover - White Horses and Shooting Stars mp3 (available for seven days)

Pullover - Holiday mp3 (available for seven days)

Pullover's MySpace page