DAVID SOUL - “Don’t Give Up On Us”
Pretty much as soon as I finish one Popular entry, the next song earworms its way into my head as a memo to self - get thinking about this. With “Don’t Give Up On Us”, though, something odd’s been happening - I can’t keep the song in my brain and it keeps shifting back into “If You Leave Me Now”. There’s not a lot of melodic similarity but the tracks share a theme and a sappy intensity - unfortunately Soul’s tune, while pleasant enough, comes off the loser in this mental war and floats off into insignificance.
If you’d had a crush on Soul in ‘77, though, this must have been pretty much perfect - the straight-to-camera video nailing its hammy intimacy perfectly. For me, it’s a bit of a drag, momentarily enlivened by the “I really lost my head last night…” middle eight, suddenly hinting at a way more interesting story behind the song. Tell us more, Dave! But the moment, all-too-quickly, passes. 4
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DJ Punctum on May 27th, 2008
The mark’s about right there, I think; efficient but undemanding pop balladry (a late triumph for writer Tony Macaulay) just right for a female audience who I suspect had only recently grown out of David Cassidy but still wanted some of his angst, albeit a little more grown up, so that they could again say “oh TV star turned singer David you’re too BEAUTIFUL to suffer!”
An augur to a year of number ones which, on the surface at any rate, largely suggested business as usual.
Erithian on May 27th, 2008
Like you, Tom, I found myself thinking about both songs in the past week or so, but I have to say the result was different in my case - with David Soul I find a lightness of touch that works well as the song builds and indeed soars in places (the final “we can still come through” for instance). So without thinking it exactly a standout number one, I can still find aspects of it to like. Whereas the Chicago one is like being enveloped in a giant duvet, and not in a good way.
Starsky and Hutch was the point at which I found myself thnking “enough cop chows already” and never started watching it. My loss - possibly.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 27th, 2008
wtf b-side alert again btw
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 27th, 2008
Black Bean Soup?
From his suddenly big selling album, which had none of the big selling a-sides from this year, and all the b-sides which were penned by D.Solberg and are acoustic bobbins.
FT's Lena on May 27th, 2008
Ah another singing cop!
I have to mention the Covered Man - if only because it was his first try at musical success…
LondonLee on May 27th, 2008
It’s not bad but ‘Silver Lady’ was better. My mum liked the way he walked in the video for that one. My sister, however, preferred Paul Michael Glaser.
Tom on May 27th, 2008
SteveM did you do that Spoiler Bunny .gif?
FT's Alan on May 27th, 2008
let’s just steal the pic on http://angry-bunny.com/
Billy Smart on May 27th, 2008
In my infant mind -
Men wearing trainers driving fast cars through piles of cardboard boxes in back streets = interesting grown up stuff.
Men singing soppy love songs = boring grown-up stuff.
Although the adult Billy now spends far too much of his time puzzling out the messages of soppy love songs, I may even have been right in this instance.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 27th, 2008
to an infant “interesting grown up stuff” is hardly ever what grown-ups spend any time doing
(eg i baffled my mum and dad by repeatedly getting “i want to be an air-hostess” out of the travelling library when very tiny)
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 27th, 2008
This is one spoiler bunny
http://kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/02/rabbidcupcake.jpg
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 27th, 2008
Sorry about that mess up there. Previous pics did not add, or: did not seem to. Ended up posting it too many times. Please delete all but the last bunny.
FT's rosie on May 27th, 2008
I find this perfectly pleasant, if unexciting. I might squeeze a mark more for David Soul if pressed, because I’m quite susceptible to this sort of thing.
The girls in my Year 8 class were absolutely besotted with David Soul. He is, of course, the reincarnation of David McCallum form ten years or so previously, except that he can sing a bit and he isn’t as good-looking. Not that I’m aware of ever hearing David McCallum singing, of course, and David Soul isn’t all that good at it.
I liked watching Starsky and Hutchy. Like LondonLee’s sister, though, I preferred Paul Michael Glaser.
DJ Punctum on May 27th, 2008
David McCallum did have a minor hit in 1966 with a song entitled “Communication” but he spoke rather than sung it.
FT's rosie on May 27th, 2008
I should add the that the girls (and boys for that matter) in my Year 8 class all had Hull accents so the three vowel sounds in David Soul’s name are all identical and as flat as the Holderness Plain.
wichita lineman on May 27th, 2008
Is ’simpering’ the right word? It certainly was for Let’s Have A Quiet Night In, three or four singles down the line. This has some nicely subdued brass in the If You Leave Me Now vein - quite possibly T Macaulay had been paying attention. Oh, and I rather like Erithian’s idea of being engulfed in a giant Chicago duvet.
vinylscot on May 27th, 2008
I think “simpering” may be the right word - “understated” if you want to be charitable about it.
I had to dig this out and listen to it, as I really couldn’t remember much apart from the title line. It’s not really very good - his voice is weak, you can sense him building towards the sustained note on the final “through”, and then he gives up on it (no pun intended) after about three seconds, as the voice just isn’t up to it.
Even the middle eight starts out by hinting that he might try something, but he quickly thinks better of it.
I can’t conflate this with the Chicago #1 at all - to me it’s chalk and cheese, a professionally well-put-together piece of slightly maudlin but glorious pop (Chicago) vs. a rather poor celebrity cash-in.
Although David Soul was popular at this time, I didn’t think he was THAT popular. I think the timing of this release helped it, as most of the competition was on the way out after the Christmas period (obvious exception - the next #1)- this one went to number one after going from 11 over Christmas/New Year to 8 in the first “proper” week of ‘77, before hitting the top the following week.
FT's Jungman Jansson on May 27th, 2008
I agree about the middle eight. Compared to the rest of the song, the beginning of it is almost barked. It jolted me out of the stupor induced by the song, but then… nothing.
will on May 27th, 2008
I hated this in 1977 but probably because you don’t hear it that much these days, time has mellowed my attitudes towards it. I’m still utterly amazed though that it was never covered by Boyzone, Westlife or another of those simpering stool-perching boybands of the 90s. It would have been absolutely perfect for them.
crag on May 27th, 2008
Re# 19- theres still time! Funnily enough this was covered in the late 90s by Peel faves Hefner.
Bit of a gem, this track, IMO, though i cant even imagine just how much i would have despised it at the time.
Black Bean Soup is pretty groovy too IIRC..
Chris Brown on May 28th, 2008
If I remember correctly, Hefner actually covered it on a Peel Session (in 2000) but they wrote on the sleeve that it seemed funny at the time.
The picture’s not loading here. Am I missing anything?
Snif on May 28th, 2008
At the time this was dreary sappy stuff, and I don’t think any different of it now (not watching Starsky And Hutch either).
Was American Top 40 with Casey Kasem broadcast in the UK?
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 28th, 2008
I do remember DSoul singing “Black Bean Soup” on Starsky and Hutch, some ‘party’ back at one of their places - presumably Hutchinson’s.
Waldo on May 28th, 2008
I believe this to be one of the few cases of a television/film person making a record and coming up with something rather worthy. There are not many other examples. Let us dismiss the “Starsky and Hutch” angle for a minute. Yes, the series was a great success (I loved it myself) and Soul was a great looking guy and because of all this the record couldn’t miss. That said, Hutch the crooner sings a good song extremely well. There are some lovely changes in key, and drop a pleasant, light arrangement into the mix and we are faced with a surprisingly classy little number from the TV actor. Ironically, Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) was already an established songster, having starred in the film version of “Fiddler on the Roof” with Topol some five years earlier. However, the S&H producers had already craftily incorporated into the series little cameos with Hutch and his guitar and thus the portents were there even as far as the nominated B-side for DGUOU, “Black Bean Soup”, which was indeed performed on the show. A good number one, this.
FT's Tom on May 28th, 2008
#21 - you’re missing his hypnotically deep eyes. The pic and text are on the same server so I don’t know why it crashes sometimes.
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 28th, 2008
yeah, I had the same thing happen with Pusscat and Demrouss.
Yeah, it’s a rare thing when a TV tie in produces something that actually isn’t mediocre. Usually a polite cover version. Oh there was that um, northern actor who managed bothARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FT's Drucius on May 28th, 2008
This didn’t do much for me, since I was the wrong gender, but why do I know it was on Private Stock?
DJ Punctum on May 28th, 2008
I think that David was also the only chart-topping artist on the dubiously-named Private Stock record label (inevitably it conjures up a picture of dusty urban back lanes filled with PRIVATE SHOPS); they had first call on Blondie but Chrysalis picked them up, I think after the label had gone bust. Not quite sure why they went bust since I remember one of those Channel 4 docs where Soul was apparently the year’s biggest-selling singles artist in the UK (at least the biggest-selling living artist, if that’s not too much of an SB carrot).
We had Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 10 show broadcast on ITV at various times - usually at 12:30 on Saturday lunchtime, or at around three or four in the morning - for a spell in the eighties. The voice of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo with a questionable taste in pullovers but probably best known now for his various blooper outbursts, e.g. “fuckin’ English band U2,” “fuckin’ dog dyin’,” “PONDEROUS, man, fuckin’ PONDEROUS!” et al.
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on May 28th, 2008
small labels actually being bankrupted by very big hits is by no meansunheard of — the huge unplanned-for bills for pressing and distribution come due way sooner than the money drifts back in from the sales
(i think this is partly to do with the manipulative lock the majors had on pressing, distribution and outlets — it’s used as leverage to buy up hit artists from little labels, or buy out the labels)
(it was i imagine one of the issues the indie boom just now beginning to emerge — i mean in the late 70s — was battling to address, to establish a workable ecology for small labels to have big crossover hits, as opposed to safe niche-directed mini-hits)
(this is guesswork in this particular instance: the era i know more about is the late 40s and early 50s in the US, back when indies were called “mongrels”)
FT's and everybody elses Mark G on May 28th, 2008
It’s true though: Why Jilted John had to go to EMI International rather than stay on Rabid Records. Couldn’t afford the repressings and no-one to advance them the readies.
DJ Punctum on May 28th, 2008
Ditto Undertones/Sire/Good Vibrations.
Erithian on May 28th, 2008
Private Stock was also Mud’s post-RAK label for hits such as “L-L-Lucy” and “Show Me You’re A Woman” - so they weren’t entirely unprepared for Top 10 hits.
wwolfe on May 28th, 2008
This is the first #1 in a long time that made a real impression on me as a teen listener in America. I was a big “Starsky & Hutch” fan, and I found this surprisingly likable for a style of song that wasn’t my cup of tea. Had I known at the time that it was written by the same guy who wrote “Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes,” I would have understood the source of the record’s pop appeal.
This is a case, I believe, where the singer’s lack of vocal firepower actually helped the record. If Soul had the chops to really clobber the tune, the record would lose most of what charm it possesses. His modest vocal instrument is the right vehicle for his modest request.
I have an extremely slight after-the-fact connection to this song: a good friend of my band’s lead singer wrote “Kansas City 1927,” another quiet ballad sung by Soul on the album that contained this song. Of course, I wouldn’t meet my band’s lead singer for another twelve years after this song made #1, but what the heck.
intothefireuk on June 4th, 2008
I liked Starsky & Hutch but even so I would still gladly have rammed Soul’s guitar up where the sun doesn’t shine and quite frankly, this can follow it - number one - pah!