Got a lot of time for OPN and that will be reflected in our EoY list. The only other cut-up of “LiR” I’ve heard is the v/vm one from Sick Love about ten years ago which in comparison sounds rather cynical; this is great, though, an alternative soundtrack to the film Last Night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY71gl-9eSo

So many of you have tried and failed, here, to find the redeeming feature of LiR – could this be it, looped to repeat as endless existential crisis?

CANNON AND BALL: with Chris Collins, The Brian Rogers Dancers, Nosher Powell, Linda Lusardi, Dennis Waterman, Chris De Burgh, Brother Beyond, Kim Wilde, Rosie McClure, Toni Contay (1988)

CHRIS DE BURGH IN CONCERT: with Chris De Burgh (1985)

GRACE KENNEDY: with Jack Jones, Chris De Burgh (1982)

LATE NIGHT IN CONCERT: with Chris De Burgh (1984)

LATE NIGHT IN CONCERT: with Chris De Burgh (1985)

LIVE FROM THE PALLADIUM: with George Benson, Les Dennis, Chris De Burgh, Gloria Estefan, Maggie Moone (1988)

THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST: with Bob Harris, Ox, Claire Hamill, Chris De Burgh (1975)

THE ROYAL VARIETY PERFORMANCE: with Michael Ball, Elaine Boosler, Melvyn Bragg, Frank Bruno, Chris De Burgh, Lance Burton, Harry Carpenter, The cast of Coronation Street, Wayne Dobson, David Essex (1989)

SIGHT AND SOUND IN CONCERT: with Gilbert O’Sullivan, Chris De Burgh (1978)

SIX FIFTY FIVE SPECIAL: with Chris De Burgh, Clifford Ward (1981)

A SONG FOR CHRISTMAS: with Chris De Burgh (1986)

SUNDAY, SUNDAY: with Chris De Burgh, Paul Nicholas, Fatima Whitbread, Pia Zadora (1988)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE: Chris De Burgh (1992)

VAL DOONICAN’S HOMEWARD BOUND: with Chris De Burgh, The Fureys (1989)

WOGAN: with Barbara Castle, Chris De Burgh, Giant Mice, Baroness Sear, Baroness Trumpington (1987)

WOGAN: with Chris De Burgh, Ann Miller, Milo O’Shea, Ride For The Rhino, Sir Stephen Spender (1988)

WOGAN: with Chris De Burgh, Kathy Lee, Regis Philbin (1989)

Stephen Spender was on Wogan! I’d endure several dDe Burgh performances to see that.

17 July 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Steve Winwood, Hollwood Beyond and Stan Ridgeway. Mike Smith was the host.

31 July 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Spandau Ballet, Five Star and Stan Ridgeway. Mike Read & Janice Long were the hosts.

7 August 1986. Also in the studio that week were; Status Quo, Lulu and Sinitta. Mike Smith was the host.

14 August 1986. Also in the studio that week were; It Bites, Anita Dobson and Phil Fearon. Simon Bates was the host.

Also, it’s about the man being definite/strong in tha face of the woman’s mild insecurity about her look.

Mr de Berk is not being vulnerable. He’s being a big prat, and if I were the lady in red I’d be feeling used, a trophy not a person with a brain to be cherished. I hate TLiR with a vengeance and it well deserves its score.

And so on. For some reason, one appears to be able to slip Gaga in anywhere!

But I like the Dan Hill. He actually sounds as if he knows what passion is!

I put Tom’s hypothesis to her regarding TLIR and she never saw it that way until now. I think she’s never gonna hear it in the same way again. Sorry Mum!

*Cant quite see why the middle-classes get it in the neck with this one -I realise prior to this he had a bit of a following amongst that class but as someone mentioned most of those fans cringed when confronted with this. However I’ve heard versions of this in Working Mens Clubs (a friend of mine was a member of one in Wakefield being my excuse for being there – incidentally they have one positive – they must be the only places where you can be turned 40 and still feel 20 years younger than the average punter!)on more than one occasion and I should imagine that the a majority of its buyers were from the working classes (or that grey area where the working mesh with the lower middle class). Which brings me to “Abigail’s Party” that I’d wager is a bit of a red herring as Abigail has far more than one foot placed firmly in the lower class than that she aspires to. And that leads me on to a pet theory of mine that the major fissure in the English class system is not between the working and middle classes but between the lower (extended families usually a mix of both) and middle middle classes (very culturally different, a harder bridge to cross
and scornful of their lower middle class neighbours)but that’s another story…

*I’ve mentioned on here before the parallel universes as regards the soul/funk/dance world and the rock world ie in the 80s most rock either completely ignored or slagged unmercilessly in the soul press with the exception of such as Steely Dan which werent exactly regulars in the 80s NME etc, However this track briefly united the two worlds as I remember how “Blues and Soul” reacted with horror when extremely cool jazzy combo Pieces Of A Dream (of “Mount Airy Groove” etc underground fame)included a version of this on an album.
Maybe shades of the bewilderment of the white boy press at
the black props for Phil Collins?

Don’t find it particularly offensive just pretty boring and to have lasted this long (without an iota of trendiness)and be checked out by the jazzers it must have some kind of musical merit – so I suppose that’s a 3 for me.

Not trying to suggest a positive side to Lady In Red, but I guess more than 90% of the comments here are by men; I wonder how a similar exercise whose commentators were predominately female would rate this?

I was in the UK when this was released, and I knew a lot of 20- and 30-somethings [all female] who loved it.

Was it speaking to a desire to be somehow objectified? Maybe women “past-the-first-flush-of-beauty” looking for an assertion that they were “still” attractive and desirable? It’s a sentiment I could understand, even if it’s lacking in PC credentials.

I can imagine a parallel-universe Popular where this gets a “10″ — which makes it kind of unique among the No.1s rated “1″ here, which are mostly devoid even of parallel-universe potential.

Despite which, it’s still a definitive “1″ for me…

ok, so i am not going to defend this song, nor take up the unusually (for popular) untouched contrarian angle

BUT

I do like this song. I shouldn’t for all the reasons already cited and for the bonus personal reason that my mum was a huge CdB fan prior to this song’s popularity and I must have heard this song any number of times at just the wrong age…

But I like it all the same. It’s nice. It’s *shudder* pleasant. It’s very very saccharine of course, but the sentiment that inspired the song is a mushy one. It would be hard to make this sentiment expressed in song sound anything but cheesier than melted (and then deep fried?) brie to most people and it doesn’t help that his acting, the whispered asides, would shame the resident band at a wine bar.

The melody is fine, memorable even, and the wash of sound is spot on erection-section fodder. Being suddenly overwhelmed with feelings of mush for someone you are in a long term relationship. Nice one Chris. It’s less hokey than Escape! (The Pina Colada Song).

Anyway, I have to stop and go and cook for my wife who has been looking after my poorly sons all day. Look how lovely she is there watching Eastenders. aw.

I am now determined to sing this song at Karaoke. I will be very embarrassed. But that is a cast-iron guarantee karaoke chums. HOLD ME TO IT

One of those songs I didn’t quite get, assuming it was for people of my parents’ generation who paid rather more attention to the charts than my folks actually did. The sort I thought were a bit flash. God, I’m probably one of them now; fortunately, Lady In Red still makes me squirm. De Burgh is simply ticking boxes.