MEL AND KIM – “Respectable”
The marvellous italo-house keyboard break in the middle of “Respectable” gives the game away: Stock Aitken and Waterman were Britain’s premier pop Europhiles. Their late-80s heyday is as near as UK pop has come to European Union – a joyful pan-continental pop sound with Mel, Kim, Rick et al. joining Taffy and Sinitta in vibrant, tinny one-ness.
Everything critical you can say about SAW is of course true. Were they formulaic? None more so. Exploitative? Surely. Lowest common denominator? Yes, and lower still. No hitmakers since have been as brazen about making pop into a cheap, kit-built, product, and their hit-rate wasn’t quite high enough to deflect all the distaste for that approach.
But at the same time they were inevitable and necessary. There was an enormous latent pop market that somebody was going to start catering for. The Hit Factory did so, and what’s more they did so in enjoyably confrontational style. There was a populist, rebellious streak in SAW which imagined their customers as girls who would put on the TV, see a Percy Sledge track or a worthy cover version and think, in Smash Hits terms, “Bo-RING!”. On the video for “Respectable” the set is laughably cheap, the careful, tasteful staging of mid-80s videos thrown out of the window in favour of two sisters enjoying themselves. You don’t need the proto-Spice lyrics to hear this song as a blueprint for a thoroughly achievable kind of fun.
Curing an excess of soul with a dose of soullessness seems like harsh medicine, but “Respectable” is the Hit Factory at close to its best: it hadn’t narrowed its formula down yet – there’s a lot of nice Europop touches in the background, and the “Tay-Tay-TAY-Tay” hook is splendid. Mel and Kim themselves have tons more gusto than many of SAW’s favoured vocalists. The song spins its wheels badly during the verses so I never enjoy it quite as much as I think I do – but this is still very much on the potent side of cheap.
7
Well at least we don’t have to talk about Kim’s solo stuff.
A non-charter in the States, although “Showing Out” did scrape our charts at #78 in early 1987.
i always wish saw’s batting average was better and am amazed that it wasn’t – they had a solid formula, were capable of executing it (perfectly on occasion), were rewarded for it by the marketplace, weren’t dependent on a particular artist to channel it thru – they should have a box set of peak material, instead they have 4 or 5 great singles, another 4 or 5 near great (where i’d put this), a handful of others i can sympathize with for some reason or other (hello ‘i’d rather jack’), and then so so much dull garbage.
this didn’t chart in the us (it’s weird considering how many hits they did manage in america that they still feel like a phenomenon that largely passed us by) but it did top the us dance chart and whenever i’ve djed and selfindulged w/ some shep pettibone era house set 9 times out of 10 some old queen asks me to play some mel & kim.
@16, Billy S. Argh, thanks for the correction! I still don’t think much of it lyrically (is it someone’s else’s hesitation that’s frustrating? their own? ‘fascination is our sensation’ say what?) Above all, all these syllables are forced into a procustean bed of clenched synth stomping so it’s clear that *anything* would really do (so make up your own:’hibernation is your application, we won’t sign on the dotted line’). Nothing has a chance to breath, so nothing matters anyway, before (‘tay tay….’) inevitably the nonce catch-phrase returns. And, of course, SAW frickin’ proved this by recycling almost exactly the same drivel over almost exactly the same stomp the following year for bunnyable Kylie:
‘In my imagination/There is no complication/…/In my mind a celebration/The sweetest of sensation/…/In my imagination/There is no hesitation’
Look, I understand that this is one way to write and do pop music… as delivery system for a nonce chant for your inner 8 year old: tay tay tay, lucky, lucky, ducky,… but to me it’s pretty painful.
fremme neppa venette!
Count me in with #15: This is SAW at their very worst. I’m American and I guess I didn’t get overexposed to this kind of stuff, but what I have heard from SAW I’ve always liked, and this is the first one I’ve heard which I can find nothing at all to like about. This is terrible. Really just terrible, and monotonous on top of that, and the Tay-Tay-Tay is the worst part about it.
“Hesitation is just frustration” is a pretty essential lyric, I’d say – Telling the listener that you should overcome your inhibitions and doubts and participate, such as Mel & Kim do. They’re telling us about love and dancing, generally the two best pop subjects.
Something odd about the song is that it posits the singers as non-respectable dangerous nasty gals, while Mel & Kim always came across as rather nice people.
Finally, emerging out from the suffocating museum, we have a number one which actually sounds like 1987. While Stock/Aitken/Waterman always seemed to pull out an extra stop with the Appleby sisters, the cheerfully brutalist futurism of “Respectable” still comes as a much-needed slap of freezing water in the face to wash away the mould of respect and dignity.
Mel and Kim’s first hit, “Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend),” a top three hit in the autumn of 1986, was one of that year’s finest singles, and one of the first pop singles anywhere to take the innovations of House firmly on board; it is an explosion of brashly bashing beats and sweet melody (with a middle eight which harks back to the days of Linx) which was as indispensable a soundtrack to driving into London, past the M25, down through the narrowing barriers of the Brent Cross flyover, as Test Dept or Janet Jackson or Tackhead. “Respectable” doesn’t quite match it, but its potent, carnal zipping and unzipping of keyboards together with its crashing breaks and rollercoasters of vocal cut-ups (“Take take TAKE take taytaytay taytay TAKE take”) is like being thrown from one end of a rainbow to another. The SAW team keep the lyrics minimalist and sharp (“Explanations are complications,” “Conversation is interrogation”) as well as defiant (“Like us, hate us, but you’ll never change us”), and the instrumental break with its Marshall Jefferson synth riff and vocal cackles is exhilarating.
Much of the power of “Respectable” is down to mixmaster Phil Harding, who was also responsible (together with, some say, SAW themselves undercover) for producing the hardcore Essex industrial-electro collective Nitzer Ebb (“Join In The Chant,” released about a month later, is the exact obverse of “Respectable”). But the record also sets an important precedent; with its unapologetically proud stance and fuck-you attitude, it is the clearest antecedent to the Spices and Saints and Alouds who would follow in their path, and perhaps also a ground-breaker in British girl group pop; I have tried hard to think about precedents to Mel and Kim, but in terms of girl groups, they had previously tended to be demure, homely and unthreatening – the Caravelles, the Paper Dolls, the Pearls, the Nolans; an extension of pre-rock memes. Only Bananarama, who made a point of co-authoring their SAW-produced hits (Waterman later described them, albeit not pejoratively, as the hardest act he’d ever had to work with), stand as a workable comparison point (the post-punk explosion of Slits and Raincoats and Girls At Our Best being a parallel, but not quite pop, phenomenon), but the slipstream of subsequent girl pop is very much in Mel and Kim’s wake.
Their sole album, F.L.M., did very well, but in early 1988 Mel Appleby became seriously ill with cancer. They recorded one further single, “That’s The Way It Is,” though Mel was too unwell to appear in its video or promote it on TV or in clubs, and SAW’s peak of anti-anti-futurism polemics, 1989′s “I’d Rather Jack” (eventually given to Liverpool one-hit wonders the Reynolds Girls), was scheduled to be a Mel and Kim track. Mel died in 1989 and Kim soldiered on for a while as a soloist before marrying the dismissed third member of Bros and future manager of Pink and record company head Craig Logan. But “Respectable” in demonstrating absolutely no respect for history, dignity or respect itself, helped steer pop back into its future.
I’m sure every 30+ UK male has an ingrained memory of the video (effectively their last). I remember my mum’s reaction “That girl needs to WEAR A BRA !” Poor Mel. Still I suppose it’s better to be remembered for having a great pair than nothing at all.
#11 I think you’ve got a false memory of the tabloids keeping their distance. My recollection is that they pursued details of Mel’s illness relentlessly in a way that still leaves a bad taste to this day (and makes the next Popular entry even more unpalatable). Indeed I’d say Mel’s was a landmark case in the treatment of celebrities- another piece of the modern world falling into place.
I agree with Tom that they were the proto-Spice Girls. One wonders whether the latter would have had quite the same impact if Mel And Kim had not been cut off in their prime. On the other hand SAW were pretty unsentimental and they may have been left out in the cold like Hazell Dean when Kylie and Jason came along.
Kim’s solo career got off to a bright start but then fell into the black hole of Britpop and didn’t come out the other side.
Contrived coincidence: I got an email today regarding some input I’d made to an Upstairs Downstairs website and Gordon Jackson who played Hudson died the same day as Mel.
I’m new here, so please be nice. What a smashing blog you have.
I think of this song often. I was quite small when it came out, and at the time I was utterly convinced that they were singing “our registration number’s OUTATIME”. Apart from that it scans quite well, there aren’t really any lines that sound like that so I’m not sure where I got the idea. Perhaps I just assumed that Mel and Kim were the kind of girls to ride around in a Delorean, recklessly travelling through time and space.
Still, it’s nice for the residents of Dundee to have the river Tay immortalised in something other than McGonagall’s epic, isn’t it?
Back To The Future and Scotland’s worst ever poet in the same post! I’m liking this chap already.
Ha! I’m a girl actually. But I quite like being called a chap, and will encourage it in my daily life.
Hullo TCPRP, always nice when people introduce themselves!
Re:34. I love the idea that SAW produced Nitzer Ebb. It sounds like something from the NME’s late-80s Believe It Or Not column (“Neil Tennant is a qualified rugby league coach. Stock, Aitken, Waterman are producing the next Nitzer Ebb album, More Shouty Stuff About Discipline”)
I think in 88, FLM (the album) may have been the 2nd CD I ever got my hands on (the first one being the CD version of New Order’s Substance – the longer tape version was getting worn and stretched). There was a video rental shop at the end of the road that rented out CDs. So I got a college friend with a tape/CD player to make me a copy. TAKE THAT, THE MAN.
Not a 10, and really it shouldn’t be a 9 either, but i HEART it so hard. Possibly for the following reason:
I think it was autumn 88 that i performed Respectable, under the name “Mel and Him” at a college rag “Top of The Pops” event. I was very drunk on spirits, I remember very little about it, I don’t even remember how I ended up agreeing to do this with the Mel – who was only a friend once or twice removed. She did my makeup well, we had ace hats approximating the one in the video and I had hilarious balloon breasts filled with water that we deliberately burst.
I think the bananarama performance won for their suggestive banana-eating dance.
the next morning i had forgotten to take off my eye-makeup and got some odd looks.
Let’s not forget also that anyone dissing the hook-iness of Tay-tay-tay-tay has Clint Mansell to argue with
I remember Nitzer Ebb being part of the first wave of Balearic Beats artists alongside Thrashing Doves and The Residents. A confusing pic & mix bunch of genres right there. A bit of an antidote to the burgeoning Acid House movement, and an indicator as to how the future of Dance was about to fracture into sub-genre and micro-genre.
#34 I was thinking about this proto-Spice Girls thing as well and landed on post-punk girl groups too though I was thinking mostly of The Mo-dettes who were more bright and poppy, and from them it’s only a short hop to Bananarama.
The other precedent, of course, is Salt N Pepa (though I just looked up “Push It” and that came out in March 1987 too)
Bananarama are a pretty good shout. I’m sad I won’t get to write about them (aside from their participation in certain events.)
a somewhat dotted line could be drawn between the flying lizards and “FLM”
Fuzzbox ended up with quite a ‘four distinct personalities’ type image too. Only the lead singer Vicki (last seen on Never Mind The Buzzcocks ‘Line-up’ round last year) really went for the sex symbol angle tho. 20+ years ago you could have all-female normal/weird-looking bands in the top 10 mutter moan etc.
The Belle Stars had some of the requisite attitude (and perhaps even more here on TOTP).
@44, Tom. Won’t Shakespeare’s Sister’s brilliant early ’90s single give you a chance to say something about Bananarama?
#47 I had completely forgotten! Yes it might well do.
Talking of the Spicers makes me wonder how we’re going to cope in the 90s with finding fresh things to say about their 5th or 6th slice of generic plastic pop. Ditto Westlife, Blue etc
Lots to say about every Spice single I’d think! Westlife – erm yes. But there will be a NEW GENERATION of commenters by then.
@45 If Vivien Goldman decided to write a Spice Girls book, then it would square that circle nicely.
#50 I suspect you’re dead right about that generation gap Tom as it seems you might view them as something more than just a marketing phenomenon. :-)
Something it’s worth remembering is that I used to work as a marketer (and still work in a related “industry”) so “marketing phenomenon” doesn’t code to me as ‘dismiss immediately’ but as ‘ooh that’s interesting’. How music is marketed is fascinating to me – not that I’d necessarily let it affect the marks!
Hard enough to say something about the first #1 by certain Fuller/Cowell-affiliated acts.
#53 Nor would I dismiss it immediately Tom but marketing tends to relate to the artist rather than the song so if they have a number of chart toppers in close succession the same factors would apply in each case. And if the music and lyrics are formulaic then there won’t be much left to say. But we’ll see in due course.
I’m not too bothered by marketing phenomena – surely that’s a significant aspect of pop success – whether it be payola in the 50s, the ‘British invasion’ in the 60s (and the Monkees as one US response), glam, punk and disco in the 70s, etc. The recent success of Don’t stop believing was a marketing phenomenon on the back of Glee and, as I suggested on the Hot Love thread, quite possibly a model for future pop success.
By the time we get to some of the dodgier hits of the last decade we will be able to discuss them in terms of what has followed on and is then current. What I think will be more difficult is when/if Popular catches up with current pop and we’re trying to discuss that week’s hit.
Ha! That would be interesting, as Popular catches up with the current narrative (or the narrative that will exist when Popular does catch up) those of us who will stick with it, will become part of that narrative. Mr Spoiler Bunny might be redundant though.
Makes me wonder about which age of house-pop is best remembered. I like the late 80s wave over much of the 90s stuff. Especially Yello.
Light Entertainment Watch: Not many UK TV appearances on the list;
THE MONTREUX GOLDEN ROSE IMMC GALA: with Jean Beauvoir, Cutting Crew, Whitney Houston, Smokey Robinson, Alison Moyet, Boy George, The Cure, The Communards, Mel And Kim, Terence Trent D’Arby (1987)
THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Paula Yates, 14 Karat Soul, The Cure, Mel And Kim, Duran Duran (1987)
fatgit #57 – Spoiler Bunny will by then be in richly-deserved retirement in his mansion with lackeys feeding him carrots all day long. Maybe Simon Cowell can do the job. As for W——e, I suspect that, assuming I’m still around to comment, my contributions on their umpteen number ones will be repetitive, succinct and Anglo-Saxon.
Now, this generation gap thing. Following the JYB shock to the system, this was the moment when I definitively realized, just short of my 25th birthday, that mainstream pop was being made for people significantly younger than me! And this was one of those records, and I’ll have to admit there are a fair few of them, which break many of the “rules” relating to music I normally like, but which I find terrific. That “tay-tay-tay” stuff, for instance, I’d normally hate but here it sounds fresh as a daisy, and the sheer attitude and fun was a breath of fresh air. The girls were extremely easy on the eye, which didn’t hinder things (although I’d hope that wasn’t too much part of the reason, since there’s plenty of bad pop made by hott women!) It was a point before SAW became cliché, and yes it’s hugely enjoyable. Unfortunately they were to have one of the most tragic stories in pop before too long.
Proto-Spice: yes, I was thinking of the Belle Stars too, and the Bodysnatchers had that vibe as well, listening to the break in “Let’s Do Rock Steady” where they introduce each other.
I’ve always wondered about the “other” Mel and Kim, Smith and Wilde, who did “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” for Comic Relief later that year. I know it was for charidee, but wouldn’t m’learned friends have had something to say about nicking another act’s name? (“Kim and Mel” would have worked just as well!) What’s to stop your two mates who happen to be called, I dunno, Ant and Dec, from cashing on in their real names?
Punctum #34, is that right about “I’d Rather Jack” being earmarked for Mel and Kim? It just sounds more “wrong” the more I think about it. It’s a fangirls’ song, about the stuff they want to listen to on the radio, and lines like “We’d rather sing along with Yazz” would sound plain weird coming not from schoolgirls but from two women in their 20s who’d had more hits than Yazz. Strange…
.. which is probably why they didn’t do it. Also, why at first hearing I thought it *was* Mel and Kim.
Oh, and of course the other Mel and Kim could have called themselves “The Smiths”, right DJP?
#61 – Quite.
#60 – Yes, Pete W confirmed it in a radio interview a couple of years ago. Was rather nonplussed by the Simon Reynolds Girls who (according to Smash Hits at the time) (a) did not jack and (b) rather liked Fleetwood Mac.
While interviewing a member of F Mac a few years ago I played “I’d Rather Jack” to a response of roaring laughter and hearty agreement with its sentiments. You can probably guess which member it was.
Christine McVie?
And of course certain mixes of Fleetwood Mac’s “Big Love” from 1987 were possibly the first house mixes of a track by a pop/rock group and you’d still hear the track dropped occasionally when it all went massive in 1988.
So notwithstanding the fact that it rhymed ironically one non-dance act people did “jack” to…
further to my above comment and not a “mix” but another very early house track by an established pop or rock act was “Chicago” by ABC (B-side of the 12 inch of “When Smokey Sings”)however it never exactly got played out as far as I know.
But Martin Fry WAS rumoured to have been seen at Clink Street or Rage or somewhere!
I’m very late into this thread – but is it really true that nobody has done the “because the ‘S’ fell off the door” joke yet?
I’ve been through the comments, and apologies if I missed it.
Re: 65, I’m fairly sure he was one of the celebs who used to to Shoom.
One week at the top in Australia, but it seemed more ubiquitous at the time. I didn’t really warm to it until I picked up an ’80s hits CD with it a decade or more later; with the benefit of hindsight, it sounded like superior SAW. That puts it at 6 for me.
Mel & Kim and others guesting in a 2000AD story
from londonlovescomics
The artist has been awfully kind to Bono there re physique.