T'PAU – "China In Your Hand"

The UK #1’s list is really such an alternate dimension for someone looking through American eyes. So far, we’ve seen a #1 for A-Ha that WASN’T “Take On Me,” a #1 for the Troggs which wasn’t “Wild Thing”, a #1 for Paul Young which wasn’t “Everytime You Go Away,” and now, a T’Pau song which isn’t “Heart and Soul.”

Now, that’s a good song, “Heart and Soul.” That’s a style and sound which fit T’Pau much better than power-ballad, as Tom so astutely points out.

A kind of very average pub-type band who unbelievably got very lucky…? Extremely annoying – I give more 3s than anything but very rarely give less but this is a definite 2.

From the birth of the charts up to this song only “I Don’t Like Mondays”, “Mull of Kintyre”,”Matchstalk Men”, “Long Haired Lover from Liverpool”, “The Chicken Song” and “No-one Quite Like Grandma” can challenge it IMO

‘ I associate the song with Alan somehow’

i might conceivably have bunged this on a tape. It’s not a great favourite but it has a bitter-sweet place in my memory cos this was number one for aages right – if not it felt like it – and in my first term at uni. It’s a third rate nonsense ‘belter’. Nothing I’d feel guilty about bellowing out four sheets to the brothers bar wind, but it’s far from great. A 5 I’d say

Graphic equalisers were a terrible idea though weren’t they? Bass and treble, that’s all you need – bass at around 2 o’clock, treble at 4.30

funny that no-one remembers their THIRD top 10 hit (the somewhat cynical ‘Valentine’).

“heart and soul” sounds like pet shop boys crossed w/ desmond child – FANTASTIC. i have lived my life to this point w/ no knowledge of nor curiosity towards what any other t’pau might sound like and i’m not about to change that now.

Not a bad tune, really, though the lyrics are hilariously awful. However, it got to #1 on the strength of the (as everyone else has pointed out) far superior “Heart of Soul”. They actually notched up a further six top 40 hits after this one, all of which were unmitigated shite (anyone remember “Sex Talk”? Ugh.)

This was a non-charter in the U.S., while “Heart and Soul” peaked at #4.

Oops, one more time: a Milla link that works.

Just as Kate Bush watched a documentary on Emily Bronte and had an idea for a song, so did T’Pau singer Carol Decker watch a documentary on Mary Shelley. Although it doesn’t particularly advertise its plot, “China In Your Hand” is actually a meditation on the subject of Frankenstein – “To take life on Earth/To the second birth/And the man was in command.” Cleverly the lines “It was a flight on the wings/Of a young girl’s dreams/That flew too far away” acknowledge the enormous influence of Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner on Shelley’s novel, while the single version’s second verse turns accusatorily to the “monster” himself: “Come from greed/Never born of seed/Took life from a barren land…/A prophecy for a fantasy/A castle in his mind.” The chorus with its reproachful “Don’t push too far/Your dreams are china in your hand” frames the song as a warning not to abuse or misuse the gifts with which we are bestowed – “You don’t know what you might have set upon yourself.”

The song is best heard, if heard it need be, in its original, full-length album version, with its additional verse referring explicitly to Mary Shelley’s own difficulties with childbirth (only one of her children survived infancy) and its significantly less polite sax solo. But it was re-recorded for single release, and while it clearly remains a significant cut above “Let ’em say we’re cra-ZAY!” with a more interesting musical structure, more challenging lyrics and an evidently more heartfelt performance, most of the song’s subtleties are excised in favour of regrettable bombast. Whereas Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” was radical in form and delivery as well as inspiration, “China In Your Hand” is essentially superior provincial AoR power balladry – complete with a new sax solo which produces at its climax the kind of “expression of emotion” which in Derek Bailey’s memorable phrase “immediately freezes the balls” – and as such tied with Rick Astley as the longest number one run of 1987 (five weeks). A nice try, then, but it lacks the directness of something like Heart’s “Alone” or the truly epic heraldry of a “Total Eclipse Of The Heart.”

I have to say I was and remain very fond of this one, a cut above most power ballads for its stateliness (those strings definitely work for me) and what sounds a genuine rather than forced passion. Perhaps, in Tom’s phrase, the wood-framed chassis is an asset – there’s a feeling that they’re not *too* smooth, and learning from Marcello’s post that it’s clearly “about” something emphasizes that the lyrics are superior to most of the genre as well. “Heart and Soul” was a cracker too, but it’s good that something of this stature, with such original subject matter, was a number one.

T’Pau were victims of what I saw as a depressing trend towards misogyny in Q magazine some years back – in a “where-are-they-now” type piece someone wrote that Carol Decker “looked and sounded like a barmaid”, while elsewhere Louise Wener was virtually ridiculed throughout Sleeper’s career and Wendy James wasn’t treated much better. Obviously their bands weren’t to everyone’s tastes, but it did seem the criticism of these women came from somewhere darker. Did anyone else see the same sort of attitudes in the music press?

Number 2 Watch – for the first four weeks of T’Pau’s reign the number 2 was George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set On You” which would have meant an impressive 16-year gap between number ones. In its fifth week Rick Astley’s version of “When I Fall In Love” crashed in at 2 but was doomed to go no higher, stymied by the Nat King Cole re-release; so that the Christmas number one would be that act we’ve discussed before in their magisterial phase. More on that, of course, when Mr Ewing gets back from holiday (volcanic ash permitting, Tom? And congratulations on completing another century, btw.)

Utterly unrelatedly (except for the fact that it sounds line the manifest destiny of ’80s New Pop, hence of inherent interest to current Populist commenters), the forthcoming LCD Soundsystem record sounds completely ace (but I *loved* their last record): it’s streaming here. I reckon ‘Dance yrself clean’ has the best change-up since Take Me Out. Strongly recommended. Woo frickin’ hoo. I’m currently four songs in and there’s no duff track yet, and lots of building on ‘Get Innocuous’ from the last album is going on. Yay! 🙂

I like it more than Tom (I gave it 6), for the chorus and for Carol Decker’s voice reminding me a bit of the glorious David Surkamp of Pavlov’s Dog obscurity.

Redhead scouse singers:

Cilla Black > Carol Decker > Sonia

Any more?

Swanstep, that Milla Jovovich video is homage to Louis Bunuel innit?

I have nothing to say about China In Your Hand, a dull, dull song.

Heart And Soul on the other hand, always seemed suspiciously conceptually similar to this indie classic.

TOTPWatch: T’Pau performed China In Your hand on Top of the Pops on three occasions;

5 November 1987. Also in the studio that week were; Heartbeat and Eric B & Rakim. Janice Long & Mike Smith were the hosts.

3 December 1987. Also in the studio that week were; The Hooters, The Proclaimers, Paul McCartney and Maxi Priest. Gary Davies and Janice Long were the hosts.

25 December 1987. Also in the studio that week were; The Bee Gees, Rick Astley, The Pet Shop Boys and Johnny Hates Jazz. Mike Smith and Gary Davies were the hosts.

Re: 36. Heartbeat? Who they?

#34, Mark M. Good catch on that Felt song being strip-mined. The curse of Cherry Red records (to influence v. widely but get no money and little public recognition oneself) strikes again.

#32, fatgit. Milla’s vid. (which she directed) apes/recreates a (n early Bunuel-influenced) ’40s piece by Maya Deren called ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’. I confess to not even hearing of Meshes before Milla’s vid dropped in the mid ’90s, but apparently it’s a Film School/Studies standard/classic. Milla J. marked herself out early as being a bit of a smartie: she wrote some good songs and was v. good in some great films (Dazed and Confused and The Claim)… But (say as you would ‘…and then he invaded Iraq…’) then she married her Resident Evil director…

Much as I liked the idea of someone from Shrewsbury – much-loved from childhood visits – making it big, this is really awful. How anyone can compare it to Enya or Tori Amos escapes me.

BTW: I know this is cheeky but is anyone here a Spotify Premium member and can give me an invitation token ? It’s very frustrating to finally upgrade from Windows 98 and find it’s still out of reach. Email to mikemcsg@btinternet.com.

The review has put into words pretty much all I’ve come to think about this song so I can’t add much.
I will just say this is the first number one I ever really resented.
Was it 4 or 5 weeks? I can’t remember but I know at one point it felt like T’pau would be number one forever.

Re 24: Good point about Qs creep towards misogyny. This months issue features Florence in a figure-hugging outfit on the cover – other recent front covers Lily Allen topless (from the back), Cheryl Tweedy looking wet and willing, Lady Gaga with her arms over her nipples.
If a woman wants to be on the cover she’s required to compromise.
Have they ever asked Noel Gallagher whose featured on the cover 579 times to go topless or Bono to whip his bum out????
I know Terence Trent D’arby once appeared full-frontal nude on the cover with a strategically placed caption to avoid ahem introducing the hardline which Q insisted was because they had taken a risk putting him on the cover as his previous album had flopped and they needed a kind of attention-grabber. I would be interested to know if they would have asked a white singer whose previous album had flopped
(Be Here Now? Pop? Tin Machine?) to do the same.
I seem to recall Q did a special “Womens Issue” a few years back – the cover was inevitably P.J Harvey in a skimpy t-shirt and underpants.
One of the main questions they asked female artists in the issue was
” What’s wrong with being sexy?” Yes! Really! I can’t remember the other questions but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were along the lines of ” Does your boyfriend write all your songs for you?” and
” Why do you worry your pretty little head about these things?”

Many thanks to whoever sent me the Spotify invite. Who says your mates on the Internet aren’t real ones ?

46, maybe they thought quoting spinal tap would allow them a free pass?

Q is a horrible, horrible publication – the music-related equivalent to the daily mail. Smug, reactionary, middle england personified.