MARC ALMOND WITH GENE PITNEY – “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”
Reaction amongst friends at the time was a sort of bemused approval: it was a Good Thing for this kind of record to get to number one, but nobody really seemed to love it, and the Pitney/Almond team up was faintly baffling. Of course, that was the odd-couple appeal of it: a gentleman from some ancient past allied to a leathered perv from a more recent one. And even though I remembered “Tainted Love”, in the bright world of Kylie and Jason both pasts seemed equally lost, both sides of this revenant alliance surprising.
Twenty years later, “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart” has aged well, and seems to look forward rather than back – the cross-generational duet became a 90s fad, then a commonplace, and by the end of that decade we had Tom Jones and Cerys Matthews crooning at each other, and Jarvis Cocker writing for Tony Christie. Placed in that micro-continuum “Something” has aged rather well, mostly because neither singer acknowledges the curiosity value or leans too hard on their particular schtick. Almond, with a chance to be the old-style showman he’s always wanted to be, puts his back into it. Pitney glides witchily over the top with rather less audible effort but still steals the show.
So why Pitney anyway, and why this? Almond may have felt some sympathy for a man who’d began his prime decade as a new star only to not quite fit in. The Gene Pitney past feels exotic partly because it never really happened: he’s a wanderer from a parallel 60s, where rock’n'roll gave the pop establishment a shot in the arm then slipped into history. Or he might just have been attracted to Pitney’s voice, which could give corny material a sense of urgent dread – “24 Hours From Tulsa” being the obvious example, where the compulsion and mystery in the song is all down to Pitney’s delivery. As for the choice of song, Nick Cave had covered it before Almond took it on, identifying the Gothic streak in it which this version acknowledges and ripens. The strings do the heavy lifting, the intro cutting through whatever else was on 1989 playlists and the arrangement helping the two singers locate the exact point where kitsch bleeds into mystery.
7
#45: If you mean “Teddy Bear” by Red Sovine, that peaked at #4 (OK, it made #2 on the NME list) and is a much better record, sweet and touching.
“More Than In Love” was harmless Crossroads fluff but the “Birdie Song,” well, you may have a point there.
“The Stars We Are”, the album from which this was taken (although, the original release featured the “Pitney”-less version) has some other memorable duets: Nico sang her last recorded words on “Your kisses burn”, which is a rather somber and gothic torch-song. Victoria Wilson-James is on two songs and one of the bonus tracks on the cd-version is a very campy duet with the late Agnes Bernelle.
Of course there is also another duet with the mysterious Suraya Ahmed on “She took my soul in Istanbul”, but this is just another alias of Almond himself.
#51 Sackcloth and ashes for me getting that one wrong- one of my best years too, oh dear.
All of the other three minor hit singles off ‘The Stars We Are’ were great, too. ‘Tears Run Rings’ obliquely critiques Clause 28, the self-presentation ‘Bitter Sweet’ has an excitable invitation to go to paradise as its chorus, and ‘Only The Moment’ is quintessence of Almond poignant heedless hedonism.
Nico rather somber and gothic? Whatever next!!
# 48 – I’ve found a new layer of poignancy in this song since the 2006 death of Gene Pitney, alone in a Cardiff hotel room, after a show on a comeback tour. When he was found dead on his hotel bed he was fully dressed and looked, according to his tour manager, “as though he had gone for a lie down”.
This is true and puts me in mind of a discussion I instigated on a pub crawl around Waterloo with a couple of thirsty pals well over twenty years ago now. The question I put to the floor was: “Why do people fall over when they die?”
It was, as you would gather, a very inciteful evening as we pondered this vexed question. Well, it certainly became increasingly more vexed as the evening progressed.
Happy Days!
Worst number 2 ever? There have been some stinkers but surely the Macarena must be in with a shout.
I have plenty of time for the Macarena – only holiday novelty hit with a genuinely really compulsive rhythm. Envious that it’s in Lena’s remit to be honest.
In fact looking at the 90s Lena comes off a LOT better! About the only thing I can really feel relieved about is that I don’t have any encounters with Kula Shaker in my future.
Red Sovine, there was a man who could teach so-called “balladeers” a thing or two about working a tear duct.
Another vote for the Macarena here – I was at a French wedding a few years back with a band that played Macarena and New York, New York over and over into the early hours of the morning and I never got tired of either of them
I’ll take the Macarena over the vast majority of 1988′s number ones. By the way, has anyone noticed that Liza Minnelli’s version of New York, New York is much better than Frank Sinatra’s?
Can anyone point me to a list of the #2s or to a charts data-base that allows one to ask queries along the lines of ‘What are all the #2s?’ I don’t have much of an intuitive grip on the subject and, since becoming a Popularista, my general sense has become that #2s are just pretty awesome. And let’s face it, atrocities like ‘Every loser wins’ laugh at things like the Macerana (‘You think you’re amateurish? I’ll give you amaterish….’). Full marks for the silly dance and hotties in the vid. alone surely.
Swanstep, I found this list yesterday when I was thinking the same. Only goes up to 2007, but it’ll keep us going a while.
I used Everyhit which is a bit laborious. I dunno what Lena’s source is!
I used to think it was just rose-tinting which made #2s seem often better than #1s but of course it’s not wholly that. Records which successfully cross-over from one music-buying audience to another will chart high but might get to #1 or #2 or anywhere in the top 5. Records which break out from the total audience – i.e. attract people who don’t usually buy any records at all – are more likely to get all the way to the top. They are also usually rubbish. Though from a reviewing perspective they’re rubbish in interesting ways at least.
@Rory. Thanks, that link’s exactly what the doctor ordered.
I have to say, I was expecting to eyeball some obvious, tragically terrible 2s out of the 70s and 80s, but there’s really an incredible amount of good to v. good stuff there. The first few things I thought *might* be unbearable, e.g., ‘Bridget the Midget’, ‘Floral Dance’, ELP doing Aaron Copland, even the bloody Smurfs, aren’t completely horrible at all. They certainly pass any conceivable reviewers’ standard of ‘rubbish but interestingly so’. Again, Nick Berry laughs at such pretenders. :)
Another #2 which won’t be troubling a ‘worst ever’ list is Gene P’s 1966 hit Nobody Needs Your Love, a desperate, dirt-eating Randy Newman song (‘I’ve tried so hard to make you see, that I’ll be what you want me to be’) which features his voice at it’s most needling, and really foreshadows Gary Numan’s voice-just-broken stylings, especially on the second verse. Again, it didn’t even reach the US Hot 100.
‘Nobody Needs Your Love’ is perhaps the quintessence of Pitney. It contains the particularly striking ultimatum -
Take my heart!
It’s all I’ve got to giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!
If you don’t want me -
I don’t want to liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!
- which is no sensible way to persuade a girlfriend to come back to you.
Reading Rory’s list from post 62, it’s curious to note that there aren’t anywhere near as many bad number twos as bad number ones. Is there some unwritten law that states that real crap must not stop at number two? (Someone else can do the scatalogical puns)
Rory’s link is another great resource that could be added to the links in the side bar
“Red Sovine, there was a man who could teach so-called “balladeers” a thing or two about working a tear duct.”
The story I heard was that Red used to do the song in concert and really lay on the pathos, leaving the audience wetting themselves with laughter – yes, it was a comedy number! He was approached by his manager, a producer, somebody, and told that if he recorded a copy of “Teddy Bear’ and did it dead straight, he’d have a stone cold motherless smasheroo….he did and did.
# 69 He was stone cold when it hit in Britain !
Unfortunately, yes – suffered a heart attack while driving his van, causing it to crash, in April 1980, a year before “Teddy Bear” crossed over to the UK charts (five years after I first heard Gambo play it on his American chart show; can’t remember whether the song’s belated success was yet another instance of the magic of Wogan).
Our source for number 2s: we just go through ChartStats and write ‘em all down, but this link will save a whole lot of time and energy. Mind you, we also have a copy of The Complete NME Singles Charts and L may well be incorporating some of their number twos as a bonus. I know; there’s no end to it.
#67 – see #63 for my stab at a theory of why so many total stinkers get to #1 while good records stall at #2 (Briefly: The Great British Record Buying Public has basically good ears. But the Great British Don’t-Usually-Buy-Records-But-Isn’t-That-That-Nice-Boy-Off-Eastenders Public, er, don’t.)
Though that doesn’t explain every stinker at number one. And on that note time to write the next entry…
I had no idea there was so much love for the Macarena. I do take the points about great records being stuck at #2 while some rubbish gets to the top though-we’ve already had My Generation, Strawberry Fields, Vienna et al, and will happen time and again when we get to discussing the 90s number ones.
How’s this for a stinker then: Love Shack by the B52s.
I don’t mind Love Shack at all. It’s a damn sight better than their Flintstones song (which could only make #3).
OK these are my least favourite/most hated number 2 hits of the 80s, just cos:
1980: Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
- don’t actually hate this but 1980 was actually a pretty good (and v disco) year for number 2 hits. I can’t remember Status Quo ‘What You’re Proposing’ tho.
1981: despite Birdie Song, Hooked On Classics and Stars On 45 I’ll go for Shakey’s You Drive Me Crazy as worst.
1982: Shakey again, with the eponymous EP! another strong year tho
1983: Paul Young ‘Love Of The Common People’ just beats Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’ and FR David’s Words’.
1984: Shakey again (A Love Worth Waiting For)! beating Neil even…
1985: in a v strong year, probably King’s ‘Love And Pride’ but don’t hate it.
1986: Su Pollard ‘Starting Together’ just ahead of Dire Straits ‘Walk Of Life’
1987: Bruce Willis ‘Under The Boardwalk’
1988: Climie Fisher ‘Love Changes Everything’
1989: Linda Ronstadt ft Aaron Neville ‘Don’t Know Much’ – and easily the worst 80s year for #2s by my reckoning.
#73: Can’t agree at all, I’m afraid; “Love Shack” is one of my all-time favourite number twos.
I thought it was the Sugarcubes the first time I heard it. Compare it to “Luftgitar” if you want to see why…
*edit* Ha that looks REALLY SILLY on the Popular page. I’m meaning “Love shack” not “Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart”
Rory #62 – that list was produced by a friend of mine, Sharon Mawer, who tells me she was unable to add to the list after mid-2007 due to its being on a virgin.net website she was no longer able to access. However she’s now managed to post a fully updated list at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sharonmawer/UK%20number%20two%20singles.htm
It would be remiss of me not to plug Sharon’s magnum opus on the album charts, which goes back as far as the closing months of World War II when the first US album chart was produced: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sharonmawer/contents.html
It’s more factual and less of a review project than Marcello’s own magnum opus “Then Play Long” (link in the column to the right, pop-pickers!), so I don’t think I’m treading on toes here…
Indeed, Ms Mawer’s work is almost beyond remarkable and has proved a fine and necessary fact-checking source for my own endeavours; it’s a real shame that The Official Charts Company pulled her data from their website following its revamp.
No TPL toe-treading involved at all, since SM’s work is about The Facts whereas I use The Facts as a starting point.