Sunday, April 14, 2019

The Bluebells: Young At Heart



I remember Young At Heart as a fun hit from 1984, but there is a bit of history to it.

It was first recorded by Bananarama the year before and appeared on their first album. It was credited to the group's three members and Robert Hodgens of the Bluebells, who was dating Siobhan Fahey at the time.

The Bluebells reached number 8 with it, but when it was re-released in 1993, having been featured in a television commercial for the Volkswagen Golf, it spent four weeks at number 1.

In those days TV commercials could rewrite pop history like that. Neither Stand by Me nor When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit first time round, but both climbed the charts after being used in Levi Jeans' commercials.

And there was a court case over Young at Heart. The violinist, Bobby Valentino, took legal action to win a writing credit for the Bluebells' version.

A word to for the once-famous faces in the video: Stratford Johns, who was television's most famous policeman in the Sixties and Seventies, the always annoying Molly Weir and the lovely Claire Grogan.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Molly Weir was a lovely woman.Read her life story.A role model.

Jonathan Calder said...

I see that, Anonymous. I suppose I can't forgive her Flash commercials.

Juho69 said...

Stratford Johns is superb here-such a contrasting role. So that's to where Detective Chief Superintendent Barlow
was really promoted after he left Task Force!

Anonymous said...

Great to see Stratford in that unusual role - like seeing a very strict head teacher going ape at the Staff Christmas Party. Barlow would not approve.