Sunday, May 23, 2021

ABC: When Smokey Sings

I lost touch with the charts in the 1980s. I know all the songs from hearing them in the pub after canvassing or council meetings, but can struggle to tell you what they are called or who recorded them.

Anyway, I heard this in the supermarket the other day and thought it sounded good. It turned out to be by ABC.

Wikipedia says the bass line is a homage to Smokey Robinson's Tears of a Clown. No doubt it is, but I was unexpectedly reminded of Footsie by Wigan's Chosen Few.

This was a 1975 near-novelty hit from the brief period when the national media discovered Northern Soul and we were all searching for something to fill the gap between the end of glam and the birth of punk.

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