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STARTING POINT: HERB
ALPERT “El Presidente”
NOMINATED BY: SFC
PRES
Herb Alpert also
recorded “Bean Bag”, which is more
commonly recognised in the UK
as the theme to the TV game show, ‘It’s A Knockout’. The international version
was ‘Jeux Sans
Frontières’ a phrase repeated in the song “Games Without Frontiers” by Peter
Gabriel, a literal translation of the phrase. Singing backing vocals on
this track was Kate Bush, whose song
“Dreamtime” (the b-side of her hit “The
Dreaming”) featured the use of a didgeridoo, the favoured instrument of choice
for 70s children’s entertainer, Rolf
Harris. His song, “War Canoe” was
the basis for a ‘large sum’ ‘out of court’ payment, from Adam Ant, when it was said to be ’almost musically identical’ to
the latter’s hit “Prince Charming”.
Adam’s earlier recording ‘Lady’ was
recorded before some of his fellow Ants left the group to form Bow Wow Wow with Annabella Lwin. One of
their biggest hits was “I Want Candy”,
an old hit from the 60s, that was also covered by Mel C, who reportedly had a
relationship with Robbie Williams
before he recorded his hit, also about “Candy”.
The following year, Williams released and album called ‘Swings Both Ways’ which
featured a cover of the 60s Mama Cass single, “Dream A Little Dream” with Lily
Allen, daughter of actor/comedian Keith Allen who had had a number one hit
with the football song “Vindaloo”
under the name Fat Les. His
follow-up Christmas single was “Naughty Christmas” which reached number 21 in
the charts and featured Lisa Moorish
on backing vocals. Lisa had also sung backing vocals on Ash’s “Oh Yeah” before
her infamous affair with Oasis
front-man Liam Gallagher. Oasis performed the theme tune, “Half A World Away”, on TV’s ‘The Royle Family’ which starred Ricky Tomlinson, who had his own hit
with a cover of Shane McGowen’s “Are You
Looking At Me”. Shane was the driving force behind The Pogues, the band
featured many, traditional sounding, Irish folk tunes like “Sally MacLennane” among their earliest
recordings. Shane is probably best known for his perennial Christmas hit
“Fairytale Of New York”, a seasonal duet with Kirsty MacColl. After her first hit “There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis” in 1981, Kirsty
had many single releases before her last “England
2 Columbia 0” which was released just before her unfortunate, accidental,
death in 2000. One of her biggest hits was a cover of Billy Bragg’s “A New England”,
which failed to chart for the songwriter, unlike his cover of “She’s Leaving
Home” which went to number one as part of a double A-side release with Wet Wet Wet’s “With A Little Help From My Friends”. Both originally hits for the Beatles, George Martin produced much of
their output, including the wonderful “And
I Love Her”, as well as many recordings for many other artists. Cilla Black was just one of these, and
her cover of the Gene Pitney hit “Something’s
Gotten Hold Of My Heart” was also produced by the maestro. Cilla went on to
host TV’s ‘Blind Date’ which was a British version of the American hit show
‘The Dating Game’, which featured “Spanish
Flea” as the ‘Bachelor’s Theme’ part of the programme which was originally
a hit for Herb Alpert!
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