Thursday 22 July 2010

131 Songs - Numbers 43,44 and 45

Number 43 - Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer

I picked this track for the unmistakable intro. Palmer had his greatest success with this single, taken from the 1986 album "Riptide", and it reached number one in the USA. You have to hand it to him, there are few vocalists who write such good tunes (sorry Mick). His greatest hits album is full of self penned compositions from "Simply Irresistible" to "She Makes My Day". The album also contains recordings from his time with the supergroup Power Station (that included two Taylor brothers from Duran Duran) who recorded their album of the same name the previous year.

Number 44 - All Of My Heart by ABC

"the Lexicon of Love" is one of my favourite albums of all time, and from it I have chosen "All Of My Heart". Only just a fraction in front of "The Look Of Love". The writing of all the songs on the album are attributed to ABC, but the prominent member is another vocalist, Martin Fry. The other members of the band are David Palmer drums, Stephen Singleton saxophones, and Mark White guitar and keyboards. The last two originally formed the group Vice Versa and it was when Martin Fry joined that ABC came into being. The album itself was produced by Trevor Horn, and what a great job he did making synthesisers sound far more orchestral than ever before. The quality of the sound is just awesome.

Number 45 - Driftwood by The Moody Blues

While we are on the subject of songwriting vocalists, here we have another. At the age of seventeen, Justin Hayward was actually contracted to Lonnie Donegan's Tyler Music, and all his songs written before 1974 were owned by this company. Justin joined The Moody Blues when Denny Laine (who later joined Paul McCartney when he formed Wings) departed. The Moody Blues had great success with their 1967 album "The Days of Future Passed" from which were taken two singles: "Tuesday Afternoon" and the huge "Nights In White Satin". Soon after Hayward composed another single "Driftwood". As haunting a melody as I have ever heard.

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