Sophistication Of The Eighties

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Sophisti-pop, soul pop, yacht rock and an occasional Japanese city pop song are the ingredients of a new series: Sophistication Of The Eighties, named after the Steve Harley song. Enjoy!

When Andrew Gold was in England to record with his band Wax, he met British singer Steve Harley in the kitchen of RAK studios and Gold offered Harley to play piano on his song Sophistication. The track was meant to be put on Harley’s album El Gran Senor, but his record company RAK went bankrupt and the album never came out. Years later Harley managed to get Sophistication back and released it on an independent label.

Denim rockers Status Quo started as a psychedelic rock band in the 1960s, but felt uncomfortable with their image and therefore changed their music style drastically in the 1970s. They played straight forward rock from then on and eventually became successful with it. For more than 20 years they were regular visitors of the charts. Although there were some serious struggles within the band, the two main members Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi kept on going recording and touring until the death of Parfitt in 2016. And even after his death Francis Rossi did not stop the band. Living On An Island is probably the only ballad they recorded.

On this one there’s a small tribute to Tina Turner who passed away 2 weeks ago. In the mid-eighties the Queen of Rock & Roll made a great pop album with a big help from electro pop band Heaven 17. They produced her version of Let’s Stay Together, which became a blueprint for her later career. Her follow-up single in the US What's Love Got To Do With It sounded pretty similar. It became her first and only Billboard Hot 100 number-one single, selling over 2,000,000 copies worldwide. At the time, aged 44, Turner became the oldest solo female artist to top the Hot 100. It was the second-biggest single of 1984 in the United States and the 17th-biggest in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart. For some reason, What's Love Got To Do With It was less successful in the Netherlands, reaching only #15 on the Dutch Top 40.

Tracklist:

Patti Austin – Only A Breath Away (1985)
George Benson – Feel Like Making Love (1983)
Rick Astley – No More Looking For Love (1987)
Alison Moyet – All Cried Out (1984)
Phil Fearon – I Can Prove It (1986)
Latul – Goin’ Downtown (1981)
Halo James ‎– Could Have Told You So (1989)
Scarlett & Black – You Don't Know (1986)
Hue & Cry – Looking For Linda (1989)
The Blow Monkeys ‎– It Doesn't Have To Be This Way (1986)
Curiosity Killed The Cat ‎– Ordinary Day (1987)
Super DB – Back To Me (2023)
Partland Brothers – Soul City (1986)
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel – Sophistication (1986)
Momoko Kikuchi – Mystical Composer (1986)
Naked Eyes – Promises, Promises (1983)
Steve Marrs – How Was I To Know (1982)
Will & James Ragar ‎–  As The Day Grows Tired (1980)
Status Quo ‎– Living On An Island (1980)
Tina Turner – What’s Love Got To Do With It (1984)