Thursday, October 23, 2014

sample spotting saddo part 3939220



Imagine my surprise on playing "How To Be A Zillionaire" (don't ask why, or how come... I've already forgotten) to hear Martin Fry singing "you'll have to drug me"....

as in this minor classique of darkside







Jungle Buddha I know from this helped-keep-me-going-while-in-exile-most-of-1993 compilation - where it is credited to Jungle Pirate for some reason





As Jungle Pirate, he (Mark Loy) did a track called "Mutiny on the Bounty" which was on  a slightly earlier comp that also sustained me during the months of pirate-radio-deprivation while stuck in NYC finishing the Sex Revolts





But going back to the source... why would anyone want an a cappella version of "How To Be A Zillionaire"?

I guess that was a fixture on a lot of 12-inches at that time, for deejays to do clever stuff with...  and ABC were aiming for US club action with this blatant emulation of  Shannon circa "Let The Music Play" / "Give Me The Night"



And they got it -- reached  #4 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart.  Indeed it was a Billboard Top  20 pop  hit in the USA, whereas in Britain it just scraped into the Top 50



This Wall Street Mix seems to be going for a bit of  AON "Close (To The Edit)" big bashy drums effect

The sentiments of the song lyric are like Depeche's "Everything Counts" but the overall effect (as on Beauty Stab) is a bit slick and glib c.f. the earnest hand-wringing melancholy of the Mode boys which is genuinely affecting

(if you voted Labour the previous summer)







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