I Saw You Talking To Christopher Walken (19/3/13)

Which brings us neatly to another trawl through those songs that you may have missed or are better than you remember/think.

Starting with yesterday's source of inspiration.

The Rembrandts "I'll Be There For You"

Of course you know it. It was the theme tune to 'Friends'. For ten years it was probably the most heard song on the planet. Weekly, daily most of the time, introducing the most widely watched television show in the world but when did you last really listen to it? It's a brilliant piece of pop writing, Beatlesy as hell (and yes I know that's a lousy adjective and I've already said you can't say something sounds like The Beatles because there were too many Beatles sounding too different each other to make comparisons valid but, hey, I make the rules round here)

It's absolutely filled with hooks, the guitar riff is fantastically catchy, the harmonies just work, it's upbeat and sunny, it's eternally hopeful. The band were commissioned to write a theme tune because the show's producer loved their US top 20 single 'Just The Way It Is, Baby'. Their prior hit is nowhere near the quality of 'I'll Be There....', I mean it's nice enough but it doesn't give the slightest hint that they could come up with something as perfectly formed as this.

Unfortunately if you hit something that big it becomes a one off. You become 'that band that did that song.'

Like these guys;

Fountains Of Wayne  'Hackensack'

You know them for 'Stacey's Mom' - a decent sized world wide hit, the sort of song that outlives your career and has a memorable comedy video that turns a band into a sideshow in their own career. 'Stacey's Mom' is a fine pop song. But 'Hackensack'? 'Hackensack' is an absolutely perfect love song. It's a little tale about a man who's stuck in his old small town life as the girl he adored in school becomes a minor celebrity. "I see your face in the strangest places, movies and magazines. I saw you talking to Christopher Walken on my TV screen" is the life of the love he never had while "I used to work in a record store, now I work for my dad" is his reality. It's heartbreakingly lonely, sad and lovely. And has one of the most gorgeously right guitar parts of all time.

As does;

The Church.  'The Unguarded Moment,

You know those songs that remind you of something but you're not quite sure what? This isn't one of those. It's very clearly 'Ticket To Ride' but it doesn't matter, it's great. Aussie psychedelic revivalists from the early 80s, their first two albums are things of wonder. Totally out of step with anything that was coming from their homeland at the time, in an age where Men At Work became global stars The Church where the true antipodean gift to the world. All chiming 12 string guitars and tambourines, again with a Beatles influence. They were the band that The Stone Roses reminded me of when I first heard them. They had their big moment later in the decade, 'Under The Milky Way' being a decent US hit but 'Unguarded Moment' was their moment of genius.

So you want something without jangly guitars?
Okay.

Soft Cell  'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye'

Yes, I know. Huge single, nobody's forgotten it. But I'm not talking about the single version. Of course I'm not, I'm an elitist aren't I? I'm talking about the 12" version. I'm talking about a relic from the days when making a 12" single was an art. And, believe me, Soft Cell were masters of that art.

They couldn't just extend a song, they had to give you something different. On Tainted Love it was the way the single broke down and extended its way into 'Where Did Our Love Go?' which the poor souls who bought the 7" thought was a B-side. On 'Say Hello..' it's the fact that the first three minutes are made up of a beautiful clarinet (possibly oboe in fairness) solo that doesn't appear anywhere on the version that hit Top Of The Pops. The grandeur of a love gone wrong, a parting, an affair that couldn't work and had to be kept secret, they're all still here but it's the first three instrumental minutes that are the absolute killer.

Best. 12". Single. Ever. Anyone want to argue?

And to end -

More grandeur. No guitars but still a theme tune.

Matt Monro. "On Days Like These"

England fans seem to be on a mission to propagate the myth that 'Self Preservation Society' is the theme tune to The Italian Job.
It's not. This is.
To describe a song like this as easy listening is to damn with the faintest praise. It's languid, gentle, full of memory. Again it's reminiscing over a lost love affair. It sets a joyfully melancholic tone for the start of the film and is one of those numbers that doesn't need the film to justify its existence, it's just gorgeous on its own. It has the added advantage of being delivered by one of the greatest vocalists of all time, the English Sinatra. Matt Monro is supposedly Scott Walker's hero, his greatest influence. If that's true, that'll do for me.

When I was in my teens my mate's mum was a huge Matt Monro fan. We were into punk. We laughed at the rubbish she was listening to. We were wrong. Edna was right.

See, the joy of getting older is you realise that there's all this great stuff that you hadn't heard.

And if you have heard it the least you can do is share it.