Climie Fisher was an English duo made up of singer-songwriter Simon Climie and keyboardist Rob Fisher. Before teaming up Climie had actually written hits for other artistes including "Invincible" by Pat Benatar and I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) by Aretha Franklin & George Michael.
Incredibly, Love Changes (Everything) was not a hit when released the first time around in 1987, reaching a lowly No. 67 in the charts but after the success of Rise To The Ocassion the single was re-released and made it to its rightful place at No. 2 in 1988.
Before Yazz hit it big with hits like The Only Way Is Up, she was a guest vocalist on this record by producers Coldcut. In my opinion, one of the prime examples of an excellent British house record, this single peaked at No. 6 in 1988 and launched the career of catwalk model-turned-singer Yasmin Evans.
Of course Yazz went on to have enormous success with her other hits like Stand Up For Your Love Rights and the groovy Fine Time but the 90s saw her slip away from the limelight. Her hits will always be dancefloor classics though.
Here's the link for Stand Up For Your Love Rights :-
Norwegian group A-Ha seems to be more well-known for their debut hit "Take On Me". However, not many people know that their follow-up single The Sun Always Shines On TV did one better than their No.2 debut going all the way to the top of the UK charts in 1986.
For me, this song is equally, if not more, amazing than its predecessor ... full of guitar rifts and rockin' beats ... perfect to dance to and also good enough to just sit and listen to ... check it out.
Of course A-Ha went on to have numerous more hits ... not just with rawwkin' fast tunes like You Are The One and Cry Wolf but also ballads like Hunting High & Low, Stay On These Roads and the Roy Orbison cover Cryin' In The Rain. And, of course, they recorded the Bond theme The Living Daylights. Brilliant, just brilliant!
Irish group U2 has had many many amazing and awesome hits and I will get around to posting them sooner or later. However, let me start with one of their lesser-known hits.
Elevation, which was used in the film Lara Croft : Tomb Raider stormed to No. 3 in 2001. It's easy to see why ... the song, in a word, rawwwks. The Tomb Raider mix is amazing.
In 1993, a then-little known actress named Alicia Silverstone starred as the villain in psychological thriller, The Crush. Her performance impressed Marty Callner, the director of Aerosmith's Cryin' and she was cast opposite Stephen Dorff and Lost's Josh Holloway.
Of course, Alicia's career really took off after her starring role in Clueless and she then had a string of hit roles including that of Batgirl in Joel Schumaker's somewhat camp version of Batman And Robin.
I'm just surprised that the Aerosmith songs did not do better in the UK. Cryin' only reached No. 17, Amazing fared worse at No. 57 and Crazy, released as a double-A side with Blind Man reached a dismal No. 23. However, the songs and the amazing videos will forever be classics to me
By 2006, Bajan singer Rihanna had already released a few successful dance oriented singles, including Pon de Replay and the amazing amazing SOS (with its Soft Cell sample). Unfaithful was the singer's first ballad single release and, oh, what a ballad it was. Co-written by Ne-Yo the song was a heartbreaking potboiler of deception and adultery.
"I don't wanna do this anymore ... I don't wanna be a murderer", wails Riri in the song which climbed to No. 2 in the charts. Her fortunes were to continue and she's become one of the most prolific female singers around.
I also absolutely love love love the Tony Moran Club Edit of this song. A must for any Saturday night clubbing. Check it out here :-
And now for something completely new ... Stooshe is an English R&B group from London. They remind me of an English version of TLc. Black Heart is only their second single but I reckon it's pretty amazing and it's already gone to No. 3. Check out the video which has a 60s flavour a la Dreamgirls.
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