Song#: 2600
Date: 01/25/1986
Debut: 64
Peak: 14
Weeks: 14
Genre: Rock
Pop Bits: Simple Minds got their second US Top 10 hit with "Alive and Kicking," the lead single from their album Once Upon a Time. It was a big hit at Rock getting to #2 and this next single got very close to that reaching #3. On the Pop chart, it couldn't quite make it to the Top 10, but it still did well getting to #14. The songs would help the album reach #10 and go gold. It would be the band's only LP to hit the US Top 10. In the UK, it would be their second of four #1 albums.
ReduxReview: Around this time the "sounds like U2" phrase was pushed on a lot of bands including Simple Minds (who got dubbed by some as the Scottish U2). It's really unfair to do that because in most cases that was not the intent of the band. Yet when you do something like this song, I almost think you are daring to invite the comparison. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if Jim Kerr and the band actually wanted to do U2 better than U2. I doubt that was their true goal here, but dang whenever I hear this song I can hear Bono's voice. If they were trying to outdo U2 here, I think they succeeded. That's because by this point in time U2 hadn't quite found their commercial rock voice yet and Simple Minds kind of beat them to the punch. It was a worthy follow-up to "Alive and Kicking."
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: At the end of the song, you can hear a male gospel-ish voice taking off in the background. That vocal was provided by Michael Been the lead singer of the US rock band The Call. It seems that Simple Minds and The Call had toured together and that led to Been lending a hand on Once Upon a Time. To return the favor, Simple Mind's lead singer Jim Kerr did some background vocals on The Call's 1986 album Reconciled. The track "Everywhere I Go" featured both Jim Kerr and Peter Gabriel on background vocals. The song was able to make it to #38 on the Rock chart.
_________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment