Song#: 2718
Date: 05/10/1986
Debut: 82
Peak: 56
Weeks: 11
Genre: Synthpop, Europop, Dance
Pop Bits: This French band was founded by producer Jean-Luc Drion in the early 80s. Their first album in 1981, 60's Slows, was a Stars on 45-style LP that featured a lengthy medley of hit ballads from the 60's like "The Sound of Silence" and "A Whiter Shade of Pale." It ended up being a hit in France and two years later they did a second medley album based on hit 60's guitar instrumentals assembled with a hand-clap beat. But with the medley fad fading, the band decided to work up some original songs. They issued out a couple of singles, but it was this one that garnered a lot of attention. It would reach #10 in France in 1984 and then begin to spread to other countries. Eventually, the song made its way to the US and it ended up being a sizable hit on the Dance chart getting to #16. It crossed over to Pop and nearly made it into the Top 50. An album titled Costa Del Sol was assembled, but by the time it was released in the US, this song had long faded from the charts and with nothing else to promote it, the LP quickly disappeared. The band then went their separate ways with Drion going on to form the duo Monte Kristo. They would have a little success with a Top 10 hit in France titled "Girl of Lucifer."
ReduxReview: This song is so bizarre that it just had to be a Dance hit. I can totally see folks packing the dance floor and having fun to this popcorn jam. The wonderfully awful video for the song only enhances the craziness of this tune. I have no idea as to what the song is about. It's in Spanish and some English and makes zero sense to me, but assume it has something to do with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Yet I really don't care. When I first heard it my initial reaction was "this is awful." But then further listens started to get me hooked. Then the video just made me crack up. Is this quality material? Hell no. It's terrible. Yet it was produced well and there was something endearing and fun about the tune and the video that made me like it. Like the old saying goes - it's like a car wreck you just can't stop looking at.
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: Double Shot! 1) A sample of this song was used by Black-Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am for his solo single "I Got It from My Mama" in 2007. It was the first single from his third solo album Songs About Girls. The tune would get to #31 on the Pop chart. 2) In 1980, Drion worked as an arranger/conductor on the second album by French singer Patrick Hernandez. Hernandez shot to fame thanks to his 1979 disco tune "Born to Be Alive." It was a massive hit in France becoming one of the country's biggest selling singles of all time. It also did well in the US reaching #1 at Dance and #16 Pop, and it would be a certified gold seller. With the song doing well, Hernandez was set up to do a tour of the US. He needed backup dancers and auditions were held in NYC to fill the spots. One dancer who aced the audition was a young Madonna Ciccone. Now, depending on what you read and who you believe, the stories on Madonna and Hernandez vary. From what I gather, Madonna got the job and worked with Hernandez. But Hernandez and his team thought she had the goods to do more and wanted to turn her into a star. They invited Madonna to Paris and she took the opportunity (and along the way it seems she and Hernandez were an item for a short bit). They wanted her to record a disco track, but she wasn't having it. She wanted to record a different style of music. After three months of nothing happening, Madonna said adieu and went back to the States. Soon she would become a worldwide superstar.
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