One week at number one on 13th August 1988
Gloria Gaynor gasping and singing “Oh!” before the final chorus of “I Will Survive” means the same thing to everyone. Out there away from the Classic Pop Smash which happened to have a groove, however, lay a bunch of songs which probably meant something different to each of the hundreds of thousands of people who bought them. The creators of Silver Convention’s “Get Up And Boogie”, for example, were deeply proud of the fact that there were only six words used in the entire song (“Get”, “Up”, “And”, “Boogie”, “That’s” and “Right”) all glued on to some chirpy strings and a funky rhythm. “Get Up And Boogie” is only an exhortation to dance, lyrically speaking, but its simplicity means that it takes on a thousand different shapes for all its listeners – it could be about that person they kissed on the dancefloor one night in 1976 then never saw again, that first holiday abroad, that cocktail party they had that barely anyone can remember accurately… it’s celebratory but the memories it carries are up to them. Sometimes imprisoning yourself with only six words gives your listeners a lot of freedom.
Mark Moore of S’Express was a man of few words too. “Superfly Guy” is less manic and less inclined to throw mud at the wall than “Theme From…”, and instead sticks to a clockwork kind of groove, all ticks and gibbers, while liberally dropping the odd sample here and there. The main hook of “Superfly Guy, let me take you higher” is dominant and frequently repeated, but between that are breakdowns, soulful cries, and little bursts of records from the previous decade, teasingly dropped for those in the know (Roy Ayers is the credible chap in the case, BT Express the “tack” – S’Express stuck to the principle of placing the cool next to the plastic for most of their career).
The other key difference is that while “Theme” felt pulsing and heavy at times, sucking your feet downwards on the dancefloor, “Superfly Guy” is pure levity – not only do the vocals soar, but the entire arrangement seems to give you permission to enjoy yourself, to float off towards the club lights and do the breast-stroke in mid-air. It’s only possible connection to heaviness is the way it toys with gangster imagery ever so slightly (particularly in the equally care-free video) but it doesn’t do so with any degree of seriousness. It’s (quite literally) stick-on moustache dicking around, wearing the fancy dress like a kid in a cowboy costume.
Whether you think it’s a better single than its predecessor depends on what you want. For me, it is, because it knows its got a killer groove to offer and realises that budging from it to play into the hands of eighties samplemania will break the thrill; it engages with its key strengths. While doing so, it piles on other embellishments such as string stings and howled soulful proclamations, all adding up to an amazing single about absolutely nothing in particular, a slice of pretty minimalism to which you can attach any mood or memory you want.
Some critics disagreed, though, as ultimately did the British record buying public – it only reached number five in the national charts as opposed to number one (though Channel 4’s The Chart Show acted as the freak polling outlier by placing it at the top for one week). It also crops up on classic “rave” compilations and playlists notably less often than its predecessor. In doing so, it perhaps manages to sound fresher – in other words, it’s not impossible my preference here is a response to the way that its shine hasn’t been dimmed by over-familiarity.
Also, while it has nothing to do with its power as a 45, on S’Express’s eventual album “Original Soundtrack”, it segued perfectly into the absurd “Blow Me Another Lollypop”, a burst of ice-cream van rave mixed with porno and Scooby Doo samples; a ludicrous yet somehow workable combination which probably sums up Mark Moore’s style better than anything else he put to vinyl.
New Entries Elsewhere In The Charts
18. Spacemen 3 - Take Me To The Other Side (Glass)
Peak position: 18
Debut entry for Spacemen 3 on the NME indie charts, but certainly not their debut record; the Rugby psychedelic group had been droning their way around the periphery of the Top 30 like hornets for two years, building a cult audience of kids (and their elders) who still wanted slow, sludgy rock music to get stoned to.
While previous singles “Walkin’ With Jesus” and “Transparent Radiation” may have floated over the heads of more pepped-up eighties listeners, “Take Me To The Other Side” introduces slamming garage guitar sounds – and having just listened to a Pebbles compilation this morning, I’m stunned by how authentic this sounds in places – as well as the usual spicy drone. Such elements saw the group reaching a wider, if still completely culty, audience.
John Peel, on the other hand, was not particularly impressed with the group, criticising their “hyper-monotonous” approach by leaving their “Walkin’ With Jesus” EP playing on one deck for twenty minutes while cutting back and forth from complete plays of other different records to ridicule how indulgently long it was. The group would later criticise the DJ and his show in an interview, causing him to return their records to the label in a huff. The rift was patched up eventually.
27. Kylie Minogue - The Loco-motion (PWL)
Peak position: 5
Still, if Spacemen 3 thought they had it bad, Peel didn’t play Kylie at all – though he did also ridicule her, turning up to an event with a Kylie cardboard cut-out on his arm.
A cover of Little Eva’s “The Loco-motion” was her debut single in Australia and a monstrous hit there, and this is the retooled Stock Aitken Waterman version for the British public. To be frank, there’s not a huge gulf between the two; the first one has some insistent digital slap bass burps which are faintly aggravating and a slightly cheaper production, but would probably have charted in the UK regardless.
SAW’s version, on the other hand, took the world and not just Australia, giving her the only significant US hit of her eighties career. Its slicker and smoother, bolder and beefier, but ultimately is still just a faintly cynical electro dancefloor take on an old classic. Admit it, if Simon Cowell had come up with this idea for Sinitta you wouldn’t even be giving it a second’s thought.
For the complete charts, please go to the UKMix Forums
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