Well, after our special Valentine's Day edition of Reminiscings of Youth, we're back with the usual Thursday ROY article, and this one is another song whose history with me goes all the way back to the late 1960s or early 1970s, but it really struck pay dirt in the early 1980s.
The golden songwriting duo of Burt Bacharach and Hal David came up with "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" in 1964 for Lou Johnson. Yet, I only heard this and any vocal covers in the immediately following years for the first time in just the last few weeks. For me, my childhood exposure to this standard involved me in the back seat of the car listening to the radio putting forth an instrumental version. However, it was catchy enough (after all, we are talking about Bacharach and David) that it has stuck inside my head for decades.
But then, during my high school days, a new version of "Always Something There to Remind Me" was released by a British New Wave group called Naked Eyes. This band consisting of Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher actually added the arrangement version of a warp engine to this Bacharach-and-David creation that I'd been hearing for years and made it epic. It was like giving scrawny Steve Rogers the Super-Soldier serum to become Captain America, and I admit that I'm being a little florid here in my description, but considering that at the time I was fully into my synthpop, hearing these new amazing crashing synths being applied to this old chestnut had me feeling really giddy.
The original single came out in November 1982 in the UK (it was released Stateside in January 1983) and then came the 12-inch remix which I liked even better since of course, we got more of those synthesizers. Kinda like what the music video was showing, I could envision one really New Wave-themed wedding in a massive church while this song is playing.
I recall Naked Eyes having a goodly amount of fame for a few years thanks to this one and a couple of other singles by them that made it onto the weekly Top 50 radio and music video shows. "Always Something There to Remind Me" broke into the Top 10 in both Canada and the United States at No. 9 and No. 8 respectively.
So, what were the top singles coming out of Oricon in November 1982? Well, here are No. 1, 3 and 4.
1. Seiko Matsuda -- Nobara no Etude （野ばらのエチュード）
3. Toru Watanabe -- Yakusoku (約束）
4. Masahiko Kondo -- Horeta ze! Kanpai（ホレたぜ!乾杯）
Wow, I had no idea that Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song. I always assumed it was by Naked Eyes and yes, it was a cool song back then. Now, maybe not so much.
ReplyDeleteHello, Ozzie. To be honest, I hadn't known about the Bacharach-and-David association until much later myself, but listening to the 1964 original, I could hear the connection.
DeleteSandie Shaw had a #1 hit on the British charts with this back in the 60s, and then R. B. Greaves hit the US top 40 in the early 70s as a follow-up to his top 10 smash "Take a Letter Maria."
ReplyDeleteHi, Mike. Long time, no read. It's amazing how many versions of "There's Always Something There to Remind Me" there have been over the years. I guess it's that Bacharach and David touch.
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