Talk Talk -- It's My Life

 

So, how is that post-Xmas dinner digestion doing by you? Sleepy from all the turkey? We had ours tonight but thanks to a cup of strong coffee and a really good Strawberry Dream Cake, I'm still doing quite well. Not feeling really sleepy but I figure that within an hour, all that sugar and caffeine are going to wear off and I'll simply collapse like an old lung.

Anyways, I had assumed that the article on the final Xmas article for KKP's Christmas season 2023, EPO's "Twinkle Christmas" would be the last one for today. However, I realized that I had to complete my other tradition of putting up a Reminiscings of Youth article on a national holiday, and after all, since I'm filled with beans (or what used to be beans) at the moment, I might as well do something danceable because I'm vicariously needing to dance it up as we enter the final week of the year.

I am talking about Talk Talk's big hit "It's My Life" from January 1984. Yup, we're fast approaching the 40th anniversary of its release and I remember it first of all for its strange video featuring the late vocalist Mark Hollis at the zoo as it looked like a nature documentary was going all New Wave and dance remix on me. I always loved Hollis' haunting delivery and the combination of synths/percussion banging away, and in fact, I was looking for its remix version on the dance remix radio shows of my youth. 

"It's My Life" hit No. 31 on Billboard Stateside although it hit the top spot on the dance charts down below. Meanwhile in Canada, it peaked at No. 30 and in the band's native Great Britain, it did a modest No. 46, although I read on its Wikipedia article that it did get a third lease on life and reached No. 13 when it was reissued in 1990.

Dance your dinner away please! Anyways, I'll give you Nos. 8, 9 and 10 from the January 1984 Oricon weekly chart.

8. Seiko Matsuda -- Hitomi wa Diamond （瞳はダイアモンド）

9. Rumiko Koyanagi -- Ohisashiburi ne (お久しぶりね）

10. Tomio Umezawa -- Yume Shibai （夢芝居）