Tracey Ullman/Kirsty MacColl -- They Don't Know

 

On this special holiday edition of Reminiscings of Youth, I'm keeping a promise I made when I posted Tracey Ullman's cover of "Breakaway" which had come out as her official debut single back in 1983. In actual fact, the first song that I and millions of other music video watchers had heard by the future godmother of The Simpsons was "They Don't Know", released in September that year. The video is very familiar to me and yet I had completely forgotten about Paul McCartney's cameo at the end.

As was the case with Ullman and "Breakaway", I didn't find out until much later that "They Don't Know" was a cover of an original version released in June 1979 by the late singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl. Listening to MacColl's version, I got the impression of a gentle contemporary pop ballad. Meanwhile, Ullman's cover several years later (along with the video) has always hit me as a tribute to 1960s girl pop. What I hadn't known was that the cover had MacColl returning to help out in her pipe of "Baby!" from the original since Ullman couldn't really hit her note that high.

In Canada, Ullman's "They Don't Know" peaked at No. 5 on RPM while in America, it got as high as No. 8. The video is one that I remember having a long run on the music shows and basically "They Don't Know" ended up as being my one reminder of Ullman until she showed up several years later on FOX TV with her own comedy-variety show.

So, what singles were being released in September 1983?

Jiro Atsumi -- Busan Ko e Kaere (釜山港へ帰れ)

Akina Nakamori -- Kinku （禁区）

Naoko Kawai -- Unbalance （ＵＮバランス）

Tracey Ullman/Irma Thomas/Tomomi with Wface/The Milkees -- Breakaway

 

Here I was thinking that I had already put up a ROY article on British-American entertainer Tracey Ullman whose "The Tracey Ullman Show" on FOX in the late 1980s would beget "The Simpsons". But nope, I have yet to post "They Don't Know" which is her most famous song during her brief singing career in the Eighties.

Well, I can put that up during the next major holiday weekend here which is Labour Day. But in the meantime, let's go with her very first single in the United Kingdom in 1983, "Breakaway", although that song actually followed "They Don't Know" in its release history in the United States. I remember the video quite well since it was getting some heavy rotation on Canada's Muchmusic video station and despite Tracey and company having the time of their lives in 1960s fashion singing the decade's girl pop, I had assumed that "Breakaway" was a 1980s tribute to the 1960s because of the then-current rockabilly revival.

But the truth is that "Breakaway" was indeed a 1960s song; part of a 1964 single, to be specific. According to Wikipedia, it was the B-side to Irma Thomas' "Wish Someone Would Care" which ended up becoming her biggest hit. The songwriters were Jackie DeShannon and Sharon Sheeley with DeShannon already getting coverage on KKP a couple of times including for her "What the World Needs Now Is Love" in 1965.

Now, for a brief change of scenery for Reminiscings of Youth this week, instead of the usual comparisons of the song of my youth with what was coming out or ranking in over in Japan, I have opted to introduce a couple of covers of "Breakaway" by Japanese bands. One band was wface, a rockabilly duo, who collaborated with vocalist Tomomi Yoshikawa（吉川朋美）on a mini-album titled "early times" in April 2004. wface consists of Takashi Kamisawatsu（上澤津孝）and Kenichi Yamaguchi（山口憲一）; the two had actually worked together before as Magic between 1988 and 1999 playing their rockabilly and college rock before breaking up and then getting back together again in 2001 as wface. In the 2000s, they released five full albums.

The Milkees are a four-piece band from Kobe that got its start in 2004 with sisters Berry and PECO being joined by another pair of sisters, Petra and Lily. According to their website, they're into rock n' roll, pop, jazz and blues. They've released four albums including the one that contains their Japanese-language version of "Breakaway", "Lover Soul" from November 2007.