Like a song of love that clings to me

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

25/09/83 : Unforgettable : A Musical Tribute To Nat King Cole - Johnny Mathis And Natalie Cole

I'm tired after having to type out that title, I can tell you - I hope it's worth the effort, but I'm not expecting to be enthralled.  

However, before we get to Johnny, we have another compilation album to consider - the incredibly memorable "The Hit Squad - Chart Tracking".  Who thought up that title?  Ah - Ronco, that's who - apparently there was a whole range of "The Hit Squad" albums.  Oh joy.  But (to my great surprise) - it's actually got some very decent tracks on it with the top three for me being "Wings Of A Dove" by Madness, "Nobody's Diary" by Yazoo and "Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode (although "Bad Boys" by Wham! is very close to breaking into that set).  Modern Romance supply the worst track, but it's not dreadful and the whole thing has a surprisingly high DTR of 0.81.  It does have an absolutely dreadful album cover - however, the musical quality can't be denied.  Right - back to Nat.  Lovely songs, sung well but blurring past me seems the most likely outcome. 

And yes, that's very much what we've got here - it feels much more 70s Saturday night telly music than 80s music, but I guess the 70s weren't all that long ago really (from 1983 - not from now!).  He has a nice voice, but I wasn't at all clear who was crying out for this - Nat King Cole died in 1945 after all.  However, Wikipedia explains it was a tie-in to a concert on BBC1, which kinda explains what was going on.  It's all perfectly fine - Bublé would (and probably has) make a decent fist of most of the songs - as does Johnny, but I will have forgotten I've ever listened to it by the end of this review.  It seems odd that they left the title track until the last track of the album though.  Unsurprisingly, this is not an album I own (or was even previously aware of) which drops us to 6.5/14.

We're at #5 in the charts this week - I can't believe we haven't got lower yet, but it's coming.  It was in its third week out of a 16 week run, after which it disappeared from view never to be seen again after the end of the year.  Above it in the charts this week were Paul Young, UB40 and Big Country (exactly the same top three as last time) and the previously discussed compilation album.  The highest entry in the charts this week was Judie Tzuke at #29 - I think this is the second time I've mentioned a woman in this year (after Elaine Paige).  I can't claim to be Judie's biggest fan, but I do feel she deserves more credit than she got for paving the way for others.  So I'm giving you two incredible Judie facts from Wikipedia to brighten your day - in 1982, she headlined Glastonbury and she's still going, 45 years after her debut single.

Wikipedia has very little on the album other than explaining it was a tie-in with the concert and then a breakdown as to whether each song was, or was not a hit for Nat King Cole.  And you can live without any of that information, I can assure you.

"Customers also listened to" Natalie Cole, Liza Minelli and Earl Grant (a contemporary of Nat's - which of course I didn't know).  This was fine but no more than that and very much not of the time in the 80s.

18/09/83 - Nope, not for me!
02/10/83 - An enjoyably conflicting listen