The Story Behind "I Beg Your Pardon" by Kon Kan

 80s, Canada, Flashback Fridays, Hi-NRG, House Music, Music, Retro, Synth-Pop, Video  3 Responses »
Mar 222013
 

Cana­dian synth-pop duo Kon Kan released “I Beg Your Par­don” in 1988. The first sin­gle from their debut album, Move to Move, peaked at #19 on the Cana­dian Sin­gles Chart, #5 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart, and #15 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100.

Kevin Wynne sang lead vocals on all but two songs on Move to Move. Barry Har­ris also pro­vided vocals, key­board, and gui­tar. Har­ris recorded two more albums using the Kon Kan moniker before he formed Outta Con­trol. He gained his most suc­cess as Thun­der­puss 2000, one-half of a remix duo with DJ Chris Cox. Wynne left the band after the first album and worked on the busi­ness side of the music indus­try. Today, rumor has it he’s a semi-pro video golfer.

The song gen­er­ated con­tro­versy for Kon Kan’s sam­pling of “Rose Gar­den” by Lynn Ander­son, “Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)” by GQ, “Get Up and Boo­gie” by Sil­ver Con­nec­tion, “Call Me” by Spagna, and the open­ing bars of theme from movie The Mag­nif­i­cent Seven.

The band’s name is a play on the abbre­vi­a­tion for Cana­dian Cotent (Can­Con), which requires a third of all music played on Cana­dian com­mer­cial radio sta­tions must be Cana­dian in origin.

Ver­sions
I Beg Your Par­don [Radio Mix] 3’59
I Beg Your Par­don [Club Mix] 6’39
I Beg Your Par­don [In the Green — House Mix] [Theb-4We Re-Mixitmix] 7’43
I Beg Your Par­don [I Beg Your House] 5’16

Music Video
The music video for “I Beg Your Par­don” is rather straight for­ward. Wynne sings into the receiver of a pay phone while Har­ris dances about and plays a portable key­board. A 70s lounge lizard offers comic relief, while a cow­girl who resem­bles the love child of Roy Orbi­son and k.d. lang lip-syncs to the Lynn Ander­son sam­ple and plays an accor­dion. A group of young men and women pro­vide some arm motions dur­ing the bridge

Mem­o­ries
I remem­ber walk­ing into the Sound Ware­house on Hulen Street in Fort Worth after I fin­ished my shift at Tar­get and the Move to Move album was play­ing. I believe “Puss n’ Boots/These Boots (Are Made for Walk­ing)” was the song play­ing at the time I walked in. I browsed the record bins and by the time “I Beg Your Par­don (I Never Promised You a Rose Gar­den) [12″ Mix]” played, I decided to buy the CD.

When I first started hang­ing out with my col­lege room­mate, Chris, he kept ask­ing me if I had ever heard this cool song he wanted to find. He’d try to hum the melody, but he could never get it right. One day, months later, I put my Kon Kan CD on to lis­ten while I cleaned house and Chris came run­ning out of this bed­room as soon as “I Beg Your Par­don (I Never Promised You a Rose Gar­den)” began to play, shout­ing, “That’s it! That’s it!”

For my 23rd birth­day, Chris took me to din­ner and to see the movie adap­ta­tion of Car­rie Fisher’s Post­cards from the Edge. When we came back to the apart­ment, Kon Kan blasted from my stereo along to a strobe light. My friends Trixie and Susan were wait­ing to kid­nap me and take me to a com­edy club. It was a fun night!

What are your mem­o­ries of “I Beg Your Par­don” by Kon Kan?

 Posted by at 7:00 am

The Story Behind "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Kim Wilde

 80s, Flashback Fridays, Hi-NRG, Music, Pop Music, Retro, Rock, Synth-Pop, Video  2 Responses »
Jan 252013
 

Kim Wilde released her cover of the Supremes’ 1968 hit, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” on Sep­tem­ber 19, 1986 in the U.K. The sin­gle peaked at #2 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart. The song was released on March 3, 1987 in the U.S. and reached #1 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” was the biggest hit of Wilde’s career, and her last top 40 hit in the U.S., after “Kids in Amer­ica” in 1982.

Wilde didn’t know “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” very well, so she went into the stu­dio with her brother Ricky and recorded a Hi-NRG/power-rock cover. The song was respon­si­ble for revi­tal­iz­ing Wilde’s career, after her sin­gles charted spo­rad­i­cally between 1982–1985. She would go onto release her most suc­cess­ful album, Close, two years later, which pro­duced three top ten hits in the U.K.

After hear­ing Wilde’s cover of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” Michael Jack­son invited her to per­form as his open­ing act on his Bad World Tour in 1988.

Ver­sions
You Keep Me Hangin’ On 4’15
You Keep Me Hangin’ On [W.C.H. Club Mix] 6’28
You Keep Me Hangin’ On [W.C.H. Mix/Extended Ian Levine Club Version/Extended Mix] 9’02

Music Video
Kim lies on a black bed as debris blows through a dark room. A door opens and the sil­hou­ette of a man stands there as she sings to the cam­era. The bleach-blond hair, black lace, and cardi­gans all bring back mem­o­ries of 1986–1987. Although it now seems a very rudi­men­tary video, I recall being very impressed by it’s the­atri­cal­ity at the time.

Mem­o­ries
This song hit #1 in the U.S. right after I had my heart bro­ken for the first time. Even though the song was almost as old as I, the lyrics seem fresh and specif­i­cally writ­ten for me and how I was feel­ing. The rac­ing gui­tar and dra­matic synths spoke to me, too. It was a great song to howl along with in the car as the heal­ing began. It was one of the first 12″ sin­gles I bought, after Madonna’s “Burn­ing Up,” Bananarama’s “Venus,” and Book of Love’s “I Touch Roses.” The B-Side, “Lov­ing You,” is a slow, moody bal­lad that fades in at the begin­ning and out at the end. After I bought Another Step and started seek­ing out other Kim Wilde records, I dis­cov­ered she had recorded “Kids in Amer­ica,” too, and a life­long love affair began with Ms. Wilde.

What are your mem­o­ries of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by Kim Wilde?

What the Heck Were We Fighting About, Anyway?

 80s, Friends, Hi-NRG, Holidays, Humor, Memory Mondays, Music, Pop Music, Relationships, Retro, Synth-Pop  1 Response »
Oct 012012
 

On Sun­day, Octo­ber 7, I’m head­ing to the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta to see my favorite musi­cal group, Bana­narama, per­form, as part of Pink­to­ber.  They’re appear­ing in the Vel­vet Room, no less, and have released a new dig­i­tal EP of new mate­r­ial and a cover of Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jag­ger,” enti­tled the Now or Never EP.

The only other time I’ve ever seen Bana­narama was five years ago in Tampa, which is a funny story, but I can’t find the arti­cle I wrote about it.  When I find it, I’ll post it.

Think­ing back to my early days of Bana­narama fan­dom, I did recall a mem­ory about my best friend, Kent.  We were dri­ving to our for­mer teacher and friend’s apart­ment to help her dec­o­rate her Christ­mas, when we got into an argu­ment about whether Bana­narama was bet­ter than Tina Turner.  Although I respect Anna Mae Bullock’s tal­ent, I was smit­ten by Sara Dallin, Sibo­han Fahey, and Keren Wood­ward; Kent had the oppo­site opin­ion.  Kent was quite the Tina Turner man.  For draft­ing class in high school, he once designed a house in the shape of a cap­i­tal “T,” as trib­ute to Tina.

Although we never really fought, this argu­ment resulted in us not speak­ing to each other by the time we arrived at Donna’s apart­ment.  In a nut­shell, Kent and I hated each other; need­less to say, this led to an awk­ward evening for the three of us.

“Donna, would you please tell Kent that he needs to raid his balls (orna­ments) higher?” I asked.

“Donna,” Kent said, “Would you please tell Jef where he can still stick that arti­fi­cial candy cane?”

It went on and on like that for most of the evening.  I wish I could say that the result of our imma­tu­rity was due to our being kids, but I was 19 and Kent was 18.

Finally, Donna couldn’t take it, any­more, and in clas­sic Donna fash­ion, she blew up in such an over-the-top clas­si­cal way that she made a scenery-chewing Meryl Streep sound dead­pan.  When she finally qui­eted down, no one said any­thing, and then Kent and I looked at each other and exploded into gig­gles and teased her the rest of the night.

It’s a reminder that what we often fight about with the peo­ple we care about is usu­ally pretty stupid.

The Story Behind "This Time I Know It's for Real" by Donna Summer

 80s, Flashback Fridays, Hi-NRG, Music, Pop Music, Synth-Pop, Video  3 Responses »
Jun 012012
 

Donna Sum­mer released “This Time I Know It’s for Real” on Feb­ru­ary 24, 1989. The song was co-written and pro­duced by Stock/Aitken/Waterman, the trio behind hits for Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record),” Bananarama’s “Venus” and “I Heard a Rumour,” Rick Ast­ley, and just about every hit by Kyle Minogue Kylie Minogue from 1988–1992. The sin­gle peaked at #3 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart, which made it Summer’s biggest hit in Eng­land since “Love’s Unkind” back in 1977. “This Time I Know It’s for Real” charted at #7 on the U.S. Bill­board Hot 100 and was cer­ti­fied gold. It was Summer’s last top 10 hit in the U.S.

Sum­mer had enjoyed great suc­cess dur­ing the disco era on Casablanca Records. By 1980, she wanted to branch out and exper­i­ment with other styles of music, while Casablanca wished for her to con­tinue record­ing disco music. Sum­mer parted ways with Casablanca and signed with Gef­fen Records.

Gef­fen Records and Sum­mer had a stormy rela­tion­ship over the next decade, with the label refus­ing to release her I’m a Rain­bow album. After lack­lus­ter sales of her Cats With­out Claws and All Sys­tems Go albums, David Gef­fen sug­gested that Sum­mer record with pro­duc­ers Stock/Aitken/Waterman, who were scor­ing hit after hit around the world. Upon hear­ing the final album, Gef­fen opted not to release the album and dropped Sum­mer from the label. “This Time I Know It’s for Real” became one of the biggest hits of Summer’s career and the fol­low up sin­gles did well in the U.K. and Europe. Atlantic Records even­tu­ally acquired Another Place and Time and released the album on April 24, 1989. Rumor has it that another album was planned with Stock/Aitken/Waterman, and they had even writ­ten “Hap­penin’ All Over Again” for her to record, but Sum­mer had a falling out with the pro­duc­ers and they parted ways.

Ver­sions
This Time I Know It’s for Real [LP Ver­sion] 3’34
This Time I Know It’s for Real [Extended Version/Extended Remix] 7’20

Music Video
The music video for “This Time I Know It’s for Real” is typ­i­cal of pop music in the late ‘80s: lots of jump-cuts, lots of dancers of var­ied eth­nic­i­ties doing the run­ning man, lots of disco spins, lots of color, and the per­former singing into the cam­era. The video was directed by Dieter Trattmann, who also directed music videos for Ice­house, Eighth Won­der, and the Thomp­son Twins. The blur­ring motion cre­ates a sense of move­ment, as Donna Sum­mer and her dancers board a train bound from Eng­land into the heart of Europe. The video ends with Sum­mer danc­ing out of the sta­tion, fol­lowed by two lit­tle girls. I one had a black vest like one of the dancers in this video; I felt very styl­ish when I wore it. Come to think of it, it’s still in my closet.

Mem­o­ries
I first read about “This Time I Know It’s for Real” in an issue of Num­ber One that I bought at the Book­stop that was down the street from the Tar­get I worked at on S. Hulen St. The mag­a­zine was imported from the U.K., so it included news about songs that were released in Eng­land long before they were heard on U.S. air­waves. I was intrigued, because my older sis­ter Vicki had turned me onto Donna Sum­mer in 1979, and I had liked the pop­u­lar sin­gles that she had released in the ‘80s.

I guess “This Time I Know It’s for Real” was released in the U.S. in late May, because it was every­where by June. I saw the music video on MTV at Vicki’s apart­ment, and even­tu­ally bought the cassette-single at Tar­get one after­noon. I was Stock/Aitken/Waterman fan, already, so it was no sur­prise that I liked the song. It seemed to cap­ture that feel­ing of hav­ing recently fallen in love, and since I had recently met some­one spe­cial, it fit nicely on my mix tape for that summer.

That autumn, I recall mak­ing lunch in my apart­ment near the Uni­ver­sity of Texas at Arling­ton (UTA), and play­ing the cas­sette for Another Place and Time, the album “This Time I Know It’s for Real” was taken from. Vicki worked nearby and was com­ing over to see my apart­ment. I also played Siox­ousie and the Banshee’s Peep Show, Shakespear’s Sister’s Sacred Heart, and Adult Net’s The Honey Tan­gle albums, so, as you can see, my taste was pretty eclectic.

What are your mem­o­ries of “This Time I Know It’s for Real” by Donna Summer?

The Story Behind "Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room) by Paul Lekakis

 80s, Flashback Fridays, Hi-NRG, Music, Pop Culture, Retro, Video  No Responses »
Mar 162012
 

Paul Lekakis released “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room)” in 1986 and peaked at #60 on the U.K. Sin­gles Chart.  It was released the fol­low­ing year in the U.S. and charted at #43.  The song just missed the top spot at #2 in Canada, but topped the charts in Japan and South Africa; it also stayed at #1 in Australia’s ARIA Chart for five weeks.

Lekakis had moved to New York City to work as a model. While on assign­ment in Italy, he was spot­ted danc­ing in a night club by music pro­duc­ers Miki Chiere­gato, Tom Hooker, and Robert Turatti. They offered him the chance to record “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room),” which received addi­tional pro­duc­tion by Ric Wake. The sin­gle was orig­i­nally released by ZYX Records.

“Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room)” was remixed and re-released in 1992 and 2006.

 

Ver­sions
Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room) [Radio Edit] 3’50
Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room) [Extended/Vers. Vocal] 6’53
Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room) [U.S. Remix/Club Remix] 7’16
Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room) [A Phil Hard­ing Remix] ?’??

1987 Tele­vi­sion Performance

Offi­cial 20th Anniver­sary Music Video

Music Video
No music video was pro­duced for “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room),” but I’ve embed­ded a per­for­mance of Paul Lekakis lip-synching on a tele­vi­sion pro­gram. For the 20th anniver­sary of the sin­gle, Lekakis pro­duced an offi­cial video using the new remix. He enters a house in Palm Springs at night and greets other guests and flirts with two women.

Mem­o­ries
I heard this song on the radio and it made me laugh.  It was so over-the-top raunchy that I couldn’t take it seri­ously.  I bought the 7″ sin­gle at Sound Ware­house on Hulen Street in Forth Worth.  There was no pic­ture sleeve and I knew noth­ing about Paul Lekakis.  How­ever, the song had a good beat and a catchy, quirky cho­rus.  My best friend Kent and I used to sing it at the top of our lungs in the car.  In 1990 Lekakis released a full-length album.  I bought it after he released the sin­gle “My House,” which is a cover of the B-Side to Jody Watley’s 1985 sin­gle, “Girls Night Out.”  A few years later, I went with some friends to see Lekakis per­form at a club in Dal­las.  We were sur­prised at how short he was.  I had always won­dered why most of the video for “My House” was from the waist up or a close-up; how­ever, after see­ing Lekakis dance, I under­stood why.  When­ever I hear his songs, it always takes me back and makes me smile.  Good times …

What are your mem­o­ries of “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back to My Room)” by Paul Lekakis?