Erasure - A Little Respect

If you are not a big 80s synth pop fan, the name Vince Clarke may not mean anything to you, but he wrote some of the strongest songs of the genre, and was a writing force behind several successful bands.

Clarke got his start in Depeche Mode, where he wrote most of the songs for 1981's Speak and Spell, including "Just Can't Get Enough."  A disagreement over the musical direction of the band led to his departure that same year, and he formed Yazoo (Yaz if you live in the U.S), where he again wrote most of the material, including "Don't Go."  When Alison Moyet opted to go solo in 1983, Clarke worked with Eric Radcliffe and Feargal Sharkey (yes, the same one who was highlighted on this blog on November 15, 2011 ... small world, huh?) in a project called The Assembly who actually had a top 5 hit in the UK called "Never Never" that was written by Clarke (of course).

The Assembly did not work out, and Clarke started Erasure (with Andy Bell) in 1985.  After a slow start, they had a string of hits in the UK and Europe, with 22 consecutive top 20 hits in the UK, including 12 that peaked in the top 10.  In the U.S., Erasure was more of a cult dance/synth pop band, and had only 2 top 40 hits -- "Chains of Love" (#12) and "A Little Respect" (#14), both from 1988's The Innocents LP.

"A Little Respect" has become one of Erasure's signature songs, and is a great example of a strong dance/synth/pop song.  However, it would have to go on the list of least imaginative (i.e., most literal) videos ever.  Just check it out (but consider yourself warned ...)

Go West - We Close Our Eyes

Few acts capture that somewhat hard to describe "mid-80s sound" as well as Go West.  The English duo of  Peter Cox and Richard Drummie released a bunch of cotton-candy sweet, but really likable dance/pop/synth songs from 1985 to 1992.  While they are best-known for "King of Wishful Thinking" (their only top 10 hit, from the soundtrack of Pretty Woman), they actually had 7 charting singles, 3 of which broke the top 40.

"We Close Our Eyes," the duo's first single, barely missed being a top 40 hit (and we do mean barely; it peaked at #41 in April of 1985).  The relentlessly happy song, accentuated by keyboards was also an MTV favorite for a time.  The video, directed by 80s video savants Godley and Creme, contains marionettes, lots of exercise, and a really big wrench.  It also feature a cut about every second or so, and seems well-matched to the almost unnaturally happy song.

Go West went on hiatus after 1992's Indian Summer CD, and were dropped by Chrysalis Records.  However, Cox and Drummie remained on good terms, and continue to perform (and even release new material) to the present day.

Missing Persons - Surrender Your Heart

Missing Persons were an iconic early 1980s MTV band.  With their visually flamboyant style, including singer Dale Bozzio's pink highlights and fishbowl bras, they seemed tailor-made for the new music video channel.

The background story of the band goes back to 1976, when Bozzio ran into Frank Zappa in LA (after walking out of an interview with Hugh Hefner to be a valentine for the annual Playboy party).  Zappa hired her on the spot, and she performed with him throughout the late 1970s.

In 1980, Dale Bozzio, along with her husband Terry and several other member of Zappa's band ventured out on their own as Missing Persons.  Two years of working the LA club scene led to a record deal, and Spring Session M (an anagram of the band's name) was released in 1982.  It became a huge hit, and videos for "Words" and "Destination Unknown" went into heavy (and we do mean heavy) rotation on MTV.

For their second album, the band decided on a somewhat more experimental sound.  Although many critics think that 1984's Rhyme & Reason was their strongest album, it did not resonate with fans.  1986's Color in Your Life did even worse, perhaps impacted by the deteriorating marriage of the Bozzios (they divorced and the band broke up in 1986).

Dale Bozzio went on to record one album on Prince's Paisley Park Records, and then mostly disappeared from view.  Terry Bozio continued on as a session musician, and worked with Andy Taylor (of Duran Duran fame) on his only solo hit, "Take It Easy."

For the blog, we went with "Surrender Your Heart" from Rhyme and Reason.  The video uses paintings from Peter Max and is one of the more interesting/artistic videos of the era.

Missing Persons' video for "Destination Unknown" was posted on ERV in October 2022, as part of our annual All Hallows Even party.

Alphaville - Big in Japan

There were a number of continental European bands that had hits during the 1980s, especially in the dance and synth pop segments.  Among them was Alphaville, a German group named after the influential 1965 film by Jean-Luc Godard.

Alphaville came out of the Berlin music scene of the early 1980s -- the members had been part of the Nelson Community, a short-lived art collective.  The band consisted of keyboardists Bernhard Lloyd (real name: Bernhard Gößling) and  Frank Mertens (Frank Sorgatz) along with singer Marian Gold (Hartwig Schierbaum).

The trio released the Forever Young album in 1984, and it would go on to be their biggest LP.  In the U.S. , "Big in Japan" and "Forever Young" both charted, and hit #1 and #2 on the Dance Charts, respectively.  While the Forever Young LP barely broke into the top 200 albums in the U.S. (peaking at #180), it became a top 20 album across much of western Europe.

The backstory for "Big in Japan" is interesting -- unlike the other songs on the album, it had been originally written by Marian Gold in 1979, and the title came from the name of Holly Johnson's band at the time.  (Johnson would go on to form Frankie Goes to Hollywood.)  Gold has stated the the lyrics were inspired by a story of a couple trying to get off heroin.  The idea of going far away seemed to fit this story, so he used the phrase "Big in Japan" as the chorus.

As with many other groups, Alphaville was unable to keep it together, as singer Marian Gold left the band in early 1985.  Alphaville continued on and had some modest success in Europe in the mid 1980s, while Gold's solo career never really gained any traction, leaving "Big in Japan" as their biggest hit.

Cool trivia fact:  the video was directed by Dieter Meier of the band Yello.