
Sometimes you have to go where your ear and randomness takes you. And once in a while you’ll learn something new about something old when you do.
Case in point: I was doing the cleaning up in the kitchen after a dinner of left-overs today; as always listening to some music on the Sonos system. A composite playlist of one of my own locally hosted playlists mixed up with a couple of Spotify lists (one of the features I love about the Sonos system, tha ability to mix sources at will – which has nothing to do with this story, actually).
At some point when I only have the stove to clean, Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own” comes up. Now, Dance Pop is generally not my thing – but I do make an exception for Robyn. As a Danish newpaper article said after her 2019 Roskilde Festival concert – she’s badass (and in a good way).
And that performance actually started the rabbit hole trip. ‘Cause I brought it up on the iMac – and yes, it’s every kind of wonderful and no, I wasn’t there that year. If I had been, I swear, I’d been singing my lungs out when the audience takes over that first chorus. So awesome.
But once I’d watched that, I sort of dived into the links column at the right. Uh oh – dangerous 😉
And that got me to Alison Moyet singing “Only You” with a classical orchestra at a Burberry fashion show in 2016. She did that well. And somehow I felt an urge to look up the roots of that song – which in my mind is a 1984 song done by the Flying Pickets.
Oh no. Wrong. <sound of quiz programme “you’re out of here” buzzer>
“Only You” originally was done by Yazoo. Yep, “Don’t Go”. Know that one. Back on safe ground. Which was then fast yanked out under my feet when I dived further into Wikipedia and learned that Yazoo was … … … <drum roll> … Vince Clarke off Depeche Mode and, yes, Alison Moyet.
Damn.
Never knew that.
But that explains why she sang it well 😉
Just one more thing – when a song that is originally synth-pop can do well in an a capella version and also with classical strings and wind instruments? It’s because it is a song well written. Nice work, Vince Clarke.