BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1986
REQUEST
“More Than Physical” is a song written and performed by English girl group Bananarama. It was one of two tracks on the group’s True Confessions album produced by the Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) trio instead of Jolley & Swain. The album version of the track is different from the single.
In order to capitalize on the number-one success of previous single “Venus” (the other True Confessions track produced by SAW), “More Than Physical” was given a Hi-NRG-influenced make-over to sound similar to the dance-oriented chart-topper.
Even with heavy exposure on MTV, “More Than Physical” did not duplicate the success of “Venus”, stalling at number forty-one on the UK singles chart and number seventy-three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It was a top-forty success in Australia, where it peaked at number twenty-eight in the ARIA chart. Its biggest success was in nightclubs, and “More Than Physical” became a top-five hit on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart.
“More Than Physical” was featured in the 1986 British film Rita, Sue and Bob Too starring Michelle Holmes and Siobhan Finneran. The song is featured in the scene where the girls are babysitting for Bob and Michelle, and they dance around the living room while the video to “More Than Physical” plays on the television.
The bassline of the track is derivative of the 70’s disco hit “Boogie Oogie Oogie” by A Taste Of Honey.
The remixed single version’s music video further capitalized on Bananarama’s new glamorous and sexy visual image by including several well-muscled, topless men in a montage of shots of the group members. Some of the shots were made with colored filters, and are juxtaposed with tightly cropped shots of body parts or movements in slow motion.
SIDE A:
More Than Physical (Muscle Mix) 10:00
Remix – Ian Levine
SIDE B:
More Than Physical (Garage Mix) 8:45
More Than Physical (Dub) 4:58
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Cover: Mint (Generic)
CHARTS:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | More Than Physical | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #73 |
| 1986 | More Than Physical | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music\Club Play | #5 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: London Records
Catalog#: PRO 4601
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Promo, 33 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1986
Genre: Electronic
Style: Hi NRG, Synth-pop
Credits: Producer – Stock/Aitken/Waterman*
Written-By – Woodward*, Dallin*, Fahey*, Stock/Aitken/Waterman*
NOTES:
Promotional Not For Sale
Produced for P.W.L. Productions
Original version on the London album #422 828 013-1 R-1 “True Confesssions”
Find The 12″ on DISCOGS
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 20
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Any chance of this being re-uploaded??
Imagine being married to a woman who won’t have sex.
Thank u very muscle, excelent rip quality… I re-re-discover this mix
JM
This and A Trick of the Night are some of my fave Bananrama songs. Do you possibly have the A Trick Of The Night (Alternative 7″ – Number One Edit) 4:27? I have a very low quality copy of it and would love your treatment on it. Thanks Paul 🙂
This was originally called ‘Musclebound Mix’ and featured on a 2nd remix 12″ of ‘More Than Physical/Venus’, which was promoted as “The Esstenial Ian Levine Dance Pack”. You can see the original artwork here; http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=48521 It’s a great rip, so thank you very much. I’d love to see/hear the 3rd ‘Venus’ 12″ rip, also hasn’t ever appeared digitally, whic is called ‘Fire & Brimstone Remix’, shown here; http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=12296 Great artwork!
Thank you SO much for posting! I love this!
Thanks Paul for hearing my plea. Finally this rare gem is on here. We truly appreciate all this. I hope you also feature I Can’t Help It (The “Hammond” Version Excursion) on your future updates. These were never released on digital format as well. Thanks again.
You’re all very welcome! I really enjoyed doing this one 🙂
“Fan”tastic,
Thanks….this a rare gem and your rip is magic
Thanks for answering this request, Paul!
And again, your Lossless rip trumps them all.
Why this wasn’t a massive hit is one of the biggest pop mysteries in 1986. It’s on the back of the giant Venus, is modeled in the same NRG mould, is catchy as hell, an yet it didn’t even have a sniff of the UK Top 20 or US Top 40!
The Muscle Mix is gorgeous, and my favourite of the two.
Woo hoo!
Thank you! I didn’t have the ‘Muscle Mix’ yet – don’t think it’s available on cd 🙂
It exists on CD “Ian Levine….” with an edit of the Garage Mix
Fabulous! Thanks for making digital versions of these. I have 3 of the 12″s myself (the US version &both UK versions) as well, but never had a digital version of the Dub. Thanks for sharing with the fans!
Yay! I have really bad rips of these versions that I did myself years ago, so it’s great to have a nice clean versions. Thanks DJPaulT!
Thank you, Paul! I still have the regular 12″ of this but no means to rip it, so this is one more gap in my digital Banana collection filled!