“A.E.I.O.U.” was the second single released by British new wave group Europeans formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1985. “A.E.I.O.U.” along with two other singles were released before the group’s first album “Vocabulary”.
There was not a music video released for the single.
SIDE A: A.E.I.O.U. (Alphabet Soup) 6:24
SIDE B: Voice On The Telephone 3:38 A.E.I.O.U. (Album Version) 4:01
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: A&M Records – AMX 113
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Single
Country: UK
Released: 1983
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: New Wave, Synth-pop
“For America” is a 1986 single recorded by British pop group founded by Simon Toulson-Clarke and Julian Close. The song was taken from their debut LP The Circle & the Square.
During this period the group found themselves at odds with their record company regarding what it perceived as a lack of mainstream appeal in their choice of material, despite the success of of their previous single “Lean on Me” in the UK and Europe.
Toulson-Clarke responded to WEA’s request for something to appeal to American radio with the sardonic “For America”, which criticized what he saw as the style-over-content approach of the American media, as well as alluding to American military involvement in Grenada and Nicaragua. The song was not a hit in the United States, though it did outsell “Lean on Me” worldwide, reaching number one in six countries and the top ten in several others including the UK, where it spent twelve weeks in the chart peaking at number ten.
“Hearts of Fire” was the first single taken from the seventh solo studio album “Can’t Wait To See The Movie” by The Who frontman Roger Daltrey. “Hearts Of Fire” was the only single from the album to chart reaching #88 on the UK singles chart.
“Hearts of Fire”, was written by Russ Ballard. Ballard played guitar on this track, as well as providing backing vocals.
The flip-side includes an exclusive remix of “Quicksilver Lightning” which was written by Dean Pitchford and composed by Giorgio Moroder. The track is the theme song for the 1986 film Quicksilver starring Kevin Bacon, Jami Gertz, Paul Rodriguez, Louie Anderson, Laurence Fishburne, and Rudy Ramos. The film was directed by Thomas Michael Donnelly. The film went quite unnoticed, so both the song and the film are not easily remembered.
The song was released as a single in April 1986, and was a minor success on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts, reaching number 11.
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Originally posted December 19, 2013
“Christmas Wrapping” is a Christmas song by the American new wave band The Waitresses. First released on ZE Records’ 1981 compilation album A Christmas Record, it later appeared on the band’s 1982 EP I Could Rule the World If I Could Only Get the Parts and numerous other holiday compilation albums. It was written and produced by Chris Butler, with vocals by Patty Donahue. The song received positive reviews; AllMusic described it as “one of the best holiday pop tunes ever recorded”.
In 1981, ZE Records asked each of its artists to record a Christmas song for a compilation album, A Christmas Record. The Waitresses were in the middle of a difficult tour and the Christmas song commission was “the last thing we wanted”, Butler said later.
Butler wrote the song that August, assembling it from assorted unused riffs. He finished the lyrics in a taxi on the way to the recording studio, Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. Butler said the lyrics came from his hatred of Christmas: “Everybody I knew in New York was running around like a bunch of fiends. It wasn’t about joy. It was something to cope with.” The bassist, Tracy Wormworth, was inspired by Bernard Edwards’ bassline on the recently released “Good Times” by Chic.
Written while hip hop music was beginning to gain prominence, “Christmas Wrapping” is “almost rapped” by Donahue. Its title, a pun on “rapping”, alludes to the 1979 song “Christmas Rappin'” by Kurtis Blow. Butler said he also “liked the idea of the word ‘wrap,’ like a wraparound, because the story is circular”.
“Christmas Wrapping” is told from the perspective of an unpartnered woman, who was determined not to participate in the exhausting holiday season after a year that was so busy, she has been unable to go on a date with an appealing gentleman she met months ago. Preparing to dine alone on Christmas Eve, she runs into the fellow in a grocery store, bringing “the year to a very happy ending”.
“Christmas Wrapping” was released as a single in the UK in 1981 on Island Records. It did not initially make the charts, but was reissued in 1982 and reached No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart that December. It remains the Waitresses’ highest-charting single in the UK.
Butler said the reception was a rejuvenating gift for the band: “We do the Christmas song, forget about it and go back on the road. The next thing I know when calling back to New York is that it’s all over the radio and much to our surprise it leaps over our heads and hits all the cities where we’re heading and all of a sudden we’re back on an upswing again.”
** The 7″ Single Version has not appeared on CD as far as I know most compilations use the longer version. 7″ Single Version was taken from the UK 7″ single.