The Romantics/Bucks Fizz – Talking in your sleep
#quotefromthe80s
You tell me that you love me
And I know that I'm right
Cuz I hear it in the night
I hear the secrets that you keep
When you're talking in your sleep
#TheRomantics #BucksFizz #TalkingInYourSleep
There are songs that needed to be launched three or four times before they were successful, until eventually something changes, maybe an arrangement, or part of the chorus, or simply the introduction of electronics made more modern sounds available, and in the end they find a success that completely obscures the previous versions.
It’s the case of Paul Young’s “Love of the Common People,” or Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” or a-ha’s “Take on Me,” which was launched in three or four versions with different titles before finding success.
Then there are songs that have an even stranger destiny: thay make history anyway, but without ever having a real great success.
In October 1983, a song entered the charts in the United States that I honestly like, between rock and pop; one of those songs that, when we happen to hear it, we always wonder… “Wait, but who sang this?”
Well, the Romantics, a Detroit-born band in 1977, sang it. The group didn’t have much appeal: they looked a bitlike out of time rockabillies, with leather clothes and steamy hair, and for some strange reasons they looked even older (actually they were between 25 and 30 years old), and this look like Happy Days was a bit weird for that 80s sound.
The song, however, was very strong, although simple, and told the story of the protagonist hearing his partner… talking in her sleep, and in short, in the sincerity of unconsciousness, she reveals how she misses him.
Which is absolutely amazing, because in the real world people talk in their sleep they usually say disconnected things. I guess there are also unfortunate cases where the person talking in his or her sleep starts calling or invoking names that have nothing to do with their partners, and then they are in trouble.
The video was simple but very 80s like: in the middle of the night of course The Romantics enter a kind of warehouse where an amount of young women are preparing to go to sleep… standing up. Yes, because in fact they all sleep standing like mannequins. In fact they weren’t even acting, because this scene was shot early in the morning, around 8am, when the studios were free, and so all the people had probably got up really early, so the sleeping look of the models was… absolutely natural.
As we said, however, the song was not very successful. And so on the other side of the ocean, in England, another group reproposed practically the same song in August 1984. They were Bucks Fizz, a double couple inspired probably by the Abba, but with a different track of records.
Bucks Fizz became famous (especially in England) in 1981, when they won the Eurovision Song Contest. During their performance they made themselves noticed for a particular dance move: at one point the two men ripped off the long skirts of the two singers, who finished the song almost in very short skirts – which became quite common in their videos and in their appearances on television.
Bucks Fizz made a second video where they found themselves in a sleepwalk on the top of a building in a kind of sleepover. A cute video, although the special effects and sets were a bit reminiscent of the old times variety shows.
Finally, not even this version was more successful. Within a few months, Bucks Fizz would also have an accident returning from a concert in Newcastle, and everyone had damage to their back bones, and even Mike Nolan, the blond guy in the video, was pronounced dead on the surgery table. He was kept alive artificially, went into a coma, and after months he awoke and said, “Hey, I’m fine!” but he still bears the consequences of that tragic crash.
In short, this song (which I repeat, it’s not so bad) just couldn’t be successful… and yet we are still talking about it today!!!
The Romantics and Bucks Fizz on Wikipedia
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