Song of the day: Yazoo – "Only You"

Here’s a song from the 1980s that Rick Astley reminded me of, courtesy of him choosing songs as guest programmer for Australian TV music program rage over the weekend.

I know I railed against an 80’s song yesterday (in Educating Peter # 26) – and I generally loathe most of what came out of that musical decade – but I wanted to play you this song because I think it’s excellent. If you ignore all the 80’s affectations (namely, the synthesizers), I reckon you’ll hear a superbly crafted piece of pop music.

Yazoo – “Only You“ (1982)

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I also think Howard Jones‘ songs are great too. (Note to self: Put “What Is Love” on the blog sometime.)

Musical coincidences # 147

Today’s coincidence appears courtesy of Mr. Fabulous (Hi, F!), and it’s a doozy.

Here’s a case of a chord progression spanning three decades:

The Who – “Pictures Of Lily“ (1967) (excerpt)

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Brian Wilson – “Love And Mercy“ (1988) (excerpt)

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Teenage Fanclub – “Sparky’s Dream” (1995) (excerpt)

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Talk about identical. Well spotted, Mr. Fabulous. Thanks.

Oh, and Mr. Fabulous mentioned another song…

“And add the verse from Yazoo‘s ‘Only You‘ if you like…”

I was almost going to not include that because the chord progression in “Only You”‘s isn’t as identical as the songs above (it uses different chords at the end) – but it is one of my favourite synth-pop songs from the 80’s, so I might as well throw it in as well:

Yazoo – “Only You“ (1982) (excerpt)

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Here are the full versions:

The Who – “Pictures Of Lily“ (1967)

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Brian Wilson – “Love And Mercy“ (1988)

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Brian Wilson – “Love And Mercy“ (1995)

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Teenage Fanclub – “Sparky’s Dream” (1995)

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Yazoo – “Only You“ (1982)

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