Mostly German Old Used 45s That Metal Mike Saunders Mailed To Me

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http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/175805.jpg

But I only have the Ottawan 7-inch! (That's the 12-inch, apparently, the cover of which looks way different. Mine doesn't even show any people on it.)

And oops yeah, Kelly Marie is Scottish not New Yorkese, my bad. (Not sure where I got the idea for the latter.) She's not "weak," though -- or at least "Feels Like I'm In Love" isn't (and I wouldn't call her voice or syndrums "thin", either, not that thinness is automatically damning in a disco realm; as Europopdisco goes, she sounds pretty full-bodied to me. And her syndrums are unbelievably catchy.):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Marie

Wow, crazy, I never knew this:

Her biggest hit by far was "Feels Like I'm in Love" (1980). That track was written by Ray Dorset, originally as a potential song for Elvis Presley who died before it could be given to him.

Xhuck, I'm sure you're right, I think I'm mostly talking about the sound of Britdisco coming through TV speakers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Can it be that my memory of US disco sounding fatter and fuller is an inadvertent disco-r*ckist retro-fit on my part? I don't know whether to hope so or hope not.

Syndrums are pretty much always great under all circumstances.

Saragossa Band "Big Bamboo (Ay Ay Ay)"/"I Like It" (Ariola, year unknown) The only single so far that didn't come in a picture sleeve of any kind, and the A-side may well be (after Cyan's "Misaluba") the second-most-likely song so far for me to someday work into a DJ set. Listening to "Big Bamboo" the first time, I guessed that the band might actually be authentically African (no idea what part of Africa they sound like they might be from -- I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to African music beyond the obvious big touch-points), but the "big bamboo" (see: Cheech & Chong!) chorus (not to mention the "ay ay ay" one) gave their song a hook like African music rarely gives me (which isn't to say African music lacks hooks; just that I'm not very skilled at hearing at them.) The title for some reason also made me think of "Black Superman" by Johnny Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band (isn't that subtitled "Ali Bombaye" or something?); not sure if they were actually from Africa or not. More likely, they were Africans recording in Europe, though I could be wrong; I bet (especially after hearing the less exciting dime-a-dozen disco English language B-side) that's what these Saragossa guys were too. (Also reminds me of a Kedzie Records compilation LP I have called Tonight At The Discotheque from 1975, the cover of which claims it's an "original French import" , but all the songs on which -- by such as The Lafeyette Afro-Rock Band, Francois Nyombo, Krispie and Company, New City Jam Band, even Roy Gaines -- seem to be explicitly "African-sounding"; I assume that sort of stuff got played in discos a lot in disco's early years, after "Soul Makossa" had been a big worldwide hit.) Also reminds me of a 12-inch single I have from 1985 (It Records) called "Je Suis Bamboo" by a trio named Bamboo!!!, one of whom looks like Greg Norton, the handlebar-mustached guy in Husker Du. But I know it's not him.

Various (Lafayette Afro-Rock Band family): Tonight at the Discotheque; Kedzie (France); 1975 (in Mexico as Various: The Other Sound of Philadelphia; Peerless; 1975):

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hipwax.com/music/patch/P_fig/afrobeat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hipwax.com/music/patch/afr_beat.html&h=200&w=200&sz=26&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=2mRA5MF_1RGN7M:&tbnh=104&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2527tonight%2Bat%2Bthe%2Bdiscotheque%2527%2Bkedzie%2B1975%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

And oops, Saragossa not African apparently, shows what the hell I know (translation courtesy Alta Vista Babel Fish):

The SARAGOSSA VOLUME set itself this from the outset to the goal. These musicians let their fans with unrestrained play joy and ease the concerns of the everyday life forget. Their musical brand name is a South American Feeling that it processes into melodische Songs with Pop and skirt elements haben.Happy sound purely! Their most well-known hits: "Big Bamboo", "Zabadak", "Malaika" and "Rasta one".

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.showconnection.ch/bilder/rockundoldiesbands/saragossaband.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.showconnection.ch/print.php%3Fsi%3D%26site%3Dkuenstlerangebot%26typ%3Drockundoldiesbands&h=348&w=228&sz=26&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=DR_fPwUWpERwcM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=79&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2527saragossa%2Bband%2527%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

And Johnny Wakelin turns out to be a white guy from the U.K.:

http://www.answers.com/topic/johnny-wakelin?cat=entertainment

Bamboo!!!, meanwhile, would appear to be Italian:

http://www.thecollector.it/mixmania/single.html

And now that I really think of it, Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band's Ali song doesn't even sound especially African, in any way I can figure, and never did. (But I always think it's going to.)

there is a band called Bamboo that has connections to german disco group Supermax through way of Kurt Hauenstein

http://www.discogs.com/release/245741

I think I have a Supermax 45 or two around the house somewhere, too. I should pull them back and out and re-listen sometime. (Unless I'm confusing them with, like, the Spider Murphy Gang or somebody. Definitely saw tons of records by both of those acts in the record stores all the time when I was in Germany in the early '80s. Had know idea who they were.)

On second listen, "Big Bamboo" was sounding a little thinner and less percussively exciting than the first time. (Second listen was also after I'd seen the Saragossa Band's photo on line, but I don't think that was why my opinion slipped a little.)
I'll still keep the 45, but DJ play is unlikely.

Kirsty Shaw "Yummy Yummy Yummy"/"Breakaway" (CBS, 1988.) Flimsy disco, from a British looking lady, though the fact the Frank Farian (of Boney M/ Milli Vanilli / Far Corporation whose album I've still never heard if they actually made one fame) gets the writing credit on the B-side suggests she's more likely German. Anyway, anybody who thinks Kelly Marie is thin-sounding should definitely stay away from this trifle. But I like it. B-side actually has the feel of a mid '80s Boney M album track, come to think of it, plus a sax part. A-side is of course a cover of one of bubblegum's all time oral sex and/or pregnancy classics, from the Ohio Express. Not a bad number for a bubbledisco dolly to cover, obviously, and the beats here are done yummy Hi-NRG/Italo style.

"Far Corporation whose album I've still never heard if they actually made one"

not that great once you get past the genius of Stairway...

this is backtracking way up to the top of the thread but have you heard Chilly's "For Your Love" cover? it's great. a 10-minute rock disco workout ... it's on the full length Johnnylovesjenny LP on German Polydor. been discussed a bit on the beardo disco thread and elsewhere ....

Nope! Though obviously I should. Only disco cover of "For Your Love" I can think of is the one on Claudja Barry's 1983 Personal Records No La De Da Part 2 EP (on which she also does "I Got You" by Split Enz. No idea if there was ever a Part 1 EP.) Boney M did do a wicked "Still I'm Sad," though.

Sheila And B. Devotion "Spacer"/"Don't Go" (Carrere, 1979.) Okay, everybody knows this one already, right? So reiterating that the A-side is one of the most beautiful records in human history, Italodisco space-rock produced by Chic or otherwise, would just be redundant. B-side, which I hadn't listened to since the last time I'd played her whole album (which was definitely a few years ago), sounded gratifyingly great as well. I still have trouble remembering where the "B" goes in the act's name, though (I always think she's named Sheila B.!)

Hank the Knife And the Jets "Stan the Gunman"/"Catharina Serenade" (Electrola, 1975) Ha ha, these guys look totally badass! Definitely the most punk looking 45 in the batch. Five guys, mostly with furry mustaches and/or thick sideburns and/or receding hairlines and all with matching leather jackets like a street gang, standing in a deserted alley waiting to kick your sorry ass, sucker. I was hoping they'd sound hard pub rock like Dr. Feelgood or the Count Bishops (especially since they're singing about a man with a gun), and they come pretty close -- rockabilly updated with really tough riffs, for an age where punk's just around the corner. Fans of Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette, I bet. B-side's an ominous and film-ready spaghetti-western-style twang instrumental, though it starts out like a cross between the beginnings of "Dream On" and "Last Child" by Aerosmith. Who were punks in 1975, too: Last childs, just punks in the street. (Well, that was technically '76, but you get the idea).

On youtube they're more Slade (who had done a song called "My Friend Stan") than Dr. Feelgood though:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ihk4Jp5yO4g

Or maybe Slade with Feelgood guitars? (There's also this little horn hook half a minute or so in that was seemingly later stolen by Adam Ant in "Goody Two Shoes," unless it was Wham in "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" or some other MTV pop smash from that era.)

Secret Service "Ten O'Clock Postman"/"Hey Johnny" (Strand, 1980) Heavily accented English-as-second- language keyboard-hooked pop new wave, which description I know sounds promising so far, but this is pretty flaccid, even if they are dressed like Tommy Tutone or the Cretones or somebody like that. (Both of whom were generally pretty darn flaccid themselves, come to think of it. Besides that telephone song of course.) '70s soft-poppers trying to go new wave instead of '70s hard rockers trying to go new wave, the latter of which were almost always preferable. Plus what postman shows up at 10:00? I hope the keyboard guy found a better band.

Supermax "Don't Stop the Music"/"I Am What I Am" (Weateque, 1976) Okay, I am totally cheating here; Metal Mike didn't send me this. (At least not in the batch he sent this summer, he didn't. I may well have received it from here in some previous year's annual package of thrift-bin bargains. Or maybe I bought it way back in Germany myself. But maybe once I'm done with Metal Mike's pile I should just let this thread evolve into other mysterious foreign 45s on my shelves -- that'd be fun, huh?) Anyway. Sounds excellent. If this is 1976, they are helping invent Eurodisco, right? Tempo is kind of slow and sleazy on the A-side, with unexpected congas underneath and an eerie flute or something wafting through. Would obviously segue excellently into the Yarbrough and Peoples if not Bits and Piece song(s) of the same name. Also, at five minutes flat, pretty long for a 7-inch. B-side is a manly-vocaled even slower one that suggests Eric Burdon helped inspire the concept of disco-dude vocals (though Santa Esmeralda already proved that, right? But these guys might have come first.) Also, "I Yam What I Yam" = Popeye, obviously.

Oops, actual label of Supermax would be Atlantic, and actual label of Hank the Knife and the Jets would be EMI. Info on 45 sleeves can be confusing.

Supercharge "Get Up And Dance"/"Rip It Off" (Virgin, 1976) Metal Mike didn't send this one, either! Soon I will get back to our regularly scheduled program, I promise, but these guys were next to Supermax on my 45 shelf and I wanted to hear them. Plus: both songs produced by Robert John Lange, who apparently wasn't even a Mutt yet! A-side is tough macho-voiced brass-based minstrel rock getting funky like white boys evolving into disco, or trying to, and actually (especially the singer) winding up sounding a lot like the Electric Six would a quarter century hence. B-side is a funk instrumental, Average White Band-style I suppose, with guys chanting "rip it off" and pretending they are George Clinton now and then. Synth guy steps in and takes a proggy break. Seven dudes in the band total, and dudes is what they are, especially the bald kingpin in the middle, in beard and square shades and leopardskin, with legs crossed.

Evelyn Thomas "High Energy"/"High Energy (Instrumental)" (Ariola, 1984) Another classic (the vocal version anyway) that's somewhat redundant to keep, since it's already on TSR's excellent Music For a Hot Body" aerobics compilation among other places, but it's swell to finally own the 7-inch. I am so not the demographic for records like this (since I, um, don't do aerobics!), but who cares, it's great. Plus it had an entire genre named after it (unless the genre name came first: which was it?)

Tight Fit "Fantasy Island"/"Wildfire" (Jive, 1982) Not positive, but I think I heard of these kids (two cute girls plus one slimy looking guy) before, in a roundup or two that Ken Barnes and/or other writers wrote in New York Rocker or Trouser Press or Creem in the early '80s about some sort of "new pop" "revival" that was supposedly going on back then, definitely involving Bucks Fizz, and possibly also involving Tight Fit, wherever they were from, and other such acts. Anyway, both these songs have good intricate melodies, sweet and clear, and plenty going on in the production department. Unquestionably lots of skill at play here, even if I didn't pay attention to the words. My only complaint is that the guy on the A-side doesn't sing as good as the girls in the A-side or himself on the B-side.

Tight Fit "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"/"I'm Dancing In The Street" (Jive, 1982) The guy looks even slimier on the cover of this one, seeing how he's not wearing a shirt and he stole Loverboy's headband. The girls also don't look as cute as on the other one (though, I now realize, the brunette is cuter than the blonde on both). "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," despite also being based on African music and getting an okay rumble beat underneath, is a pretty pointless song to do history's millionth cover of. B-side is a dull midtempo, too slow to actually dance in the street to, though it's not hard to picture somebody making a video out of it back then. Bleh.

Vicky "Klipp Und Klarr"/"Medzen Fur's Herz" (Philips, year unknown) A-side is mere dreary boring schlager, B-side relatively more upbeat and full-throated boring schlager with some semblance of what slightly almost recalls a Motown bassline. Vicky's blouse suggests something a lady goatherd might wear.

Vicky "Sieh Die Welt Mit Meinen Augen"/"Halt Die Welt An" (Philips, year unknown) Vicky seems to be attempting to look sexier on the cover of this one, as opposed to the other one, on which she seemed to be attempting to look merely cute, if that. A-side is her dullest schlager yet. But B-side has enough oompah to suggest that somebody might hoist a stein to it in the gasthaus, albeit not in any especially memorable way. (And I just turned the picture sleeve over and there's a zany picture of Vicky rolling around in a giant gyroscope thing! What the hell?)

Waterloo & Robinson "Meine Kleine Welt (My Little World)"/"Superstar" (Gema, 1976) One of these guys -- I'm going to take a wild guess and assume it's probably Robinson, since it's the guy on the right and his name comes second -- looks totally absurd on the cover, with his giant red scarf/tie and pointy little curled up mustache and striped sleeves: Like maybe some early '70s sitcom idea of "flamboyant," not that I can actually tell what his motives are. Music is duo-schlager schmaltz for grandmas. Maybe some hausfraus somewhere find it extremely romantic.

Waterloo & Robinson "Eleonora"/"Running Bear" (RCA, 1980) Now it is a few years later, and they look like old unwashed hippies who just stepped in from the desert with Mad Max, and Robinson (who might actually be Waterloo since now he's on the left--so much for that theory) still has his pointy mustache. Also, now they are singing in English, about all the battles that Eleonora fought for freedom in a small town along the shore so we should raise a glass for her and her baby on the way; it's more singer-songwriter folk than schlager this time, and there's a spoken recital part toward the end. I definitely prefer them in this mode. But I really prefer them in "Running Bear" mode, where they go Boney-disco over Rufus/Blue Swede ooga-chuckas and cheese synths and sing about what I assume must be a brave Native American hero, or possibly an actual bear who runs. Their voices are too thin to really carry the song; they get lost, which is okay, because it's not like their voices were great to being with. But somehow they make it sound rather sweet regardless.

(Also, I just noticed that on the first of those two Waterloo & Robinson 45 covers, it says "Eurovision Den Haag '76." Does that mean they won, or what?)

Windows "How Do You Do"/"Nobody's Baby" (Golden 12, 1972) Gruff, somewhat boogiefied cover of early '70s McNeil and Whatever The Other Guy's Name Was country-rock Top 40 hit. Not bad; possibly even better than the original, which I probably have around here on some '70s compilation but heck if I know where. B-side was so scratched it was threatening to destroy my stylus, so I didn't play it all the way through.

Plus it had an entire genre named after it (unless the genre name came first: which was it?)

The genre name came first, somewhere around the middle of 1983 as I recall, and as a sexuality-neutral alternative to "Boystown". "High Energy" was UK composer/producer (and DJ at Heaven, London's biggest gay club) Ian Levine's self-conscious attempt at taking the genre overground by means of an "anthem" (and by means of *very* quickly recycling the rhythm of the original "Relax" 12-inch, to boot).

When Levine tired of the term in 1985, he attempted to re-name it "Eurobeat", and tried the same trick again - with markedly less success - with Eastbound Expressway's "You're A Beat" (geddit?)

Great thread. When do we get Geiersturzflug's "Bruttosozialprodukt"?!

On subsequent listens, the 45s by Fox, Amanda Lear and Wencke Myhre all grew on me a little. Fox benefit from having a good lady singer and creatively constructed songs about men with special powers. Lear's Nazi Nico bullshit gets more interesting if you think of her as possibly being musically influenced by Roxy Music (i.e., Bryan Ferry's rigid inflections and sundry electronic weirdness), who used her photo on their LP cover at least once; also, her song about rocking and rolling is audibly an attempt at a rock-disco move, plus it's also about being nagged, like that Halos song Joan Jett covered once. Myhre, meanwhile--like the first Manuela single documented above--is evidence that not all schlager is created equal. Which is a good thing to know.

This isn't a joke thread?

I'm not sure, actually.

Anyway, just noticed ABBAphiles Tight Fit get rootsy and authentic in "Like Wildfire"!: "He plays the bottleneck guitar, he must love those Delta blues."

Also, the electro-opening to Waterloo & Robinson's wonderful "Running Bear" sounds like the opening to Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" 7 years early!

But sadly, that means I've gotten through this year's entire Metal Mike pile twice, which I guess means that I need to switch gears now and start documenting other mysterious old 45s on my shelf that look like Metal Mike could have sent them to me (and some of him, he undoubtedly did, in past years, but I have no idea which ones anymore.)

So:

Afrique "Hot Mud"/"Soul Makossa" (Mainstream, 1973) A fusion band pretending to be Afro-funk maybe-- presumably French because of their name, but maybe they're just pretending to be French, too? Manu Dibango cover much better than noodling on A-side.
Both sides have horns, but the makossa has more. (Is "makossa" a kind of music, by the way? Or what?)

"...and some of them, he undoubtedly did..."

AJL Band "Classical Salsa"/"Sweet Sticky Thing" (Baal/Pye, 1976) This is the first single on this entire thread that has a little hole instead of a big one! But it is still a 7-inch! A-side sounds like neither classical nor salsa, but rather a lush and smooth post-fusion semi-disco instrumental. B-side is an Ohio Players cover, presumedly mellowed out (haven't listened to the original for a while, but I doubt it was this laid back), but still sweet and sticky. Label says "manufactured and distributed by ATV House. GT. Cumblerland Place. W.1". I don't know where that is. Not in the U.S., I don't think.

"Soul Makossa" is one of the most influential songs on the face of the planet. especially when it comes to the development of disco. and the development of great michael jackson songs. and even the development of amazing baltimore club anthems.

manu dibango and the fania all stars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7yRQAici7zU

Anerican Eagles "Kokka"/"Tonk" (Carrere, 1977) "Made in France." And definitely more salsa, on both sides, than the AJL Band's "Classical Salsa," though possibly not more salsa than Manu Dibano and the Fania All Stars! (Thanks, Scott!) Both sides are competent or better, though I definitely prefer the B-side thanks to its profusion of hard rock guitars. Neither side, though, is anywhere near as weird as the picture sleeve, which against a pink background shows a double-vision photo of this naked guy playing guitar (covering up private parts), and he has either a bird or flower head, it's hard to tell. Back cover shows his backside. Including his butt.

Androsingers "Androgynous Sound"/Androgynous Theme" (Barclay, 1977) Swishy male voice: "Anita, I'm thirsty. Do you want something to drink? Maybe some orange juice?" Catty female voice: "No way, you're much too gay...It's the andgrogynous sound, we both can play." Cover: two bald manequin heads, one with makeup, both from the shoulder up, naked inasmuch as you can see them. Music after the opening dialogue: Percolating semi-symphonic synth-disco with mostly incomprehensible voices easing through, light as air.

Archaeopterix "Barbarella"/"No More Living Without Loving" (Polydor, year unknown) "Made in Germany." Named after a prehistoric bird with teeth, or maybe a winged reptile with feathers, but they spelled it wrong. "Barbarella" is dancey soul-rock about a girl who's been giving the manly singer problems, and has hooks stolen from "Barbara Ann" and "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)." B-side has a slower tempo, more horns, and also appears to be about one of the singer's women. Decent minstrel-rock, though.

And ps: The Eagles doing "Kokka" and "Tonk" call themselves "American" (though I doubt they literally are), not "Anerican" as mis-claimed above.

Terrific thread, Chuck--you should keep it going till you run out of interesting, little discussed (on ILM) 45's to write about! And who cares about whether they fit the title concept or not?

Fox's "Only You Can" showed up last May on the League Of Pop over in Poptimists, which means we were listening to it blindfolded. Daddino, who was the judge that week, guessed it was J-pop. It sounded vaguely familiar to me; I wondered if it was by latter-day art bohemians going for '70s naff, but I cheated and did a lyrics search and found out it was actually '70s naff shooting for '70s naff and hitting the bullseye. Also found out that this was a top five hit in the UK, from whence Fox originated, though I suggested that if the singer had actually been raised in the UK she must have been hidden in a basement and denied human contact through age 13, since I was damned if I could work out how her pronunciation originated in social interplay on the British Isles. (A thought: perhaps as a wee'un she'd been left in the forest to die but was adapted by a pack of foxes, hence the group name.) William Bloody Swygart, who'd supplied the track, then informed us that the woman was originally Australian, "and this is by no means the oddest she ever sounded." Anyway, the reason I first thought "Only You Can" might have been recreated rather than original '70s naff was that its '70s naffness was scarily precise, and I figured that actual '70s naff wouldn't try to be '70s naff so precisely (since why would it need to?). I got caught up in my own convoluted reasoning, I guess. Song comes off as a teen girl with speech impediment and a drive towards infantilism doing a countryish tuba two-step accompanied on keyboards by Captain of Captain & Tennille. "You can fly my heart like a bamboo kite/Make it twirl and gyrate just like a tribal delight." Tribal? "You can see as far as an eagle bird/See right through my head to my every word." An eagle bird! About perfect of its type. "Sssingle Bed" sounds on first listen a bit funkier (relatively speaking) and more stuttery; concept seems to be that the evening is promising but the bed's not big enough for the both of them.

adapted = adopted

Don Backy "Mama Che Caldo"/"Io Che Giro Il Mondo" (Clan, year unknown) On the front single cover young Don is sensitively tending to his beloved horse in his beloved stable; on the back cover, he (Don, not the horse) is sitting spread-legged on a small stool in his black vest and peg pants and white socks and black shoes, smoking a cigarette like a tough young Italian guy. Except I don't know if he's Italian, or Spanish, or Mexican, or what. "Mama Che Caldo" catchily goes back and forth between blatant Tex-Mex border-style two-step and crooning parts; "Io Che Giro Il Mondo" is like a European version of Dion-style doo-wop, but with mariachi horns and bel canto (or whatever) croon parts, again. I like both sides. And oh yeah, the single sleeve is actually a sort of foldout thing, with one part that has all the other slicksters in Don's band surrounding a silhouette of some lady. Another part proclaims "La ragazza del Clan sta per incidere un nuovo disco. Il primo di Voi che lo avvistera' telefoni subito alla polizia. Quelli del Clan." Whatever the heck that means.

Carl Barok "Blue Nights In Granada"/"The March Is Over" (Mustang, 1977) Not to be confused with "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head, and also I think they spelled Grenada wrong. A-side is a melodically beautiful Eurodisco almost-instrumental, the only words being some guy who monotonally asks once or twice whether he listener remembers those blues nights in granada. The B-side is some precious mix galactic funk (only funky for a second or two at the start) and post-Carl Stalling-cartoon-soundtack proto-video-game proto-electronica, and I find it annoying. Though maybe Carl was just a big Meco fan.

"the listener remembers those blue nights in granada" (where maybe blues got played?)

and precious mix of etc etc etc

Waterloo & Robinson and Supermax (to the extent that they were mostly a one-man show, that man being Kurt Hauenstein from Vienna) were Austrian. They're also still active. I saw Waterloo, the pseudo-Native-American, carrying his guitar into a hotel a short walk from my cabin in the Vienna Woods this past May Day.

Baccara were Spanish, but their stuff was produced in Munich. "Sorry I'm a Lady" was their other big hit, and I think they did a Eurovision Song Contest entry later as a failed come-back attempt. I think that they, too, are still active.

Archie Bleyer "Hernando's Hideaway"/"S'il Vous Plait" (Cadense, year unknown) I have a feeling now that this is probably too old to really qualify for this thread, but I already played it, so I'll put it here. (Was going to follow it up with "Draussen Auf Kaution"/"Jet Set" by Blumfeld, Big Cat 1995, seeing as how they are apparently actually German, but I decided that's definitely ineligible both because it's too new and because my copy was clearly sent to me as a promo in the mail, judging from the press release inside. I'll play it again someday, though, I'm sure.) Anyway, Bleyer's got "Maria Alba clarinet soloist" helping him out on the A-side, and "James Burke trumpet soloist" on the B-side. Don't like the latter -- it's a kind of mid-century elevator-vocaled American EZ Listening that's actually worse than schlager, imagine that. As for "Hernando's Hideaway," I'm guessing this is far from a definitive version (have no knowledge of the history of the song, though the label on this 45 suggests it was from the "The Pajama Game"? But does that mean this version was, or just the song?); Bleyer's a notably stiff singer, for one thing. (Or he employs a notably stiff singer -- apparently Bleyer's who conducts the orchestra and chorus.) But the music (considered a tango, I guess?) is almost-not-stiff by definition. And I'm not sure I own any other versions. So this fills a much-needed void in my collection, in some way.

Bombitas "My Boy"/"My Boy (Instrumental)" (Sanii, 1986). Label based in Madrid; marketing and distribution in Belgium. Beat, very obviously, stolen from "Girls Just Want To Have Fun." Hair on two girls on the cover is piled high and messy in a slutty-disco-dolly-trying-to-look-new-wave way, like Company B on the cover of their debut album, but wasn't that a year later? Still, probably, not an unpopular style at the time. Song written by the great Herman Brood...who was from Holland, right? Song is perfectly serviceable, if not especially distinctive, mid '80s rock-oriented-dance (as oppposed to dance-oriented-rock), a good genre to be generic to. Vocals are, um, tart, don't fade into the background--extroverted, not in an uselessly overblown diva-like way, but still in a way that suggests the singer isn't afraid to make a spectacle of herself. At one point the singer seems to discuss her mother's opinion of her boy's lovemaking technique, but I probably heard that part wrong.