As I mentioned last week, from 1982 to about 1985, there didn't seem to be a new wave or new-wave inspired hit from across the pond that I didn't buy. Sure, I have shared a few of these, such as B-Movie, but most of the bands featured on Misstep Mondays will be a step or two down the musical ladder from a song like "Nowhere Girl". Then again, that will be for you the audience to decide.
That brings us to this inaugural pick. I'm busy transferring vinyl from the letter F, and that's where we will find our first couple of inclusions. Fiction Factory ticked a few boxes for me in 1984, but the most important was that they were from Scotland. You will certainly know the pretty ballad "(Feels Like) Heaven", a No. 6 smash in the UK that also went top 10 in Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Ireland and did quite well in other places around the world. The song did nothing in my home country, but the video did get a few plays on shows I was watching at the time. Funny thing is, thanks to a certain nostalgia-fuelled satellite-radio station, I hear it more now than I even did when I was a kid. I have to admit when it comes on I don't touch the dial.
As for the album the song comes from, "Throw the Warped Wheel Out", it's one I'm not sure I have played since 1984... well, at least not until last night. Utterly forgettable. Perhaps I have played it before but just don't remember. The follow-up single to "(Feels Like) Heaven" was "Ghosts of Love". Wow, what a momentum killer. It peaked at No. 64 in the UK and only charted in one other country. There were better choices from the album but only marginally so. There would be no other hits for Fiction Factory, and the band would release their last album a year later. I'm not a big fan of the term one-hit wonder, but if the shoe fits. Back next Monday with another misstep from the letter F.
"(Feels Like) Heaven"
"Ghosts of Love"
9 comments:
There were certainly worse songs to grace the Top Ten in the UK in 1984. It does sound incredibly dated now. I don't recall (Feels Like) Heaven being used in any John Hughes films but it certainly has that kind of feel to it.
Drew, Nobody in their right mind will argue with you describing it as dated, that's for sure. Good call on feeling like a Hughes soundtrack. This song is dipping the toe into Misstep Mondays. Mostly downhill from here.
We all have things lurking in our collections that we would rather not lay claim to. With me it's Marillion's first album and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway which I actually played a while back as I thought to myself that it must have some redeeming features but alas no. Precious stylus wear to no benefit.
A good start to a feature I'm sure I'll end up embarrassing myself over... although I'll rarely get here on a Monday as I work as 12 hour shift.
I own the hit, though nothing else by them. Doesn't sound like I've missed much.
As Drew said there are worse songs, much worse
Some of which are on my shelves
D'ya know, I have a bit of a soft spot for (Feels Like) Heaven. Yes, it does sound terribly dated, but perhaps that's also part of its appeal now. And I think the vocalist wants to sound like Matt Johnson - which is of course a good thing!
Thanks for the reminder of this... ahhh ... and B Movie, whom I loved.
Rol, You're covered. The hit is all you need.
CC, I'll put my bad records up against yours anytime, buddy.
C, Like I said, I never turn the station when it comes on the radio. I just don't go out of my way to pull the album out. That's a good call on Matt Johnson. I hear it too. I agree with you on B Movie. No misstep there.
"Feels Like Heaven" I caught a tiny scrap of the video for on MTV's "London Calling" and I thought it sounded like the sequel to ABC's "All Of My Heart." I searched for it on vinyl to no avail for many years, before buying the CD reissue in 1994 or so… but not until after I had bought the hyper rare German Line CD of their second album, "Another Story," first. While "Throw The Warped Wheel Out" was by no means a debacle [I liked the Alan Rankine produced "All Or Nothing" in particular] the second album was a revelation! If you've not heard it [and I suspect not as the 1987 Line CD goes for a tidy three figures] it was a dynamic and vibrant album which the band self-produced with Callum Malcolm engineering so it has the similar sonics to the early Blue Nile sound, albeit in a more dance-oriented setting. "Standing On Top Of The World" is a breathtaking number.
Well-written post and superb set of responses.
I find it bizarre that to many, including myself, that Fiction Factory are seen as duff and yet the similar(ish) sounding and also one-hit wonder The Lotus Eaters are still held in high regard. Can't really explain that.....
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