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Jason Maloney reviews
V o l u m e # 1 0 Week Commencing: 13th April 1987 Online Date: 14th April 2005
Tango in the Night
Five years after their last, water-treading album Mirage, and a full decade on from the defining Rumours, Fleetwood Mac evntually managed to drag themselves away from rehab, bankruptcy and solo careers for a record that would rejuvenate the Mac brand.
Under the direction of guitarist and temperamental genius Lindsey Buckingham, the fractious group provided just enough raw material for him to fashion a coherent and often magnificent album. One of Buckingham’s tour de forces, the first single Big Love (all galloping hooves and orgasmic grunts) hit the UK Top 10 and paved the way for Tango In The Night‘s respectable entry at #7 shortly after.
Big Love’s breathless, darkly sensual vibe also characterised Caroline and the towering title track, but ultimately Tango In The Night would be remembered for the lightweight Christine McVie hits Everywhere and Little Lies. Their succes as singles in late 1987 and early 1988 took the album’s popularity onto a much higher level; having come to rest in the lower reaches of the Top 75 by October without ever improving on its debut peak position, Tango shot back up the chart and all the way to #1 after a renewed promotional campaign post-Little Lies, and then it returned to the summit the following Spring.
With a total in excess of 100 weeks on the UK listings to its credit, the album is second only to Rumours in terms of chart longevity.
(DVDfever Dom adds: “It fascinated me that of the six singles released, the odd-numbered ones were Top 10 hits while the even ones missed the Top 40 completely, namely Seven Wonders, Family Man and Isn’t It Midnight. And what is Stevie Nicks’ obsession with the name ‘Sara’ all about?”)
The self-proclaimed Stock/Aitken/Waterman “Hit Factory” had begun its dominance of the UK Top 40 by early 1987, but album success had proved more elusive. Mel & Kim’s first (and sadly, only) long player was a move in the right direction; in the days before Kylie and Jason, the S/A/W blueprint had yet to dispense with the club-inspired sounds which characterised early efforts with Princess, Dead Or Alive and Hazell Dean, and still offered a degree of diversity.
F.L.M. – that’s Fun, Love and Money – featured a strong set of tracks with aspirations beyond the brazen, electro charm of the Appleby sisters’ debut hit Showing Out (Get Fresh At The Weekend). Recent #1 smash Respectable was also present, albeit as a disappointing remix, and its ubiquity during March ensured the album would chart strongly.
So it proved, F.L.M. entering at #3 and enjoying a good 6 month run. The superb title track subsequently hit #7, but Mel’s unexpected health problems in the summer of 1987 (originally announced as back condition, though actually the start of her tragically unsuccessful battle with cancer) stalled any chance of further releases from the album.
There was just one final release at the start of 1988, a new track That’s The Way It Is which maintained the duo’s 100% record of Top 10 hits, before fate intervened for good.
She Was Only
A Grocer’s Daughter
Despite a Top 5 single in the shape of It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way at the turn of the year, the third album from Dr. Robert and company failed to improve on the modest sales of its immediate predecessor, 1986’s Animal Magic.
The witheringly anti-Thatcher title and unambiguously Left-wing stance of tracks such as (Celebrate) The Day After You didn’t help win friends at the BBC, who banned the latter when it was issued as a single during the 1987 General Election.
It bombed at #54, while Out With Her – which appeared between It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way and The Day After You – deserved better than its #29 peak position. She Was Only A Grocer’s Daughter just grazed the Top 20, but was commercial and intelligent enough to reach a far wider audience than it actually did.
(DVDfever Dom adds: “Was it just me, or was Out With Her just like a wishy-washy revisit of It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way?”)
Page Content copyright © Jason Maloney, 2005.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.