I loved 'Damn...' but I wasn't even vaguely intrigued enough by her to buy the album and can't quite say why. I guess that went for a lot of people as well.
I was the same, both Damn ... and Right Beside You were great but I wasn't bothered enough to buy her albums.
I preferred Right Beside You to Damn, but her best song was As I Lay Me Down. Truly a forgotten classic.
Sadly not...it's weird because quite often these "out of nowhere" US-type hits would trigger the UK public into buying the album blind, but for whatever reason, Sophie never benefitted from that (except with me, I immediately wanted the whole CD, especially when I heard the follow-up California Here I Come).
He was in the successful revival of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in the early 00s, so it didn't end for him in the 90s … but I seem to recall stories of JN being difficult to work with – his original series Spender, which ran between 1991 and 1993 (chiming with 'Ain't No Doubt's success), was a major hit for BBC One at a time when it was really struggling in the ratings against ITV, yet it was dropped. And Nail wasn't alone in having a fall from TV grace – others fell harder and faster in the 90s (Nigel le Vaillant, Michael Elphick) …
I'd say it wasn't just about Columbia/Sony – TOTP had opened up a route for big US hits to get exposure here with the live satellite links, so all the major labels would have been on alert to who they could offer up. Much more attractive to record companies than having creepy Jonathan King pick your track for his dreadful US charts feature in the early 80s – and a much better chance for non-white artists to be selected, so props to whoever picked En Vogue, Kriss Kross and Arrested Development (all of whom JK would have snubbed).
He did Evita too remember,so he was very much still in the eye. Brilliant soundtrack that. On Madge, I barely remembered This Used To Be My Playground, odd song 30 years on. Is it much loved by the cognoscenti? Loved the Bedtime Stories era coming some time in the future..
I really do find This Used To My Playground to be one of Madonna's most meh and boring singles for me. Never put it on any of my various Madonna playlists. Surprised it was an #1 in the US too.
B52's Good stuff really was like a French and Saunders/Smack the pony parody song. Also, Sylvia Mason James's weave was definitely borrowed from Denice Pearson during the Rock the world campaign.
