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07-12-2022, 07:54 PM
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#28 (permalink) |
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Born to be mild
Join Date: Oct 2008
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Posts: 26,994
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 Christopher Hamill (born 19 December 1958), known professionally as Limahl (an anagram of Hamill), is an English pop singer. He was the lead singer of the pop group Kajagoogoo beginning in 1981, before embarking on a brief solo career, garnering the 1984 hit "The NeverEnding Story", the theme song for the film of the same name.
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07-20-2022, 11:13 AM
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#30 (permalink) |
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Born to be mild
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: 404 Not Found
Posts: 26,994
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 Case No: THDAMMXXII-XVIII-VII-03/14 Client: Confidential Casefile: Who? Exile What? “Kiss You All Over” Where? America When? 1978 Why? Seen as a one-hit wonder, I want to know what happened to them. The first time I heard the song “Kiss You All Over” (on the wireless, son - radio, to you) I was convinced they were a soul band, and that at least the singer was black. If you’ve heard the song then you probably would agree with me if you had not already seen the band, but no: three at least look like distant cousins of Michael McDonald, while the main singer (or at least the guy who starts the song and does the most, um, gyrating in tight pants on the stage) looks more like a taller Ozzy Osbourne, while the bass player bears a striking resemblance to a cross between John Oates (of Hall and Oates) and Pablo Escobar. Right. Exile obviously just hit that sweet spot, no pun intended, with this song, which is just the right side of the BBC censor but still retains enough innuendo to make young girls blush and/or giggle, depending on which young girl you’re talking about. Reminds me of the (true) story of a girl who went into a record shop while I was there and asked the clerk if he had the latest song from Dr. Hook, which was called “Sexy Eyes”, and of course she giggled “Hi. Do you have “Sexy Eyes”?” Not sure what how he responded but it was harmless fun. Back to Exile however. I guess these are one of the bands who typify the label of “one hit wonder”. Their song hit the charts in 1978 and went down a storm (again, no pun intended, you dirty beggars), getting to the number six slot in the UK and going all the way (I swear, this just keeps happening, all right? It’s not my fault!) to number one (now you’re just being silly!) in the US of A. It was, as you may have guessed, their only hit single, and perhaps telling that it was written for them by one of the songwriter powerhouse duos of the seventies, Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who between them were responsible for hit singles for, among others, Smokie, Blondie, Suzi Quatro and The Sweet. Exile were never heard of again. Or were they? One thing a band can do to make it seem to the public that they’ve vanished from sight is to take a sharp left turn and explore a totally different genre, and this, apparently, is what happened with Exile. They moved from smooth pop/soul into the realm of country music. Oh yes they did. And what’s more, they were, by all accounts, damn successful at it. But before that - well, Wiki says the success of the hit single “resulted in invitations to tour with Aerosmith (what?), Heart and Fleetwood Mac”, though it doesn’t make clear whether these invitations were taken up. Personally, I can’t see it. Anyone going to a concert by any of these three bands would probably know “Kiss You All Over” and shrug at the rest of Exile’s pretty-much-unknown catalogue from, at the time, three albums, two of which it’s highly likely nobody had ever listened to. Jimmy Stockley, the voice first heard on the single and therefore I guess the lead vocalist, though the song is sort of divided between him and the guitarist, J.P. Pennington, left two years later, in 1980, and passed away in 1985. Whether his leaving had anything to do with his illness - he died of complications from hepatitis - or not I don’t know, and also I’m unsure whether the title of the fifth album, Don’t Leave Me This Way, released in 1980, was a tribute to or directed at him, but he was replaced and Exile narrowly missed out - well, not narrowly - further fame when the again Chinn/Chapman single “Heart and Soul”, the title track from their sixth album, failed to chart. A few years later Huey Lewis would have a major hit with it, which must have irked Exile, as to be fair, their version doesn’t sound that much different to his, and no doubt his success where they had failed upset them so much that they decided this pop business was not for them, strapped on some cowboy boots and headed for Nashville. Well, Kentucky. Which was where they already were. Well, the metaphor holds true. Yes it does. The point is, to paraphrase a band you’ve never heard of, an Irish outfit called Bagatelle (ever heard “Summer in Dublin”? “Second Violin?” “Trump Card”? No? Sod ya then!), they changed from rock’n’roll to country boys. And did it pay off. Almost immediately Nashville (yes, yes!) took them to their hearts, and they had a top ten album - three, in fact, with their second, Kentucky Hearts, reaching the top spot on the country chart - and a top forty country single. They became so popular and famous that other country artists wanted to cover their songs, and one of them even went back to their first album before they became country boys, Don’t Leave Me This Way, re-recorded a track off that called “The Closer You Get”, and took it to number one. In the country charts, of course. Score! Life couldn’t have been better. Their albums was hits as soon as they were released, and all but one of the singles from them hit the number one spot on the country charts. They gathered a fistful of nominations, were one of the biggest country acts of the eighties (who knew?) and were able to pack out no less a venue than the Grand Ole Opry when they finally called it a day ten years later in 1993. Seems like although the pop world took them to its breast (no really, I’m not doing this on purpose!) for one hit single then dropped them like a spurned lover (okay that one was deliberate), the good ol’ boys and girls loved them for what they became, not what they had been, and their name is no doubt still celebrated and toasted wherever country boys and cowgirls meet. In the end, it seems after a brief flirtation (yes that too was on purpose) with pop music, Exile found a new home in the sheltering arms of country music. Can I get a “Yee-haw!”? No? Pfft, suit yourselves.
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