The Tubes ‎– Tip Of My Tongue (1983)

The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, “White Punks on Dope”. During its first fifteen years or so, the band’s live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics.They are perhaps best-remembered for their 1983 single “She’s a Beauty”, a top 10 U.S. hit with a frequently-played music video in the early days of MTV and in the 1980 film Xanadu singing the rock portion of the cross-genre song “Dancin'” opposite a big band.

After the band’s fifth album was rejected by A&M, The Tubes moved to Capitol Records and begun working with David Foster, the resulting album “The Completion Backwards Principle” in 1981 yielded the band’s first hit single, “Talk To Ya Later” which hit #6 on the Billboard US Mainstream Rock chart.

Continuing their partnership with David Foster, The Tubes’ sixth album, titled “Outside Inside”, was released in 1983. The album included a large roster of guest artists including Patti Austin, Martha Davis, Steve Lukather and Steve Porcaro.

The first single from “Outside Inside” was “She’s A Beauty” and this would hit #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts and #10 on the Pop Singles chart. Following up this smash hit was “Tip Of My Tongue” and to further cement their new found place in the pop charts, the 12″ single would contain a dance mix as well as an extended version of the album track “Drums”.

Unfortunately the single would only reach #52 on the US pop charts.

Tip Of My Tongue (Dance Mix)         3:59

Drums                                           4:59

TUBES

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Peter Frampton ‎– Lying (1986)

Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton’s international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold more than six million copies in the United States alone and spawned several hits.

Frampton continued to record throughout the 1980s, although the releases generally met with little commercial success.

He did, however, achieve a brief, moderate comeback of sorts in 1986 with the release of his Premonition album, and the single “Lying,” which became a big hit on the Mainstream Rock charts.

The US Promo 12″ added a John Potoker extended remix.

Lying (LP Version)                          4:11

Lying (Extended Remix)                  5:40

FRAMPTON

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Pseudo Echo ‎– A Beat For You (1984)

“A Beat For You” hit the Australian Charts in April 1984, reaching #12 but it’s Australian remix running 7:26 was only released in Australia and New Zealand.

Obviously the US record company had faith that this was a hit single as it received not only the remix treatment by Mark S. Berry in 1985 (already posted) but this earlier release with remixes by Paul Sabu & Rusty Garner. The duo had previously worked together remixing Matthew Wilder’s “Break My Stride” and Kim Carnes’ “Hurricane” in 1983,  and the classic “Go Insane” by Lindsay Buckingham in 1984. Although not an obvious choice as remixers for Pseudo Echo, the pair turned in a pair of excellent mixes which never saw release outside the US.

A Beat For You (Vocal Dance Mix)           5:20

A Beat For You (Echo Dub Mix)               6:01

PSEUDO

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Mental As Anything ‎– Big Wheel (1984)

Mental As Anything (or Mentals to fans) is an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976.Its most popular line-up was Martin Plaza (real name Martin Murphy) on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa (real name Chris O’Doherty) on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter “Yoga Dog” O’Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne “Bird” Delisle (real name David Twohill) on drums; and Andrew “Greedy” Smith on vocals, keyboards and harmonica.

The fourth single from the band’s fifth studio album “Fundamental” was the Martin Plaza penned “Big Wheel”. The album was produced by American record producer legend Richard Gottehrer and did result in the band’s biggest international success “Live It Up” after the track was used in the film “Crocodile Dundee”.

Big Wheel (Extended Mix)                                                      7:10

Big Wheel (Single Version)                                                     4:12

Apocalypso – Wiping The Smile Off Santas Face                     4:18

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Nikki ‎– If You Wanna (1989)

Nikki (or Nikki Lee) is a Japanese-American musician, born in Okinawa, Japan and raised in Dayton, Ohio, United States.Signed to Geffen Records, he released one album, Nikki, in 1989. Three singles were released from the album: “Ooti Ooti”, “Notice Me”  and “If You Wanna” . Of the three, only “Notice Me”, written by Nikki and Paul David Wilson, was a hit, reaching #21 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #11 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart and bringing Nikki and Wilson honors from BMI as writer and publisher of one of the most performed songs of the year, 1990.

“If You Wanna” was produced and remixed by Keith Cohen.

If You Wanna (12″ Club Mix)                           6:58

If You Wanna (12″ House Mix)                        7:09

If You Wanna (LP Version)                              4:06

If You Wanna (Percappella Mix)                      4:26

If You Wanna (Club Instrumental)                    4:22

Come And Over (LP Version)                          4:41

NIKKI

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By eightiesvinyl Posted in Nikki

Total Contrast ‎– Takes A Little Time (1985)

Total Contrast was a male duo from England, specialising in soul and electro music. Group members were Robin Achampong and Delroy Murray.

In the mid 1980s, they scored several hits on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, including “Takes a Little Time,” which hit #1 in 1985.  In their homeland, the same song, reached number 17 in the UK Singles Chart. Further releases included “Hit and Run”, a minor hit which reached #41 in the UK in 1985, “The River” which peaked at #44 UK in early 1986, and “What You Gonna Do About It” peaking at #63 in the summer of 1986.

For the US 12″ of “Takes A Little Time” , Michael Brauer  supplied the Vocal and Dub Version mixes while the original UK mixes by John Gallen & Steve Harvey were included on the B side.

This track is a personal favourite and one of the finest examples of the Brit soul explosion of the mid 80’s.

Takes A Little Time (Vocal)                                         8:00

Takes A Little Time (Dub Version)                                6:16

Takes A Little Time (Vocal) (The Bandito Mix)               5:30

Takes A Little Time (Dub Version) (Mirage Style)           5:58

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Pseudo Echo ‎– Love An Adventure (1985)

The second single from Pseudo Echo’s sophomore album was the title track “Love An Adventure”. Written by Brian Canham and produced by Mark S. Berry, the single would go to No.6 in the Australian charts in January 1986.

Remixed by Ian “Mack” McKenzie, who was also the engineer on the track, and Pseudo Echo  for the 12″ single release. Ian McKenzie also provided remixes for other major Australian 80’s artists such as Noiseworks and Models.

Love An Adventure (Extended Mix)                            6:21

All Tied Up                                                              3:24

Love An Adventure                                                   4:17

psuedo echo-love

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Thereza Bazar ‎– Too Much In Love (1985)

The last single from Thereza Bazar’s one and only solo album was “Too Much In Love”, produced by Arif Mardin and written by Thereza and Terry Britten who had penned a number of Cliff Richard hits in the 70’s and 80’s and co-wrote Tina Turner’s mega hits “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, “Typical Male” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero”.

After taking up residency in Australia for an extended period, Thereza returned to London in 2012 and released a single under the monikor “TnA Project”, a collaboration with Alan Connor.

A CD release of Thereza’s album “The Big Kiss” is reportedly in the works so hopefully a number of tracks from the 12″ singles will finally be made available again.

Be sure to check out Thereza’s Facebook page for updates on her current career and progress on the re-release of “The Big Kiss”.

https://www.facebook.com/TherezaBazarOfficial

Too Much In Love (Smooth Mix)         6:08

English Girl-Should Not No! No!         4:58

Thereza-1266952885

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Blue Zoo ‎– Somewhere In The World There’s A Cowboy Smiling (1983)

The final single by 80’s New Wave band “Blue Zoo” was the relentlessly upbeat “Somewhere In The World There’s A Cowboy Smiling”.

The track would appear on the LP “For All I Really Care”, an LP of rarities by Blue Zoo and their earlier incarnation Modern Jazz. The LP was released in Yugoslavia only.

“Someone In The World There’s A Cowboy Smiling” was produced by Colin Campsie and George McFarlane who were better known as synth-pop duo The Quick.

Somewhere In The World There’s A Cowboy Smiling                                          5:58

Somewhere In The World There’s A Cowboy Smiling (Instrumental)                     3:58

Don’t Walk Away (Live Studio Version)                                                             4:15

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Tina Arena ‎– I Need Your Body (1988)

Tina Arena (born Filippina Lydia Arena; 1 November 1967) is an Australian singer, songwriter, musical theatre actress, talent show judge and record producer. She is one of Australia’s highest selling female artists in history and has won several awards, most notably 6 ARIA Awards and in both 1996 and 2000 she received the World Music Award for the world’s best selling Australian artist. She has sold over eight million records worldwide to date.

Arena began her career as a 7-year-old, singing live on the variety television show Young Talent Time. Even as a young girl she was known for her powerful voice and stage presence, but she dropped from sight for several years following her Young Talent Time tenure, working the club circuit alone and in bands and also appearing in musicals.

In 1987, at the age of 20, she was reinvented as a raunchy disco diva with the national Number 3 platinum selling single “I Need Your Body”. It gave her a successful album, Strong as Steel, and more hits, but for Tina this was a momentary digression, as this was not a music style or image with which she was comfortable with.

I Need Your Body is the second single by Australian pop singer Tina Arena, originally released in 1988 in Scandinavia and issued in Australia two years later in 1990. Despite receiving little success in Scandinavia, it was Arena’s first single to receive commercial success in Australia and was certified Platinum. It peaked at #3 on the ARIA Top 50 Singles chart, and charted at #17 on the ARIA 1990 End of Year Top 50 Singles chart. This made it the second highest selling single in Australia from a local artist that year.

I Need Your Body (12″ Mix)                 6:26

I Need Your Body (Radio Mix)             3:59

I Need Your Body (Mini Mix)               6:14

Stagefright                                        3:34

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