Naked Eyes ‎– (What) In The Name Of Love (1984)

With the news that the first Naked Eyes album “Burning Bridges” is about to be released on CD for the first time in the UK with 12″ mixes, I thought it would be a good time to visit the duo’s second album “Fuel For The Fire”.

Fuel for the Fire was Naked Eyes’ 1984 follow-up album to their successful début. The band had Top 40 success with the first single off the album, “(What) In the Name of Love”, produced by Arthur Baker, which reached #39 in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 and, in a remix by Baker, #35 on the Dance chart. The album peaked at #83 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.

While a modest hit, it had not matched the commercial and critical success of their debut; in their home country of the UK, neither the album nor its single had charted. Baker remixed another track he had produced for the duo, “Sacrifice”, but the record company never released a followup to the Top 40 lead single and Naked Eyes disbanded following the underwhelming reception.

(What) In The Name Of Love (Extended Version)      6:03

(What) In The Name Of Love                                  3:50

Two Heads Together                                              3:14

Listen !

Naked Eyes ‎– Always Something There To Remind Me (Remixed Version) (1982)

Twenty years after its composition, “Always Something There to Remind Me” reached the US Top Twenty for the first time via a synthpop reinvention of the song by Naked Eyes which reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1983.

Vocalist Pete Byrne and keyboardist Rob Fisher first cut “Always Something There to Remind Me” as one of a number of demos recorded in Bristol upon forming the duo later known as Naked Eyes in early 1982. Byrne would recall: “I had always loved [the] song [“Always Something There to Remind Me”], so we called a friend who had the record, he read the lyric over the phone and we put it together from memory.”

On the strength of the demos cut in Bristol Byrne and Fisher were signed to EMI Records in May 1982 and the track “Always Something There to Remind Me” was cut 1 September 1982 in a session at Abbey Road Studios produced by Tony Mansfield. Byrne would recall: “The record was recorded at Abbey Road, and we were invited to a party downstairs, with Paul McCartney and many other stars…When we returned upstairs to the studio around 1 a.m., I decided to have a go at the vocal, It was the first time I have ever recorded a vocal in one take”.

Released in the US in January 1983, Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There to Remind Me” gradually gained attention entering the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1983 to peak at #8 that June. The cachet of entering the US Top Ten allowed the single, previously overlooked in its performer’s United Kingdom homeland, to make a July 1983 UK chart debut but only to rise no higher than #59. “Always Something There to Remind Me” did afford Naked Eyes’ Top 10 success in other countries besides the United States: Australia (#7), Canada (#9) and New Zealand (#2).

The US Promo 12″ release received a US Remix courtesy of Jellybean.

Always Something There To Remind Me (Remixed Version)        5:41

Voices In My Head                                                                       3:47

Listen !