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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | DanAbnrml9@aol.com |
| Subject | Re: The 45s |
| Date | Tue, 25 Mar 2003 13:41:52 EST |
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In a message dated 3/25/03 12:31:50 PM Eastern Standard Time,
gibtone@bellatlantic.net writes:
> SIX or SEVEN modest hits? And they felt compelled to change their name?
> Who wrote THAT business plan?
>
It was a mystery to me too. The problem, as I understand it, was that those
singles were actually released in a time span from 1992 to 1999, when the
album itself was finally released, and all of them charted in the lower half
of the UK Top 100. By the time 2000 rolled around, and the album itself had
failed to sell too well, they figured that they were better off retooling
their image as a "new" band--rather than some has-beens who had been kicking
around for almost a decade--and use their propulsive new single "Waiting For
My Heart to Break" as a way to base this new career direction. Obviously it
didn't work, since both songs released as singles under the 45s name--the
aforementioned as well as "Something Real"--did about equally as well as all
of their old singles. Mercury then dropped them, and the album only came out
at all because the band decided to press a bunch of copies on their own to
satisfy their committed and devoted (to have followed them through all this)
fan base. Almost immediately thereafter, their lead singer (Matt Hales, I
think) went off on his own as Aqualung and had a massive hit with the piano
ballad "Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell On You)", which was in a UK
VW commercial. The two follow-up singles and the Aqualung album all did great
as well.
It makes you question, though.. why didn't the 45s just put "Strange and
Beautiful" and those other two Aqualung singles in the running order of their
album and release it as such? They obviously had the material at the time,
why not use it?
Also, another ODD footnote to this band's history--late last spring, right
before they split, 99X in San Diego, CA (I think?) started playing "Waiting
For My Heart to Break" and in fact briefly put it in heavy rotation. That
same station broke a lot of big international acts--including, I believe, the
Hives, who were conquering US radio at that very moment--and so there was a
brief bit of hope that the 45s were about to follow. It wasn't to be,
however, as everything soon fell apart. Still, it's interesting that an
import-only single from an album that was never officially released managed
to make it onto heavy rotation on a California alternative station, even if
only briefly.
--Jason
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