Thompson Twins - Greatest Hits (1996)

GREATEST HITS FORTNIGHT (FEBRUARY 6-19, 2012)

Given my confessed love for '80s synthpop, I'm sure many of you are surprised that I have only a greatest hits compilation for this group; you were expecting that I had their entire '80s catalog on CD. I had cassette copies of 1984's Into The Gap and 1985's Here's To Future Days and those were mixed bags at best, so I bought this CD instead of replacing those albums. I think Tom Bailey has a very distinctive voice and the production is good (bump that up from "good" to "great" when you talk about their recordings with Nile Rodgers). The songwriting is a little uneven, with the band trying to adopt world music styles which really didn't have much place in British synthpop. To be honest, I quickly lost interest in the band after 1985 so I'm not familiar with any of their music after that time, but I still enjoy their early '80s stuff. Fortunately, 13 of the 16 tracks here are from the years 1982-85. Overall, a better-than-average compilation from a mostly forgotten band.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The first song by Thompson Twins I remember hearing was Lies when the bizarre video came on MTV. I'm not much of a fan of that song, so I'm surprised that I stuck with group. My favs here are In The Name Of Love, If You Were Here, Love On Your Side, Hold Me Now, Doctor Doctor, Lay Your Hands On Me, and King For A Day. I usually skip We Are Dectective, The Gap, and the final three tracks.

Song	Year	US	UK
In The Name Of Love	1982	-	-
Lies	1982	30	67
We Are Detective	1982	-	7
If You Were Here	1983	-	-
Love On Your Side	1983	45	9
Hold Me Now	1984	3	4
Doctor! Doctor!	1984	11	3
You Take Me Up	1984	44	2
The Gap	1984	69	-
Sister of Mercy	1984	-	11
Don't Mess With Doctor Dream	1985	-	15
Lay Your Hands On Me	1985	6	13
King For A Day	1985	8	22
Nothing In Common	1986	54	-
Get That Love	1987	31	66
Long Goodbye	1987	-	89

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Any child of the '80s associates If You Were Here with the final scene of Sixteen Candles and hearing it today makes me want to pull out my Sixteen Candles DVD for a viewing. That's a great song and John Hughes knew how to use it.

Songs from Here's To Future Days always take me back to my dorm room in Berry Hall during my sophomore year in college. Somehow I talked my parents into paying the extra $100/month so I could have a private room that year. That was the group's best album and I'd probably buy a CD copy if I saw it cheap in a used bin.

The band is named after bumbling detective characters from the Tintin comic strip/books (below). I've been a fan of Tintin ever since my parents bought me the book The Shooting Star on a trip to the UK in 1973.