Spandau Ballet - The Singles Collection (1985)

"COLLECTION" WEEK (JUNE 4-10, 2012)

A white boy-funk band that morphed into poster boys for the New Romantic movement. According to Andy Taylor's autobiography, there was quite a rivalry between Duran Duran, which was anchored at Birmingham's Rum Runner Club, and Spandau Ballet, which normally played at the Blitz Club in London. The band was almost too smooth and too good-looking. In their homeland, they were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles and four Top Ten albums in the UK between 1980 and 1990. The band split acrimoniously in 1990, but reunited in 2009 (yeah, I missed that press release, too). Unlike Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet were much bigger in the UK than in the US. Because of the band's name and their ubiquitous lightweight hit, True, the band has become a pop culture punchline.

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

Tracks:

Singles Chart	Year	UK	US
Gold	1983	2	29
Lifeline	1982	7
Round And Round	1984	19
Only When You Leave	1984	3	34
Instinction	1982	10
Highly Strung	1984	15
True	1983	1	4
Communication	1983	12	59
I'll Fly For You	1984	9
To Cut A Long Story Short	1980	5
Chant No. 1	1981	3
She Loved Like Diamond	1981	49
Paint Me Down	1981	30
The Freeze	1981	17
Musclebound	1981	10

The songs are presented roughly in a reverse chronological order, which is something I haven't seen much. I guess Chrysalis wanted to put the band's bigger hits up front. I owned two Spandau Ballet LP's, True (1983) and Parade (1984), so I like the songs from those albums: Gold, Lifeline, Round And Round, True, I'll Fly for You, and the song that got me hooked on the band in the first place, Communication. I've really got no need for the other tracks; this is the first time I've listened to the band's early tracks in many, many years.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm sure he'd rather forget that he ever owned a Spandau Ballet album, but this is yet another band which I was introduced to by my friend Jim who let me borrow his LP of True when we were in high school. I also remember the Parade LP getting a lot of playing time in my freshman dorm room in the fall of '84.