CCCP - United States of Europe (1989)

"LOST SUMMER OF MARK" WEEK (AUGUST 14-20, 2022)

German import CD single

I could care less about the two mixes of United States Of Europe on this disc; I'm interested in the second track, a remix of the band's earlier release, American Soviets. I've got it on vinyl (yes, there's vinyl in this house), but I gotta have a physical digital copy, no?

I heard American Soviets all the time on the radio and when I picked up the 12" single, the label was Oak Lawn Records in Dallas, so for many years I assumed this was a Dallas group. Turns out they're from Germany.

Tracks: United States of Europe didn't chart in the US, probably because there's not much to it. Neither mix here is essential dance music, but for what it's worth, track 3, is the better of the two.

American Soviets (which inexplicably only climbed to #26 on the Billboard dance chart in 1987) has several mixes. The 12" vinyl has 3, including one by "Legendary Bay Area DJ" Cameron Paul. The mix on this CD single is simply titled "us-remix dallas, tx, 1987" but it is basically the aforementioned Cameron Paul mix with an early fadeout. To be honest, I prefer the original mix that starts with an imagined phone conversation between a fake Reagan and Gorbachev, but I'll take what I can find.

A couple of weeks back, I wrote that The Go-Go's song

Beneath The Blue Sky is an example of the poppy tracks in the early '80s that bands would write about Cold War fears (similar tracks that come to mind are 99 Luftballons, It's A Mistake, Two Tribes, etc.).

Add American Soviets to that list.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: To be honest, I'm not sure if I even heard the American Soviets single in the summer of 1988 - it very well could have been summer of 1987 - but I tend to group this tune with other dance tunes of the time such as Pump Up The Volume by M/A/R/R/S and Beat Dis by Bomb The Bass, so it gets associated with summer of '88.