Morcheeba are an English electronic band formed in the mid-1990s with founding members vocalist Skye Edwards and the brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey. They mix influences from trip hop, rock, folk rock and downtempo, and have produced ten regular studio albums since 1995, two of which reached the UK top ten. Edwards left the band in 2003, after which the brothers used a number of singers before she rejoined in 2009. They recruit additional members for their live performances and have toured internationally. In 2014 Paul Godfrey resigned from the band. Edwards and Ross Godfrey later formed Skye & Ross and released a self-titled album in September 2016. Their latest studio album as Morcheeba, Blackest Blue, was released in May 2021 and was preceded by singles "Sounds of Blue", "Oh Oh Yeah" and "The Moon". It features collaborations with Brad Barr from The Barr Brothers, and Duke Garwood, whom Edwards described as "a diamond geezer".
Michael Moran is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer.
Barry Blue is an English singer, producer, and songwriter. As an artist, he is best known for his hit songs "Dancin' " and "Do You Wanna Dance".
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. Their discography from 1961 to 1984 was originally released on the vinyl format, with the 1985 album The Beach Boys being the group's first CD release. The Beach Boys' catalogue has been released on reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, CD, MiniDisc, digital downloads, and various streaming services.
"Walk On By" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for singer Dionne Warwick in 1963. Warwick's recording of the song peaked at number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Cash Box Rhythm and Blues Chart In June 1964 and was nominated for a 1965 Grammy Award for the Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.
"Temptation" is a single by British band Heaven 17 featuring Carol Kenyon, originally released in April 1983 by Virgin Records, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. This was the second single to be taken from their second album, The Luxury Gap (1983), after "Let Me Go" in November 1982. It was written by Glenn Gregory, Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, and produced by B.E.F. and Greg Walsh. The music video for the song was directed by Steve Barron. "Temptation" was certified silver by the BPI in May 1983, for sales exceeding 250,000 copies.
"I Need a Man" is the debut single by Grace Jones, released in 1975 through Beam Junction. It was re-released in 1977, and reached number 83 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topped the US Dance Club Songs chart.
Martyn Ford is an English musician, best known for his orchestral contributions to rock music albums of the 1970s and 1980s.
"Rock Bottom" was the British entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in English by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran. It was also written and produced by de Paul and Moran and released on the Polydor record label. Originally it was written for the group Blue Mink; and submitted unbeknown to de Paul and Moran as an entry for A Song For Europe by the publishers; when it was selected, de Paul agreed to perform the song if Moran would join her. On 9 March 1977, "Rock Bottom" was selected to represent the UK at the A Song for Europe 1977 event held at the New London Theatre, presented by Terry Wogan.
"Queen of Chinatown" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear, released in 1977 by Ariola Records. It met with a big chart success and remains one of Lear's biggest hits to date. The song's lyrics were written by Lear herself and the music was composed by Anthony Monn, her musical partner at that time. It's an uptempo disco composition with characteristic oriental elements. The song was released in late 1977 as the sixth and final single from Lear's debut album, I Am a Photograph (1977), however, was included only on the album's re-issue, replacing "La Bagarre". The B-side of the single was "Alphabet", which had earlier received a separate A-side single release in the Netherlands. In Japan, "The Lady in Black" was released on the side B.
"You Think You're a Man" is a single by American performance artist Divine, released in 1984. The song also appeared on the compilation album The Story So Far, released the same year. It was written by Geoff Deane, formerly the lead singer and main songwriter with both the Leyton Buzzards and Modern Romance, and his sometime songwriting partner Keith Miller. Geoff Deane later went on to write the cross dressing-themed movie Kinky Boots.
"Apache" is a song written by Jerry Lordan and first recorded by Bert Weedon. Lordan played the song on ukulele to the Shadows while on tour and, liking the song, the group released their own version which topped the UK Singles Chart for five weeks in mid-1960. The Shadows' guitarist Hank Marvin developed the song's distinctive echo and vibrato sound. After hearing the Shadows' version, Danish guitarist Jørgen Ingmann released a cover of the song in November 1960 which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.
"The Sphinx" is a song by French singer Amanda Lear released in 1978 by Ariola Records as the single from her third album Never Trust a Pretty Face.
"Let Your Body Go Downtown" is a song co-written by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran, and recorded by the Martyn Ford Orchestra as a single on 18 March 1977 on the Mountain record label. A 12-inch single was also released. It was also released in France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands on Vertigo Records. It was a BBC Radio 1 "Record of the Week" and playlist by a number of UK regional radio stations. As noted by Record World magazine, it took the single three months to enter the UK Singles Chart. However, the song reached No. 38 on that chart, No. 34 on the NME singles chart, No. 37 on the EveryHit Retrocharts and No. 12 on the UK Disco Chart, published by Record Mirror. It was also released as a track on the album Ronnie Jones Presents Let-Your-Body-Go-With-The-Disco released on the Phillips record label in Italy and it received numerous radio plays there as listed in "Radiocorrier". A live performance of the song featuring Ford, his orchestra and backing singers was shown on the 12 May 1977 edition of Top of the Pops.
"Strange Changes" is a song that was co-written by Lynsey de Paul and Sue Shifrin, the former wife of David Cassidy and that is listed in the ACE database of ASCAP songs and also in the MusicBrainz database.
Surprise is the first album released by Lynsey de Paul on the MAM record label in 1973. In Australia, the album name was changed to Sugar Me, after de Paul's first hit single. All of the songs on the album were written or co-written by de Paul, who was accompanied by some of the UK's leading session musicians including Terry Cox, Ralph McTell, Ray Cooper, Jeff Daly, John Gustafson, Chris Rae, Danny Thompson, Gary Boyle, Barry de Souza, Dick Katz, Robert Kirby, Francis Monkman, John Richardson and violinist Johnny Van Derrick. The album front cover is a portrait photo of de Paul photographed by Clive Arrowsmith, and a gatefold sleeve with illustrations provided by de Paul, a nod to her previous career of designing album sleeves and song lyrics.
"Tip of My Tongue" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue. It was first released as the fifth single by Brotherly Love with the song "I Love Everything About You" as the flip side on CBS Records on 27 April 1973. and was produced by Phil Wainman. According to music journalist James Craig, de Paul was in the audience for a Brotherly Love performance at Gulliver's and was so impressed with them that she co-penned "Tip of My Tongue" for them. The trio performed the song on the Granada TV programme Lift Off With Ayshea on 22 June 1973. The song received positive reviews from the British mainstream press as well as the music press, and the brothers were interviewed about the single It made the UK chart breakers on 23 May 1973 but did not manage to enter the UK Singles Chart. Barry Blue was credited as "Barry Green" on this release.
"House of Cards" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue and is one of their most covered songs. It was first released as a single by Chris Kelly on the CBS label on 7 April 1972, credited as being written by Rubin and Green (Blue). The song was a radio hit in Italy, receiving multiple plays on national radio stations.
"Hi Summer" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and recorded by Carl Wayne as a single released on the DJM/Weekend label on 5 August 1977. The B-side of the single is another song composed by de Paul, "My Girl and Me". Both songs were produced by de Paul with "Hi Summer" being published by Standard Music. It was used as the theme tune to the popular Sunday night prime time ITV variety programme Hi Summer, which also featured Carl Wayne as one of the performers. The song received good reviews, with notable British DJ and music critic James Hamilton writing "Ultra-brite and bouncy TV theme really does get ‘em jiving" for his weekly disco music feature in Record Mirror. That issue of Record Mirror also contained a half page advert for the single. Music Week also featured a full-page advert for the single. College DJ Andy Davids promoted an uptempo television theme playlist at the time, that included "Hi Summer" along with the theme tunes from "Happy Days" by Pratt & McClain as well as the Muppet Show.
"All Night" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker. De Paul released her version of the song on 27 April 1973 as her third single released on MAM Records, with arrangements by Martyn Ford and John Bell and produced by de Paul. The song is listed in the U.S. Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries and in the "The Directory of American 45 R.p.m. Records" It features an uncredited male vocal. A slinky, sexy song, it compares a love relationship to that of the spider and a fly. The single is backed by the more socially aware song "Blind Leading the Blind", composed and produced by de Paul. The song was an unusual release since neither the A-side or the B-side featured as tracks on her debut album. Surprise had been released a little more than a month earlier - presumably it was not included since "All Night" has a very different style than the tracks on Surprise.
