| The Story: The Very Best of Spandau Ballet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Greatest hits album by | ||||
| Released | 13 October 2014 | |||
| Length | 80:48 | |||
| Label |
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| Producer | Trevor Horn | |||
| Spandau Ballet chronology | ||||
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The Story: The Very Best of Spandau Ballet is a greatest hits album by English new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on 13 October 2014. The album includes three new songs that were produced by Trevor Horn.
Richard Folland from PopMatters wrote, "Like so many of their '80s generation peers, the band have reformed in recent years and a couple of new recordings produced by Trevor Horn have been tagged on to this new release. But this is essentially Spandau Ballet in their '80s pomp, not the first greatest hits album they've released, but a re-packaging to coincide with a tour next year and the release of a DVD entitled Soul Boys of the Western World, chronicling their rise and descent three decades ago." [1]
Timothy Monger of AllMusic said, "The real draw here is the addition of three new songs recorded with legendary producer Trevor Horn" who in his opinion returned the band to its "classic, soulful" sound on these tracks. [2]
All tracks are written by Gary Kemp, except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original album | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "To Cut a Long Story Short" | Journeys to Glory (1981) | 3:22 | |
| 2. | "The Freeze" | Journeys to Glory (1981) | 3:32 | |
| 3. | "Muscle Bound" | Journeys to Glory (1981) | 3:58 | |
| 4. | "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)" | Diamond (1982) | 4:08 | |
| 5. | "Instinction" | Diamond (1982) | 3:36 | |
| 6. | "Lifeline" | True (1983) | 3:34 | |
| 7. | "Communication" | True (1983) | 3:40 | |
| 8. | "True" | True (1983) | 5:40 | |
| 9. | "Gold" | True (1983) | 3:54 | |
| 10. | "Only When You Leave" | Parade (1984) | 5:10 | |
| 11. | "I'll Fly for You" | Parade (1984) | 5:36 | |
| 12. | "Highly Strung" | Parade (1984) | 4:11 | |
| 13. | "Round and Round" | Parade (1984) | 4:33 | |
| 14. | "Fight for Ourselves" | Through the Barricades (1986) | 4:23 | |
| 15. | "Through the Barricades" | Through the Barricades (1986) | 5:23 | |
| 16. | "Once More" |
| Once More (2009) | 4:08 |
| 17. | "This Is the Love" | New song | 3:44 | |
| 18. | "Steal" | New song | 4:28 | |
| 19. | "Soul Boy" | Tony Hadley | New song | 3:48 |
| Total length: | 1:20:48 | |||
| Chart (2014–2015) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA) [3] | 22 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [4] | 102 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA) [5] | 26 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI) [6] | 24 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon) [7] | 281 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [8] | 13 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [9] | 9 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [10] | 54 |
| UK Albums (OCC) [11] | 8 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI) [12] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
Spandau Ballet were an English pop band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "European Dance Music" as "The Applause" for this new club culture's audience. They became one of the most successful groups of the New Romantic era of British pop and were part of the Second British Invasion of the Billboard Top 40 in the 1980s, selling 25 million albums and having 23 hit singles worldwide. The band have had eight UK top 10 albums, including three greatest hits compilations and an album of re-recorded material. Their musical influences ranged from punk rock and soul music to the American crooners Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.
True is the third studio album by English pop band Spandau Ballet, released on 4 March 1983 by Chrysalis Records. The band's songwriter/guitarist Gary Kemp realised after the release of their second album that the nightclub audience they initially wanted to attract had lost interest in them in part because of the band's transition from dance music to pop. He no longer felt obligated to keep writing music for them and shifted his focus to soul and R&B influences such as Marvin Gaye and Al Green for this album. Kemp thought that bandmate Steve Norman's newfound interest in the saxophone would be well-suited to the sound he was going for, as would the decision to record most of the album at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.
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"Instinction" is a song by Spandau Ballet whose original version was included on their second album Diamond as produced by Richard James Burgess. The song was written by band guitarist/songwriter Gary Kemp. A remix by Trevor Horn was released on 2 April 1982 as the last single from the album and reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. This new version received good reviews but constituted a shift into pop music that did not interest the patrons of trendy London nightclubs that Spandau Ballet originally intended to represent. The band tried continuing their work with Horn on the songs for their next album but came to an impasse with him and moved on to a successful relationship with producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain.
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