Monday, July 30, 2018

Musical Monday - Geno by Dexys Midnight Runners


#1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Never.
#1 on the Cash Box Top 100: Never.
#1 on the U.K. Chart: May 3, 1980 through May 10, 1980.

While I am familiar with Dexy's Midnight Runners as a result of their later his song Come on Eileen, I had never heard Geno until this past week. The song is ostensibly a tribute to the soul singer Geno Washington, who was popular in the U.K. in the mid to late 1960s, but to be perfectly honest Kevin Rowland's vocals are so muddy that it is hard to make this out. I had to look up the lyrics online to be able to follow them at all. A little research reveals that the song is intended to evoke the sound of songs produced by Geno Washington with the Ram Jam Band, but I haven't listened to enough of their music to know if this is true.

One thing that is interesting about this song is that despite the fact that it spent two weeks at number one in the U.K., it was pretty much loathed by critics and not much liked by EMI, Dexy's Midnight Runners' record label. I'm kind of in the middle on this issue: I don't hate the song, but I don't really think I will ever feel the need to seek it out to listen to it either.

Previous Musical Monday: Call Me by Blondie
Subsequent Musical Monday: What's Another Year by Johnny Logan

Previous #1 on the U.K. Chart: Call Me by Blondie
Subsequent #1 on the U.K. Chart: What's Another Year by Johnny Logan

List of #1 Singles from the Billboard Hot 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles from the Cash Box Top 100 for 1980-1989
List of #1 Singles on the U.K. Chart for 1980-1989

Dexys Midnight Runners     1980s Project     Musical Monday     Home

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