Wang Chung - Forest Bell (2024)

After signing to Geffen Records and changing their name to the more pronounceable Wang Chung, the band finally hit the charts with e re-recorded version of their earlier single 'Dance Hall Days', and in 1984 they opened for The Cars on their "Heartbeat City" tour. Following this tour, drummer Darren Costin left the group to form his own band, Heroes, which released the studio album 'Here We Are' on RCA Records in 1987. In late 1983, Jack Hues and Nick Feldman collaborated in a one-off project with vocalist David Van Day of duo Dollar, and a demo of the track 'Ringing The Bell' was submitted to Van Day as one of many songs for consideration by him as a possible follow up to his single 'Young Americans Talking', and although it was recorded in November 1983, it remained unreleased for some time before eventually surfacing under the band name Music Academy in 1985. Wang Chung followed up the release of 'Points On The Curve' with a spate of soundtrack work, and director William Friedkin specifically sought out the group to score his 1985 film 'To Live and Die in L.A.'. The resulting soundtrack became the group's third studio album, and is recognizable as one of their more mainstream works, reaching the top ten on the US Billboard chart for soundtracks. The band also recorded 'Fire In The Twilight' for the 1985 John Hughes film 'The Breakfast Club' and contributed 'There Is A Nation' for the soundtrack to 'First Born'.

With Costin gone, Hues and Feldman continued to record new material, employing producer Peter Wolf as their new drummer, although he never became an official member of the band. In 1986 they released their fourth studio album, 'Mosaic', and the single from it, 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' became one of their biggest hits, reaching No. 2 in the US, while the follow-up 'Let's Go!' got to No. 9. Their final US top 40 single was 'Hypnotize Me', which also featured on the soundtrack of the 1987 film 'Innerspace'. Wang Chung released their fifth studio album, 'The Warmer Side Of Cool', in 1989, and the single extracted from it was 'Praying To A New God', which charted but was not a hit, only reaching No. 63 in the charts. The album was considered a commercial disappointment, and so Hues and Feldman then went on to other projects and the band effectively disbanded in 1990. Feldman joined up with drummer Jon Moss of Culture Club to form the band Promised Land, and subsequently released their self-titled debut studio album, 'Promised Land', in 1992, while Hues worked on various film soundtracks, including 'The Guardian'. He was signed to a solo deal by Sony Records in the early 1990s', but his intended debut solo studio album, 'The Anatomy Lesson', was shelved by the label and remains unreleased. 

In 1997 the release of the greatest hits collection 'Everybody Wang Chung Tonight: Wang Chung's Greatest Hits' prompted the band to reform and tour North America to promote both the album and the 'Space Junk' single taken from it. In March 2005, Wang Chung (once again consisting of Hues and Feldman) contributed 'Akasha', a previously unreleased song, to the 'Of Hands And Hearts' compilation, in response to the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami crisis, and in June they appeared on the reality TV series 'Hit Me Baby One More Time', performing a cover version of 'Hot in Herre' by Nelly. They released songs intermittently over the next ten years, including a double CD set in mid-2011, which consisted of four re-recordings of previous hits, and four new songs, and in December 2012 they released 'Tazer Up!', their first studio album in 23 years. This second post from band collects together b-sides and curiosities from their Wang Chung years, right up to the recording of a Covid version of their 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' hit in 2020, plus some live tracks from 2024. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1984-1997
01 Ringing The Bell (single by Music Academy 1984)
02 Dance Hall Days (Part 2) (b-side of 'Wait' 1984)
03 Hard Times (b-side of 'Wait' 1984)
04 Fire In The Twilight (single 1985)
05 Dreaming In The Hills Of Heaven (b-side of 'Fire In The Twilight' 1985)
06 The Reggae (Instrumental) (b-side of 'Fire In The Twilight' 1985)
07 Take Me To The River (from BBC 'Sight And Sound In Concert' 1984)
08 Fun Tonight: The Early Years (b-side of 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' 1986)
09 ABC Sports 1988 (TV Jingle based on 'Everybody Have Fun Tonight' 1988)
10 Space Junk (single 1997)
11 Zero Gravity (b-side of 'Space Junk')

Disc II - 2005-2024 
01 Akasha (from the 'Of Hands And Hearts' tsunami disaster fund album 2005)
02 To Live And Die In L.A. (acoustic) (from the 'Abducted By The 80's' EP 2011)
03 Dance Hall Days (unplugged 2012) 
04 Girls And Boys (Blur cover from '80's Recovered' TV Show 2015)
05 River (Joni Mitchell cover 2016)
06 Everybody Stay Safe Tonight (Covid version 2020)
07 Hot In Herre (Nelly cover from the 'Re-Discovered 80's' TV show 2021)
08 3rd Planet (Modest Mouse cover from Alvin UnterCover Youtube Channel 2021)
09 Everybody Have Fun Tonight (live acoustic) (from 'The Courtney Show' 2024)
10 Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover live at West Springfield 2024)
11 Wangjabi MC (Mash up of Punjabi M.C. and 'Dance Hall Days' 2013)

Thanks again to geofmcm for providing the inspiration and music for this post. 

Huang Chung - Yellow Bell (1984)

Guitarists Jeremy Ryder and Nick Feldman first met when Ryder answered Feldman's advertisement for musicians in the classifieds section of the weekly British music magazine Melody Maker in 1977. They were joined by Bud Merrick on bass and Paul Hammond (ex-Atomic Rooster) on drums, forming the Intellektuals, but in less than a year they'd broken up, and Ryder and Feldman then joined up with drummer Darren Costin, bassist Leigh Gorman, keyboardist Simon Campbell and vocalist Glenn Gregory, to form 57 Men. This band lasted for about eighteen months before splitting, with Gorman going on to play bass in Adam And The Ants and Bow Wow Wow, while Gregory later became the lead vocalist for Heaven 17. Ryder, Feldman and Costin stayed together and renamed themselves Huang Chung, taken from the first note of the Chinese classical music scale, and which translates as "yellow bell" in English. At the beginning of Huang Chung's career, all the members performed under pseudonyms, with Ryder being "Jack Hues" (a play on Emile Zola's 1898 open letter J'Accuse...!), Nick Feldman was "Nick DeSpig", and Darren Costin was "Darren Darwin", and later, just "Darwin". The band signed to the 101 Records label, and their first recording was 'Baby I'm Hu-man', which appeared on a 101 Records compilation album in 1980, with three live tracks subsequently appearing on another 101 Records compilation in 1981. 

Later in 1980 the independent record company Rewind Records signed the band for a two-single deal, and their debut single for the label was 'Isn't It About Time We Were on TV?', followed by 'Stand Still' later that year. Neither single charted, but the group had begun to attract the attention of Arista Records, who signed them on a two-album deal in early 1981. Around the same time, the group expanded to a quartet, with the addition of saxophonist Dave Burnand, and in keeping with the all-pseudonymous nature of the band, Burnand was known as "Hogg Robinson" for the first Arista single, and later, simply as "Hogg". Under the direction of producer Rhett Davies, Huang Chung issued two singles on Arista in 1981, neither of which charted, followed by a Roger Bechirian-produced third single in 1982 which suffered the same fate. The band's self-titled debut studio album was issued in 1982, and it included the three non-charting Arista A-sides, one of the Arista B-sides, and six other new tracks. Like the associated singles, the 'Huang Chung' album failed to chart. In late 1982 the band returned to the studio to start work on their second studio album for Arista Records, and a new single, 'Dance Hall Days', was produced by Tim Friese-Greene and appeared as both a 7" and 12" single in October, but it too failed to trouble the charts. 

After the failure of 'Dance Hall Days', the group's manager, David Massey, convinced Arista to close their contract with Huang Chung, and instead placed the band with American label Geffen Records, making the group the second UK-based act to be signed to Geffen worldwide after Asia, although Burnand left the group around this time, citing "musical differences". At this juncture, the band changed the spelling of their name to Wang Chung, at Geffen's suggestion, to make the pronunciation easier for English speakers, and Feldman and Costin opted to be billed under their real full names, with only Jack Hues keeping his pseudonym. The band spent most of 1983 recording their second studio album, 'Points On The Curve', which was released in July 1983, and a re-recorded version of 'Dance Hall Days' finally gave them the hit that they needed, reaching No. 16 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. The popularity of the song gave Wang Chung the ability to spend two months touring the United States on their own, and then later with the Romantics and Berlin, and more hit singles and albums followed on from this success. This post covers their early years as Huang Chung, and collects all the non-album tracks that the band recorded between 1980 and 1984, including some radio and TV appearances where they performed exclusive songs for broadcast. 

Track listing

01 Isn't It About Time We Were On TV? (single 1980)
02 Drive Me Crazy (b-side of 'Isn't It About Time We Were On TV?')
03 Stand Still (single 1980)
04 I Don't Wanna Be Like You (B-side of 'Stand Still')
05 Journey Without Maps (b-side of 'Hold Back The Tears' 1981)
06 Baby I'm Hu-man (From 'Live At The '101': Bandits At 10 O'clock' 1980)
07 I Don't Believe A Word (From 'Live At The '101': Live Letters Warts 'N' All' 1981)
08 You've Taken Everything (From 'Live At The '101': Live Letters Warts 'N' All' 1981)
09 There Is A Nation (b-side of 'Dance Hall Days' 1983)
10 Separate Lives (from 'BBC In Concert' 1981)
11 Down Here Alone (from 'BBC In Concert' 1981)
12 Wrong (from the TV program 'Night Network' 1981)
13 The Ornamental Elephant (b-side Of 'Don't Let Go' 1984)

Thanks to geofmcm for providing the inspiration and music for this post. 

Michael McDonald - ...featuring (2022)

Time for another post from Mike S, and this time he's been trawling his record collection for recordings that feature one particular vocalist, so over to Mike...

Michael Solof back with you for another round of fun tunes. I was inspired this time by pj's wonderful '...and on guitar' series. I was listening to an old Steely Dan album the other day and I followed it with Christopher Cross’s first album and realized that Michael McDonald was on both albums singing background vocals (and almost co-lead at times) and that got me thinking about how many songs I loved that he'd contributed to over the years. McDonald is known for his distinctive, soulful voice and was a member of two of the biggest bands of the 70's/80's, with stints in the Doobie Brothers from 1975–1982, and Steely Dan during 1973 and 1974. He wrote and sang several hit singles with the Doobie Brothers, including 'What A Fool Believes', 'Minute By Minute', and 'Takin' It To The Streets', and his solo career consists of nine studio albums and a number of singles, including the 1982 hit 'I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)'. However, it's his session work that we're looking at here, as during his long career he's collaborated with a huge number of other artists, including James Ingram, David Cassidy, Van Halen, Patti LaBelle, Lee Ritenour, the Winans, Aretha Franklin, Toto, Grizzly Bear, Joni Mitchell, and Thundercat, and unlike almost all other background vocalists who literally do "disappear into the background", McDonald's voice always broke through that haze and became a unique, distinctive and very important part of each song he contributed to. His beautiful tone just added a lushness to the harmonies that you couldn’t help but notice. I therefore started going through his entire musical catalog and pulling out two different ways that he'd helped many wonderful fellow musicians throughout the years. One way was just as a background vocalist and the other was as a co-lead or guest vocalist (and often times songwriter), and then I broke up the collection accordingly. The first volume is his guest vocals on other artist's songs, while the other two volumes feature his backing vocals for a wide variety of artists over an extra-ordinary 46-year career. 

Track listing

Volume 1
01 Let Me Go, Love (from 'In The Nick Of Time' by Nicolette Larson 1979)
02 I've Got My Mind Made Up (from 'Together?' soundtrack with Jackie DeShannon 1979)
03 Heart To Heart (from 'Heart To Heart' by Kenny Loggins 1982)
04 Arcade (from 'Swing Street' by Patrick Simmons 1983)
05 Let's Stay Together (from 'Tribute To Jeff Porcaro' by Paulette Brown & David Pack 1997)
06 Moondance (from 'Nathan East' by Nathan East 2014)
07 Long Haul (from 'Unfinished Business' by Robben Ford 2014)
08 Night Of Our Own (from 'Someday, Somehow' by Steve Porcaro 2016)
09 Love In The World (from '2' by CWF 2020)
10 Higher Ground (mixed by Tomey Maguarfield, feat. McDonald/Red Hot Chilli Peppers 2022)

Volume 2
01 Any World (That I'm Welcome To) (from 'Katy Lied' by Steely Dan 1975)  
02 See What You Done (from 'Chunky, Novi And Ernie' by Chunky, Novi And Ernie 1977)
03 Strengthen My Love (from 'White Shadows' by Tim Moore 1977)
04 Red Streamliner ('Waiting For Columbus' out-take by Little Feat 1978) 
05 Losing Myself In You (from 'Bish' by Steven Bishop 1978)
06 I Really Don't Know Anymore (from 'Christopher Cross' by Christopher Cross 1979)
07 This Is It (from 'Keep The Fire' by Kenny Loggins 1979)
08 Please Don't Leave (from 'Lauren Wood' by Lauren Wood 1979)
09 Young Blood (from 'Rickie Lee Jones' by Ricky Lee Jones 1979)
10 One Fine Day (from 'Satisfied' by Rita Coolidge 1979)
11 Steal Away (from 'Robbie Dupree' by Robbie Dupree 1980)

Volume 3
01 Why You Givin' Up (from 'Arcade' by Patrick Simmons 1983)
02 I Just Can't Let Go (from 'Anywhere You Go' by David Pack 1985)
03 I'll Be Over You (from 'Fahrenheit' by Toto 1986)
04 A Fool And His Money (from 'Mosaic' by Wang Chung 1986)
05 Never Give Up (from 'Outrageous Temptations' by Tim Weisberg 1989)
06 Same World (from 'Same World' by Henry Kapono 1991)
07 Where Words End (from 'Just Across The River' by Jimmy Webb 2010) 
08 Some Children (from 'Holy Ghost!' by Holy Ghost! 2011)
09 The Best Of Me (from 'Starting Now' by Toad The Wet Sprocket 2021)

McDonald has one of the finest, smoothest, most mellow voices in All of Music. It’s the reason he is still in such high demand over 40 years after his debut.

I hope you like this collection as much as I do.

Mike S

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.