Richie's singles club

Single of the day

The Clash
'English Civil War'
(CBS)

Written by our good friends Trad and Arr Stateside around the time of the American Civil War, Joe comes marching home again with a punk call to arms that cleverly soundtracks the troubles between the UK youth and establishment and appeals to the American market that CBS were no doubt desperate for them to break (spoiler alert: they did!) While it's far from their incendiary best, there's an obvious hummability to this which means they just about get away with it. There's another cover version on the flip as the boys take on Toots and the Maytals' 'Pressure Drop' repeating the same formula used on their 'Police and Thieves' cover, and helping to cement the link between punk and ska that opened the door for 2 Tone in the coming year.

1990

A Certain Ratio
'Four for the Floor EP'
(A&M)

Ex-Factory label mates New Order had given us a few acid house indie pop tunes by this time, but they were never quite as gurglingly 303-tastic as where we find ACR here. A slightly different version of the title track of their album from 1989 leads the EP here and it blended brilliantly into all that was happening around this time as dance and indie fans alike still felt the glow from the second summer of love. In fact, there's a bare-faced, cheeky hark back to the first summer lift from the Beach Boys' 'Good Vibrations' on here too. Sorted, as they probably didn't say in February 1990.

1979

The Sex Pistols
'Something Else'
(Virgin)

Originally recorded by Eddie Cochran, 'Something Else' was released two weeks after the death of Sid Vicious who's on lead vocals here and remains forever immortalised in his nazi underpants in the video. It eventually made number 3 in the charts, vastly eclipsing the original and second only chart-wise to the Pistols' jubilee record. It's just a shame that it's a basic cover version: all the subversion of the original act completely gone. All that's left is a silk silver swastika g-string looking for a new owner.

1990

Sugarcubes
'Planet'
(One Little Indian)

For some people nothing happened between the release of 'Birthday' and 'Hit' by the Sugarcubes, but this musical maelstrom is well worth checking out. As the third single from 'Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!' it wasn't likely to take them into the charts, but they did finally enjoy a hit with their next single. Geddit. Einar fans may be disappointed with this record, his vocals are barely here, but he gives two shout outs to 'every man, every woman' so that includes you, which is something to be happy about.

1985

The Jesus and Mary Chain
'Never Understand'
(Blanco Y Negro)

Still bathing in feedback like a wallowing hippo with a dodgy strat, the Chain followed up their scintillating debut 'Upside Down' with much more of the same. While this record hovered near the top 40 for four weeks, their gigs became increasingly dangerous places to be. Not bad for a band who sound like the result of putting Mike Love through a circular saw...and who hasn't wanted to do that before?

1996

Stereolab
'Cybele's Reverie'
(Duophonic)

When Stereolab choose to play pop music there are few as tuneful and fun as they. This is all in Laetitia's native French so difficult to break down the language barrier, but it does seem to be about our old friend nature, its cycles and recycles and the long, powerful memories of this material geography. Stones, trees, walls tell stories, indeed. Now, who the hell is Cybele?

1979

Art Garfunkel
'Bright Eyes'
(CBS)

'Hazel's not dead.' 'But, Mum...why is there a black rabbit?' 'He's not dead, it's only half way through the film.' As sugary sweet as you get, this record will always hold a place in my heart due to the film it features in and the magnifcent book it is based on. What? You only remember the weird kid on Tiswas in a rabbit suit with a big fluffy carrot? Philistine.

1990

Primal Scream
'Loaded'
(Creation)

Primal Scream's reputation has been badly tarnished following the death of Martin Duffy. So, rather than talk about their sparse involvement in their greatest single, let's talk about the great Andrew Weatherall (whose death anniversary is two days ago) and how he single-handedly transformed an average album track into an indie-dance anthem (literally) overnight.

1990

The B52s
'Love Shack'
(Reprise)

This is a song that never seems to go away. I really liked it when it was initially released, partly because I thought Fred Schneider looked the spit of my uncle Davie. A band simultaneously cool and uncool, this record at least will mean the B52s will never go hungry in their old age...which they entered some time ago, fact fans!

1990

Various
'The Brits 1990 (Dance Medley)'
(RCA)

Megamixes weren't new in 1990, but few benefitted from a prime time performance slot at the Brit Awards. Put together by Michael Gray (who would be credited with a dance hit in his own right with 'The Weekend' 14 years later) this did for the burgeoning dance scene what Jive Bunny did for the Darby and Joan clubs.

1996

Echobelly
'Dark Therapy'
(Fauve)

If there was always a hint of The Smiths to Echobelly, then 'Dark Therapy' is their 'How Soon is Now?'. However, because it was released in 1996, it's a rather over-produced HSIN brooding away until mind-numbing guitar, layered solos hasten us towards the fade.

1996

Edwyn Collins
'Keep on Burning'
(Setanta)

The resurgence of Mr Collins with 'A Girl Like You', albeit on re-release, was probably as much of a surprise to him as it was to music fans at large. He treads similar ground here, keeping on churning, literally.