Thursday, October 5, 2017

Number 24: Thompson Twins - If You Were Here

The first time I heard my favorite Thompson Twins song, "If You Were Here", was in the cinema watching the final scene from the movie Sixteen Candles. The track was originally a cut from the Twins' 1983 album Quick Step and Side Kick, but, despite its appearance on the movie soundtrack, was never officially released as a single. Tom Bailey's keyboard work is amazing on the song, and vocally he's in top form. I like a lot of Thompson Twins' material, but for me their catalogue is forever divided in two: this song, and everything else. "If You Were Here" gets the #24 spot here, and marks the Thompson Twins' fourth and final appearance on my Top 200.

Let's be frank here, Tom Bailey did a lot of work carrying dead weight around for a decade. Here's Tom performing "If You Were Here" with his new all-female backup band in 2014. I don't detect a big quality drop without Currie & Leeway. Just saying.
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8 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 5, 2017 at 9:08 AM

    One of those songs that always defines a moment in time ... the end of 16 Candles. Best TT song by far. John Hughes picks yet another winner for his incredible soundtracks

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    1. MarcDOctober 5, 2017 at 9:24 AM

      I love some Hughes movies: Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Planes, Trains, & Automobiles, Christmas Vacation, Weird Science...but others I'm not really a big fan of: Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller, Home Alone.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 5, 2017 at 10:38 AM

    Pretty in Pink : Great soundtrack. Terrible flick. Not Molly's finest.

    Ferris Bueller ... great moments & songs interspersed amongst stretches of trying too hard. Also doesn't help that the guy who played the principal was later exposed as a pedophile!

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    1. MarcDJune 6, 2018 at 9:32 PM

      Jeffrey Jones. He was also great in Stay Tuned with John Ritter. Too bad he was a scumbag in real life.

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  3. MarkOctober 5, 2017 at 2:19 PM

    A high school girlfriend loved this song and played it often. (It's a great tune and I didn't mind a bit). When I discovered the song's chord changes are the same as Duran Duran's "Rio" I started singing those words atop the Twins whenever she played the tune. The relationship didn't last long after I started that annoying cleverness; I wonder if there's a connection.

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  4. dbutler16February 19, 2018 at 10:45 AM

    I just saw Sixteen Candles yesterday. Still an 80's classic. And I love all of the John Hughes movies that WAS mentions, especially the soundtrack, but the movies, too.

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