ABC - The Look Of Love (Original 1982 Extended Remix)

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• published: 06 Mar 2016
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ABC are an English new wave group that first came to prominence in the early 1980s. Their 1982 debut album, The Lexicon of Love, was a UK number one and they achieved ten UK and five US Top 40 hit singles between 1981 and 1990. The band, now essentially a vehicle for singer Martin Fry, continues to tour and released their eighth studio album, Traffic, in 2008. The group's first single, "Tears Are Not Enough", made the UK Top 20 in 1981. Soon afterwards, Robinson left the band and was replaced by David Palmer; Lickley departed shortly thereafter and was not replaced. In 1982, the band released their debut album The Lexicon of Love, which reached number one in the UK Albums Chart. Produced by Trevor Horn, it often featured in UK critics' lists of favourite albums: it ranked 42nd in The Observer Music Monthly's "Top 100 British Albums" (June 2004) and 40th in Q magazine's "100 Greatest British Albums" (June 2000). The band had three Top 10 hits during 1982: the singles "Poison Arrow", "The Look of Love" (both of which were recorded whilst Mark Lickley was still a member of the band), and "All of My Heart". Several high-concept music videos were made, including the long-form spy pastiche "Mantrap". Following the culmination of the Lexicon of Love tour, Palmer joined the Yellow Magic Orchestra for a series of tour dates; shortly thereafter Fry, Singleton, and White decided to reconvene in order to commence work on their next album, leading Palmer to depart ABC in order to honour his commitments to Yellow Magic Orchestra's tour. The remaining members' found it difficult to follow up on the success of their debut. Their second album, Beauty Stab, was released in November 1983, produced by Gary Langan who was the engineer on The Lexicon of Love. It performed poorly in comparison to its predecessor, peaking at number 12. The first single from the album, "That Was Then But This Is Now", briefly appeared in the UK Top 20, followed by a Top 40 showing for "SOS". The band eschewed remixes for the project and so the 12" single for "That Was Then But This Is Now" featured the disclaimer "This record is exactly the same as the 7" version. The choice is yours." Singleton left the band shortly after the release of Beauty Stab as a result of Fry and White's reluctance to spend much time touring the band's material. Fry and White then enlisted the services of Fiona Russell Powell (known as Eden) and David Yarritu in the group's new line-up. This line-up recorded the album How To Be A...Zillionaire!, released in 1985. The band's chart success dwindled further in the UK with this album, but they did score their first US Top 10 hit with "Be Near Me", which also made the UK Top 30. The album also featured the singles "(How to Be a) Millionaire", "Vanity Kills" and "Ocean Blue". Inspiration for the album's cartoons of the band members was taken from a Photo shoot by David Levine whose work featured on many of the sleeves for singles released from this album. Keith LeBlanc from Tackhead programmed much of the beatbox work for the album. After a hiatus, during which Fry was treated for Hodgkin's disease, he and White reconvened ABC as a duo, releasing the album Alphabet City in 1987. The album returned them to the UK Top 10 for the first time in five years, peaking at number 7. It featured "When Smokey Sings", a tribute to Smokey Robinson, which narrowly missed the UK Top 10. The album also spawned "The Night You Murdered Love" (UK #31) and "King Without a Crown" (UK #44) as singles. In 1989, the duo issued Up, their fifth and final PolyGram studio album. This time experimenting with house music, ABC scored a minor UK hit with the single "One Better World". A second single, "The Real Thing", and the album itself were less successful. During this period, the group worked on a couple of outside productions aimed at the house music scene. One was Paul Rutherford's (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) solo album and first single release; the other was for Lizzie Tear on the group's own Neutron label. In 1990, the band released a greatest hits compilation album, Absolutely. This covered all of ABC's albums up until 1990 and featured all of their singles. The compilation made the UK Top 10. A video package featuring promos was also released. One new song, "The Look of Love '90", was released to promote the package. The group moved to the EMI label (and MCA in North America), where they recorded the 1991 LP Abracadabra. Two singles, "Love Conquers All" and "Say It", narrowly missed the UK Top 40, though a remix of the latter by the Italian production team Black Box appeared on the US dance charts. Martin Fry also collaborated with M People in 1991 on their first album, Northern Soul, recording vocals for the song "Life". However, when the album was re-released in 1992, and again in 1995, this track was omitted.