SWING OUT SISTER's WAITING GAME

[Paulo]

I've just received the 12 inch single of the song WAITING GAME by SWING OUT SISTER which is one of my all time favourite bands.

I'd like to ask to all of you who have heard this remix and I mean the remix (not the album version)... What do you call this kind of music????

Please don't say it's dance music. Dance music is too vague. I'd like you to be more specific.

The year is 1989 and the producer/remixer is PAUL STAVELEY O'DUFFY

[DiscoMan]

Generally speaking I have always liked "Swingout Sister".
I think Corinne Drewery could have done more with her talent.

Kinda like Basia. I've always liked her but always thought Danny White was a bit of a dud (with all due respect to Danny White).

[Disco Funk]

I'd call it 'Late 80's Euro Dance Music'. :)

Are you able to post an audio sample so we can hear a bit of the special remix?

Disco Funk

[Paulo]

Sorry Disco Funk, but I can't. But it is the official 12". It also has de dub, insturmental edit, the ultimix plus an unreleased song as the B-Side.

[discotom73]

"Waiting Game" is a very nice song, but I always like their biggest hit, "Breakout"! "Breakout" combines jazz with nice, fine elements of dance music at that time. It's another song worth seeking and listening to it over and over again!

[Disco Funk]

Originally Posted by discotom73

"Waiting Game" is a very nice song, but I always like their biggest hit, "Breakout"! "Breakout" combines jazz with nice, fine elements of dance music at that time. It's another song worth seeking and listening to it over and over again!

Yeah, that was a great tune. That came out first, and Waiting Game was their follow-up over here in North America. I remember them doing an interview around that time talking about how they were not a flash in the pan group, and were hoping to be around for years to come. I don't know if they made more hits in Europe, but they pretty much disappeared here in North America. So I've remembered that interview for its irony because so many 'one hit wonder' artists have said similar things in their interviews...

Disco Funk

[usagi-san]

DiscoFunk, "Waiting Game" was not their followup in America; "Twilight World" was. Then "Surrrender" was not a hit in America like it was in Europe. Then "Waiting Game" made it to #86 pop in America.

I have most Swing Out Sister albums and many 12 inches. I would not call much of it disco but all great pop music, much of it danceable.

"Waiting Game" is great; I am playing the extended version and remix edit now. It is not disco but great dance music...lots of drumming and nice horn break.

[Paulo]

SWING OUT SISTER has never been away. Maybe the hits have gone and thus they were forgotten by their native England, dismissed as an 80's thing, but they are active to this day.

From the first album (as usagi-san said) there are three 12 inches: BREAKOUT, TWILIGHT WORLD and SURRENDER. This last one is a melancholic slower electronic disco track (or synth-pop-disco track) or whatever any other label you prefer.

Than comes THE WAITING GAME from their second album.

From their 3rd there was their cover of AM I THE SAME GIRL which was big here in Brazil. Some clubs here also played WHO LET THE LOVE OUT? (which wasn't a single, but it is a groovy fast soul number).

As the hits dried up and the 80's came to an end, they left their 80's sound behind and embarked in an exclusive sound which mixes jazz with soul with orchestrations plus 60's POP (Burt Bacharah & Jimmy Webb)... This particular style is the one they are exploring today... The resulting music is very sophisticated (specially for todays's standards)

Their last 2 studio albums are their best: SOMEWHERE DEEP IN THE NIGHT and WHERE OUR LOVE GROWS.

In Corinne Drewery's words, while the former has a more nocturnal, dark and moody feel, the other is more sunny and lounge-y.

They have just released a live album recorded in Tokyo.

Their album discograpnhy is:

1986 IT IS BETTER TO TRAVEL
1988 KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD
1992 GET IN TOUCH WITH YOURSELF
1994 THE LIVING RETURN
1995 LIVE AT THE JAZZ CAFE
1996 SHAPES AND PATTERNS
1999 FILTH AND DREAMS
2002 SOMEWHERE DEEP IN THE NIGHT
2004 WHERE OUR LOVE GROWS
2005 SWING OUT SISTER LIVE

[usagi-san]

I had to play "Am I The Same Girl" on the radio a lot, as well as "Breakout" and "Twilight World." And I think "You On My Mind" once, and "Surrender" a few times. When I first heard "A I The Same Girl" I thought they took the hook from George Benson's "Soulful Strut" but I later found out Young-Holt Unlimited did it first. But S.O.S. added vocals and made it their own. I think their last 3 studio albums were their best; "Shapes and Patterns" is excellent, too. I was stunned to hear "Somewhere In The World" in the doctor's office.

[Greg Wilson]

Originally Posted by usagi-san

When I first heard "A I The Same Girl" I thought they took the hook from George Benson's "Soulful Strut" but I later found out Young-Holt Unlimited did it first. But S.O.S. added vocals and made it their own.

Hi ugasi-san: 'Am I The Same Girl' was first recorded by Barbara Acklin in 1969 (Dusty Springfield had a minor UK with her cover in the same year).

All the info's here:

SOULFUL STRUT

Most recently this tune has enjoyed airplay courtesy of the late Grover Washington JNR and the 1996 CD from Warner Records of the same name. However, enthusiasts of a certain generation will remember the original version by Young Holt Unlimited.

Eldee Young and Isaac Holt formed the rhythm section of the Ramsey Lewis Trio in the early sixties. They broke away to start their own band and took Soulful Strut to #3 in the R&B charts in 1969. The track next appeared as a cover by George Benson on his 1977 album ‘Livin Inside Your Love’ while the Young Holt original went on to feature on more than twenty compilations over a twenty five year period. In addition, it also appeared on the soundtrack of the 1998 movie, ‘The Parent Trap’.

Normally this would be the end of the trail but in this case, it only represents an interesting turn in the road. As is commonly known ‘Soulful Strut’ is an instrumental. However, a few months before Young Holt Unlimited took the recording into the charts, Chicago based Barbara Acklin had a hit on her hands with the vocal version of the same tune titled ‘Am I The Same Girl’. Acklin was born in Oakland, California and moved to Chicago at the age of five. She developed her vocal skills while singing gospel at Big Zion Baptist Church and, in 1966, joined Brunswick Records as a receptionist for producer Carl Davis, who was to make his name working with the Chi-lites and Gene Chandler. She had a passion to record and persistently asked Davis to give her the big chance she was looking for. He said he would but in the meantime encouraged her to develop her song writing skills. This indirectly gave her a breakthrough as it brought her into contact with the legendary Jackie Wilson who heard an example of her work, ‘Whispers (Gettin Louder)’, that she had co-wrote with David Scott, and recommended it to Davies. It was recorded on August 8, 1966, went to # six in the R&B charts and # 11 on the pop listings in the fall of that year. Her recording of ‘Am I The Same Girl’, also on Brunswick, reached #33 in the R&B charts and #79 in the pop listings.

Barbara Acklin went on to have an extremely successful performing and writing career. Her compositions with Brunswick stable mate Eugene Record of the Chi-Lites and co-writer of ‘Am I The Same Girl’, set the tone for that groups success through the late sixties and early seventies. ‘Have You Seen Her’ settled at # one R&B and # three pop. It earned the Chi-Lites their first gold record. ‘Oh Girl’ followed in the spring of 1972 while other Acklin/Record compositions for the Chi-Lites included ‘Stoned Out of My Mind’ and ‘Toby’, a double-sided hit single and the title track of a 1974 album.

‘Am I The Same Girl’, as well as going on to figure on several compilations, also proved to be a cover version hit in the UK singles charts for Dusty Springfield. More latterly it has been covered by Swing Out Sister on their 1991 release ‘Get In Touch With Yourself’.

Nearing the end of this musical journey the path is stained with sadness. Grover Washington JNR. died in December 1999 only thirteen months after Acklin was heard doing a phone interview with Chicago cable TV host Royce Glamour from her Omaha, NE, home. During the interview she said she was excited about working on material for her new album, and she also reported that she had a bad cold. The following weekend she was rushed to a hospital where she passed away from pneumonia. It was November 27, 1998 and she was fifty-four. Nine months after that, at the age of fifty nine, Dusty Springfield also died. All are sadly missed by music lovers everywhere. Despite all that ‘Am I The Same Girl’ lives on. It appears on the 1999 album by the excellent Kim Waters, ‘One Special Moment’.

A real Smooth Soul Survivor.

By Denis Poole

[usagi-san]

Thanks a lot, Greg Wilson! I never even thought to look in my big Billboard book to see if there was an "Am I The Same Girl" before Swing Out Sister's. Barbara's reached #79 in the American pop chart.