Strawberry Switchblade - Jolene

The sound of an interesting and original group being forced by their record company into doing a novelty cover version. Oh dear.

Cock Robin - The Promise You Made

I was suddenly reminded of this when I accidentally stumbled across a dodgy Eurodance version of the song. The original is, of course, infinitely better and reminds me of the summer of 1986 when it seemed to be climbing the charts at a rate of one position a week for most of the summer, eventually settling at number 28.

For those of you with a strong stomach, here is the dance version by Kate Ryan:

The Big Dish - European Rain

Some classy pop from the late '80s. This lot had one top forty hit with Miss America in 1991 taken from their album Satellites. Satellites - Big Dish - do you see? Oh well.

Bardo - One Step Further

From the days when the UK used to score points at Eurovision (don't get me started on that one), here's a clear case of a song which really should have won it for us but somehow didn't. Christ knows what's going on in the video.

Tears For Fears - The Way You Are

Tears For Fears appear to have disowned this single - it came out in 1983 between The Hurting and Songs For The Big Chair but doesn't appear on either, nor does it show up on their greatest hits album.

Swimming With Sharks - Careless Love

Apparently this lot are very big in Germany, where they were called "Humpe & Humpe". When the single was released in the UK the band was renamed "Swimming With Sharks", which was also the title of their album. It still wasn't a hit.

Duranduran - Do You Believe In Shame?

A minor hit from that strange late '80s period when the band was a trio and the band's name was all one word.