What Were They Thinking?

As far as music (or anything else for that matter), it's a very different world from 1979. We all know the music industry has lost its way and doesn't have strategy for anything. But back then, record labels tried to think "long-term" about artists and albums. In particular, there was the "singles strategy" ... the first single may not be a huge hit but is designed to attract attention to the album release. The subsequent singles were then pushed harder for the hits, which would then in turn continue to drive album sales. 

The reason for that story today is is to figure out why Stiff Records -- one of my all-time favorite labels -- chose to kill the career of the one-of-a-kind singer / saxophonist Lene Lovich with the single release of "What Will I Do without You?". This was the third UK single from her successful Flex  album, which had already yielded the semi-successful "Bird Song" and "Angels" singles.  Those were both bad choices for singles, being low on melody and high on atmosphere. (They both had fabulous videos, though. For proof see, "Bird Song" Video.)

To try and regroup, the label chose the most "immediate" song from Flex for the third single, "What Will I Do without You?". They packaged it in a double 7" with four previously unreleased live tracks to help drive interest. But what they forgot to do was issue the actual album track as the single; instead, the company chose to release a demo version of the song as a single. Instead of the sophisticated, danceable album version, they pushed a plodding version with a personality-free vocal from Lovich. (And if you've heard anything by her, you know that her recordings -- if nothing else -- DEFINITELY have personality.)

It didn't help that the cover art was particularly cheap and uninspired, even though it was a four-color printing job.

At the same time, her US label was pushing her fabulous version of the Four Season's song "The Night." Although it wasn't a hit, at least it was a very understandable choice. And Soft Cell had a UK hit with it many years later, so it was a radio-viable choice.*

In a couple of years, she recouped a bit with the US club hits "New Toy" and "It's You, Only You," but her radio hits were long gone.  

Should I blame Stiff records? Well, here's the single mix of "What Will I Do without You? " and you tell me.


*POSTSCRIPT: I recently discovered that Stiff UK had indeed chosen "The Night" as the third single but -- oddly -- withdrew it and released this instead with the same catalogue number.