Song In My Head

OK, you can knock me for this one. It's "A Good Heart" by Feargal Sharkey. I probably haven't thought about this song since 1984. So why is it in my head? I'm reading Shadowplayers, James Nice's incredibly dense book about Factory Records. And in a passage about an early Happy Mondays' track called "Delightful", Shaun Ryder is described as having a great voice in his pre-drug years, a voice reminiscent of the Sharkey's. For the uninitiated, Sharkey led the band The Undertones during the 1970s. In the 80s, he was employed briefly by Depeche Mode founding member Vince Clarke, who had formed The Assembly after disbanding Yaz with Alison Moyet. The Assembly had a big hit in the UK with the rather schmaltzy "Never Never", which is vintage Clarke and sounds just like everything else he's ever done from "New Life" era Depeche Mode, to Yaz, to Erasure. Which is to say it's pretty good. (Here's more.)

Anyway, enjoy "A Good Heart" on me!