Saturday 24 January 2009

Julia: the forgotten Eurythmics single

At a time when Eurythmics were in their imperial phase - where nothing could go wrong and hit followed hit - the wheel buckled, slightly. The single Julia, a minimalistic and gorgeous ballad was only released in the UK and Ireland (reaching 44 and 17 respectively) as part of the 1984 'soundtrack' and remains their least successful single to date. But that's no reason to leave it off every compilation bar the Boxed CD version and have the ignomony of being the only single NOT on the iTunes version...

The 1984 (For the Love of Big Brother) album was jinxed anyway. The director of the movie, Micheal Radford claimed Eurythmics were "foisted" on him by Virgin, the band's label and the film's backers. Annie and Dave said they would never have got involved in the first place had they known this. It's a pity, because the album, despite the massive hit Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty Four), was overlooked and much maligned - in the US it was virtually ignored because of prudish radio stations refusing to play a song entitled Sexcrime. Coming between the career highs of Touch and Be Yourself Tonight, this could have been an equally commercial and creative success. Thankfully the whole album is easily available everywhere.

I saw the Jane Fonda/Vanessa Redgrave wartime weepie Julia once on TV and instantly thought the song would connect more with this movie than 1984.

Julia - Eurythmics
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6 comments:

xolondon said...

I love this song - so wintry. Unlike any other D&A song. Also love Doubleplusgood from the same soundtrack.

Yuяi said...

Phil, you and I are on the same wavelength! I posted about "Sexcrime" earlier this week and commented on how prudish and contrary we Americans are!

I love "Julia" too. Had no idea the director disagreed with Dave and Annie working the soundtrack. Shows you how screwed up he was!

Pogonophile said...

Oh, I've always loved this album and particularly this song. Something in it plays with my head slightly, reminding me of Forever Autumn from Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds soundtrack. The mention of autumnal leaves, perhaps, or the general sense of approaching winter chill...

John said...

Hi, Dear!

Actually, this was a US single as well, covered it a while ago on LIT80s..I even have the 7" (with pic sleeve!) I bought, oh, so long ago...

xo!

--john

Anonymous said...

Late to the party, but I can vouch for John -- I've got the US 7" single as well. The b-side was Sexcrime, though, and not Ministry of Love.

MeLikeGoodMusic said...

Just did a post to my blog about "Julia". It's one of my all-time favorite underrated songs. Thanks for sharing.

James
http://www.melikegoodmusic.com