Comments on: White Label Wednesday: Tracey Ullman, “Breakaway”

By: Miltbell

Miltbell — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:36:00 +0000

Can anyone tell me who the darkhaired ‘back up singer” on BREAKAWAY is?

By: DavidMedsker

DavidMedsker — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:34:02 +0000

I love Kirsty but yes, Tracey's version is far better. Even if it has Kirsty's 'baaaaay-beeeee' before the last verse.

By: JonCummings

JonCummings — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:41:34 +0000

I was a huge fan of “You Broke My Heart in 17 Places,” and I didn't even know Tracey was a comedian until it was embarrassingly late. “Breakaway” accompanied my jogs (they were brief–about 2 and a half minutes, apparently), “They Don't Know” rocked me to sleep at night, and the title track sent me scurrying to the library (the second line of the chorus is “Shepherd's Bush was only one”–imagine my disappointment when I learned it's just a neighborhood in London!).

One of my first, appalling ventures as a music crit was a stupid column I was forced to write listing albums that sounded good on a then-ubiquitous Walkman. “Walkmanability,” we called it. “You Broke My Heart” came in at #5, I think. Katrina and the Waves were on there, too, because I jogged to “Walking on Sunshine” as well (hey! those runs must have lasted FIVE minutes!).

By: Jack Feerick

Jack Feerick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:55:07 +0000

I'll admit that, yeah. Tracey's arrangement is leaner and the production crisper. Kirsty's first couple of records tend to sound overly-busy, to my ears; for my money it wasn't until Kite that everything finally came together perfectly.

By: DavidMedsker

DavidMedsker — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:34:02 +0000

I love Kirsty but yes, Tracey's version is far better. Even if it has Kirsty's 'baaaaay-beeeee' before the last verse.

By: DavidMedsker

DavidMedsker — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:34:02 +0000

I love Kirsty but yes, Tracey's version is far better. Even if it has Kirsty's 'baaaaay-beeeee' before the last verse.

By: JonCummings

JonCummings — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:41:34 +0000

By: Jack Feerick

Jack Feerick — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:55:07 +0000

By: Breadalbane

Breadalbane — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:23:08 +0000

Now, now, Scraps, that's unfair. Sonny Bono was also a percussionist on Phil Spector's “A Christmas Gift For You”. And he …um… well, there are several other producers who got much worse performances out of Cher. So that's something, I suppose.

Incidentally, have you ever heard the original more-or-less country version of “Bette Davis Eyes”? Val Garay (Kim Carnes' producer) deserves some sort of Nobel Prize for recognizing that a massive hit single was lurking deep within that original record. Of course, failing to get the Nobel Prize, he merely had to make to with the producer's royalties on a record that was #1 for about two months…

Oh, and debate this Kirsty fans: Even though Kirsty's the better vocalist, Tracey's version of “They Don't Know” handily beats Kirsty's.

By: Scraps

Scraps — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:04:05 +0000

DeShannon sang “Needles and Pins,” but it was written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche. It may be the only thing that justified Bono's existence, so we shouldn't take it away from him.