Today’s disc is this smash hit from 1989 by Lisa Stansfield, All Around the World. Taken from Stansfield’s debut album Affection, it was written by the singer and two former band mates, Andy Morris and Ian Devaney (the latter became her husband some years later). Stansfield had had other singles before this and had sung and co-written People Hold On with Coldcut (another of those oh-so 1980s dance videos here). But it was this single (for the major label Arista) that really established her as a solo artist. Here’s the video:
When I first moved to Leeds in 1989 I mostly listened to the pirate stations operating in the city at the time. Dream FM (the one I played on with my DJ partner Daisy) started up a few years later but in ’89 the main one was WYBC (West Yorkshire Broadcasting Company). It mainly played soul music (with a little bit of that new fangled house music now and then) but I’ve been quite a soul fan over the years (as some of this month’s tracks will testify) so I really enjoyed it, especially when getting ready to go out or recovering from going out. My favourite show on WYBC was with a guy called Soulmaster Hazzy (Saturday teatime I think) and he really loved this Lisa Stansfield track. On pirate radio there is nothing to stop you playing a song over and over and that is certainly what he did with All Around the World. The station played Black music pretty much wall to wall but this song was not only played but played a great deal. It was number 1 in the pop charts but a hit with the pirate stations too.
Apparently the song was influenced by the great Barry White, hence the spoken intro. Stansfield even rerecorded it in 1992 as a duet with the man himself (that is on YouTube). Even if nothing she has done since has had quite the success of this single, she has had a pretty solid and varied career (singing, songwriting, acting). There is no one quite like Lisa.
Another song on mega rotation in the same radio show at around the same time was the one pictured below. This record was released a few times (first in 1990, then again in 1991) but I wonder if I heard it on a promo copy on WYBC before that. Like All Around the World, There’s Nothing Like This by Omar was played many, many times on the station:
Omar is a classically trained singer and songwriter and Lisa isn’t the only soul singer with acting experience as in 2022 Omar appeared in the TV soap Eastenders (credited as Omar Lye-Fook).
We will be speeding up again tomorrow and heading on a day trip to Manchester.
For the first intro post to this series go here.
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