Monday Morning’s Earworm №120

I Don’t Want A Lover by Texas

What is an earworm?

It’s a snatch or a snippet, a captured fragment, a line or two, or maybe a bit more, from a cultural reference point, that stays in your head, that keeps bubbling up accompanying your day.

It’s part of the language of your landscape that stays in your mind, whether it’s one single line, a couplet or maybe a whole verse, from a poem or song, or a part of a speech from a play, or a quote from a book, or something you heard somebody say, that won’t let you go.

Sometimes it won’t involve what we call language in the everyday. It could be purely a musical phrase that plays on your time, on a loop that follows you through day and night.

That’s what an earworm is. And so is this…

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I Don’t Want A Lover by Texas

UK Chart peak: №8 US Chart peak: №77

Red Bricks and Red Seals

This is one of many songs that, once again, take me back to my college years and the hallowed halls of North East London Polytechnic. We might not have had red bricks like some older educational establishments, but we had Red Seal instead, which was also good at expanding the mind.

That said, 1989, the year “I Don’t Want A Lover” debuted on the charts, would be my final year. Through the window of my ground-floor Germander Way flat in East London, I often heard the strains of this song drifting over from other student flat windows.

It was one of the year’s ubiquitous hits, and hugely popular among us bright young things on that largely student estate. It certainly helped that Sharleen Spiteri, the band’s singer, looked as good as she sounded. Looking back, I feel sorry for the few locals that lived there, poor sods. Students can be a selfish, self-absorbed bunch of pretentious noise merchants. Moi included.

About the Band of this Morning’s Moment

Texas are a Glasgow band, formed in 1986 by Johnny McElhone (bass), Sharleen Spiteri (vocals), Ally McErlaine (guitar), and drummer Stuart Kerr.

According to Sharleen Spiteri’s own website:

“When Sharleen gave her own performance of the Culture Club hit “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”, McElhone loved her voice, and they set about forming a band. Joining them were guitarist Ally McErlaine and drummer Stuart Kerr (ex-Love and Money and Friends Again).

They found their name in the title of the Wim Wenders film “Paris, Texas”, a movie they loved for the soundtrack made by Ry Cooder. They began writing songs and eventually got a record deal with Mercury. Sharleen and Ally quickly became the focal point, partly due to Ally’s fluent guitar playing and their joint mastery of slide guitar.

Their live debut took place in March 1988 at the Tav Bar at Dundee University Students Association, on a small stage in the corner of the bar”.

Their debut album, Southside, produced and engineered by Tim Palmer, would follow this morning’s earworm in March of 1989. It would peak at №3 on the UK album charts, while in America, it would only get to №88 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.

About the Song of This Morning’s Moment

The Ry Cooder influence is right out front on this first single, with the opening 30 seconds or so devoted to single-picked notes in a short dusty slide guitar solo.

From the beginning, they’re declaring themselves a rock band with both feet in the blues tradition, one which inspired the rock’n’roll from which the rock genre has taken its name.

“I Don’t Want A Lover” was not just the first single from their debut album Southside, but the band’s first single overall. They were off to a good start, with a song that would get to №8 in the UK charts.

The album Southside would outperform the debut single, rising to №3 in the UK. Though it would falter at №88 in the US, not getting as high as “I Don’t Want A Lover’s” №77.

Recording sessions for this debut album took place at Maison Rouge studios in London between September and November 1988 and were produced by Tim Palmer. It was released on the 13th of March 1989, two months after our song of this morning’s moment.

Three more singles from Southside would follow: “Thrill Has Gone”, “Everyday Now” and “Prayer for You”. None of them, however, would come close to the first singles level of success, all failing to break into the UK top 40.

Texas would have to wait until 1991, when “Alone with You” from their second album Mother’s Heaven cracked the top 40, getting up to №32.

And they would have to wait until 1997 for another single to get into the top 10, when all four singles from their fourth album, White on Blonde, would cement their reputation and kill the spectre of one-hit-wonder-ism that had begun to attach itself to “I Don’t Want A Lover” as the only top 10 single to that point.

Recommended Listening:

Southside, Texas, Mercury, 1989 The Greatest Hits, Texas, Mercury, 2000

As always, remember to tell me in the comments what you thought of today’s earworm choice.

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