It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” by Sandie Shaw
October 28, 1964
“(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” by Sandie Shaw
#1 on the Record Retailer Singles Chart (UK), October 22 – November 11, 1964
Americans tend to think of mid-’60s UK pop as the era of Merseybeat and British R&B, which together crossed the Atlantic under the banner of the British Invasion. Yet the international popularity of these male-dominated groups only tells part of what was happening in the British pop-rock scene. For whatever reason, their distaff counterparts had more trouble finding success in America. The female singers who did manage to cross the Atlantic tended to be a bit older and fell into distinct stylistic niches: Dusty Springfield with her Motown influence, Petula Clark with her sophisticated adult pop. But the trio of teenage everygirl singers Cilla Black, Lulu, and Sandie Shaw, whose energy and rock connections paralleled the beat groups of the British Invasion, never quite became the sensations in the US that they were at home.
Even within this trio, however, some of these girl singers had clear antecedents. Cilla Black and Petula Clark shared a taste for grand Euro-
ballads, while Lulu’s and Dusty Springfield’s love of American R&B shone through in their soulful vocal styles. Sandie Shaw, on the other hand, was a bit harder to peg. She started out as a part-time model (who sometimes worked at the Ford Dagenham factory), and found fame after winning second place singing in a talent contest. In short, she had above-average looks and ability, yet was just ordinary enough to seem relatable. Although she sang in tune and was capable of powerful vocals, Shaw was an obviously untrained singer, with a slightly raw, unstable quality to her voice that gave her an air of vulnerability. Her suburban London accent and trademark tendency to perform barefoot reinforced her down-to-earth nature, yet there was also something vaguely remote and mysterious about her.
After the failure of Shaw’s first single, “As Long as You’re Happy Baby,” manager Eve Taylor traveled to America seeking a hit for her client. She landed on “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” a contemplative, jazzy record by New York soul singer Lou Johnson. The single, penned by famed songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was only a minor hit for Johnson, but Taylor recognized its potential — especially as Cilla Black had just sent another Bacharach-David composition, “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” to the top of the UK charts.
The bossa nova rhythm and unusual instrumentation of Shaw’s rendition of the song borrows heavily from the Bacharach-David house style, although the duo had nothing to do with its production. Shaw’s vocals, however, owe little to either Johnson’s low-key reading or the brassier, full-throated style of Dionne Warwick, who cut the original demo. Instead, Shaw begins the song almost hesitantly, as if reluctant to turn the corner onto the city streets filled with reminders of her former love. Once she does, however, the breakdown is almost immediate. When she sings “you’ll always be a part of me,” it’s as much an accusation — or a curse — as it is a lamentation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7QlMbwqg_8
Shaw spends the rest of the song fluctuating between suppressing these memories and being overwhelmed by them. Eventually, all the reminders are too much to avoid. In the final verse, she pleads for his return to their shared past: “just come back to the places where we used to go, and I’ll be there.” The painful memories become cherished souvenirs, and the repetitions of “always something there to remind me” in the coda take on an optimistic, if slightly desperate, cast.
Shaw’s version of the song soared to the top of the UK charts just a few weeks after its release in September 1964. It had less success across the Atlantic, never beating the middling placement of Lou Johnson’s original on the US charts. Shaw’s follow-up single, the “Always Something There”-soundalike “Girl Don’t Come,” fared slightly better in America, but she would remain the only one of her British girl singer superstar compatriots to never crack the US Top 40. Even if the singer never managed to cross over, though, her song did. After a string of covers throughout the ’60s and ’70s, “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” finally broke into the US Top 10 in 1983, in a version by British synthpop duo Naked Eyes — inspired by, though wildly different from, Shaw’s recording of the song, which had been a hit in their childhood two decades earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMAe31FFHbo
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
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