{"id":12146,"date":"2023-08-22T13:13:13","date_gmt":"2023-08-22T17:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=12146"},"modified":"2024-08-28T10:51:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T14:51:11","slug":"reaching-for-the-stars-vol-89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2023\/08\/22\/reaching-for-the-stars-vol-89\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching for the Stars, Vol 89"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chart Week: August 29, 1981<br \/>\nSong: \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d &#8211; Sheena Easton<br \/>\nChart Position: #29, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for for weeks in October and November.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve heard a glut of 1981 countdowns recently. To be honest, it\u2019s a little much. The quirkiness of that era grates rather quickly upon repeated exposure.<\/p>\n<p>However, I did learn something new and amazing in the process.<\/p>\n<p>On a countdown from earlier in the summer of \u201981, a bonus track outside the Top 40 added to the new recording was Sheena Easton\u2019s \u201cFor Your Eyes Only.\u201d I didn\u2019t like that song much as a kid; I have no love for it as an adult. I believe I was cooking dinner while listening and focused on my work rather than the music. <\/p>\n<p>When it ended the announcer mentioned that it was, of course, the theme to the James Bond picture of the same name. He also stated that Blondie had recorded a song for the movie with the exact same title.<\/p>\n<p>Wait, WHAT?!?! Blondie recorded something for a 007 flick? How had I never heard that before?<\/p>\n<p>After dinner I raced to the computer and started searching. Turns out, the story was true. The production team behind the twelfth Bond film indeed requested that Blondie perform the title song. They wanted the band to record a piece written by Bill Conti, who composed the picture\u2019s score. I bet you\u2019ll recognize another of his themes. <\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Rocky \u2022 Theme Song\/Gonna Fly Now \u2022 Bill Conti\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r81AviZECUE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Blondie thought this was a terrible idea. They wanted to write their own music. So they did. They submitted their recording, but it was promptly rejected. The film\u2019s producers pivoted to the rising Scottish artist Sheena Easton, asking her to interpret Conti\u2019s original effort. The rest is history. <\/p>\n<p>Easton\u2019s track peaked at #4 in the US, #8 in the UK, and was nominated for an Academy Award. The producers liked Easton so much that she became the first, and still only artist to appear performing during the movie\u2019s title sequence. Star Roger Moore said she was sexier than any of the Bond Girls in the film. <\/p>\n<p>Blondie put their version of \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d on their 1982 album <em>The Hunter<\/em>, but never released it as a single. The album received some of the worst reviews of their career, it didn\u2019t sell well, and soon the band split up. <\/p>\n<p>Blondie\u2019s record is interesting. You can hear them trying to connect with the vibe of James Bond, especially in the guitars. And I can 100% envision it as the music played under the title sequence. I sense some common threads to a few of the modern Bond themes that are perfectly fine, but basically serve as background music to the visual playgrounds those scenes have become. <\/p>\n<p>However, it also feels flat, lacking the energy and sex appeal of Blondie\u2019s biggest hits. Their idea of cool didn\u2019t really match Bond\u2019s. It doesn\u2019t sound like a hit to me, even if it had made the soundtrack. Let\u2019s call it a <strong>5<\/strong> and guess it peaks in the 20\u2019s on <em>AT40<\/em> had it been the official theme.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Blondie - For Your Eyes Only\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y2Y-hCydiXA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sheena Easton\u2019s tune, on the other hand, kind of sucks. It\u2019s not her fault. While the film was going for a grittier tone to replace the campy direction the franchise took in the 1970s, this ballad is pure, old people pop. It is overly big and dramatic, and often veers into Cheeseland. I\u2019m not sure why they thought a 22-year-old woman was the right person to sing about a 54-year-old spy. Easton has a nice voice, but it\u2019s not big enough to match what this song asks for. You can hear her straining on its grandest moments. It needed some semi-washed up star of the late Sixties who could belt out those big notes. I can\u2019t imagine Deborah Harry singing it, either. It could not be farther away from what she stood for, or what her voice was capable of. <\/p>\n<p>Conti said he had two other singers in mind when he wrote the piece: Donna Summer and Dusty Springfield. Summer would have been an interesting choice. She certainly had the voice, but I\u2019m not sure she was a good match for the vibe either. Especially since she was still considered the Queen of Disco in 1981. But Dusty Springfield? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! It would have been a perfect, late-career revival for her. Alas\u2026<\/p>\n<p>The Conti\/Sheena track gets a <strong>2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"For Your Eyes Only\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LTfRZQqp7oM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Most of my research for this post came from <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/blondie-rejected-james-bond-theme-for-your-eyes-only\/\">a single article<\/a>, written in 2020. I had to laugh when the writer suggested \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d was the highlight of Easton\u2019s career. Keep in mind she hit #1 in the US with \u201cMorning Train (Nine to Five).\u201d And, as my two brothers-in-music John N and Ed L immediately noted, had this guy not heard of <a href=\"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2018\/11\/02\/reaching-for-the-stars-vol-16\/\">\u201cStrut\u201d<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/CqH7LlWwIww\">\u201cSugar Walls\u201d<\/a>? <\/p>\n<p><strong>A<\/strong> highlight? Sure. But <strong>THE<\/strong> highlight? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chart Week: August 29, 1981 Song: \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d &#8211; Sheena Easton Chart Position: #29, 6th week on the chart. Peaked at #4 for for weeks in October and November. I\u2019ve heard a glut of 1981 countdowns recently. To be honest, it\u2019s a little much. The quirkiness of that era grates rather quickly upon repeated exposure. However, I did learn something new and amazing in the process. On a countdown from earlier in the summer of \u201981, a bonus track outside the Top 40 added to the new recording was Sheena Easton\u2019s \u201cFor Your Eyes Only.\u201d I didn\u2019t like that song much as a kid; I have no love for it as an adult. I believe I was cooking dinner while listening and focused on my work rather than the music. When it ended the announcer mentioned that it was, of course, the theme to the James Bond picture of the same name. He also stated that Blondie had recorded a song for the movie with the exact same title. Wait, WHAT?!?! Blondie recorded something for a 007 flick? How had I never heard that before? After dinner I raced to the computer and started searching. Turns out, the story was true. The production team behind the twelfth Bond film indeed requested that Blondie perform the title song. They wanted the band to record a piece written by Bill Conti, who composed the picture\u2019s score. I bet you\u2019ll recognize another of his themes. Blondie thought this was a terrible idea. They wanted to write their own music. So they did. They submitted their recording, but it was promptly rejected. The film\u2019s producers pivoted to the rising Scottish artist Sheena Easton, asking her to interpret Conti\u2019s original effort. The rest is history. Easton\u2019s track peaked at #4 in the US, #8 in the UK, and was nominated for an Academy Award. The producers liked Easton so much that she became the first, and still only artist to appear performing during the movie\u2019s title sequence. Star Roger Moore said she was sexier than any of the Bond Girls in the film. Blondie put their version of \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d on their 1982 album The Hunter, but never released it as a single. The album received some of the worst reviews of their career, it didn\u2019t sell well, and soon the band split up. Blondie\u2019s record is interesting. You can hear them trying to connect with the vibe of James Bond, especially in the guitars. And I can 100% envision it as the music played under the title sequence. I sense some common threads to a few of the modern Bond themes that are perfectly fine, but basically serve as background music to the visual playgrounds those scenes have become. However, it also feels flat, lacking the energy and sex appeal of Blondie\u2019s biggest hits. Their idea of cool didn\u2019t really match Bond\u2019s. It doesn\u2019t sound like a hit to me, even if it had made the soundtrack. Let\u2019s call it a 5 and guess it peaks in the 20\u2019s on AT40 had it been the official theme. Sheena Easton\u2019s tune, on the other hand, kind of sucks. It\u2019s not her fault. While the film was going for a grittier tone to replace the campy direction the franchise took in the 1970s, this ballad is pure, old people pop. It is overly big and dramatic, and often veers into Cheeseland. I\u2019m not sure why they thought a 22-year-old woman was the right person to sing about a 54-year-old spy. Easton has a nice voice, but it\u2019s not big enough to match what this song asks for. You can hear her straining on its grandest moments. It needed some semi-washed up star of the late Sixties who could belt out those big notes. I can\u2019t imagine Deborah Harry singing it, either. It could not be farther away from what she stood for, or what her voice was capable of. Conti said he had two other singers in mind when he wrote the piece: Donna Summer and Dusty Springfield. Summer would have been an interesting choice. She certainly had the voice, but I\u2019m not sure she was a good match for the vibe either. Especially since she was still considered the Queen of Disco in 1981. But Dusty Springfield? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! It would have been a perfect, late-career revival for her. Alas\u2026 The Conti\/Sheena track gets a 2. Most of my research for this post came from a single article, written in 2020. I had to laugh when the writer suggested \u201cFor Your Eyes Only\u201d was the highlight of Easton\u2019s career. Keep in mind she hit #1 in the US with \u201cMorning Train (Nine to Five).\u201d And, as my two brothers-in-music John N and Ed L immediately noted, had this guy not heard of \u201cStrut\u201d or \u201cSugar Walls\u201d? A highlight? Sure. But THE highlight? I don\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[40,9,39],"class_list":["post-12146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-at40","tag-music","tag-rfts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12147,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12146\/revisions\/12147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}