1 MOTÖRHEAD/GIRLSCHOOL – ST VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE EPReleased in February 1981, this two-pronged rock ensemble released a three-track single, which featured Motörhead and Girlschool covering one of each other’s songs. The lead
track was a cover of Johnny Kidd’s Please Don’t Touch. Both bands were suited-and-booted like gangsters and molls on the record cover. The EP reached number five and they appeared together on Top of the Pops as Headgirl.
2 T’PAU – VALENTINEThe follow up to their number one UK hit, China in Your Hand, Valentine was T’Pau’s third and final Top Ten hit. A 1993 reissue of the single (in February, of course), met with limited success. After reforming in the late 1990s, the band continue to make occasional appearances on the 80s nostalgia circuit, although only flame-haired lead singer Carol Decker remains from the original line-up.
3 DICKIE VALENTINEActor-turned singer Dickie Valentine was the first artist to have a UK Christmas No 1 single with the word “Christmas” in the title, namely Christmas Alphabet, thereby inadvertently starting the annual Christmas No 1 bunfight. He also topped the UK singles chart with Finger of Suspicion. Even when the hits dried up, he remained a popular performer and was still gigging when he was killed in a car crash in 1971.
4 MY FUNNY VALENTINEThis classic standard has been covered/sampled on releases by artists as diverse as Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Rufus Wainwright, Dolly Parton, Elvis Costello and Kanye West. Originally written for the 1937 Rogers and Hart musical Babes In Arms, the song has featured in a number of movies too, including renditions by Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley and Judy Garland, in the 1939 film of the musical.
5 MY BLOODY VALENTINEThe recent trend for bands to join the lucrative reunion circuit continues unabated as shoegazing noiseniks My Bloody Valentine climb aboard the bandwagon. Their 2008 UK reunion dates sold out months ago and a new album is “imminent”. Hopefully, their new label will keep a tighter rein on the purse strings because their 1991 critically-acclaimed Loveless album, which took two years to make, is said to have cost anything between £250,000 and £500,000 and put Creation Records well on its way to bankruptcy.
• Paul Johnston is co-founder of the Scottish music website
www.jocknroll.co.uk
