Album: East Side Story
Year: 1981
. . .
Let us now consider the strange case of Paul Carrack, who first surfaced as the lead singer of Ace, whose sole hit, “How Long,” made it all the way to #3 on the Billboard Singles charts in 1975. A song that I will charitably describe as “proto-Yacht Rock,” “How Long” seemed to set the table for the Michael McDonald incarnation of the Doobie Brothers, though the Doobies had wayyyyyyyyy more success than Ace with that sound, as Ace were prototypical one-hit wonders.
That said, apparently in 2020, Ace did hit the top of Billboard’s “Rock Digital Song Sales Chart” (yes, this is really a thing) because of an Amazon ad — but nobody remembers it because it literally happened the exact same week the godsdamned pandemic broke out, and even people who loved that song suddenly had bigger things to worry about.
That said, I’m sure the vast majority of normal, regular folks — not the music snobs I assume read this feature — recognize Carrack’s name because he was a keyboardist and a lead singer of Mike & The Mechanics, who were one of the beneficiaries of that mid-1980s law — the Collinsford Act — that stated that all members of the rhythm section of Genesis had to have top ten singles. And so Carrack sang on two Mike & The Mechanics smashes: 1985’s #6 “Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)” and 1988’s #1 “The Living Years.” In between that, he had a hit single under his own name, 1987’s “Don’t Shed a Tear.”
Now, as you know, this blog is about loving music and very much about loving 1980’s music, so I went and listened to all three songs listed above and take no pleasure in this, but I will charitably describe them as “utter dogshit,” and think no more about any of them ever again.
Smack dab in the middle of all of this was “Tempted,” the greatest song Carrack will ever sing. And interestingly enough, he almost didn’t sing it. You see, after Ace disbanded after their third album, 1977’s No Strings barely dented the U.S. album charts, Carrack joined Roxy Music as the replacement for Eddie Jobson who was the replacement for Brian Eno. From what I can gather, Carrack played on 1979’s Manifesto — though not its greatest song, “Dance Away” — and 1980’s Flesh + Blood, which had no greatest songs.
Anyways, at some point Carrack was recruited for Squeeze, who were recording their magnum opus, East Side Story. I’ll get more into the recording of East Side Story tomorrow, but suffice it to say that “Tempted” was originally recorded with Glen Tilbrook on the lead vocals prior to Carrack joining. Produced by Dave Edmunds, that version was totally different, more of a reggae-ish take than the one that eventually showed on an odds-and-sods comp called Excess Moderation.
The story goes that meddling new producer Elvis Costello — who had just released his soul deep-dive Get Happy!! — heard Carrack singing “Tempted” and decided to recut it as as a straight-up blue-eyed soul song with Carrack singing the lead vocals, which come in after drummer Gilson Lavis and bassist John Bently have established a smoldering groove and Carrack has established the musical voice with a long organ trill.
I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste
A flannel for my face
Pajamas, a hairbrush
New shoes and a case
I said to my reflection
Let’s get out of this place
Past the church and the steeple
The laundry on the hill
The billboards and the buildings
Memories of it still
Keep calling and calling
But forget it all, I know I will
It’s at this point where “Tempted” plays its first great trick: an absolutely-stick-in-your-head chorus anchored by a three-note piano hook as well as Carrack’s pained confession.
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on now that you have gone
There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
The other thing that Costello brought to “Tempted” was his sense of play: rather than having Carrack sing all the lead vocals, he conceived the first part of the second verse as a trade-off with him and Glen Tilbrook, with Elvis doing both a falsetto and a basso, taking a bit of a piss out of an otherwise unflinching cheatin’ song.
I’m at the car park, the airport
The baggage carousel
(The people keep on crowding
Been wishing I was well)
I said it’s no occasion
(It’s no story I could tell)
At this point Tilbrook & Costello (and possibly Glen Difford) start singing “do-do-do-da-dooo” backing vocals underneath Carrack’s lead, which segue nicely into “oooh-oooh-ah-ooooooh” vocals during the rest of the chourses.
At my bedside, empty pocket
A foot without a sock
Your body gets much closer
I fumble for the clock
Alarmed by the seduction
I wish that it would stop
It’s kind of weird and cool how Carrack hesitates just a skosh between “alarmed by” and “the seduction”, before pathetically wishing that it would stop. Which, of course, it didn’t, and “Tempted” ended with that chorus burrowing itself deep into your brain for all time.
Naturally “Tempted” was a massive hit on both sides of the Atlan–oh wait, I’m being told that it wasn’t. Yes it made it to #8 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart, but it petered out at #49 on the Billboard Singles chart. Even weirder, in the U.K., where they often ate blue-eyed soul like this for lunch, it only made it to #41, probably because this isn’t what the punters over there wanted from Squeeze.
Ah, but “Tempted” played the long game didn’t it? If you look at Spotify, you’ll see that it’s easily their most popular song — even beating out 1987’s perfectly-serviceable “Hourglass,” which hit #15 on the charts — and it’s been covered innumerable times, to boot.
“Tempted”
“Tempted” Original Video
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