THE CLASS OF 79 (Part 13)

Nowadays, singles don't hang around the charts for all that long a period. Not like back in 1979....

The Skids were a well established band by November 1979 when they released their seventh single Working For The Yankee Dollar. They had already enjoyed a few Top 30 hits which in turn led to a number of memorable appearances on Top Of The Pops with frontman Richard Jobson bemusing parents up and down the country with his unique vocal style and sartorial elegance.

They were a band who really embodied the whole spirit of punk/new wave.

They played their first gig in their home town of Dunfermline, Scotland in August 1977. Within six months they had issued their debut EP on a lable created by a local music shop owner who in turn became their manager. The record got the notice of John Peel on Radio 1 and he started playing it. This got them further attention, and before long the band, all of whom at this point were still in their teens, were being asked to support bands of the calibre of The Clash and The Stranglers.

Before long, they found themselves on Virgin Records, a then relatively young label whose owner Richard Branson, was encouraging the signing of all sorts of new wave bands. In early 1979, debut LP Scared To dance went Top 10, as did their fourth single Into The Valley.

After the initial success, the band started working with Bill Nelson, a hugely-renowned guitarist and keyboard player, but someone who was seen by many in the new wave movement as the type of bloke punk had been created to destroy....and The Skids came in for a fair bit of criticism.

Nelson's production skills meant the second LP, Days In Europa, was a more polished affair, with keyboards with high up in the mix, often at the expense of the guitar work of Stuart Adamson.

However, some of Jobson's lyrics, and the album cover caused controversy...with some suggestions (totally nonsensical in my humble opinion) that they glorified Nazism. After the original version of the album had already been released in October 1979, it was remixed and reissued with a new sleeve in mid 1980 - meaning many fans shelling out twice for the same product (something we would all have to get used to in the years to come as countless bands and labels indulged in remixes, re-issues and multiple formats)

All the nonsense about Nazism didn't overshadow the performance of the singles which were regularly played on the radio. It was however the re-worked and remixed version of Working For The Yankee Dollar that was released as a single and which entered the Top 40 of the UK charts on 24th November 1979. It didn't drop out of the Top 40 until early February 1980....

But, and this is something that simply wouldn't happen today, it was never a massive hit with the weekly chart placings hardly changing : 34-32-28-27-24-24-23-21-20-28.

It's a cracking single that really was tailored made for radio. Its got a great musical intro, it cracks along at a great tempo, you can just about (for once) make out all of the lyrics, and it's got a memorable shout-along chorus:-

mp3 : The Skids - Working For The Yankee Dollar
mp3 : The Skids - Vanguard's Crusade
mp3 : The Skids - All The Young Dudes
mp3 : The Skids - Hymns From A Haunted Ballroom

The latter two tracks were available on a limited edition double 7" single, having been tracks recorded for sessions on the Kid Jensen and John Peel shows on Radio 1.

Happy Listening.

PS : Here's the version of the song as it originally appeared on the first release of the album Days In Europa:-

mp3 : The Skids - Working For The Yankee Dollar (Bill Nelson production)