Bachelor Kisses

"Bachelor Kisses"

7" single cover
Single by The Go-Betweens
from the album Spring Hill Fair
A-side "Bachelor Kisses"
B-side "Rare Breed"
Released November 1984 (1984-11)
(See Release history)
Format 7" vinyl
Recorded May 1984
Miraval Studios, Le Val, France
Genre
Length 3:33
Label Sire Records
Writer(s) Grant McLennan, Robert Forster
Producer(s) Colin Fairley
Robert Andrews
The Go-Betweens singles chronology
"Part Company"
(1984)		 "Bachelor Kisses"
(1984)		 "Spring Rain"
(1986)

"Bachelor Kisses" was the second single released by The Go-Betweens from their third album, Spring Hill Fair. It was released in August 1984 by Sire Records.[1] In the UK a 12" single was also released on Sire.[2] "Bachelor Kisses" was the Go-Betweens' first real attempt at a commercial single.[3]

Details

We came back from Christmas in New York having lost our record company [Rough Trade] somewhere along the way. I wrote this in immigration having been refused entry to the United Kingdom. The first person who heard the song was my sister. She said that Marianne Faithfull should sing it.
— Grant McLennan[4]

In a review of the song on Allmusic, Ned Raggett, comments that such a comparison is both worthwhile and not misplaced.[5] He goes on to state that the song "has the rich, world-weary beauty one might expect from that singer in her 1980s work, but the song is very much a Go-Betweens song through and through. There's the same gentle but clear tension in the rhythm section, the crystalline but never overbearing guitar, the sense of deeper roots but a clearly modern performance"[5] In Mat Snow's review in the October, 1984 edition of NME he states "Only when we're confronted with a song so perfectly turned, lines so finely balanced and a melody so achingly sweet as Bachelor Kisses are we forced to notice how hollow most contemporary pop rings."[6]

Forster later said of the song, "Grant wrote this. It sounded like a pop song right from the word go. He was a very, very melodic songwriter. "Bachelor Kisses" was just something that rolled off and felt very natural and beautiful. It's amazing."[7]

The single and the album failed to chart in the UK or Australia[8] resulting in the band being dropped by Sire Records. "Bachelor Kisses" was however voted in at No. 72 in Triple J's Hottest 100 for 1989[9]

Swedish band, The Radio Dept., recorded an exclusive cover of "Bachelor Kisses", for the August 2007 issue of the Swedish fanzine I Godan Ro. Only 10 copies of that issue were printed.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by G. McLennan, R. Forster[10]. 

7" vinyl version
No. Title Length
1. "Bachelor Kisses"   3:33
2. "Rare Breed"   2:53
Total length:
 6:26

All songs written and composed by G. McLennan, R. Forster[10]. 

Personnel

Go-Betweens

Additional musicians

Release history

Year Country Label Format Catalogue No.
November 1984 UK Sire Records 7" single W 9156
12" single W 9156 T
AUS 7" single 7-29156

References

  1. ↑ "The Go-Betweens: Bachelor Kisses". Go-Betweens.org.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  2. ↑ "Go-Betweens, The - Bachelor Kisses". Discogs. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  3. ↑ Nichols, David (1997). The Go-Betweens. Portland, Oregon: Verse Chorus Press. ISBN 1-891241-16-8.
  4. ↑ McLennan, Grant, from the liner notes for the 1990 compilation album 1978–1990
  5. 1 2 Raggett, Ned. "Bachelor Kisses - The Go-Betweens". Allmusic. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  6. ↑ Snow, Mat (13 October 1984). "Money Can't Buy You Love". NME. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  7. ↑ Jody Macgregor (3 September 2012). "The Go-Betweens Pt. 1: 'These Are Central Things To Me'". Mess + Noise. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
  8. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  9. ↑ "Hottest 100 Of All Time -1989". Triple J. 1989. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  10. 1 2 ""Bachelor Kisses" at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 4 May 2010.

External links

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