BACK WITH A BANGER
Take your time. MARION MCMULLEN looks at songs with comeback appeal
1 Kate Bush now holds the record for the longest time taken for a single to reach number one. Her song Running Up That Hill topped the UK chart after 37 years. Originally released in 1985 as the lead track on her Hounds Of Love album, the track has had a global resurgence in popularity after featuring in the fourth series of Stranger Things. Kate said: “I have to admit I feel really moved by it all.”
2
The longest-running sleeper hit in the UK was previously Last Christmas by Wham! – it topped the Official Singles Chart in 2021, 36 years after its release. Andrew Ridgeley said it was a “fitting tribute” to bandmate George Michael’s “songwriting genius”.
3 Tony Christie first released (Is This The Way To) Amarillo in 1971, but it became a bigger hit 34 years later when comedian Peter Kay featured it as the 2005 single for Comic Relief.
The record topped the charts in the UK for seven weeks. Tony later said: “I always finish my show with it because it’s one of those songs… how can you follow it? It’s just that kind of song.”
4
Nina Simone’s hit My Baby Just Cares For Me was recorded for her debut album Little Girl Blue in 1958 and reached number five in the UK charts
29 years later after it appeared in an advert for Chanel No. 5 perfume.
5 Louis Armstrong recorded We Have All The Time In The World for the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It became a number three chart hit 25 years later when it was featured in a 1994 advert for Guinness.
6
Rick Astley enjoyed international chart success in 1987 with the Stock Aitken Waterman track Never Going To Give
You Up. The song was back
21 years later in 2009, when “Rickrollling” – a ‘bait and switch’ viral trend saw links direct people to Rick’s video online – and Rick was named the winner of the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Act Ever.
7
Unchained Melody was a hit for the Righteous Brothers in 1965, but 25 years later it also became the bestselling single of 1990 when it featured in the film Ghost starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.
8 The Proclaimers brought out I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) in 1988 and it featured on their Sunshine On Leith album, but twin brothers Craig and Charlie Reid saw the song go to No1 in the UK 19 years later when Peter Kay and Matt Lucas appeared in a 2007 Comic Relief video featuring the track.
9
Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody first topped the charts in 1975, and went to No1 again 16 years later, in 1991, following the death of singer Freddie Mercury at the age of 45. He revealed he was HIV positive the day before his death.
10
One Day In Your Life was recorded by Michael Jackson for his 1975 Motown album Forever, Michael, but he had to wait for six years before it became his first
UK number one when it was released as a single in 1981.
CHRIS PRATT has his serious face on. His character James Reece is in charge of a platoon of Navy SEALS and there’s an important mission ahead.
“Eyes on the horizon boys, let’s make it count,” he says… before it all goes horribly wrong.
This eight-part military thriller is based on the best-selling novel by Jack Carr and also stars Constance Wu, Taylor Kitsch, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Riley Keough and Patrick Schwarzenegger.
It has the feel of an action movie, with a fast-paced opening sequence as the platoon is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission.
No spoilers, but it’s fair to say that the mission does not end well.
Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event and questions about his culpability.
He’s at home with his wife and young daughter, playing the guitar, but he’s clearly plagued by PTSD from the mission.
However, as new evidence comes to light, Reece discovers dark forces working against him, endangering not only his life, but the lives of those he loves.
In true revenge thriller style, he puts together a list of ene
mies to wipe out, but since his memories don’t seem to match the evidence, can he even trust his own mind?
Cue lots of traumatic, violent flashbacks, with occasional saccharine family scenes and a perfectly miserable leading man, all masculine stoicism and not an ounce of humour.
For brooding, paranoid conspiracy drama and a heck of a lot of death, look no further.