I know what you’re thinking: Pretty in Pink.
It was ubiquitous, and to a certain extent it’s still all around us – in fact just the other day I heard it on the radio while I was working out at the gym. If You Leave, the sappy but eminently catchy song by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, is perhaps one of the best or worst songs you’ve ever heard – but you have certainly heard it. If You Leave falls into the category of 80s soundtrack songs that will never leave, sitting with Melt With You (from Valley Girl) and Don’t You Forget About Me (from Breakfast Club) in the annals of time.
But I can say, with some pride, I discovered OMD before Pretty in Pink fame, though it was quite by accident. I went with several friends to see Thompson Twins play in West Palm Beach in early 1985, and opening was OMD, a band I knew little about nor had much chance to find out about in the first place. Before the Internet, finding out about bands was usually by word of mouth or through excellent record stores, and there were no excellent record stores in South Florida at the time.
But what we saw in OMD that night was amazing, and they simply blew the Thompson Twins off the stage. OMD was promoting Crush (which as it turned out was theur sixth album), and provided a lively show that made us all rush out and buy the album the next day.
Aside from the lead single So In Love, Crush featured a variety of strong songs which displayed the talents of Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys. Secret and Bloc Bloc Bloc rounded out an excellent side one, while La Femme Accident proved to be a revelation on side 2 (back in the days where there were sides).
While Pretty in Pink brought OMD to the masses (and that soundtrack is, without a doubt, one of the best ever), it also allowed its back catalog to come more into view. Both Electricity – a single the band did for Factory Records – and Enola Gay off 1980’s Organisation, are excellent songs which stand the test of time. The band put out seven albums from 1980 to 1986 and elevated themselves in a 1980s world where synth bands were a dime a dozen.
