Label: A&M Records
Hot 100 peak: 72 in 1988
"What was I thinking?" index: 0 (none)
Tracks: "Don't Walk Away," "Hush"// A SIDE // Not to be confused with the nose-chain-wearing Jane Child of "Don't Wanna Fall in Love" fame, Toni Childs is a would-be pop starlet whose excellent debut single was not in the right place at the right time. She was fleetingly a member of Berlin ("Take My Breath Away") before that group produced its first album, so she twice dodged hitting the big-time. "Don't Walk Away," from the album Union, is certainly one of the most obscure selections in my cassingle collection; the song stalled in the lower reaches of the Hot 100 and was her only appearance on that chart, although she did resurface with a dance chart hit in 1994. I only heard "Don't Walk Away" a few times on VH1 while watching for the school bus in the morning (so the cable network was good for something besides I love the 80s), and Childs' commanding delivery of the title lyric, combined with a synthy and brassy, driving pop-rock melody immediately seized the attention of a young pop fan. Listening to the song now for the first time in probably 17 years, I'm reminded of how striking it is, thanks in large part to Childs' big, distinctive voice; with the proper nudge, this well-honed tune surely would have scaled into the top 40. It's essentially a song about love and longing: "Time passes slowly, time passes on / Waiting for my man to call / When there's no man at all /Do I stand here waiting / For the earth to turn to dust," etc.// B SIDE // The extra track, "Hush," has more of a world music feel; it's not a stretch to imagine Peter Gabriel singing it. "Hush" shares the same knack for melody as "Don't Walk Away" and sounds like something that might show up in the soundtrack to a female-oriented TV drama. This one isn't a B-side exclusive — it also appears on the Union album. For whatever reason, the extra track isn't named on the single's sleeve.// C SIDE // A couple of other albums and compilations followed Union, and Childs is well represented at the major download sites. After playing the cassingle again (the wheels still turn, and it still sounds good!), I couldn't resist downloading "Don't Walk Away" — how much more broke would the music industry be if we didn't buy the same music in different formats?
Label: Epic
Hot 100 peak: #7 in December 1990
"What was I thinking" index: 0 (none), although the parent album is at least a 3 (could live without it)// A SIDE // Still basking in the glow of their 1988 number one, "Baby I Love Your Way / Free Bird Medley (Free Baby)," Will to Power went with another sleekly produced ballad for the first single from the 1990 follow-up album, Journey Home. Covering the psychedelic 10CC tune, the duo achieved another top 10 hit on the strength of the plaintive and evocative melody and Elin Michaels' strong vocal performance, although this version doesn't approach the trippiness of the 10CC version.// B SIDE // This almost-four-minute reprise of "Fly Bird" soars on an instantly catchy, anthemic chant of "We've got to turn it around to see what's goin' down" delivered by a high school chorus. Curiously, that bit doesn't even appear in the song "Fly Bird" on the album, making it less a reprise than another song sharing some of its melody.// C SIDE // Will to Power was well-positioned to extend its run of pop hits, but it wasn't to be. Journey Home's second single, an awful cover of "Boogie Nights," deservedly missed the Hot 100 altogether. The other potential hit was "Fly Bird," a rather blatant attempt to recapture the glory of "Baby I Love Your Way / Free Bird Medley (Free Baby)," and I'll wager that it would have at least charted had it been tapped as the second single. The rest of the album is quite bad, failing to recapture the easily listenable dance-pop spirit of their self-titled debut, which spawned the solid mid-chart dance hits "Dreamin'," "Say It's Gonna Rain" and "Fading Away."
Label: Chrysalis
Hot 100 peak: #7 in March 1988
"What was I thinking?" index: 0 (none)// A SIDE // I just freeze every time you see through me and it's all over you … "Electric Blue" was one of the first singles I purchased, along with "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)" by Information Society, at a mall record store, possibly a Record Bar. I was just becoming seriously interested in music right at the tail end of the era of vinyl singles; I can remember purchasing two 45s — "Tell It to My Heart" by Taylor Dayne and "Valerie" by Steve Winwood — just before everything went to cassettes, or "cassingles." On the heels of the excellent top 20 hit "Crazy," Icehouse's "Electric Blue," a synth-laced pop-rocker, climbed to number 7 in 1988. Singer Iva Davies' warm voice, used to great effect in the chirpy background vocal, was a perfect fit for the song, which was co-written with John Oates — it's not a stretch to imagine a Hall & Oates rendition of the song. It sounds just as inviting today as it did in 1988, and I'm surprised it hasn't become more of a staple for '80s radio flashback shows. The band never again reached the U.S. top 40.// B SIDE // The synthesizers were largely absent in extra song "Over My Head," yielding a grittier sound. It's pleasant enough but ultimately forgettable.// C SIDE // The Australian band's music is conspicuously absent from iTunes, and the album, Man of Colours, is not one of those you can snag off eBay for 99 cents.
Did anyone actually call these things "cassingles"? I came across my collection of them between stacks of books and magazines while going through the closet and couldn't resist dragging them out. Most were immediately familiar, but I was surprised to see one I didn't remember at all by an R&B group called Riff. As artifacts of a bygone era in music, they make me feel old; my first few singles purchases came at the very tail end of the vinyl era, and I've since lived through cassingles, CD singles and the complete death and Phoenix-like rebirth of the singles market. And these cassingles remind me of what's lost with the digital single — tangible qualities such as sleeve design that help to make these little time capsules (in the case of this batch of singles, circa 1988 to 1991) and objets d'art. I also realized this is a goldmine of blog posts waiting to be written: I plan to post on each of these individually in the coming weeks and months as I put on the headphones, revisit the songs of my youth and get to know those B-sides again.
Label: A&M Records 
