Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 58

The Power Station - "Some Like it Hot"



(Single Release: March 1985)
First of all, for those of you saying, "It's just Power Station, dummyhead, not The Power Station," well, you're wrong. Take a look at their album and single covers. Case closed. Now that's out of the way, let's talk about breakups. For John and Andy Taylor, it wasn't them, it was you (looking squarely at the synthesizer). No, I don't think they had a tiff with Nick Rhodes. Instead, they just wanted to get away from the signature 80s synth-pop that made Duran Duran so famous. While Simon and Nick (Roger played for both bands, he just wanted Mommy and Daddy to stop fighting) went off to do Arcadia, continuing to be happy in the synth rut they had created, John and Andy started seeing other people, namely Robert Palmer and Tony Thompson (and producer Bernard Edwards). That dalliance was fruitful, for sure. Their debut album, rooted in a funk rhythm section, hit #6 on the album charts and spawned two top ten singles, including "Some Like It Hot." Sure, one was a cover of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get it On)," but who cares? There is always some form of revisionist history when it comes to breakups. Suddenly, the dumped say it was mutual or reversed, things said in the heat of argument are quickly and intentionally forgotten, and any subsequent relationships are never as good. So, Nick Rhodes said that the two bands were "commercial suicide." Of course, this coming from the lesser successful band of the two. Hmmm. Jeeeealllouuuus? Yep, John and Andy traded in an off key, caterwauling singer (and I like Simon LeBon, so step off, it's true) for a workaday steady funkster and probably the best pure musicians they've ever played with in Thompson and Edwards, both formerly of Chic. I'll be honest, I can't remember if the whole album was great shakes, but I sure do like "Some Like it Hot." The lyrics may be simple and fairly meaningless, but simple ended up to be far more memorable than elaborate and meaningless (more on that tomorrow). Of course, it didn't matter how good this relationship might have been. Eventually, John and Andy started missing what they used to have. Aw, baby, I can't stay mad at you! Duran Duran got back together and gave us quite a few more hits (and a few more stinkers, let's be realistic), but maybe it took them seeing other people in order to appreciate what they had.

p.s. One of my favorite things in the world is hearing Jimmy Pardo sing "Some Like it Hot" on his podcast. Cracks me up every time.