Put That Thing Away - "All the Things She Said"

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Off the top of your head, do you know the name of the most commercially-successful Scottish band of the 1980’s? It wasn’t Big Country, or Hipsway, or The Blow Monkeys - fine bands, all. That honor belongs to Glasgow’s Simple Minds. They started breaking through in 1981, and by 1985 had a monster hit with “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” - a song that they didn’t particularly want to record, and had already been turned down by both Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol. That single, and an opening stint on The Pretenders Learning to Crawl tour (I ranked them #2 on my Best Opening Acts list) helped push their 1985 album, [Once Upon a Time, into mega-sales - it’s certified either Gold or Platinum in 12 countries. The radio-friendly album spawned four hit singles. “All the Things She Said” was the third. A lover, or former lover, talking smack about the character singing the song, right? Actually, according to vocalist Jim Kerr, the idea for the song came after he read an article about Polish political prisoners in the Soviet Union. Quotations from wives were used as the basis for the tune. The group turned such serious subject matter into a hit that charted in ten countries. (Ironically, it either didn’t chart or wasn’t released as a single in their native Scotland.) Fun Fact: Backup vocalist Robin Clark had been a member of Chic, performed vocals on David Bowie’s Young Americans album, and worked with Luther Vandross. She is married to long-time Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar. Not too shabby for a band that started out as an alternative music group. Link is to the official promotional video: