The S.O.S. Band - The Finest

In the U.K. we had Top of the Pops and were grateful but America had Soul Train and, being America, they probably weren't. Whereas the dancers coralled into the studio and told to look like they were having a good time on TOTP if and when trying to avoid the attentions of the celebrity presenter included such absurdities as a Penelope Keith look-a-like dressed for Abigail's Party dancing to Get It On, Soul Train was much more the 'real thing' with not only artists worth having, not including novelty hits, the far-too-comfortable likes of Lena Martell or any of the failed half-baked ideas that came and went, unable to make an impression even with the gift of TOTP exposure but only having good music and having dancers worthy of dancing to it.

The S.O.S. Band, I now find, weren't that big in the UK. Just Be Good to Me only reached no. 13 in 1983 before being re-invented as Dub Be Good to Me and making no.1 for Beats International in 1990, 'written by' Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim. I'm not sure about that. The Finest reached no. 17 in 1986 and I'm dismayed to see that Borrowed Love then only reached no. 50 even with my help. Chart positions aren't the ultimate arbiter, though, and nearly 40 years after the fact, these are as good as ever.

It isn't 'soul' as such but we don't need to get hung up on categories. Its Wikipedia entry says it's 'electro-funk' but at least in exchange for that we find that it's an emerging Alexander O'Neal that strolls in at halfway to duet with Mary Davis. It's not impassioned like Ain't Nobody by Rufus & Chaka Khan and it's not frenetic like Ride on Time by Black Box, it's gentler, more relaxed and, in sharing the vocal responsibilities around, a communal effort. It was more often the case that the U.S.A. didn't get some British acts that were all over everywhere in the UK but struggled over there. Cliff Richard, T. Rex. It's not so easy to think of American artists that should have been better appreciated in the opposite direction but the S.O.S. Band were one.