#486 ‘I’m In Love With A German Film Star’ by the Passions (26 June)

Album: Thirty Thousand Feet Over China, 1981

Justification: This is as much for me as it is for you, beloved readers who Google Analytics assure me number in the several, for this is a song that I didn’t remember that I knew until Catcall did a cover of it as the final track on her (absolutely magnificent) recent album ‘The Warmest Place’. Her version is pretty respectful, but it wasn’t until I hunted it down and heard that oh-so-post-punk guitar delay that I went “Ah! THAT song!” Lousy memory, you have no business telling other people to remember stuff.

You know, that’s a nice sleeve. How the hell did this stiff at #25?

The Passions are often described as one hit wonders, with this being the hit, but since it only reached #25 on the UK charts I’d argue even this overestimates their success by a large margin. However, John Peel loved ‘em, and now I’m going to have to hunt their album down since this song is freakin’ amazing. The band was formed by the two things that stand out on this track: Barbara Gogan, owner of the voice, and Clive Timperley, who played the memory-jogging guitar line (and had been in Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash band The 101ers, fact fans). Timperley quit after this album and the band disintegrated mid-1983. Apparently the subject is one Steve Connelly, who’d done a couple of bit parts in German films but whose day job was roadie for the Clash and the Sex Pistols. The former, I’m guessing, kept him busier than the latter.

And what a song it is. Thank you, Ms Catherine K. You have exquisite taste in covers.

SONG YOU SHOULD HAVE REDISCOVERED THIS TIME IN 2010 and 2011: Nothing! Fine, have a look at the 1981 archives. They’re pretty great.

AND HERE’S THE LAST FIVE…

481. Billy Bragg: Sexuality (14 June)

482. The Weakerthans: Civil Twilight (18 June)

483. Beck: Nicotine & Gravy (19 June)

 484. Teenage Fanclub: What You Do To Me (20 June)

485. Blur: Beetlebum (25 June)