The Style Council
Shout to the Top
Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Shout to the Top” by The Style Council
How do artists as varied as Madonna, Sammy Hagar, and The Style Council intersect? On an 80s movie soundtrack, of course!
Vision Quest was a 1985 movie starring Matthew Modine as a wrestler in Spokane, Washington. So yeah, not exactly Oscar material. And as is often the case, the music long outlasted the film it featured in.
Many people might only know Modine from his turn as Martin Brenner in Stranger Things, and they likely know this song from Madonna, even if they’re not sure where it originated from.
The Style Council were formed a few years earlier by Paul Weller (late of The Jam) and Mick Talbot, who’d played with Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
The band saw a decent level of success in their native UK. They scored several top10 hits and even played at Live Aid.
In the rest of the world, they were more of a cult phenomenon than anything else— kind of like Vision Quest.
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Guitarist/vocalist Paul Weller broke up the Jam, the most popular British band of the early '80s, at the height of their success in 1982 because he was dissatisfied with their musical direction. Weller wanted to incorporate more elements of soul, R&B, and jazz into his songwriting, which is something he felt his punk-oriented bandmates were incapable of performing. In order to pursue this musical direction, he teamed up in 1983 with keyboardist Mick Talbot, a former member of the mod revival band the Merton Parkas. Together, Weller and Talbot became the Style Council -- other musicians were added according to what kind of music the duo were performing
Read the rest of the band’s overview here.
Listen:
“Shout to the Top” by The Style Council| Our Favourite Shop, 1985
Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track! “Vision Quest” too, for that matter.
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
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I'm sorry; I just gotta say it: "Shout To The Top" was only their 3rd-best song; outdistanced by "My Ever-Changing Moods" and, by far their best song, "You're The Best Thing". The feel on "Best Thing" tops any other attempt at re-engineering Marvin Gaye-style R&B ever, by a mile, and the hook is pure summery gold.
Vision Quest is one of my favourite 80’s movies! The story wasn’t the greatest but, hey, I was in high school and my expectations were low. It was really the soundtrack that hooked me. Lunatic fringe was was on my playlist back in the day. I will admit that if it comes on my pandora i will TURN IT UP!