CRYING IN THE CHAPEL THAT MAKES YOU FEEL HAPPY

At the very beginning of the 90`s, a lot of white soul and synth-pop
acts were enjoying popular appeal unlike what they ever had. 1990 was
the cross over-year between the glam metal of the late 80`s which had
taken over the airwaves in `88 and `89 and the advent of Seatle grunge
which brought on the alternative rock revolution starting in late `91.
But for all of 1990, and at least the first 6 months of 1991, the music
which the radio stations were promoting was very much contemporary
versions of the teeny bopper pop and rock music which had saturated
the airwaves for the previous ten years, as well even AOR, or adult
orientated rock, was permitted to become a bit more rock heavy &
genuinely rebellious in this brief window in time between the hair
band music of the 80`s and the coming of Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
As far as white soul goes, Mick Hucknell of Simply Red had made it
a commercially successful artform, even if he and his band were a
bit insipid. Not that i think Simply Red is rubbish, it is fantastic
music to seduce a woman with, and if you are like me and you cant
get Teegie Lavender in the sack and you only have a dog for good
company, then Simply Red is still great background music to drink
alone with, with or without your mutt. In early 1990, a bloke who
had been the lead singer of australian band The Rockmelons in the
mid 80`s, a band which excelled in producing crisp and catchy pop
rock, released a neat little song which occasionally gets airplay
on the dial but to me was one of so many songs from `90 that
qualifies as a lost treasure. The artist is Peter Blakely and the
song is `Crying In The Chapel`. For all of its cliche production
dynamics and pop disposability, the song was genuinely uplifting
and should have been the start of something even bigger for the
former Rockmelon. Sadly it seems that one hit single was all he
had up his sleeve, although it should be noted Blakely did have
a couple of minor hits in the late 80`s after his exit from his
former band. I know of so many good gritty australian rock stars
who got squeezed in this commercially awkward era between `89 &
1991, Paul Norton comes to mind, he was a one hit wonder with a
gem of a song called `Stuck On You`, not to be confused with the
Lionel Richie song of the same name. And the king of aussie rock,
Ross Wilson, had his greatest album ever `Dark Side Of The Man`
sink without a trace due to the decimation of Mushroom Records
and the uncertainty at the time of what type of music the radio
stations were going to promote. Basically the record companies
and the radio stations used middle of the road and more adult
friendly acts for 18 months at the beginning of the 90`s while
the groundwork was laid to promote alternative rock. When the
likes of Nirvana and Pearl Jam took off in popularity, they
screwed all the contemporary acts they had been promoting &
left them high and dry, which in so many cases, ruined many
a promising career. But getting back to `Crying In The Chapel`,
it`s a high point obviously for Peter Blakely, his vocal is so
much like that of Simply Red`s Hucknell, the music, complete
with some great brass accompaniment, is typical of what you
would have expected from Phil Collins on his 1985 album `No
Jacket Required`. Peter Blakely had it all for this one song.