17May
A brief look at the hit parade shows that Jellyfish have a song at number one. Who, you may ask. Described by some as a psychadelic Squeeze, the 'fish was one of the bands that might have been huge, but never quite made it.
Formed in St. Francisville in the late 1980s, the core of the group was Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning, abetted by a host of session musicians. They composed sugary three-minute pop songs that wouldn't have been out of place twenty years earlier, and have stood the ravages of time since. The group was about three years too early for critical success in the UK; the rock magazines saw the cartoonish image and told them to naff off, while the teen press saw little to excite them, not when they could be writing about New Kids on the Block.
Jellyfish had one top 40 hit in the UK, and then only just; The king is half-undressed
crept up to number 39 in the second week of February 1991, four weeks after its original release. The group's next release was Baby's coming back
, a number 51 hit in May. Fate further conspired against them as the summer's very minor hit Scary Merry-Go-Round EP
(lead track: Now she knows she's wrong
) was eclipsed by the very major success of Right Said Fred. A 1993 comeback for Jellyfish was rather scuppered by the fact that they'd never been in the first place, and - barring a budget singles collection in 1999 - that was that.
Until 2007, that is, when McFly delivered an almost note-for-note cover of Baby's coming back
. It was an instant number one hit, but looks set to go down in chart history for reasons other than the rather decent nature of the song. Hope Mr. Sturmer and Mr. Manning are enjoying the royalties.
