28June
As trailed earlier in the week, the first in a short series of songs under the broad title The Germans Get All The Best Tunes.
We begin with Right Said Fred. No, stop laughing at the back, we really do. The trio–Richard and Fred Fairbrass, and Mike Manzoli–first came to prominence in 1991 with their summer hit I'm too sexy
. Unlike most groups that rise from nowhere to have a summer hit, they followed it up with a winter hit–Don't talk just kiss
with Jocelyn Brown–and a spring hit–Deeply dippy
, their only UK number one. After that, though, the dumper beckoned. Those simple things
could only crawl to number 29 in summer 1992, and though the group did the 1993 Comic Relief song Spit it out
, their next single proper only just made the top 40. If Bumped
deserved better, Hands up for lovers
didn't even trouble Radio 1's chart show.
And that, we thought, would be that. The group never took up an open invitation to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest, and vanished off the scene entirely. For values of "vanished" that included "becoming very successful in Germany" and values of "entirely" that included a comeback in 2001 with the rather good Fredhead
album, including lead single You're my mate
, which became the group's fifth top 20 hit in the UK.
The following year gave the group their biggest German hit in ten years, as Stand up (for the champions)
rose to number 2, kept off the top only by the behemoth that was No Angels. There was never a UK release for this song, so it will be unfamiliar to most of our readers. Football fans took it to their hearts, and the song was re-released for last year's world cup, returning to the top 30.
