23August
When they come to make the celebrity version of Sing it Back: Lyric Champion 2007
, one of the songs we hope they'll ask Dr. Fox to sing is Axel F
. Composed by Harold Faltermeyer, the tune was a number 2 hit in both Germany and the UK in summer 1985, kept off the top by Paul Hardcastle's 19
and Sister Sledge's Frankie
, respectively. The work was composed in common time, though the club jockeys claim 117 beats per minute. There is a rather good musical joke in the work: it's all composed in the musical key of F, eliding at various points between F major and F minor. To promote this work, Faltermeyer appeared on Top of the Pops
behind decks of synthesisers, pushing buttons and playing keys for all he was worth.
Always regarded as a minor classic of mid-eighties electronica, Axel F
has been subject to many re-interpretations over the years. The first came from Techno Cop (Harald Reitinger and Ulrich Fischer), who made a rave version in summer 1992, and were rewarded with a top 30 hit in Germany for their pains. We've not heard this version. Stuart Allen was the man responsible for Clock, makers of cheesy dance-pop in the mid-90s; the group's breakthrough in the UK was a cover of Axel F
, a top-ten hit in March 1995; this version has a bit of shouting in the chorus.
Two versions charted in 2001 - DJ Icon and Toxic Twin put their work into Germany's top 40, and Spacecorn had a brief flirtation with the UK top 75. The next major hit version was Axel F 2003
, released in 2003 by Murphy Brown and Tony Dawson-Harrison, better known as the Captain Hollywood Project. They'd both been remarkably successful in the eurodance arena ten years earlier, and after a number of less successful projects, including Dawson-Harrison's band O-Town, the pair worked together on this re-make. It was a reasonable hit in Germany, making number 18, but did much better business in Scandinavia.
For completeness, we should briefly mention Jamster's commercial from summer 2005, credited to (or blame heaped upon) The Annoying Thing. A number 3 hit in Germany, four weeks at the top in the UK, and an almost unbearable thirteen weeks heading the French singles list. In their defence, this coincided with the 2005 Canicule.
Axel F
is a haunting melody, instantly recognisible, and sampled by people from the KLF downwards. But that's another story for later in the year...
