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In 1979, 20-year-old British singer/songwriter Kirsty McColl recorded and released what would have been a Great Song of the 70s...if it weren't for her record company, the aptly named "Stiff Records."
But first some background...
Like many British kids, Kirsty was a huge fan of The Beach Boys. At age 7, she heard "Good Vibrations" for the first time, and fell in love with the harmonies. As she grew older, she tried to add intricate harmonies into her own music... including Today's song "They Don't Know."
To make a long story short, she had a disagreement with "Stiff" about her contract...so after "They Don't Know" started getting airplay (as the flipside of another song that--well--stiffed), the company "neglected" to ship any more copies to retailers, so no one could BUY it! Stiff President Dave Robinson blamed it on a strike at the distribution center, but everyone else involved claimed it was on purpose.
That petty little episode cost Kirsty and Stiff quite a bit of cash...but apparently Stiff (Dave) didn't care.
And that, unfortunately, was that...until 1983.
British comedienne Tracey Ullman decided to record the song, and put together a fun video to go with it.
Fun Fact: Tracey had a limited vocal range, so to hit the highest note in the song, she had Kirsty come in and sing the word "BABY," a very nice gesture.
Tracey's version reached #2 on the British Charts, but at first garnered ZERO attention here in the US. No one here knew who Tracey was...but that was soon solved by the man who created MTV: Bob Pittman.
Quick Personal Note: Before MTV, Mr. Pittman was very well-respected radio programmer in Chicago, who took a few minutes out of a busy day to offer encouragement to a young DJ looking for work (and validation) in the mid '70s: Me. :-)
Bob saw the video (which included a surprise cameo--check it out), added it to MTV's playlist...and then took the unprecedented step of bringing Tracey across the pond to be a guest VJ for a week.
"They Don't Know" was finally the hit it should have been all along. It was a Great Song in 1979 by Kirsty, and PROVEN Great by Tracey in 1983.
Sad epilogue: In December of 2000, Kirsty and her sons were on a diving holiday near Cozumel, Mexico, when a powerboat entered the restricted diving area at full speed. Kirsty pushed her oldest son out of danger, but was then hit head on and killed instantly.
But Kirsty McColl's legacy lives on with a Great (and much happier) Song of the '80s.
Tomorrow: (De)Barging their way to #1...
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