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Today's Great Song of 1982, was originally recorded by one-hit wonder Charlie Dore , whose 1978 song "Pilot of the Airwaves," we highlighted way back on 6/11/20.
I bring that up only because, when Charlie released her version of "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" in 1981, it was ignored completely...which caused songwriters Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow to shop it around to other artists. (Charlie gets no respect at all in this story.)
Dean and Tom had thought of "You Should Hear" as sort of a sister song to The Beatles "She Loves You," not because it sounded anything like it, but because it was sort of a "high school gossip" song.
I've linked the Beatles and Charlie below if you're interested in making comparisons.
Meanwhile, Dean and Tom thought that Melissa Manchester would be the perfect artist for the song. Her producer Arif Martin agreed. The only problem? Melissa hated it!!
She didn't feel it was her type of song AT ALL, and in her words, "I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the studio to record it."
When (much to her chagrin) "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" was released as a single, she (pardon the pun), changed her tune quickly as the song became a triple chart hit!
In the US, it reached #5 on Billboard's Hot 100, #8 on the Dance Chart, and #10 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. In Canada, it topped the AC chart and reached #5 on the Top 40! It was also a Top 5 hit in Australia.
And then she won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Performance, beating the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John and Juice Newton.
In 2012, she was quoted as saying, "What was wonderful was that the song was written by two colleagues of mine, Tom Snow and Dean Pitchford. It's a solid song; but it was not the norm for me because I’m basically a troubadour. But I cut my hair off, lost lots of weight, glammed up, and ran it up the flagpole - and it worked! It worked all the way to a Grammy, which was kind of surprising. It was a lot of fun."
I think Dean, Tom and Arif knew she'd come around--someday
Trivia: Toto's Steve Lukather (guitar) and Jeff Pocaro (drums) played on the track.
"You Should Hear How She Talks About You" by Melissa Manchester: closing the DORE on a previous non-hit version of the song...and reluctantly opening up a Great Song of 1982! (Sorry about the puns. Not sorry.)
The Beatles:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGbWU8S3vzs
Tomorrow: Poor old Johnnie Ray.
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