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Friday, October 21, 2005

"Enchantra, Endora, Tabitha / Esmerelda, Clara, Hagatha"

Halloween’s around the corner, so for the next two weeks, we’ll focus on some seasonally themed Lost in the 80’s tunes. As SCTV’s Count Floyd would say, “Scary stuff, kids!”

Book of Love were fairly popular on the 80’s dance scene, scoring several big club hits, and even nearly crossing over to the Top 40 side of things with “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls”, the first single off their second album, “Lullaby” (if you consider peaking at #90 on the Hot 100 crossing over). “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls” was released as an extended dance mix that was interpolated with a remake of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” (the theme from “The Exorcist”) – a bizarre combo that somehow worked. But that’s not why we’re here today…



“Witchcraft” was the follow-up single, a bouncy, light confection about harnessing the dark power of Satan to snare a lover. Well, not really. I think. “Witchcraft” was catchy enough to cross over the dance club ghetto Book of Love seemed resigned to reside in, but alas, it was not meant to be. Monster club hit, though. Get it? “Monster!” Ha, ha, it is to laugh.

Book of Love went on to release one more horrible album ("Candy Carol") and one last, half-decent album ("Lovebubble") before calling it quits in the early 90's. The past few years saw a reunion tour, a couple of new songs on a new compilation, but not much else. Too bad - those first two albums are synthpop classics. So good, they're scary.

Sorry.

Download “Witchcraft (Extended Version)”.

“Witchcraft” did not chart.

Get Book of Love CDs!
posted by John, 11:15 AM
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