Shakin' Stevens

You've been in the fan club for 10 years.

By the way, maybe tomorrow on the show, what fan clubs did you join as a kid and what did you get? I remember there was an 80s singer called Shakin' Stevens and I joined his fan club.

It was run by his mum and you got a handwritten letter three times a year written by his mum.

And what she would do, because it wasn't a big fan club...

And that someone was dressed up as Cliff Richard, but not actually Cliff Richard.

And Shakin' Stevens, who, again, is someone that I would need to look up whether or not they also turned out to be a nonce.

Hopefully

not.

Like we had that song over there, Top of Pops.

Anyway, Culture Club were booked on this show thanks to the artist Shakin' Stevens being ill and not being able to appear.

After they performed on Top of Pops, they performed this song, and it was after that performance that it became a hit.

They got a great break, Culture Club, on this day in 1982.

Give me your heart tonight

Shakin' Stevens, who had countless hits between 1980 and 1992, and that one from 1982 was Give Me Your Heart Tonight.

And according to the Guinness Book of Hit Singles, Shakin' Stevens was the most successful UK singles chart performer of the 1980s.

I said it last week and I'll say it again, what an education this program is.

You'll be turning your radios off tonight saying, "Well, that's taught me a lesson."

At the end of 1981, I said that 1982 was when things get good.

That's not to besmirch the achievements of Adam Ant, Shakin' Stevens and Kim Wild and Soft Cell and the Human League, who all clearly have very big 1981s.

But I've been thinking a great deal about the end of 1982.

And I think where I've landed with the evolution of the 80s is that I still believe that the period between 1982 and 1986 is the most fecund and innovative.

But there are also the stars of Phase One.

Adamant brings a fiery, albeit brief, alternative flair.

Shakin' Stevens capitalises on rockabilly and is massive in 1981, and Kim Wilde explodes onto the scene.

Bucks Fizz do their skirt rip and launch themselves, Soft Cell score a massive hit with a Northern Soul classic, and the Human League capitalise on the Dare record.

Not my, not my words.

The words of Shakin' Stevens.

[laughs]

Can't wait to go to, to Wolverhampton and get a piercing.

but I, I, I might reach out.

Um, one of the things that Kev talked about was, uh, how he and Holly fell in love over Shakin' Stevens, although Holly was already in love with Shakin' Stevens

She fell in love with him because-

Yes.

Yes, 'cause Shakin' Stevens, AKA Welsh Elvis-

Yeah

... um, in America, Elvis is known as American Shakin' Stevens

[laughs]

That's crazy.

"It charted the week after 18, and then it went to number six, and then it went to number two." She continued, "It didn't reach number one because Shakin' Stevens was there with Green Door." She laughs, "So you know that's not helped my relationship with them."

What the hell is that?

I have no idea.

I will f- I will introduce you to Shakin' Stevens, the number one song in the UK that they couldn't knock off.

[upbeat music]

I mean, I know we're not English, but you'd think we would know what this is.