This week's edition of Retro Friday features the band Real Life and the song "Send Me An Angel."Real Life are a Melbourne-based Australian New Wave/Synthpop band that had hits in the early 1980's with "Send Me an Angel" (1983), which was their debut single, and "Catch Me I'm Falling" (1983). Both of these hits were featured on the band's debut album Heartland (1983).
In it's conception, the band consisted of David Sterry (lead vocals and guitar), Richard Zatorski (violin and keyboard), Alan Johnson (bass) and Danny Simcic (drums). Steve Williams (keyboard) replaced Zatorski in 1986, who was then replaced by George Pappas in 1996 after a long hiatus of band activity.
After very limited success with their second album titled Flame, which was released in 1985, they formed a new band called Zatorski, and recorded an updated version of "Send Me an Angel". In 1989 Real Life released a new version of "Send Me an Angel", titled "Send Me an Angel '89", which fared slightly better than the original in the United States, and reached a peak of #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1989. The video for the 1989 version was identical to the original except Zatorski was edited out of all shots. The Australian video of "Send Me An Angel '89" was shot in Ormond College, The University of Melbourne, with Steve Williams on keyboard. I love the song "Send Me An Angel." The song is about a man who asks himself whether or not he finds true love, and he asks the heavens to send him an answer! The keyboard sounds used in this song were very characteristic of the synthpop songs of the 1980's ... a classic retro song in my mind!
Okay ... here's a little "Send Me An Angel" circa 1983 for your listening pleasure!
Cheers!
Very nice as always! I've never heard of this band from the Land Down Under, so thank you for bringing them to my attention. I can always count on you to enrich my appreciation of music.
ReplyDeleteA+ on stirring up a memory
ReplyDeleteWhat month was it released in 1989
ReplyDelete