Writing up this list is bringing home to me quite how untypical many of the songs I've listened to the most this year are of my usual preferences. Perhaps the realisation that I am not far off 60 years old has made me feel wistful and nostalgic and led me to play tracks that nurse that sentiment.
At the start of this year, I would have been shocked to think I had listened to anything by Sailor, let alone that one of their songs might be among my top listening material this year. I was vaguely aware of their 1976 hit Girls Girls Girls, which seemed insufferably naff not to mention off-puttingly sexist even by the standards of the time it was recorded. I assumed that they were one of these artificial, put-together groups such as were formed to enter the Eurovision Song Contest.
So I am not sure why I even clicked when the Youtube algorithm suggested one of their songs to me - perhaps it was incredulity. But having done so I discovered they have a more interesting history and quirky output than I had imagined.
I'm not sure quite how much of this online biography is true, but clearly they have some kind of curious back story. At least they clearly were a proper group and while Girls Girls Girls remains a troubling listen, in the context of their wider output it seems more a reinterpretation of music hall style than boorish sexism.
Their trademark was an instrument they called the Nickelodeon, a two-person keyboard instrument, described as comprising 'a custom-designed all-purpose machine, the constituents of which were two upright pianos, two synthesizers, mini organs and glockenspiels all mechanically linked and contained within a wooden frame'. I have a weakness for such quirkiness so having clicked I was converted.
At least two of their members went on to interesting musical careers, the lead singer and chief songwriter Georg Kajanus, who himself seems to have an exotic background, went on to produce classically tinged electronic music with a band called Data, while one of the nickelodeon players, Phil Pickett, later played keyboards for Culture Club and co-wrote Karma Chameleon. (I've triangulated the latter point enough to think it is true not a Wikipedia editing prank.
Anyway this song has chimed with my mood this year and climbed my personal chart. More typical examples of my musical taste will start again tomorrow.
The video is not of the best quality but I think conveys the spirit of the song and the band better than linking to an audio track.
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