In the seventies one oddball duo of American brothers Ron (keys) and Russell Mael (vocals) renamed their band and came to fame as Sparks. The infamous Hitler moustache of Ron being a trade-mark of their early form of electronic pop in the age of Glam Rock.
One of Sparks more memorable hits was This town Ain't Big Enough For the Two of Us which reached no 2 in the British charts in 1974.
Photo: By AVRO
Sparks went on to have a couple of other hits that year with Amateur Hour and Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth which reached numbers 7 and 13 respectively that yer. Despite releasing other singles they did not impact again in the charts until 1979 with a couple of sings which reached 14 and 10. They failed to chart again until the nineties when a trio of singles entered the top 40.
These were tracks from their 1994 album Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins which has it's 25th anniversary this year and has subsequently been re-released on CD and coloured vinyl. Not having heard this album before I chose the CD version and was pleasantly surprised at the music which is a mix of their original sound and humour with more than a little influence from the Petshop Boys.
The song titles Frankly Scarlett, I Don't Give A Damn and I Thought I told You To Wait In The Car give a flavour of the material. Here's a track from the album which as they used to say is well worth a spin!
Official website: allsparks.com
Video Channel: SparksOfficialVideo
I think you'll find it was the Pet Shop Boys that copied them!.
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