- SCRITTI POLITTI First Boy In This Town (Lovesick) (Virgin)
- Week Ending 3rd September 1988
- 2 Weeks At #1
The single to swiftly dethrone On The Beach (Summer 88) was the second track to be lifted from my album of summer 1988. Provision had already given us the gorgeous Oh Patti (Don’t Feel Sorry For Loverboy), and now it was the turn of its other standout moment to top my chart.
First Boy In This Town (Lovesick) continued the parenthesis habit of both Scritti’s previous #1s – Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) being the other, back in 1984 – but it wasn’t enough to secure UK chart success. The #8 debut of Provision in June had been followed by a steady fall down the Top 100, and First Boy In This Town did little to arrest that decline by peaking at a lowly #63. In fact, given its opening week was at #85 it actually did well to continue the band’s unbroken run of Top 75 hits!
Hopefully of some consolation to Green Gartside was a BBC Radio 1 special with Dusty Springfield in 1990, where she picked her favourite records and talked about them. One of her selections was First Boy In This Town, which she loved not only for Green’s trademark sugar sweet vocals but also its evocation of the 60s Motown/Girl-group sound.
Imagine a late 80s collaboration between Dusty and Scritti. That could have been something.
Amazingly few discotheques provide jukeboxes 