Now 12” 80s – 1986 – Part One (Sony Music/EMI)

The beloved 12-inch single, popular in the 1980s, was a good marketing ploy by the record companies to encourage punters to buy extended versions of songs that they had probably already bought on a 7-inch single. If you were a fan of a particular track, the idea of a longer version was a good one, as you got to hear either remixed versions of the original track with perhaps another verse added or the track lengthened by the inclusion of an instrumental bridge.

This decade was the period in popular music when the synthesiser and electronic drums replaced the electric guitar and traditional drums, respectively. If some of the 7” versions now sound like their time, then the 12” versions only go to exemplify the point even further.

Spread over four CDs, the tracks here cover the best of 1986, when pop music, particularly from Britain, ruled the charts worldwide, with names here that read like a roll call of the best in the music business, from Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, The Police and Elton John – the durability of these acts is impressive, with many of them still touring, if they are still together.

The stripped-down version of the Eurythmics' Thorn In My Side, although minimal in production, adds a new perspective to the song, sounding less forceful, whereas the Bananarama version of Venus here sounds like it was aimed more at the dancefloor as opposed to being consumed at home. Produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, the song bears all the hallmarks that made the trio the big production outfit whose skills became the surefire way to bag a hit single.

Another track that started off in the clubs before becoming a mainstream hit is So Macho by Sinitta – who still performed the track in her recent pantomime appearance in Bradford.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik were heralded by the music press at the time to be the next big thing in pop music; they weren’t, and after hearing Love Missile F1-11 here, you can understand why. Some groups showed great promise, such as Red Box with their hit For America, contained here virtually unchanged from the original version; why the act did not capitalise on their initial success is unknown.

The Communards with Sarah Jane Morris covered the seventies favourite Don’t Leave Me This Way; it would have been hard to make a shambles of what is already a good song. Performed as a duet, this version sounds even better than the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes original version.

1986 was indeed the year of the cover version and also a guaranteed way of resurrecting a flagging career – Kim Wilde decided to cover The Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On, which saw her back on the front covers of all the glossy pop magazines and back in the Top 10. The version here is slightly more sultry and adventurous than the 7” edit of the song. Fine Young Cannibals put their own identity on the Elvis classic Suspicious Minds with the unmistakable vocals of Roland Gift – whose family lived in Hull, with Gift performing with the Hull Truck Theatre Company at one point.

Jermaine Stewart became another one-hit wonder after the buoyant We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off, which is not changed at all on the 12” version.

Swing Out Sister had their first hit with Breakout before travelling a more jazz and soulful road; the 12” version starts off virtually unrecognisable from the 7” version before the track becomes a luscious delight with the added luxury of a jazzy trumpet solo – paving the way for what direction the band was to follow.

With many of the tracks here lasting over six minutes, the experience of sampling the temptations contained becomes a marathon listen, probably best enjoyed by taking in one CD at a time. If you want to relive or discover what pop music sounded like forty years ago, this is a good enough excuse – and with this being part one, there will be another foray into nostalgia to follow.