Track Listing

1. Tryouts For The Human Race
2. Academy Award Performance
3. La Dolce Vita
4. Beat The Clock
5. My Other Voice
6. Number One Song In Heaven

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49473 in Music
• Released on: 2000-02-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Forget PSB/Erasure - Meet the guys who started it all!!!
No.1 In Heaven came about because of Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love'.

Russell Mael (vocalist) recalls "I FEEL LOVE had caused an amazing impression on us. Working with Giorgio Moroder we wanted to see if we could combine some of his electronics and feel of that song with our lyric slant".

In 1979 electronic music was in its infancy: Sparks and Giorgio Moroder were feeling there way through the recording process, as Sparks had never worked with a producer known for work with solo disco artists and Giorgio had never worked with a band before. The result was outstanding.

The 6 track album (not uncommon in those days!)had 3 UK single releases - Beat The Clock, Tryouts For The Human Race and the title track, The Number One Song In Heaven.

Clever lyrics, far-reaching vocals and out-of-this-world song writing heralded the arrival of the electronic duo. The Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, The Associates, Bronski Beat and others all cite Sparks as an influence.

Best track for me is Tryouts For The Human Race - the album version is an immense affair - outdoes 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the grandiose scale hands down.

Buy this - then buy the one after and the one after that.......

An eternal number one
Beat The Clock was the first 12" single I ever owned. I played
it again a short while ago and it's as stunning as I remember.

In 1978, Kraftwerk followed up their world-beating (and New York
disco award-winning!) album Trans Europe Express with a modern
classic, The Man Machine. Arguably as influential even now as
The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds was in the sixties, The Man Machine
drew on Kraftwerk's own influences, including German genius
producer Giorgio Moroder's work. The Man Machine has just six
tracks...

So does Number One in Heaven but what tracks they are! The
stunning three singles are here; Tryouts For The Human Race
probably being the finest track ever written about sex... The songwriting is fantastic. Moroder and the Maels
seem to come together (ahem!) to create a seemless work and
every track is a knockout.

Sparks completely reinvented themselves from their former

incarnation of a great but rather studied five piece outfit
(the very same that produced the classic This Town Ain't Big
Enough For The Both Of Us). Dispensing with the usual and
even-now still widely-used five piece line-up, they emerged
as a stripped-down duo ready to do serious damage and they did!

My Other Voice is awesome and dance producers could do a lot
worse for the full-on intensity of Academy Award Performance
which really hits like a tonne of lead.

Brilliant. Make it your number 1.

Cheers
Al

A STRONG CURRENT OF ELECTROROCK!
This is the ultimate in synth-rock! Sparks called in the help of producer Giorgio Moroder and created an album that is the electronic equivalent of Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell. Dramatic and overblown, it works because of the sheer exuberance of the songs, the hypnotic beat, the falsetto vocals and the gripping melody lines. The most accessible numbers are Tryouts For The Human Race, Beat The Clock and the devastating Number One Song In Heaven (also available as a single CD in four remixes). Think of Kraftwerk and Suicide at their weirdest, throw in Donna Summer's classic I Feel Love, and you'll have some idea of what this album sounds like. An essential album for those who love cutting-edge synth/electronic music.