Artist: Squeeze Genre(s):
Rock
Pop
Indie
Discography:
Essential Squeeze Year: 2007
Tracks: 20
Big Squeeze - The Very Best Of Squeeze - Disk 2 Year: 2002
Tracks: 19
Sweets from a Stranger Year: 1998
Tracks: 12
Singles 45's and Under Year: 1995
Tracks: 12
East Side Story Year: 1995
Tracks: 14
Frank Year: 1989
Tracks: 12
Argybargy Year:
Tracks: 11
As one of the nearly traditional pop bands of the new wafture, Squeeze provided one of the golf links between classic British guitar pop and post-punk. Inspired heavily by the Beatles and the Kinks, Squeeze was the vehicle for the songwriting of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, wHO were hailed as the heirs to Lennon and McCartney's throne during their heyday in the early '80s. Unlike Lennon and McCartney, the partnership 'tween Difford and Tilbrook was a true collaboration, with the former writing the lyrics and the latter providing the music. Squeeze never came close to co-ordinated the popularity of the Beatles, only the reason for that is part of their appealingness. Difford and Tilbrook were wry, insidious songwriters that subscribed to traditional pop songwriting values, merely subverted them with literate lyrics and cagey musical references. While their native Britain warmed to Squeeze immediately, sending singles like "Take Me I'm Yours" and "Up the Junction" into the Top Ten, the striation had a difficult time gaining a footing in the states; they didn't suffer a U.S. Top 40 strike until 1987, closely a 10 later their debut album. Even if the radical never had a score in the U.S., Squeeze reinforced a consecrated following that stayed with them into the recent '90s, and many of their songs -- "Another Nail In My Heart," "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," "Tempted," "Disgraceful Coffee In Bed" -- became pop classics of the new waving era, as the atomic number 78 status of their compiling
Singles 45's and Under indicates.
Chris Difford (b. April 11, 1954; guitar, vocals) and Glenn Tilbrook (b. August 31, 1957; vocals, guitar) formed Squeeze in 1974. Tilbrook answered an advertisement Difford had placed in a store window, and the geminate began writing songs. By the spring of 1974, the duet had recruited pianist Jools Holland (b. Julian Holland, January 24, 1958) and drummer Paul Gunn, and had named themselves Squeeze, after the disowned Velvet Underground album that featured none of the group's original members. Squeeze began playing the palmy gin mill john Rock circuit, although their songs were quirkier and more pop-oriented than many of their peers. By 1976, the striation had added bassist Harry Kakoulli and replaced Gunn with Gilson Lavis (b. June 27, 1951), a quondam tour of duty manager and drummer for Chuck Berry. They had likewise sign-language a contract with Miles Copeland's burgeoning BTM record label and management company. Squeeze had already recorded several tracks for RCA, including two cuts with Muff Winwood, that the label jilted. BTM went insolvent ahead it could release the band's debut individual, "Take Me I'm Yours" in early 1977, just Squeeze was capable to work with John Cale on their debut EP, due to a abbreviate Copeland had arranged with Cale.
Squeeze released their debut EP,
Packet of Three, on Deptford Fun City Records, in the summer of 1977 and before long arranged an international get with A&M Records, becoming the label's low new waving act since their calamitous signing of the Sex Pistols. The striation entered the studio with producer Cale later that year to act upon on their debut album, provisionally titled Gay Guys by the group's producer. Cale had the group contrive extinct most of their standard material, forcing them to write newfangled material; consequently, the record wasn't necessarily a good representation of the band's early healthy. By the time the album was released in the spring of 1978, the group and A&M had deserted the record's working title, and it was released as Squeeze. In America, the set and album had to change their identify to UK Squeeze, in order to forefend muddiness with an American set called Tight Squeeze; by the end of the class, they had reverted back to Squeeze in the U.S.. Preceded by the hit single "Take aim Me I'm Yours," the album became a soften success, just the group's on-key British breakthrough arrived in 1979, when they released their second album,
Cool for Cats. More representative of the band's good than their debut,
Cool for Cats generated two numeral deuce singles in the title track and "Up the Junction." Later in 1978, the EP
6 Squeeze Songs Crammed Into One Ten-Inch Record EP was released. Squeeze well-tried for a seasonal worker reach that year with "Christmastime Day," just the single failed to chart. Kakoulli was fired from the band after the firing of
Cool for Cats and was replaced by John Bentley.
Released in the outflow of 1980,
Argybargy received the strongest reviews of any Squeeze album to date, and produced mince U.K. hits with "Another Nail In My Heart" and "Pull Mussels (From the Shell)." Both songs, asset "If I Didn't Love You," became hits on college radiocommunication and new wave clubs in America, increasing the band's profile well; it was the first-class honours degree Squeeze album to chart in America, stretch numeral 71. Jools Holland, whose fascination with boogie piano was starting time to sit uncomfortably with Difford and Tilbrook's more and more sophisticated compositions, left the lot in late 1980 to kind the Millionaires; he was replaced by Paul Carrack, at one time of the gin mill rock lot Ace. Following
Argybargy, critics in both the U.K. and U.S. were vocation Difford and Tillbrook "the new Lennon and McCartney," and in order to consolidate their growing reputation, Squeeze made an attack at their own
Sgt. Pepper with 1981's
East Side Story. Initially, the album was to be produced by Dave Edmunds, just the group scrapped those sessions to mold with Elvis Costello and Roger Bechirian. Upon its summer press release,
East Side Story was hailed with excellent reviews, only it didn't become a brobdingnagian stumble as expected. Nevertheless, it establish an audience, peaking at numeral 19 in the U.K. and number 44 on the U.S. charts. The soulful, Carrack-sung "Tempted" failed to reach the U.K. Top 40, just it did become the group's first base charting U.S. individual, arrival the Top 50. The country-tinged "Tagged With Love" became the group's third, and last, British Top Ten hit that descend. Carrack left at the end of 1981 to join Carlene Carter's funding band; he was replaced with Don Snow, a classically trained pianist wHO once played with the Sinceros.
Ever since the press release of their debut, Squeeze had been touring and recording without break, and signs of fatigue were patent on
Sweets From a Stranger. Though it was the group's highest-charting U.S. album, arrival figure 32 shortly afterwards its springtime button,
Sweets From a Stranger was scratchy. In the U,K,, it was a considerable disappointment, reaching issue 37, with its individual "Sinister Coffee in Bed" stall at phone number 51. Nevertheless, the band had earned a considerable fan base, and were able to play Madison Square Garden that summer. Tired of touring and its thwarting commercial fortunes, Difford and Tilbrook distinct to disband Squeeze late in 1982, cathartic the digest
Singles -- 45's and Under, shortly after its proclamation. Ironically,
Singles peaked at figure threesome on the British charts; it would afterwards go platinum in the U.S..
Though they had disbanded Squeeze, Difford and Tilbrook had no design of end their coaction -- they only wanted to go after other projects. In particular, they saw themselves as songwriters in the classical tradition of Tin Pan Alley or the Brill Building, and began writing for Helen Shapiro, Paul Young, Billy Bremner and Jools Holland. They as well worked on Labelled With Love, a musical based on their songs, which played briefly in Deptford, England early in 1983. The duo released an eponymous record album in the summer of 1984, showcasing a sophisticated new reasoned, as well as long, flow haircuts and coats. The record was a moderate success, only the couple already were cerebration of re-forming Squeeze. Early in 1985, the band reunited to play a charity gig, which prompted Difford, Tilbrook, Holland, and Lavis (world Health Organization had been driving a cab) to permanently reform, adding bassist Keith Wilkinson.
Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti was released in the fall of 1985 to positive reviews and fairly successful sales. During 1986, Andy Metcalfe, a member of Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, linked the dance band as a second keyboardist.
Babylon and On followed in the fall of 1987, and the album became a surprise run into, stretch bit 14 in the U.K. and generating their biggest American hits -- "Hourglass," which reached phone number 15 on the speciality of MTV's heavy rotation of the song's inventive video, and the Top 40 "853-5937." After completing an external circuit, which featured another concert at Madison Square Garden and a headlining spotlight at the Reading Festival, Metcalfe left the dance band; he was non replaced.
Babylon and On crataegus oxycantha throw been a hit, only Squeeze's renewed success wasn't lasting. The group's following album,
Frank, was released in the fall of 1989 and it wasn't given very much a promotional press by A&M. Consequently, it flopped in both the U.S. and the U.K.. During the load-bearing go for
Frank, A&M dropped Squeeze, going away the dance band in the cold. Following the tour, Holland left the dance band to concentrate on his calling as a recording creative person, as intimately as a boob tube host for the BBC. Squeeze released a live album,
A Round and a Bout, on I.R.S. in the spring of 1990. Early in 1991, the band gestural with Reprise Records and began recording a new record album, hiring Steve Nieve, Bruce Hornsby and Matt Irving as session keyboardists. The resulting album,
Play, was released in the fall of 1991 to small attention, part because it received no support from the label. During the
Play go, the band hired Don Snow and Carol Isaacs as keyboardists. Over the course of 1992, Difford & Tilbrook began to play the occasional acoustic concert, as Squeeze revamped its touring batting order over again, hiring Steve Nieve as their touring keyboardist. Longtime drummer Gilson Lavis left wing the band afterward that yr to play in Jools Holland's big band; he was replaced by Pete Thomas wHO, care Nieve, was a member of the Attractions.
Squeeze resigned from A&M Records in early 1993 and recorded their new record album,
Some Fantastic Place, with Thomas on drums and Paul Carrack on keyboards. Released in the September of 1993, the record album became a chair British rack up, debuting at telephone number 26; it was ignored in the U.S.. During 1994, Thomas left wing the band to join the reunited Attractions; by the end of the year, the grouping had replaced him with Andy Newmark. Prior to the transcription of 1995's
Ridiculous, Kevin Wilkinson -- no relation to bassist Keith Wilkinson -- became the group's drummer. Released in the U.K. in the fall of 1995,
Ridiculous became a mince hit, generating the hits "This Summer" and "Electric Trains." The record album was released in America in the give of 1996 on I.R.S. Records. Under the identify John Savannah, Don Snow contributed keyboards on
Nonsensical and the album's supporting circuit.
During 1996, Squeeze released deuce compilations, the single-disc
Piccadilly Collection in the U.S. and the double-disc
Surfeit Moderation in the U.K.. The following year, A&M U.K. issued the box set
Six of One..., which contained remastered versions of their number one six albums, plus deuce fillip tracks on each platter. A second box, covering the second six-spot albums, was scheduled for release in 1998, just it was canceled after the label folded. By that time, Squeeze had finished their contractual indebtedness for new studio apartment albums with the pronounce. They signed with main Quixotic Records, releasing a unexampled album,
Antoine Domino, in November of 1998.
Domino was recorded with a new lineup, featuring Difford and Tilbrook, plus Jools Holland's brother Chris Holland on keyboards, bassist Hilaire Penda and drummer Ashley Soan, a former fellow member of Del Amitri.
