What Was Squeeze’s First US Top 40 Hit?

Who knows why some bands or artists do a brisk business in one part of the world but struggle to cut through to audiences from other areas? Certainly, Squeeze, who were successful hitmakers in the United Kingdom in the late 70s and early 80s, could relate. Their brilliant songs from early in their career all sank without a track on the American charts.

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The band had already broken up once by the time they finally busted down the US charts. They did so with a song that changed up their usual working method.

Brit Big Shots

Squeeze has had a lot of distinguished members throughout its career, which has now spanned six decades. But the beating heart of the group has always resided in the songwriting partnership of Chris Difford (who writes the lyrics) and Glenn Tilbrook (who writes the music).

They enjoyed immediate success pretty much right off the bat. Squeeze hit the Top 20 in their native Great Britain with their 1978 single “Take Me, I’m Yours”. For the next four years, they were pretty much constants on the UK singles charts. Three of their songs soared all the way to the Top 5.

In the US, they were more a cult act than anything else. They nearly broke through to the Top 40 with “Tempted”, a soulful gem sung by Paul Carrack, who appeared for just one album with the band before departing. That song, now renowned as a classic, stalled out at no. 49 in the US.

Together Again

East Side Story, the 1981 album that included “Tempted”, represented a stunning artistic peak for the band. They returned a year later with Sweets From A Stranger. Aside from the brilliant single “Black Coffee In Bed”, this record lacked the same vigor and sharpness of its predecessor. Not long after its release, Squeeze announced they were breaking up.

Luckily, they didn’t stay fractured for long. Tilbrook and Difford released an album as a duo in the interim. They then brought Squeeze back together for Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti in 1985. But they ended up disappointed with the results, in large part because they felt the album relied too much on overdubs.

They agreed their next album should try and capture their last sound. To that end, the band worked up the material together in the same room. Difford and Tilbrook also agreed to try writing songs together instead of their usual piecemeal approach. The new strategy resulted in “Hourglass”, the first single off their 1987 album Babylon And On.

“Glass” Half Full

“Hourglass” featured some of the band’s grabbiest gambits. The song rolled about on a rollicking rhythm. Some greasy saxophone, played by Tilbrook, squawks through the instrumental break. And then there’s the fast-talking chorus, which has little to do with the frustrated laments about running out of time that are found in the rest of the songs.

“Hourglass”, while fun, can’t match the depth of previous UK hits like “Up The Junction” or “Labeled With Love”. But it busted through the band’s American stumbling block, hitting no. 22 on the US charts. (An oft-played video full of Dali-esque special effects no doubt helped.)

Babylon And On also contained “853-5937”, which just eked into the US Top 40. And that was it for the band’s Top 40 US success. That fact seems almost criminal considering what brilliant pop writers Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook have always been. At least “Hourglass” made it big in America before the sands of time really started working against them.

Photo courtesy of Squeeze’s official Facebook page