Collecting EastEnders Records, CDs, Tapes
By Larry Jaffee
“You’ve got to be a fool not to see that there is money to be made out of the right kind of exploitation of EastEnders. Whether it’s mugs, pens, book, records, whatever...”
So said current BBC chairman Michael Grade back in 1985 when the programme launched and he was BBC1 controller.
Since then there has been a plethora of EastEnders-tied music products, some officially issued by the BBC, others unauthorized, and numerous releases by cast members looking to cash in on their new-found stardom.
In nearly every instance of the latter, the resulting artifact falls into the category of “better not quit that day job” (e.g., Sid Owen a/k/a Ricky Butcher). There have been a few exceptions, such as Mike Reid’s (Frank Butcher) of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin-type standards.
The BBC cashed in on the Frank Butcher/Peggy Mitchell marriage by getting Reid and Barbara Windsor ,who around the same time put out an album of her own with Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell) guesting on “You've Got A Friend.”
Nonetheless, such memorabilia as a 45rpm, 7-inch release of the official BBC EastEnders theme song (also available as a 12-inch single) strike an undeniable chord with certain collectors who hunt for the television/celebrity of vinyl record shops, especially since the programme is now in its 21st year.
Another official BBC tie-in that coincided with the series’ launch in 1985 was the EastEnders Sing-Along, which offthetelly.co.uk critic TJ Worthington, commented “has no musical pretentions whatsoever; it’s nothing more than a standard cockney pub knees up with the cast handling the rowdy vocals. It’s lightweight but listenable, the cast sound as though they had tremendous fun recording it, and Letitia Dean gets the chance to prove that she has an amazing singing voice.”
Around the same time, the BBC released Anita Dobson's (Angie Watts) chart-topping single “Anyone Can Fall in Love,” based on the programme's theme music. David Buckingham in his academic study Public Secrets: EastEnders and its Audience (BFI, 1987) said Dobson's rendition “reflects obliquely on Angie's desperate marital situation.”
Dobson, who has a beautiful voice, recorded a solo album On My Own in 1986 that could have used musical help from her husband, Queen guitarist Brian May. On the other hand, she does a killer version of “Science Fiction” on a budget theatrical cast soundtrack of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I once found on cassette in a New York drug store’s cut-out bin.
Martine McCutcheon’s Tiffany Mitchell reportedly was killed off by the BBC, which refused to match her salary demands. No problem, responded Martine, who insisted she was leaving EastEnders for a singing career, which produced a U.K. hit single (“This Perfect Moment”), two albums and a spotty attendance record in the West End production of My Fair Lady. A soundtrack CD of the latter was released.
Another former EastEnders actress who embarked on a serious singing career is Michelle Gayle (Hattie Tavernier), who also briefly flirted with the U.K. dance charts.
Occasionally, an established musician tries out his acting chops in EastEnders, best exemplified by one-time Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp (Steve Owen), whose brother Gary was lead singer of the band that had one huge international hit in “True” and lots of U.K. hit singles. Both co-starred in the British film The Krays, for which they received great reviews, after which Martin tried his luck in Hollywood but ended up a British telly star.
Another British band from that era, Scotland’s Altered Images, featured a singer Clare Grogan, who worked for a few months on EastEnders in the late 1990s as a detective/love interest for Ian Beale. She never caught fire.
Any discussion of music and EastEnders would be remiss without noting that John Altman (Nick Cotton) played the Beatles’ lead guitarist George Harrison in a 1979 television film Birth of the Beatles. Altman can really play, and was a deadringer for the young Harrison.
Bob Dylan fan Tom Watt (Lofty) once told me about a vanity pressing 45 rpm single he cut of Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” but it appeared to be mostly for his own amusement.
Peter Dean’s (Pete Beale) record “I Can't Get a Ticket for the World Cup” did not come within an inch of the UK charts, noted Worthington.
Certainly an EastEnders collector curio would be the demonstration CD that Shaun Williamson (Barry Evans) pressed in 1999 to get gigs for his sideline as lead singer of a soul band reminiscent of The Commitments, the fictional Dublin band featured in the film of the same name.
Unlike some his colleagues, such as Shane Richie (Alfie Moon), Williamson hasn't put out a commercial release to trade on his alter-ego’s notoriety.
“The EastEnders records released to date reflect a conservative approach, yet they draw upon experienced viewers’ knowledge of the characters,” commented academic Buckingham. “Thus Nick Berry's (Wicksy) No. 1 ‘Every Loser Wins’ was rechristened ‘Every Lofty Wins’ by one cynical correspondent to the Radio Times on the basis of its rather obvious connections with Lofty’s romantic misfortunes. ‘Something Out of Nothing’ by Paul Medford (Calvin) and Letitia Dean (Sharon) was also appropriately titled, and despite promotional ‘plugs’ in the programme made little impression on the charts,” Buckingham observed. He added that in the 1985-1987 timeframe “EastEnders records had been effectively advertised in announcements directly following it and also promoted with videos played on music-oriented BBC television programmes Wogan and Top of the Pops."
Back to the EastEnders’ theme song, which exists singularly on numerous compilations of TV and soap themes, often cheesy Casio keyboard-sounding renditions on the non-BBC releases.
Offthetelly.co.uk’s Ian Jones and Graham Kibble-White, in an examination of British theme songs, had this to say about the EastEnders tune: “Perhaps Simon May felt that the stripped-down sound of synth-snare and bell ringing would sit uneasily with the rest of his work on the upcoming The Best of Simon May album. With his stock-in-trade lush strings, and mawkish orchestration it was really only a matter of time before the maestro deemed the EastEnders theme in need of an overhaul. Thus, in 1993 EastEnders jettisoned its original arrangement and went for a strings ’n’ sax version. Although it was rumoured that Paul ‘Crossroads’ McCartney had a hand in the new version that wasn’t enough to stop it being universally (and rightly) rubbished. The BBC took note, and in a matter of months the original tune had returned. Or had it? Yes, the bells were back but May couldn't resist a little tinkering and slightly beefed up that stripped-down sound. For May, however, it was mission accomplished—the awful version of the EastEnders theme can be found on his titular 'best of' CD.
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