70: Sly Fox, “Let’s Go All the Way” (no.3, 1986)

I swear to God I saw this once, and if anyone can uncover the actual footage, my doubting and defensive memory banks will be eternally grateful. Somewhere in the middle of the BBC’s Music Live beanfeast of March 2000 - 24 hours of performances televised en direct from around the country - the coverage cut back from some item about plainsong singers in Yorkshire, or a live performance from Atomic Kitten or some such, to the studio, where - for a full five minutes - John Inverdale and Simon Callow (together at last!) aired their mutual admiration for this semi-forgotten U.S. duo’s only chart hit. Sly Fox - former Parliament member Gary “Mudbone” Cooper and jazz balladeer Michael Camacho - are a classic example of an act that ran out of ideas around the 3:40 mark of their debut single, a pop masterclass that, under the guise of saying something vital and relevant about Reagan’s America, actually says very little at all, albeit in a supremely tuneful manner. Callow was fucking LOVING it.