Robbed Hit of the Week 8/27/12 - Yaz's "Situation"...

Yaz - "Situation"

from the album Upstairs At Eric's (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #73

This week's "Robbed Hit" that criminally missed the American top-40 is by the British electronic-music duo Yaz. Vince Clarke left Depeche Mode after their debut album, and recruited brassy singer Alison Moyet to record the name Yazoo (shortened to Yaz for the US since another band held the moniker). Their first album Upstairs At Eric's is a classic in the new wave/dance world, and the single "Situation" was a track years ahead of its time in the clubs, combining the cold, maniacal synths of British new wave with Moyet's belting vocals.

The song was a huge hit in the clubs, topping the American Dance Club Play chart, but only managed to be a minor hit on pop radio. (In England, it didn't chart since it was the B-side to their hit "Only You")

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Since then, the song has become a dance classic, and has been re-released twice by the duo themselves. In 1991 its first proper British release (the "Deadline Mix") made the top-20...

...and again in 1999 a more tribal house mix topped the US dance chart...

The Irish girl-group the Saturdays sampled the track for their 2008 top-10 UK hit "If This Is Love"..

...German band Flying Steps also cribbed the song for their hit "In Da Arena" in 2000

R&B rapper Charli Baltimore slowed it down for the failed single "Lose It" in 2008...

Even Snoop Dogg had a minor hit sampling the song with "Boom" in 2011...

Of course the famous laugh on the record has been nicked for a truckload of songs, from Samantha Fox's "I Wanna Have Some Fun" to Los Del Rio's "Macarena". But I'll leave you with the biggest trainwreck of them all, in the form of Miss Heidi Montag...

That wraps it up for tonight, check back tomorrow for the Song of the day, Candletime, and Tuesday's "French" and "Kraut" sweeps... Cheers!