Songoftheday 3/21/14 - You've got me so confused that there's words I could use but I'm afraid to say them...

Alison Moyet - "Invisible"
from the album Alf (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by bluesy British singer Alison Moyet, who was born in a town on the English Channel (her father is French), had a "old soul's voice" early on, and when she joined up with former Depeche Mode songsmith Vince Clarke in the band Yazoo (Yaz in the U.S.), it's hard to believe that she was only starting her twenties when the booming club anthem "Situation" came out. After two albums with Clarke the pair split up, Clarke to eventually form Erasure, while Moyet started a solo career of her own.

Her first album, named for her nickname, was produced by Jolley & Swain (Bananarama, Spandau Ballet), and her first two singles, "Love Resurrection" and "All Cried Out", reached the top-10 on the British singles chart. Her third, "Invisible" was an emotional soulful throwdown written by Motown hitmaker Lamont Dozier and was just as epic as his classic work from the sixties...

While "Invisible" only climbed to #21 on the British chart, the single became her first and only top-40 pop hit in America in June of 1985. As she followed that up in the U.S. with the release of "Love Resurrection", which nicked the Hot 100 for her for the last time, in England she put out a non-album cover of "That Ole Devil Called Love" which would be her biggest hit in her homeland at #2. Alison would have a total of six top ten singles in the UK, the latest being "Love Letters" in 1987. After that, he work became more album-oriented, and while her efforts were still selling, radio and her kind of let go. She had a couple more top-40 hits, with "Whispering Your Name" going to #18 in 1994. Most recently Alison made the top-100 in England as a guest on Moby's "Slipping Away" in 2006.

But her chart performance as prolific as it is (19 songs made the top-100 in the UK) belies how much an impression her work had on me. When I lived in Chicago I lived for her voice, and her first two albums were in constant rotation on my new-style portable CD player. Her voice remains one of the very best of the 80's, if not the latter half of the rock era. And "Invisible" by far is at the top of my favorite singles of that year.

Alison's still recording and touring, and her latest album The Minutes is definitely worth picking up.

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Here's Alison performing "Invisible" live in 1984...

..and again in 1987 at the Prince's Trust....

Up tomorrow: A GooGoo goes on a trip to Fantastica.