Songoftheday 10/12/14 - Drawn into the stream of undefined illusion, those diamond dreams they can't disguise the truth...

Level 42 - "Something About You"
from the album World Machine (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is brought to us by the British jazz-pop band Level 42, who came together at the end of the 70s under the guidance of keyboardist Wally Badarou, who had played on M's classic 1979 hit "Pop Musik". Named after a plot point in the sci-fi classic Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (42 was the "answer to the ultimate question of life"), the act featured singer/bassist Mark King along with brothers Boon and Gould and keyboardist Mike Lindup, while Wally stayed behind the scenes producing and co-writing material.

After an indie single "Love Meeting Love" scratched the British chart at #61, they were signed up to Polydor records, where they released their debut album in 1981. That self-titled effort produced their first UK top-40 hit with "Love Games". With a sound bucking the current trends, they stayed mostly under the radar until 1983, when their single "The Sun Goes Down" reached the top-10. Still, it wasn't exactly a "mainstream" song, with a skittish beat over a vaguely political/romantic lyric. The also managed a couple of minor club hits in America with "Micro-Kid" going to #25 in 1984.

That all changed with their 1985 album World Machine, which had the encapsulation of all their strength in one perfect pop coated package selected as the first single. "Something About You", written by Wally and the band, combined an addictive bassline to keyboards that swept up and down the emotional range of the song, along with Lindup's sweet falsetto complimenting Mark King's dry but passioned plea to his love...

Level 42 - Something About You (Official Music... by fort55

"Something About You" became Level 42's first big international hit, reaching the top-10 on the American pop chart in May of 1986. The record also crossed over to #10 on the adult contemporary radio chart as well as #4 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. In their native Britain the track was their second top-10 hit at #6, and also went top-10 in Ireland and New Zealand.

The song enraptured me from day one, and World Machine was one of the first albums I bought on the then-new CD format. It remains at the top of my list of favorite hit singles from the 80s, and I never grow tired of it, especially the circular wash of music repeating at the end of the song.

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Here's the band on a French TV show promoting the single in 1986...