One-hit wonder "Life In a Northern Town" by the Dream Academy (1985)

The song has like 3 massive hooks. No wonder it was a hit.

Wiki tells me it is about Nick Drake whose albums I dutifully purchased as an earnest folk-rock obsessed teenager in the 1990s and didn’t like - I found him very wet.

Yes , what a good song. His voice is haunting and I love the strings in this song. He's just so damned handsome.

R2 agreed. All three of them were quite good-looking, really—gorgeous (and talented) people.

"Edge of Forever" was used to brilliant effect in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Love that song. I can’t explain it, it makes me feel things.

R5, that's exactly how I feel when I hear this song. Its haunting and beautiful.

I agree R3.

beautiful song but makes me sad for my youth

[quote]I was born in 1990 but remember this song getting a fair amount of radio play when I was a young child.

When???

R9 this would have been in the early ‘90s. I remember hearing it in the car, and I also probably heard /saw it on VH1. My dad was a musician, and I grew up in a household where there was a lot of music around all the time. Those “flashback weekend” type VH1 runs were always in the background—if our TV was on, it was almost always that, or some other kind of recorded concert material. I was exposed to a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s music from a young age because of this. This song in particular somehow remained firmly planted in my subconscious. The melody was stuck in the back of my brain for years, and it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I finally figured out the title/artist. Same thing happened with Til Tuesday’s “Voices Carry”.

I had the album/cassette when it was first released, had to like winter of 1985/86, I think. Used to listen to the Aha album all the time around this period as well.

Really liked The Love Parade too. It's a good album.

As much as I like the song it always reminded me of this...

A 90's song sampling it was used to great effect in Derry Girls

Omg R12. It does, but it still has so much depth. Besides "Nutshell" by Alice in Chains, this song can make me emotional. I've listened to it 3 times since OP posted.

Hey.

It is in actuality a very good song but I wish it was some unknown gem and not a song I've heard a billion times in all of our corniest films and tv shows. It feels like a commercial jingle to me now, I visualize advertisements and trailers when I hear it. Depressing

^ Chevy and Bob Seger would like a word...

Chevy... 🙄

That sample was used in Sunchyme by Dario G during the height of Eurodance. It had one of the corniest videos of all time.

I lived in NYC in the mid 80s and cannot say I ever remember hearing this song before.

It brings a real feeling of a specific time and place. Loved it.

Fucking great song, makes me remember the best of times: being young, the best music.

This record was one of my vinyl 'holy grails'. Found it in small town Oregon, just listened to it last week.

Is our national anthem!

It’s a bit treacly

They did make three albums. But certainly in the UK they're very much known as a one-hit-wonder.

David Gilmour from Pink Floyd played on their first album, and I think the singer Nick did some work and co-writing with him on Pink Floyd's The Division Bell album. That probably earned him enough money to never have to work again.

Kate St John did a lot of session work and still does film scores.

I don't know what became of Gilbert Gabriel.

Parts of the video to Life in a Northern Town were filmed in Pittsburgh.

Nice tune but dumb lyrics. Everyone in a town stops to listen to some asshole from 1963?

Stealth "from North" thread.

The shots of the self-important timpani player irritate my soul.

Are we talking about Cheshire?

Their follow up, Dream Parade struck the top 40. So, the premise of this thread is WRONG!

R25 I was reading Kate St John's website bio/Wikipedia page, and she apparently has toured as a supporting musician with a lot of major acts—Van Morrison, Marianne Faithfull, Damon Albarn, Tom Waits, and uber-cunt Morrissey.

R16 I am assuming you are in the UK? I don't recall ever hearing it in any advertisements here in the States. Per IMDb, their music, and this song specifically, haven't appeared in that much media (surprisingly).

They did a lovely live rendition of this on SNL in December 1985 (and were followed by The Cult!). It starts around the 16-minute mark.

R12 & R25

fun fact:

Paul Simon visited the studio.

Simon encouraged the song's name-change.

And the African-esque backing vocals were all Simon-influenced.

Because Simon was working with Ladysmith Black M.

Also, REM's Peter Buck plays 12-string on a lovely song that makes me think of Woody Allen's black-n-white films called, "The Party"

R22 I am assuming you found it at an antiques/record store? Was it expensive? I am coincidentally from Oregon myself.

Yes, I absolutely loved this song. It was released my senior year in high school. I remember listening to it on the way to my college interviews. I did like The Love Parade (not Dream Parade as R31 listed it--he's WRONG!) as well, but it wasn't a big hit. Life in a Northern Town hit #7 on the Billboard Chart, so it was a Top Ten hit. And I agree R13, I loved how The Derry Girls used it in the show.

The old remix version — after 3:15 — is cool.

Can hear vocal-track levels and harmonies that were part of the original recording sessions.

R34, Wallace Shawn on the tympani is a sight to behold.

I loathed this song.Mainly because I was a waiter at a restaurant that had a jukebox and it was played 20 times a day.

I knew a woman who took up boxing professionally under the name of One-Hit Wanda.

Listening to it now. The chorus has a certain ethereal quality that really elevates the song.

Like the OP, I heard this song a lot in my youth and liked it a lot, but it wasn't until much later I learned the name of it and the group that performed it.

Certain songs evoke a certain time. This was a break up song for me.

[quote] I lived in NYC in the mid 80s and cannot say I ever remember hearing this song before.

Seems like it was a hard song to miss.

The lead singer look like Nicholas Hoult. What's he look like these days?

I was first exposed to The Dream Academy from this music video of This World which would play regularly on the U-68 channel in NYC. When I later heard Life In A Northern Town, I bought their album.

In my mind musically, Dream Academy and Prefab Sprout are always intertwined as I listened to them together interchangeably.

A "live" version from Top of the Pops (still sublime).

This song has been in my head recently as I have been traveling around northern England and Scotland. There are many villages here where time stands still, for better and worse. Another song which evokes the same vibe is "Everyday Is Like Sunday."

I neither loved nor hated this song, but for some reason, I always think of it as having been release sometime like 1969.

Dream Academy did a cover of Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want that I like better than the original. The instrumental version was used to great effect in Ferris Bueller's Day Off during the museum scene.

Here's an argument that dates back to high school. I will make a call tonight based on responses.

Does THIS song sample "Life in a Northern Town" or Not?

I think it does, but I am no musicologist.

I find it odd that the OP used the term "uplifting" to describe anything about this song. It's a very down-beat depressing song. But I absolutely love it and always have.

For whatever reason, this song sits in a very small category of songs, and there's only one other song in that category... "Under the Milky Way" by The Church.

I loved this song ever since I heard it on King Of The Hill.

new to me, but quite fine

Thanks, OP

Does it say dannyboo danny danny boo?

Sugarland's version was as good as the original.

I have always loved this song. No idea what the words are, and I don’t want to look them up and find out what the song means. It just gives me chills and I love it.

That horrendous live version posted at R57 needs to be nuked immediately.

R53 but that chorus is sublime—the lyrics may be nostalgic and a bit sad, but when that vocal chorus kicks in, it is transcendent, in a way that it makes you feel like you’ve been lifted out of your shoes.

He held up beautifully for British guy pushing 70.

This came out my sophomore year of high school, and I had such a crush on the lead singer. I think it was mostly that I wanted to look like him.

If it weren’t for Sunchyme no one would care about this song. The original is so downcast it makes you want to jump off a cliff. Sunchyme is exuberant. Thank God for Sunchyme or this song’s legacy would be very dark indeed.

Oh, please, r63. That Enyafied treacle had little to do with the song at all. It was a piss-poor sampling, and what did those dress-up dolls have to do with anything "northern"?

And though he never would wave goodbye

You could see it written in his eyes

As the train rolled out of sight

Bye-bye . . .

[quote]I lived in NYC in the mid 80s and cannot say I ever remember hearing this song before.

WOW you are old as FUCK!

[quote]Are we talking about Cheshire?

I always thought it was about Luton.

R66, children should be seen and not heard. ;)