Comments on: Looking for a long lost song

Question: Looking for a long lost song

magnusbe — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 06:12:35 -0800

A friend of mine has searched for years for a song he heard on vacation in France as a child. He can only remember a part of the chorus, which was "which side of the line are you".

This was probably in 1976/77, but maybe earlier, and possibly as late in 1981. It was played again and again on the radio. He describes it as "new wave", 1975 - 1979, possibly Ska, or even reggae, male lead vocal, heavy on keyboards/synths.

He thinks it was not a native English speaker who sang, it was a European accent.

It is not a song by Jamie Marshall, which you can find by a google search for the line in the chorus. Also, this line is most probably not the title of the song.

I guess this is an almost impossible task, but maybe some of you can recommend other resources to find the song.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 07:28:42 -0800

This is a bit later than your timeline, and a total shot in the dark, but what about the band Matt Bianco? They released an album called Whose Side Are You On with a single of the same name, and it was supposedly a huge hit in Europe in the early 80s. I have the mp3, and it's a bit Latiny and very synth.

By: avocet

avocet — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:02:25 -0800

ack! Memories of highschool art class flooding back!

This is going to nag at me now - I haven't thought about that track in years.

By: merocet

merocet — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 09:36:02 -0800

Not "Magnificent Five" by Adam and the Ants which has a similar line repeated in it? It's about the right time and I remember going to France with my school at the time and being very pleased that the French were also as nuts for the Ants as my 10 year old self was. ;-) Hit the Listen To Samples link to find out for sure.

By: magnusbe

magnusbe — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:19:49 -0800

Thanks for the answers so far! I'll check with him if any of these are the correct ones.

By: magnusbe

magnusbe — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:51:38 -0800

Sadly, none of these hit the jackpot.