Nik Kershaw 'Human Racing', released in 1984 on MCA, Pop

Tracklist:

Dancing Girls (3.47)
Wouldn´t It Be Good (4.31)
Drum Talk (3.10)
Bogart (4.38)
Gone To Pieces (3.09)
Shame On You (3.35)
Cloak And Dagger (4.54)
Faces (4.04)
I Won´t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (3.21)
Human Racing (4.28)

With the release of 'Human Racing', a 3-year hiatus in the musical career of Nik Kershaw ended in a very successful way.

The first single after the release of the album, 'I Won´t Let...' charted in the UK, and the big breakthrough in Europe and the US came with 'Wouldn´t It Be Good'. This single charted in the UK on a #4 and in Germany on #2. The album itself went to multi-platinum in several countries and spawned another hit single, 'Dancing Girls'.
The follow-up album 'Don Quixote' saw another hit outtakes, 'Wide Boy' and 'The Riddle', but with the third album 'Radio Musicola', the link was broken, and although it featured a lot of irresistible songs again, Nik Kershaw wasn´t able to repeat the success of the predecessors.

'Human Racing' is a perfect pop recording, with quirky danceable tunes, mellow melodies and deep and meaningful lyrics. This album can be listened entirely without the use of the skip button - each track is a precious little gem for itself.
With this single album, Nik Kershaw became an icon of the 80s. Featuring the unforgettable classics, 'Human Racing' deserves a place in the archives of every collector of 80s popmusic.

Indeed it was a very good album, and a must for any 80's pop fanatic.

Nik Kershaw is now as popular as he has ever been in the UK, and is now touring again.

He often appears on 80's TV shows and quizzes, and perhaps his greatest asset is that he has the ability to look back and have a laugh at it all.

A really nice guy (with hardly any hair now!) :eek:

I have this album and I really like it. My favorite songs are "Dancing Girls" and "Wouldn't It Be Good".

Thank God for that. I thought I was going to get all the way through the reviews and find that this great album had been completely forgotten.

A great singer-songwriter (even if he's a bit on the short side) Nik was obviously very passionate about his lyrics, culminating in a collection of songs that comment on every aspect of the human condition.

Pop with a concience . . .

This album was fantastic :thumb:

It became a MAJOR hit here in Canada. 'Wouldn't it Be Good' peaked in the Canadian top 5 singles chart :thumb:

The extended mix of 'Wouldn't It Be Good' is one of my favourite songs of the 80's - sheer class.

Infact, I was only listening to it whilst driving into work this very morning :yesnod: :bouncy:

Chase

I'm with you on that - one of the best 80's extended versions by any artist.

The acoustic version on the CD-S Somebody Loves You (I think) is pretty damn cool, too.

And speaking of Mr K and remix versions, I put the 7in and 12in singles of the Riddle together. The original 12in wasn't so hot, so using the 7in as the basis for the track, I extended the start and finish. Kind of amateurish, but it seems to work OK. If only I had the session tapes . . .

If you've got Limewire, look for Riddle Absolute.

Loved Nik Kershaw. It's disappoints me that he was only successful for a few years then disappeared. Glad to hear he's still making music.

Mr. Kershaw wrote a song in the early 90's called 'The One and the Only'. Featured in the movie Doc Hollywood, it became a U.S. top 10 hit for a newcomer named Chesney Hawkes in 1991 (I think the year was)