Singles Going Steady

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Singles Going Steady
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady LP album cover.jpg
Compilation album by Buzzcocks
Released 25 September 1979
Recorded November 1977 – July 1979
Genre Punk rock
Length 47:49
Label I.R.S., United Artists
Producer Martin Rushent, Martin Hannett
Buzzcocks chronology
Love Bites
(1978)Love Bites1978		 Singles Going Steady
(1979)		 A Different Kind of Tension
(1979)A Different Kind of Tension1979

Singles Going Steady is a compilation album by English punk band Buzzcocks, first released on I.R.S. Records in the US on 25 September 1979.[1] It was the first Buzzcocks album to be released in North America and intended as an introduction to the band for the American public, coinciding with a US tour. After healthy sales on import in the UK over the next two years, and following the group's split in early 1981, the album was belatedly released in the band's home country on United Artists Records on 16 November 1981[2] as a 'greatest hits' album. However, as in the US, the album failed to chart.

Side one of the original release of the album featured their eight UK single releases from 1977 up to the time of Singles Going Steady's release in 1979 in chronological order, while side two featured their corresponding B-sides, also in chronological order. The album was reissued in expanded form on compact disc in 2001 with an extra eight tracks, featuring the A-sides and B-sides of Buzzcocks' four singles released between Singles Going Steady and the group's break-up.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 5/5 stars[3]
Robert Christgau A–[4]
Q 4/5 stars (2001 reissue)[5]

Reviewing the album on import in 1979, NME called Buzzcocks "a vital part of the inspiration for the new pop age... This is the best album Buzzcocks never made. Hear it and weep."[6] A second review by the NME two years later upon the album's official UK release was no less enthusiastic, declaring that "this is the best Buzzcocks long-player to be realised, enshrining eight singles and their B-sides in a compilation which at a stroke helps to forgive the inconsistency of their other albums and clarifies the enormous debt which post-Buzzcocks pop owes to this frail practitioner [referring to Buzzcocks principal songwriter and singer Pete Shelley]... Employing the most traditional of beat group formations and turning their attention to the most elemental considerations, Shelley and the Buzzcocks created pop of such intense truthfulness it literally hurts."[7] Melody Maker claimed that "to describe it as 'wonderful' would be doing the lads a gross injustice... Somehow, they devised a simple, crude but hugely effective medium for songs which were fast, funny and memorable."[8] Reviewing the 2001 reissue, Q said, "When Kurt Cobain picked these aging English punk rockers as the support act on Nirvana's final tour, the Buzzcocks received long-overdue recognition as one of the punk era's greatest singles groups... this singles collection, newly supplemented with eight bonus tracks, has lost none of its vitality."[5]

Accolades

In 2003, the album was ranked at number 360 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[9]

Pitchfork listed Singles Going Steady as 16th best album of the 1970s.[10]

Track listing

Side one

Original release
No. Title Writer(s) Originally from Length
1. "Orgasm Addict"   Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley Non-album single 2:00
2. "What Do I Get?"   Shelley Non-album single 2:52
3. "I Don't Mind"   Shelley Another Music in a Different Kitchen 2:16
4. "Love You More"   Shelley Non-album single 1:47
5. "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)"   Shelley Love Bites 2:39
6. "Promises"   Steve Diggle, Shelley Non-album single 2:34
7. "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"   Shelley Non-album single 3:09
8. "Harmony in My Head"   Diggle Non-album single 3:06
2001 re-release
No. Title Writer(s) Originally from Length
9. "You Say You Don't Love Me"   Shelley A Different Kind of Tension 2:54
10. "Are Everything"   Shelley Parts 1-3 3:59
11. "Strange Thing"   Shelley Parts 1-3 4:10
12. "Running Free"   Diggle Parts 1-3 3:14

Side two

Original release
No. Title Writer(s) Originally from Length
1. "What Ever Happened To?"   Alan Dial, Shelley "Orgasm Addict" single 2:12
2. "Oh Shit!"   Shelley "What Do I Get?" single 1:34
3. "Autonomy"   Diggle Another Music in a Different Kitchen 3:41
4. "Noise Annoys"   Shelley "Love You More" single 2:49
5. "Just Lust"   Dial, Shelley Love Bites 2:58
6. "Lipstick"   Diggle, Shelley "Promises" single 2:36
7. "Why Can't I Touch It?"   Diggle, Steve Garvey, John Maher, Shelley "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" single 6:32
8. "Something's Gone Wrong Again"   Shelley "Harmony in My Head" single 4:29
2001 re-release
No. Title Writer(s) Originally from Length
9. "Raison D'etre"   Shelley "You Say You Don't Love Me" single 3:34
10. "Why She's the Girl from the Chainstore"   Diggle Parts 1-3 2:26
11. "Airwaves Dream"   Diggle Parts 1-3 3:54
12. "What Do You Know"   Shelley Parts 1-3 3:15

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalog
United States 25 September 1979 I.R.S. Records LP SP 001
Canada
United Kingdom 16 November 1981 United Artists Records UAK 30279
United States 1988 I.R.S. CD CD 001
Europe 20 August 2001 EMI expanded CD 7243 5 34442 2 8

See also

References

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