If you saw last week’s Tuesday Tunes you’ll know that one of the songs I played was John Mellencamp’s American Fool. This planted a little seed in my brain, which has grown into this week’s theme. I thought, why not play songs which are about countries, or have the name of a country in their title? It didn’t take me long to realise that there are a huge number, so this is another of those themes which could well stretch to more than just the one set. In all honesty I could probably just play songs about America, but there are plenty of other countries in songs so I’ll be spreading things around. But no England or Britain in this first set: maybe later.

I started a few weeks ago with a Beatles song, and it feels like a good idea to do that again:

As I’m sure you know, that was a track on the album simply called The Beatles, though it has become more widely known as The White Album. Like all thirty of the double album’s tracks Back In The USSR wasn’t released as a single in the UK or the US, but it is still one of their best known songs. At that time (November 1968) The Beatles’ music was banned in the former Soviet Union but bootleg copies of the track were shared and it became an underground hit there. No such problem in the rest of the world, though: the album was #1 in the UK, the US and in every other country that Wikipedia includes in its listings, and has been rated 24xPlatinum in the US for 12m sales, 8xPlatinum in Canada for 800k, and 2xPlatinum in the UK for 600k. I think you can safely say that it was a success!

Having started with one of the biggest names of all time in the music world, shall we continue with another? OK, how about this one:

China Girl was a track on David Bowie’s fifteenth album, Let’s Dance, which was released in April 1983 and made #1 in the UK and many other countries, though it only got as far as #4 in the US. I bought the album at the time and played it a lot – it is to my mind one of his best. This track became a single in May 1983, peaking at #2 in the UK and #10 in the US. The song was co-written by David and Iggy Pop, originally for Iggy’s debut album, The Idiot, released in March 1977. Their versions are quite different: David’s is a smoother pop song, whilst Iggy’s is a little more manic in its vocal style, as you might expect. The ‘China Girl’ in the video is Geeling Ng, a New Zealand model, actor and restaurateur who was working in the salad section at The Bayswater Brasserie in Sydney, with no acting experience, when she auditioned for the role. She has said that this appearance changed her life, perhaps not surprisingly.

This next one came out a year later, and is from another stellar name:

To France was the opening track on Mike Oldfield’s album Discovery, which was released in June 1984. The album reached #15 in the UK, was #1 in Germany and achieved high placings in several other European countries, but didn’t make the US chart. Apart from Tubular Bells he has had very little success over there, which I think is their loss. This song was released as a single to coincide with the album, and reached #48 in the UK, #1 in France and Denmark, #6 in Germany but again failed in the US. Mike’s collaborations with Maggie Reilly and her beautiful voice have always been favourites with me, though, and this one is no exception.

Let’s have a bit of fun now. This one is anything but serious:

The Vapors were an English new wave band who released two albums before breaking up in 1981. Turning Japanese was first a single in January 1980, and became a big hit for them, reaching #3 in the UK, #1 in Australia and #36 in the US. The song then featured on their debut album, New Clear Days, which came out in June 1980, peaking at #44 in the UK and #62 in the US. They then went their separate ways until somehow they got back together in 2020 and released a new album, following which they have toured and are due to play in the US next month. Thirty nine years between albums is probably unique! I always enjoyed this one: they didn’t appear to be taking themselves too seriously and the video is fun.

This next one is from one of my favourite bands and I just love the vibes in this video:

American Girls was a track on Counting Crows’ album Hard Candy, which came out in July 2002 and reached #5 in the US and #9 here in the UK. It is one of my favourites of theirs, and also included the song Holiday In Spain which would have been a good choice for this set too – it was a hard decision but in the end I went for the more upbeat one. This song was released as a single ahead of the album, in May 2002, and reached #33 in the UK, but didn’t make the main US chart, though it did feature in two of their airplay listings: #1 on the Adult Alternative chart and #24 on the Adult Pop one. If you listen really hard you may just be able to make out Sheryl Crow in the backing vocals.

Staying in fun mode with this next one, too:

That is such a happy song and video, though I’m still not sure how they managed to persuade Diana, Gaddafi and the Statue of Liberty to bust the moves. The Bangles released Walk Like An Egyptian as a single in September 1986, the third taken from their album Different Light, which had come out in January of that year. The single was a smash hit, making #1 in the US, Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, and reaching #3 in the UK. The album was also a huge seller, peaking at #2 in the US and #3 in the UK. It sold more than 3m copies in the US and 300k in the UK, and the single had sales of 500k and 250k respectively. A strange little side note is that this song featured on lists of songs to be wary about playing on radio during the Gulf War, both on Clear Channel stations in the US and on the BBC: another crime to be added to Blair and Bush’s lists!

Having given you a sequence of (mostly) well known names and songs thus far, I can’t resist the temptation to drop in one you may well not know. This is from an album I bought and absolutely loved back in the day:

The song is Indian Summer, from an album entitled Weeds, by Brewer and Shipley. Mike Brewer and Tom Shipley are a folk-rock duo who were originally around from 1967 to 1978, and then reformed in 1993 and are still going to this day, though they are now semi-retired – well, they are 82 and 79 so they probably deserve a rest! If you know of them at all it is probably from their 1971 US hit single One Toke Over The Line, which made #10 over there. This one was slightly earlier – Weeds was released in 1969. It is a lovely album, full of great harmonies and some fabulous acoustic guitar playing. Beg, steal or borrow a copy – you won’t regret it!

Having begun this set with a song whose title starts with ‘Born In’ it seems fitting to bookend things with another:

Do I really need to tell you anything about this one? Bruce Springsteen released the album Born In The U.S.A. in June 1984, and it has become one of the best sellers of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 30m, more than 17m of those in the US and 1.2m in the UK. It went to #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand and several other countries, and spawned seven singles: this was one of them, in October 1984, reaching #5 in the UK and #9 in the US. It is one of my all-time favourite albums, not a dud track on it.

That’s all for this week, though I do still have a long list of other songs with a country name in their title, so may well be doing this again. Have a great week, while you recover from the Easter chocolate overload. I have a reworking of an important (for me, anyway) previous post coming up later in the week, and of course I’ll be back for Song Lyric Sunday. Hopefully I’ll see you again then 😊