Dexys Midnight Runners - Show Me - Non-Album Tracks (1979-1982)

If you live anywhere but in Britain, you probably know the British band Dexys Midnight Runners mainly for one song: "Come On Eileen." That was a number one hit in the US, Britain, and many other places in 1982, and continues to be played all over the place. In the US, the band is a true one-hit wonder. But in Britain, they had seven other top twenty hits, including another number one, "Geno," in 1980.

In my opinion, Dexys Midnight Runners (note that, weirdly, there's no apostrophe in "Dexys") is much more than a one-hit wonder.  The band has basically been Kevin Rowland, the lead singer and main songwriter, and a frequently changing bunch of supporting musicians. They put out a lot of good music from 1979 to 1982. At the end of that time, Rowland had trouble dealing with massive success, and got addicted to drugs, and suffered from depression. He didn't release much more for a long time after that, but eventually pulled himself together and has released some good records later in his career. But this is a stray tracks album that deals only with the band's years of peak popular success.

 During this time period, the band released two studio albums, "Searching for the Young Soul Rebels" in 1980, and "Too-Rye-Ay" in 1982. I've avoided including any songs on those albums, unless there are significantly different versions. It turns out the band was just as focused on releasing singles they didn't put on their albums as their albums. There are five A-sides included here, and eight B-sides.

Three of the A-sides were top forty hits in Britain: "Dance Stance," "Show Me," and "Let's Get This Straight (From the Heart)." "Dance Stance" is rather confusing, because that was its name when released as a single, but it later appeared on the "Searching for the Young Soul Rebels" album with the name "Burn It Down." It was a different version, but they're basically the same song, so I gave it the title "Dance Stance" but I put "Burn It Down" into the title as a second name as well.

In addition to all those A- and B-sides, there are a few rarities. "Hold On, I'm Coming" is a demo version of the classic Sam and Dave soul hit, done as a studio demo. It was eventually released as a bonus track. "Big Time Operator" is a cover of a song originally done by Zoot Money's Big Roll Band in the 1960s. This is unreleased, but it comes from a concert that was broadcast on the radio at the time, so the sound quality is a good as the rest. "Merry Xmas Everybody" is a cover of the Slade hit from the 1970s that was done for a Christmas-themed British TV show.

In my opinion, there's enough good material here for an album that would rival either of the band's two albums from this time period, though it probably would be improved by trimming one or more of the four instrumentals. 

I'm posting this album now because there are three BBC albums by the band that I want to post soon. I usually like to post stray tracks albums first.

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 Dance Stance [Burn It Down] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
02 Hold On, I'm Coming [Demo] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
03 The Horse [Instrumental] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
04 Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache (Dexys Midnight Runners)
05 Big Time Operator (Dexys Midnight Runners)
06 Keep It, Part Two [Inferiority, Part 1] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
07 One Way Love (Dexys Midnight Runners)
08 Plan B (Dexys Midnight Runners)
09 Soul Finger [Instrumental] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
10 Show Me (Dexys Midnight Runners)
11 Soon (Dexys Midnight Runners)
12 Love, Part 2 (Dexys Midnight Runners)
13 Dubious [Outlook] [Instrumental] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
14 Let's Get This Straight [From the Start] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
15 TSOP [The Sound of Philadelphia] [Instrumental] (Dexys Midnight Runners)
16 Merry Xmas Everybody (Dexys Midnight Runners)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15110162/DexysMR_1979-1982_ShwMe_atse.zip.html

The promo photo of the band is from 1982.