Scritti Politti, Tramshed (2016)
‘Songs to Remember’ is the debut album by the British pop group Scritti Politti and was released on this Day in 1982. The album's recording had to be delayed for nine months due to Cardiff-born frontman Green Gartside's collapse and illness, and then after completion its release was delayed for a further year at the band's request. It was eventually released on Rough Trade Records on 3rd September 1982, reaching number 12 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was heavily influenced by disco, reggae, and soul music, and marked the beginning of Scritti Politti's move from their underground DIY post-punk sound towards commercial pop music.
British music magazine Record Mirror placed it at number 14 in their critics' list of the best albums of the 1980s, and it was included in journalist Garry Mulholland's book Fear of Music: The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco where he described the record as "a unique and modestly epic fusion of pop, reggae, funk, soul, jazz and lyrics submerged in the deep end of political philosophy."
Gartside told NME that he had originally planned to call the album Stand and Deliver before Adam and the Ants released their chart-topping single of the same name, and then Junior Gichi before realising that the name could be confused with that of the singer Junior Giscombe, a backing singer for the group Linx, who was just beginning a solo career in 1982.
The Scottish pop group Wet Wet Wet took their name from a line in the track "Gettin' Havin' & Holdin'" – "it's tired of joking ... wet, wet with tears".
