449 Hello Yello - I Love You

Chart  entered : 25  June  1983

Chart  peak : 41

Number  of  hits : 12

I  have  to  admit  I  wasn't  expecting  this  oddball  outfit  to  qualify  but  there  you  go.

Yello  began  as   a  duo  in  Switzerland  in  the  late  seventies , formed  by  friends  Boris  Blank  and  Carlos  Peron  who  shared  a  love  of  experimental  electronic  music. Boris  was  a  pioneer  of  sampling   and  using  tape  loops. The  latter  was  Carlos's  speciality. They  soon  realised  that  Yello  needed  a  singer  and  frontman  and  invited  the  unlikely  figure  of   Dieter  Meier  to  join  the  group. Dieter  is  probably  the  strangest  pop  star  of  all. He  was  born  into  a  millionaire  industrialist  family  and,  without  having  to  earn  a  living,  whiled  away  his  time  in   playing  golf  and   professional  poker,  gambling  and  performance  art.

They  released  their  first  single  "I.T. Splash"  on  an  independent  label  in  1979 , a  song  about  a  man  who  couldn't  stop  driving   which  sounds  a  bit  like  Kraftwerk  , using  the  same  phasing  effects  to  simulate  cars  passing  as  Autobahn,  topped  off  with  horror  movie  vocals    and  concluding  with  a  snatch  of  racing  commentary, a  device  they'd  re-use  years  later on  their  biggest  hit.

A  year  later  they  released  their  first  LP  "Solid  Pleasure"  having  signed  a  deal  in  the  UK  with  Do  It.  "Solid  Pleasure "  has  14  mainly  short  tracks  which  divide  between  experimental  art  rock  in  the  tradition  of  US  weirdos  The  Residents  and  which  is  hard  work  and  more  accessible  left  field  electronic  pop  somewhere  between  Kraftwerk  and  Sparks. Throughout  there's  an  interest  in  electronic  dance  rhythms.  The  opening  track  "Bimbo"  was  released  as  their  first  UK  single  in  April  1981.  Mocking  his  own  playboy  image  Dieter  sings  in  a  variety  of  voices  from  David  Byrne  to  B-52s'  Fred  Schneider  over  an  early  Human  League  electronic  backing  track . There's  no  tune  to  make  it  a  more  commercial  proposition.  The  follow  up   "Bostich "  is  a  cleaner  electronic  dance   track  that  raises  questions  about  the  parentage  of  both  Tom  Tom  Club's  Wordy  Rappinghood  and  particularly  New  Order's  Everything's  Gone  Green . 

At  the  end  of  the  year  they  put  out  a  second  LP  "Claro  Que  Si"  a  more  disciplined  set  of  songs  with  film  noir lyrics  and  less  abrasive  synthesised  music  but  with  most  of  the  vocals  delivered  "in  character"  there  wasn't  a  single  on  it. Nevertheless  the  half-spoken  "She's  Got  A  Gun"  which  recalls  Flash  and  the  Pan  and  "Pinball  Cha-Cha ",  an  electronic  mambo  as  sung  by  Lurch,   were  sent  out  to  do  battle  and  promptly  vanquished  by  uncomprehending  radio  producers.

Yello  then  abandoned  Do  It  for  Stiff  and  "I  Love  You"  was  their  first  release  for  the  label. It's  a  relatively  slight  song  based  around  a  Giorgio  Moroder  synth  pulse  and  various  production  effects , anticipating  the  Art  of  Noise  and  Frankie  by  six  months. Dieter  sings  once  more  of  his  driving  fetish  in  an  insinuating   whisper  sometimes  answering  the  sampled  female  "I  love  you's  " with  a  sleazy  "I  know !". The  lurching  fairground  organ  that  drops  in  and  out  of  the  mix  adds  to  the  queasy  feel of  the  track. It  doesn't  come  to  any  conclusion  just  fades  out  after  three  minutes  but  frequent  play  on  David  Jensen's  show   and  Stiff's  promotional  know-how got  it  to  the  brink  of  the  Top  40.