Friday 80s Flashback for December 29, 2023

[A Forty Year Syndrome] -- We've come to the final Flashback post of 2023. Over the past year, we've revisited albums that were released in 1983 and therefore turned 40 years old this year. I've tried my best to coordinate each week with a release date from 40 years ago. Sometimes that wasn't feasible, but in those cases I made due with a record that would have been forty by that particular date. There were plenty of albums released in 1983, but not all of them were ... memorable. Or, maybe it's that I didn't find certain records particularly memorable or noteworthy, and I get to make the selections, right? 

So, this week, to close out 2023, I'm bringing you an album that was released early in December 1983: Slade's eleventh studio album, The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome. Neither this album nor any of its singles charted in the US. But the album was successful across Europe, peaking in the top 20 of Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. It also peaked at #49 and #2 in the UK Albums and UK Heavy Metal Albums charts respectively.

But, hold up, weren't "Run Runaway" and "My Oh MY" top 40 hits in the US? Well, yes. But not from The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome. You see, in their infinite wisdom, the record label released an additional version of The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome, repackaged for the USA and Canadian markets. That March 1984 album was titled Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply, and it switched out "Cocky Rock Boys (Rule O.K.)" and "Razzle Dazzle Man" from the 1983 release for "Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply" and "Can't Tame a Hurricane" (a song I quite like, by the way). And it was that 1984 album that successfully launched those singles onto the charts, enabling Slade to finally have their breakthrough in the states (outside of Quiet Riot covering their songs, that is). 

Anyway, whenever it was released, "My Oh My" is a great tune to close out the year:

We all need someone to talk to my oh my

We all need someone to talk to my oh my

Ya need a shoulder to cry on, call me I'll be standing by

We all need someone to talk to my oh my

... 

So let's all swing together my oh my

We can all swing together my oh my

You've got troubles on your own, no need to face them all alone

We can all swing together my oh my

So let's all pull together my oh my.

Flashback: The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome (December 3, 1983)

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And that's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.

I'll see you in seven!