FEATURE:
Groovelines
The Bluebells – Young at Heart
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THIS might seem…
slightly random to include now. A song that was last a hit decades ago being spotlighted now. I often get ideas and inspiration from The Guardian. In terms of article they publish and artists they spotlight. I also look at websites like NME, though I tend to find The Guardian is more worthy and varied when it comes to what they publish. If I am influenced by them, I will try and expand on what they write and bring in other sources. That is the case for the Groovelines. A song that was originally recorded by Bananarama and appeared on their 1983 debut album, Deep Sea Skiving, it was then recorded by The Bluebells, where it appeared on their 1984 album, Sisters. Almost a decade after The Bluebells had disbanded, Young at Heart was re-released as a single on 15th March, 1993 after being featured in a British T.V. advert for the Volkswagen Golf. It has this odd history. Released on two different albums by two different groups within a year of each other and then coming back into the spotlight in a bigger way about a decade after its original release. Over three decades since it briefly brought The Bluebells back together, it is still being played and performed live. The band’s most recent album, In the 21st Century, was released in 2023. I will end with a new feature by The Guardian that brought together Robert Hodgens, a.k.a. Bobby Bluebell and Siobhan Fahey (formerly of Bananarama and Shakespears Sister (who are still together) as they reminisced about the creation of this much-loved song. I am going to come to some other articles in a bit. However, there are some personal reasons why I want to include The Bluebells’ Young at Heart in this Groovelines.
I have talked about this a lot, but the first album I recall buying with my own money as a child was the Now That’s What I Call Music! 24 that was released in April 1993. A month before my tenth birthday, I would have seen an advert for this album. I can’t recall if I bought it as soon as it came out, although it was not long after. This incredible compilation that had all these great hits from artists including Arrested Development, Duran Duran, Paul McCartney, 2 Unlimited, World Party and Shaggy, it also contained The Bluebells’ Young at Heart. I think I saw the song used on that Volkswagen Golf advert. I think that I bonded with the song when Now That’s What I Call Music! 24 came out and I was playing it. Sharing it with friends. I was captured by the spirit of the song and how uplifting it is. I never knew that it was originally recorded by Bananarama. Years later, even though the track is a bit dated and some might consider it corny, I have a lot of affection for it. Because its lyrics and mandate is quite pure and cannot be criticised. Concerning a child understanding about their parents' adult choices and compromises as they navigate their own growing up and the complexities of life. Young at Heart’s lyrics present and unveil this sense of budding maturity and empathy for the adults in their lives. Siobhan Fahey, who co-wrote the song, was inspired by watching the Frank Sinatra movie, Young at Heart. I love that. Before coming to that new article from The Guardian, where we get some contemporary perspective on the song from two of its writers, there are a few things I want to bring in.
As The Bluebells’ Sisters has been reissued, there have been some new interviews. Ayrshire Magazine spoke with founding member if the band, Ken McCluskey. It is hard for any artist that is associated with one song and that is what the fans want to hear. Maybe it can be a burden though, if this song unites generations and is so loved, it is also a good thing:
“Mention The Bluebells and there’s one song that immediately springs to mind. ‘Young at Heart’ is undoubtedly the band’s biggest success having spent time in the top ten of the Official UK Singles Chart in both 1984 and 1993. When it was first released, it peaked at number eight but, thanks to Volkswagen using the song for what was, at the time, considered a rather audacious TV commercial, it climbed to number one nine years later.
It’s fair to say that the song remains a fan favourite, but what does founder member, Ken McCluskey, think about it?
“It’s good to play live because it gets the crowd up. Some people only know us for ‘Young at Heart’ and if you’ve got a big hit like that you should really play it, because that’s why most people come and see us”.
Classic Pop Mag chatted with The Bluebells’ Robert Hodgens about the reissue of Sisters. I do wonder how Young at Heart will fare decades from now. Is it a song that will resonate with young generations? I don’t think that it is reserved to those who are fans of The Bluebells or Bananarama. I loved the song as a ten-year-old but I still love it now. It is a song that never fails to lift me up:
“And talking of ‘commercial appeal’, Sisters has subsequently been dominated by the success of Young At Heart after it featured in a TV advert. What do you put the extraordinary long-term appeal of that track down to?
Its commercial appeal and long-term success is down to the fact that it’s just very catchy. The lyrics, too, they’re kind of eternal really, about people not realising what their parents have done for them until they actually leave home and become parents themselves. I think we all take our parents for granted and that’s a great theme to write about. The bassline by Lawrence Donegan has got a lot to do with it, too. The drumming by David was really different at the time, but overall, it’s Ken’s singing that makes it really timeless. Everyone seems to know the song, and I’m very grateful for the success it’s had.
Bananarama’s version of Young At Heart is very different to The Bluebells. Did you set out with the aim of radically reinventing the song or was it just a natural expression of your band’s sound?
When we wrote the song in Siobhan [Fahey’s] flat in Holborn, we always intended that both of our groups would do it.
The Bluebells, in fact, played it for a long time in our live set. We did the kind of Northern Soul version of it and played it live on Switch, a Channel 4 TV programme. You can actually watch that version on YouTube if you want to look it up.
Bananarama recorded it with Jolley and Swain and I don’t think the girls were pleased with the recording. We actually played it live once with the girls at the Lyceum for a Gary Crowley night. It was really great. I wish someone had filmed that…
But when we came to record it, we’d evolved it into a Bluebells style. I was quite influenced by I Want You by Bob Dylan and really liked those kind of shuffling drums. We found a way to do it as a band that we really loved. And when Roger Ames heard it, he just thought it was a smash right away. We originally intended to get Helen O’Hara from Dexys to play the violin on it from, which was one of his bands, too, but Roger wasn’t too keen on the cross fertilisation of one of his most successful bands and one of his least successful bands! Helen has played with us live recently, though. She’s fantastic and hopefully we’ll have her again as a guest, somewhere special in the future”.
I have seen some reviews of Young at Heart that attack it or put it down. The fiddle solo sounding jarring or a novelty. The title and chorus corny. A song that could be compared to Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Come on Eileen, which is about being young or genuinely young at heart. The Bluebells’ Young at Heart more about being older. And a song that sounds old and dated. Having these faults and flaws. If it does not sound captivating now, people need to remember how it affected people like me back in 1993. Why it was a hit in the first place. It is a song that some cannot see the appeal of but it is very special for so many others. A track that I feel has a lot of charm. Even though I don’t like everything about The Guardian’s new article, and it might be nitpicking – the headline quote spells the Pope without a capital B and The Bluebells without a capital B -, it is great to read Robert Hodgens and Siobhan Fahey discuss the origins of Young at Heart:
Robert Hodgens, AKA Bobby Bluebell, songwriter, guitar, vocals
“Siobhan is Irish but her father was in the British army, so she’d moved around and changed schools a lot. I think she had just wanted to escape, so we started writing lyrics about how her parents had got married young to have sex and have kids, because that’s what people did then. It was the first time since I’d left home that I also realised what our parents had done for us, which fed into the line: “How come I love them now? How come I love them more? / When all I wanted to do when I was old was to walk out the door?”
Bananarama recorded Young at Heart, but their version didn’t quite have whatever their big hits had at the time. Our record company boss Roger Ames suggested the Bluebells record it. We were big pals with Dexys Midnight Runners so thought of asking Helen O’Hara, who played fiddle on Come on Eileen, to play on our version. Roger said that would be “too much cross-pollination”, but the old story about us finding a fiddle player in the pub isn’t true – Bobby Valentino, who played on the single, was a session-player who laid the part down in a few minutes, and Lawrence Donegan came up with a killer new bassline.
In 1984, the song got to No 8 but then nine years later it was used on a car advert and it spent four weeks at No 1. The pope actually complained that the lyrics promoted divorce, which I thought was really funny – although my mum is Italian so she wasn’t best pleased.
IN THIS PHOTO: The Bluebells in 1984/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport/Getty Images
Siobhan Fahey, songwriter
Bananarama had been living in a leaky loft space above the Sex Pistols’ rehearsal room, although we were all in a council flat when Bob used to come down and stay in my room. We weren’t long out of school, we were practically children, but it was an incredible time to be in London. We’d go dancing in the Wag Club and everyone there was in a band: Wham!, Culture Club, Sade.
Once Bananarama started having hits, we had to disguise ourselves to sign on for the dole in case they’d seen us on Top of the Pops. Then suddenly we needed material for an album. I remember Bob sitting with a guitar and going: “Let’s write a song.” He came up with the title Young at Heart after we watched the film, then I started writing lyrics about my relationship with my parents. You can hear the difference between our personalities in the song. My words reek with pain, his are more loving: two very different experiences of growing up.
Bananarama recorded Young at Heart as a northern soul stomper. We’d wanted Soft Cell’s producer but were told he only did synth bands, so instead we ended up with Barry Blue. It’s a flawed production but I like our version, although it doesn’t have the fiddle hook, which is so important to the Bluebells’ one. The song’s mix of dark and cheery lyrics with uptempo, uplifting music reminds me of Tamla Motown, which was the reason we formed a girl group. It was such an amazing time to be young, and we were two kids who wrote a song about our parents from the heart”.
Whilst it divides some and it may be a generational thing, I think about Young at Heart a lot. Although the Bananarama version is great, there is something about The Bluebells’ that gets me. Maybe it is a bit cheesy or corny, its lyrics and story is brilliant. Has real weight and depth. A track that is still thrilling fans to this day! Over forty years since it was first released, this is a track I would recommend to everyone. If you only listen to it once. This is a rousing and thought-provoking song that…
DESERVES more compassion and respect.