“It’s a Heartache” was Bonnie Tyler’s breakthrough hit, released in late 1977 and becoming a major international success in 1978. The Welsh singer’s raspy voice gave the country-rock ballad a distinctive emotional force, helping it cross over to pop audiences around the world.
It reached the Top 10 in multiple countries, including the US and UK, and established the gritty vocal style that would later define classics like “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
On this day, 54 years ago, David Bowie's performance of 'Starman' was broadcast on BBC One Top Of The Pops in 1972. Photos by TOTP resident photographer Harry Goodwin
Young Americans is the title track of David Bowie's eponymous album (1975), the album that marked his plastic soul phase.
Luther Vandross, who at the time was only a 24-year-old backing vocalist, was hired to do the background vocals and ended up arranging all the vocal harmonies of the track (including those repeated "young Americans" that look like a gospel choir). Bowie was so impressed with Luther's talent that he let him participate creatively and the two became great friends. The track features sax from David Sanborn, bass of Willie Weeks and was Bowie's first major hit in the US (it reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100). Years later, Luther said that working with Bowie was one of the highlights of his career before he was successful as a solo artist.