Tony Lewis, John Spinks, and Alan Jackman originally played together in the band Sirius B in the late 70's. However, they quickly found that their style of music wasn't jiving with the up and coming punk scene, resulting in the three parting ways. Years later, and adopting the name, The Baseball Boys, taken from the gang The Baseball Furies from The Warriors, the three would once again start playing together. This time, they garnered the attention of Columbia / CBS Records, who signed them in 1984.
Their manager made the recommendation that they change their name, suggesting The Outfield. While the band was keen on the change, the irony was that baseball was all new to them as England natives. "I didn't even know what an outfield was," stated Sprinks.
Their debut, Play Deep, was released in 1985, and to promote it, the first single selected was, Say It Isn't So. The song quickly became a regional number one hit, and peeked at number eighteen on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it would be their follow-up single, Your Love, which would kick their sales into high gear. Your Love would become their most popular song to date, peeking at number six on the Hot 100. As a whole, the album reached number nine on the charts, and became 2X certified platinum.
As I played through it, I was surprised to find how much I was enjoying track after track. Lead singer, Tony Lewis, has a distinct voice. This can be haunting at times, while other times, he can inadvertently sound like he's yelling at you. It's the latter where songs became less desirable to hear, but still not necessarily bad.
My three favorites from Play Deep would be the two aforementioned hits, as well as All The Love. However, with that said, I didn't hear anything I would say I didn't like. I'm just trying to be a bit more selective with what ends up on my shuffle these days.
Hearing this definitely made me feel like there was more to The Outfield, and this in turn intrigued me to want to continue on my listening journey. While I already had their 1989 Voices Of Babylon, I would need to fill in the gap in between with 1987's Bangin'. But, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get into that one.
For now, this one is pretty short and sweet. Play Deep was an overall enjoyable listening experience.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS August 11, 1984 |
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