The S.O.S. Band - Just Be Good To Me

The S.O.S. Band - Just Be Good To Me (1983)

I feel like this was beamed down from another planet or at least a space station back when I was a kid in the 80s. To me it still is futuristic. This song gets better every time I hear it and it's been being heard for quite a while now. The incredibly atmospheric opening minute still sends chills down my spine. The synth bass drops and it's spectacular. Just Be Good To Me is definitely cinematic in all the 80s futuristic gloriousness and on screen dystopianism but adding a human soul presaging the likes of Neneh Cherry and Massive Attack. Also is there a running water sound or... there's definitely an ambient track running throughout. 

Just Be Good To Me is the only other tune that I could think of that had a similar vibe to the previous post's Don't Stop The Music with regard to that wonderful driving synthetic bass sound and in the last post's comments section Simon Reynolds agrees. I'm trying to come up with other examples. 

I know and love this tune from back in the days of school, footy and blue light discos and regional radio so it was a hit here in Australia. A quick check on the American R&B charts reveals it only got to number two. Sorry to disappoint. Maybe I'm not the chart whisperer I thought I was.  

It's funny when you read that an immortal anthemic tune such as this only got to number 17 on the strayan charts back in '83 because it seems a bit wrong. The influence of Just Be Good To Me has been far and wide with very high profile covers, rewrites, samples, mash ups and an appearance on Grand Theft Auto's The Vibe 98.8 as well as still being an actual perennial dance floor banger. So it has managed to stay in the public consciousness for the last 40 years whereas say Dionne Warwick's number one for two weeks in 1983 is totally forgotten, just try to name it.

The la la la la la-la luh though...las never sounded so good.