March 22 – Fans Weren’t Mute Cheering For Erasure

On this day in 1987, Erasure were doing something they’d do a lot in the second-half of the ’80s – sitting at #1 on the British Indie chart. This time it was with “It Doesn’t Have To Be”, which spent eight weeks atop the Indie list, the longest any song had since The Smiths “What Difference Does It Make” in 1984.

Erasure was the creation of one-time Depeche Mode founder Vince Clarke, who had left that band early on, worked with Alison Moyet in Yazoo, had a couple less successful side projects before meeting singer Andy Bell to form this band which is still going strong (they released their 19th album last fall.) Their releases usually are long on synthesizers and danceable melodies, with songs like “A Little Respect” and “Sometimes” hitting North American charts. In their UK, they spun 24 consecutive top 40 singles, largely on the small Mute Record label, which was also home to Depeche Mode there. Despite all those hit songs, they were in a way the Brit equivalent of CCR. Just as CCR had a string of hits in the U.S. without ever having a #1, Erasure scored nine top 5 hits at home but never a #1 overall (excepting a 4-song EP that got listed with singles). That didn’t stop them from winning the 1989 Brit Award for best group however and being nominated the following year. “It Doesn’t Have To Be” was a bit off their norm, with the middle lyrics being sung in Swahili to emphasize the song’s political anti-Apartheid message. It was the lead single from their second album, Circus, which allmusic described as “Clarke’s ever-strengthening pushback of synth-pop’s presumed sound and cliches.”

While Erasure aren’t quite the commercial powerhouse they once were, they seem as busy as ever, putting out seven new albums since 2010.