15. I'd Rather Jack - The Reynolds Girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pOlOsUSs5I Released: February 1989. UK Chart Peak: #8. Oz Chart Peak: #43.
Golden oldies, Rolling Stones, we don't want them back - I'd rather Jack than Fleetwood Mac No heavy metal rock and roll music from the past - I'd rather Jack than Fleetwood Mac
What a load of silly old dross this was! As per usual, Pete Waterman thought he was onto the next big thing when he 'discovered' 17-year-old Linda Reynolds and her 15-year-old sister Aisling. Mike and Matt cobbled together a suitably fatuous lyric to appeal to the girls' own age group - arguably SAW's target audience anyway - and brought them into the studio. 14 years later I'd Rather Jack was still being voted one of the worst pop songs ever released. Its wispy little arrangement cashed in on the Chicago house sound of the time. On the surface it was a song about kids who want to have fun but can't, because they don't relate to old radio DJs who never play the current hits. But at its core I'd Rather Jack was really just Pete Waterman moaning about radio and awards shows ignoring SAW. How Fleetwood Mac and The Rolling Stones made it into the firing line remains unclear. In the end the UK's biggest selling albums for 1988 and '89 were both SAW productions and 34 SAW-produced singles also cracked the UK top 10 in the same period, so Waterman obviously didn't have too much to worry about. The Reynolds Girls, on the other hand, were never heard from again.