Its Saturday morning/afternoon and it’s one hit wonders King with their mullet influenced rendition of Love & Pride. Hated by many for the visuals King portrayed with their ridiculous hair and clothing style, you still can’t knock it for being weirdly good to dance too.
"Love & Pride" is the debut single by Coventry band King, produced by Richard James Burgess and featured on the band's first studio album Steps in Time. The single was first released in April 1984 but was not a success, spending only three weeks on the UK Singles Chart and reaching a lowly No. 84.[1] However, after the group performed the song on Saturday morning television at the end of 1984, CBS Records re-released it and it became a big hit. "Love & Pride" hit No. 2 on the UK chart in February 1985, remaining there for three consecutive weeks and only being held from the top spot by "I Know Him So Well", the duet by Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson.
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Paul King had the misfortune to be judged by his peers when Love And Pride, the first single from his new band King, was released in April 1984. Two of The Bluebells were reviewing the singles in Record Mirror, and Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode was doing likewise in Smash Hits. Neither review was favourable. “I don’t know much about this band but I find the tune very instant,” said Gahan. “After a few plays I flip over to find that the B-side has a rough edge the A-side doesn’t. I’m afraid Don’t Stop turns me on and Love And Pride doesn’t.” And over at Record Mirror: “A result of various influences but the overriding one is disco which is draft,” said Bobby Hodgens. “Why do groups write these songs and then put them to a disco backing beat? I wouldn’t put this in a time capsule. They’ll probably beat us up, Ken.” Kenny McCluskey agreed. “Yeah, they look pretty tough on the sleeve. Try harder next time, boys.”
Around eight months later, they did try harder: harder at promoting it, that is, doing the rounds of as many TV shows as they could. The reviews were better (albeit grudgingly) this time around too. Smash Hits’s Vici Macdonald spoke for many when she said, “I don’t generally care for King’s music, but this single is their one true moment of greatness. A huge, tub-thumping epic full of things like ‘soul’ and ‘passion’, and with a truly uplifting melody, it inexplicably sank without trace when originally released 18 [sic] months ago. In those days, King had paint-splattered leather suits, big boots and long hair: not to put too fine a point on it, they looked naff. Nowadays, they’ve got tartan suits, big boots and very long hair (and they still look naff). But don’t let that put you off, because he record remains every bit as good as it was back then, and deserves to be a hit.” Which it was, reaching #2 this time around.
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