Official Charts Pop Gem #5: Erasure - A Little Respect

We like a pop tune here at Official Charts HQ. No, lets rephrase that: we LUURRRVVVEEE a pop tune! And throughout 2012 we are celebrating 60 years of the Official Singles Chart – the home of said pop tunes.

But have you ever wondered what happens to some songs when they disappear out of the charts?

Well, with a little help from you guys, every Friday OfficialCharts.com will be unearthing these lost glorious musical nuggets of pop brilliance with Official Charts Pop Gem!

This week’s Official Charts Pop Gem was suggested by OfficialCharts.com user Si Harris, admittedly we do still hear this tune from time to time so arguable whether it is truly 'forgotten', we still consider it worthy of Pop Gem status all the same.  Despite turning 24 later this month, it still sounds as fresh and vibrant as it did in 1988!

Erasure - A Little Respect

Released on September 19, 1988, A Little Respect’s infectious synthpop refrain, combined with singer Andy Bell’s falsetto vocals during the chorus, proved to be a winning formula for Erasure, giving the London-based duo their seventh Top 40 single, and fifth Top 10 hit, when it climbed to Number 4 on the Official Singles Chart.

“A Little Respect is just a simple, classic pop tune,” says Si. “It’s one of the few from the late 1980s that doesn't sound dated.

“Admittedly it wasn't Andy and Vince's [Clarke] highest charting hit, but A Little Respect was always the one that got folk up on the dance floor when I was DJing back in the early ‘90s.”

A cover version of …Respect by New York geek rockers Wheatus charted one place higher than the original in 2001, but in our minds it will never be surpassed!

As Si says, “24 years on and still sounds great!”

Want to suggest a track to be next week's Official Charts Pop Gem and tell the world what you remember about a lost pop classic? Email us at: popgem@officialcharts.com