🎸🇬🇧🇺🇸 Two Hitmakers, One Transatlantic Idea: How Graham Gouldman & Andrew Gold Built Wax Between Burbank and Manchester

The Twelve Inch 191 : Right Between The Eyes (Wax) Part 1

Right Between The Eyes by Wax was one of my favorite songs of 1986. It’s pure feel good music. Wax was a short-lived duo made up of two seriously talented artists: Andrew Gold and Graham Gouldman.

Gold had already delivered brilliant pop gems like Lonely Boy, Thank You For Being A Friend and Genevieve. Gouldman, of course, was one of the driving forces behind 10cc, a band I adored. Together, they released Right Between The Eyes and their excellent 1986 debut album Magnetic Heaven.

And like every time I fell for a new track in the ’80s, I wanted the 12-inch. Even if I knew I’d probably never play it in a DJ set (this song wasn’t exactly a dancefloor weapon 😀) owning the 12-inch just made perfect sense. Luckily, the ’80s music business was more than happy to cater to people like me. That decade saw 12-inch versions of almost everything: pop, rock, ballads, even the occasional hard rock single. There was always an extended version to sell, and if there wasn’t… they simply pressed the original track onto a 12-inch anyway.

Wax were never a dance band, although they did flirt with danceable moments (and yes, 12-inch releases too). Their catalogue is actually a great gateway into the mid-’80s 12-inch explosion, and how it worked for pop and rock artists outside of club culture.

In part 2 of this week’s post, I’ll map out their 12-inch releases and dig into the bigger question: why did the format reach so far beyond the dancefloor? But first…

This week kicks off with something even better: a fantastic collaboration with fellow writer and friend Brad Kyle. In part 1, the one you’re reading now, we go back to the beginning: how Wax came together, and how Europe played a crucial role in their success. Curiously, the duo never cracked the US, despite being half-American and delivering pitch-perfect radio-friendly ’80s pop. Brad brings the American perspective and digs deeper into the albums themselves.

So… buckle up. You’re in for a good one.

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👋 Welcome, I’m Pe Dupre, thanks for stopping by.

This is The Twelve Inch, my newsletter about the history of dance music from 1975 to 1995, told one twelve-inch record at a time.

If this landed in your inbox because a friend forwarded it, I’d love for you to subscribe so you don’t miss the weekly episodes. Each one dives into a track, its story, and the culture around it.

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🌍 WAX: A European POV

Graham Gouldman and Andrew Gold were about as close as you could get to pure pop royalty. Between them, they helped shape some of the most instantly recognisable pop songs of the ’60s and ’70s.

When we think of California in the ’70s, we picture the sun-kissed sound of Adult Oriented Rock, what we now happily call Yacht Rock, and Andrew Gold sits right at the heart of it. Born in 1951 in Burbank, into an extraordinary musical family, his pedigree was written in the stars. His father, Ernest Gold, was the Oscar-winning composer behind the soundtrack to Exodus. His mother, Marni Nixon, was Hollywood’s most famous “ghost singer”, providing the singing voice for Natalie Wood in West Side Story, Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.

Andrew wrote his first songs at 13, and by the early ’70s he was working full-time as a musician, songwriter and producer. His CV reads like the West Coast hall of fame: Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Andrew performed and toured with them all.

Graham Gouldman, born in Manchester, was already a hitmaker long before 10cc. As a freelance songwriter he penned an absurd number of classics, including Bus Stop (The Hollies), For Your Love (The Yardbirds) and No Milk Today(Herman’s Hermits). But it was in 10cc that he became a household name, especially in Europe.

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Brad recently wrote about a wonderful early Graham Gouldman record on which Gouldman performs several of his own well-known compositions. 👇

Audio Autopsy, 1968: The Graham Gouldman Thing LP; Collab w/Hugh Jones of The Record Store Years

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Their paths crossed thanks to Warner Bros in the early ’80s. A European success, 10cc were struggling to break America, so the label suggested a collaboration. As Graham recalled:

“We met through 10cc’s American record company. As a band we were not having much success in America so our record company suggested we work with Andrew who was already having a lot of success over there. I was a massive fan of his music and it seemed a great idea to work with him. He did three tracks with us on the album Ten out of 10.”

Andrew was even invited to join 10cc, but turned it down due to other commitments.

By 1983, 10cc had split. Gouldman, feeling the creative spark, convinced Gold to join him in the UK, no small achievement, given Andrew’s deep fear of flying. 🫣

“After that there followed a period where Eric (Stewart) and I were not working together so I called up Andrew - he was initially going to come over to England for two weeks - he ended up staying over six months!”

The collaboration clicked instantly. They wrote enough songs for a full album, initially recorded under the name Common Knowledge, a chapter Brad will explore in more depth.👇

.Their first two singles, released in Europe on 10cc’s label Mercury, went nowhere. Their moment would have to wait.

That moment finally arrived in 1986, when they scored their first European hit, “Right Between The Eyes.” By then, the band had a new name, Wax, and a new record deal.

The bigger breakthrough landed soon after: “Bridge To Your Heart”, the lead single from their second album and their biggest European success.

And that, as they say, is where Brad enters the Wax orbit.

🗽Wax: An American POV

I first came upon Wax with their 1987 American English album on RCA (their second), and I couldn’t tell you how. By that year, I was in a completely different pro career than the commercial radio gigs in the mid-’70s, and the retail records arena that occupied my late-’70s and early-’80s (and, filled me with all the current music of the day)!

I fell in love with “Bridge to Your Heart” straight away, and even sang it frequently at karaoke bars a decade ago!

I quickly went and found that first one, 1986’s Magnetic Heaven. I certainly knew who Gold and Gouldman were, and was a huge fan of each from their previous decades’ releases.

Even before signing with RCA Records, and dropping that 1986 Magnetic Heaven, Wax had a decidedly name-induced identity crisis! Originally hoping to utilize Common Knowledge as their nom-de-duo, that was quickly jettisoned for Wax.

In fact, Dave Thompson of Allmusic asserts that the duo even had World in Action tapped as their name even before Common Knowledge, claiming that “Don’t Break My Heart” was recorded under the World in Action banner, subsequently bombed, and that prompted the move to the Common Knowledge sonic sobriquet!

However, two Common Knowledge singles (“Don’t Break My Heart” and “Victoria”) managed to make their way (via Mercury Records) to just the UK and Netherlands in 1984, according to Discogs.

Here’s a brief, 2-minute TV interview (circa 1984) with Andrew and Graham as Common Knowledge, plus the complete “Don’t Break My Heart” video:

Not ones to leave well-enough alone, RCA seemed to notice that there was another Wax plying their wax-wares in the States, hence Wax UK was born, only to be mercifully changed, almost as quickly, to simply…….Wax.

Magnetic Heaven, RCA Records, worldwide, 1986

All songs on this album were written, arranged, and produced by the Wax duo of Andrew Gold and Graham Gouldman.

Brian Hulett (on Allmusic), an American radio station music director in the ‘80s, offers his perspective on how and why the debut Wax album, Magnetic Heaven, failed to move any U.S. sales or airplay needles in 1986:

“Why wasn’t that [the bringing together of two known hitmaking veterans] enough to secure these gentlemen and their like a more solid place in rock history? The reasons are many: I was a radio station music director at the time this LP came out, and I can tell you RCA didn’t do much to promote the record, leaving its most-played single, “Right Between the Eyes,” stalled just on the doorstep of the Top 40.

“The politics behind such decisions never made sense to me, and still don’t; good music should rule, and certainly this album has several would-be hits, especially “Shadows of Love” and “Systematic,” sprinkled liberally throughout a set with more hooks than a cluttered tacklebox. ‘Ball and Chain’ even has a rap break, which would have made it stand out favorably in 1986.” “Shadows of Love”:

American English, RCA, worldwide, 1987

While sounding more linguistic, this album was actually titled after the native countries of both of our heroes: American, Andrew Gold, and native Brit, Graham Gouldman.

The view from Dave Thompson is far less enthusiastic about this release than his Allmusic cohort was about Magnetic Heaven: “The partnership of songwriters Graham Gouldman and Andrew Gold, [with the former] stepping out of the wreckage of the recently [disbanded] 10cc, always promised a lot more than it actually delivered.

“While there was no denying either the talents or the heritage of either player, Wax was doomed to remain a child of its time -- that awful, awkward second half of the ‘80s during which production and arrangements took over from the actual songwriting, and swamped even the sweetest tune in bombast and swill.”

Like Magnetic Heaven, this one had both Gold and Gouldman penning all the songs, save one, and producing. But, with RCA possibly wanting an experienced pro overseeing what they may have seen as a “make or break” effort, Irish singer/songwriter/actor, Christopher Neil was added as a third producer (although he produced 7 of the tracks himself, while the duo produced the remaining three). Neil had previously run the board for such artists as Sheena Easton, Mike + The Mechanics, Shakin’ Stevens, and The Mechanics’ Paul Carrack (formerly of Ace and Squeeze).

In fact, Carrack guests here as a background vocalist, as do Tessa Niles featured in many a Trevor Horn production), and Jackie Rawe, who’s recorded with Elton John and Celine Dion. Again, an all-hands-on-deck approach to, hopefully, yield a hit or two, and maybe some unplanned break-outs!

But, it just may have been that same full boat of passengers that overloaded the final product…at least, if we’re to hold to Dave Thompson’s brutal assessment:

Back to Allmusic’s Thompson: “And so American English disguises 11 songs beneath echoing drums, bellowing keyboards and “look at me, I’m wonderful” vocals, until even the tracks that you know should be good, like the title track, the single “Bridge to Your Heart,” and “Right Between the Eyes,” are reduced to little more than background noises in a particularly annoying version of Miami Vice, and what should have been an object lesson in musical brilliance becomes a master class in the worst of ‘80s excess. Unless, of course, you like records that sound like a lot of doors being slammed.”

Be all that as it may, along with “Bridge to Your Heart” and the title track, I was always fond of “In Some Other World”:

Wax wrapped up their RCA run with the 1989 worldwide release of A Hundred Thousand in Fresh Notes (above), which I’ve not heard…yet. Ten more songs written by Gouldman & Gold, with most of the songs being produced by Peter Collins (Rush, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Queensryche, and Air Supply), and four produced by our G&G duo.

In 1998, For Your Love Records released the “long-lost Wax album from 1984, Common Knowledge.com” (above). It included several newly-recorded 1998 bonus tracks.

Finally, 2019 saw the final Wax release, Live in Concert 1987, recorded at The Conference Center in Harrogate, N. Yorkshire, England, Nov. 27, 1987. One song from that show came from Andrew Gold’s solo turn in the late-’70s, “Lonely Boy,” which originally reached #7 in Canada and the U.S., and #11 in the UK, summer of 1977.

🎧 The Sound of Missed Opportunity

Hearing the music back now, you can’t help but be struck by the sheer craftsmanship of Gold and Gouldman. They wrote great songs, smart, melodic, and beautifully structured. Which makes the biggest mystery around Wax all the more puzzling: why didn’t they break through on either side of the Atlantic?

I don’t quite agree with Dave Thompson of AllMusic when he wrote that “the music of Graham Gouldman and Andrew Gold always promised more than it delivered,” but there’s a hint of truth in his observation that the production could feel a little bombastic, not always allowing the songs’ subtle brilliance to shine through.

Still, that alone can’t explain why Wax didn’t find a larger audience. Their sound was perfectly in tune with mid-’80s pop, polished, radio-friendly, and hook-driven.

So what went wrong? What can their Spanish success story tell us about the bigger picture? And why did a band that wasn’t inherently “dance” release 12-inch dance versions of almost every single?

We’ll explore those questions, and the curious case of Wax’s European dance detour, in Part 2, tomorrow.

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🚀 Your turn

Did you ever own the 12” of Right Between The Eyes or Bridge to Your Heart?

When did you first discover Wax, back in the day, or is this week’s episode your introduction?

Share your memories below, let’s connect the dots 👇

Further reading (or should I say watching)

There are a number of interesting video’s/links :

1. The promo video

So You Wanna Hear More ?

I thought you would !

It’s fun to write about music but let’s be honest. Music is made to listen to.

Every week, together with this newsletter, I release a 1 hour beatmix on Mixcloud and Soundcloud. I start with the discussed twelve inch and follow up with 10/15 songs from the same timeframe/genre. The ideal soundtrack for…. Well whatever you like to do when you listen to dance music.

Listen to the Soundtrack of this week’s post on MIXCLOUD

Or on Youtube :

So what’s in this week’s mix ?

This week’s mixtape is a little… different. Let’s put it this way: “Right Between The Eyes” clocks in at 186 BPM, which is not exactly what you’d file under classic dancefloor material.

But fast didn’t scare me. The mid-80s had a thing for extreme tempos, and I decided to lean into that high-velocity energy for a full-throttle mix.

We kick off with Wax, then crash straight into Simon F and Billy Idol. One of my favourite programming moments in this set? “C’est Comme Ça” by Les Rita Mitsouko, French 80s royalty, and one of those songs that lifts my mood every single time.

Mid-set, we take a sharp turn into pure pop territory with Dan Hartman and Gloria Estefan’s Bad Boy, before closing the high-speed chapter with the gloriously silly “Help!” by Bananarama & Lananeeneenoonoo (aka French & Saunders), a Comic Relief single, and truly one of the funniest pop videos ever made. Do yourself a favour and look it up.

For the final stretch, we ease the tempo down to 154 BPM to welcome two more Wax 12-inches into the mix, “American English” first, followed later by “Systematic.”

Fast, funny, slightly unhinged, and proudly off-script. Just how we like it.

Enjoy! 🎶

Tune in tomorrow for the second part of the Wax story.