Phil Seymour "Precious To Me"

[Hervard]

An awesome song from 1981, only peaked at around #23 or so - didn't get anywhere near as much exposure as it deserved. This song is one of many great songs from the CD "Barry Scott presents: The Lost 45's of the '70s and '80s".

[mst3k]

I love this song... still have a very scratchy 45 of it, in fact. I remember thinking not too long ago that it would be a good song for someone to remake as a dance song.

[Hervard]

Aaron, shhh! Don't give any potential singers reading this any ideas ;)

I know that you also have the CD that I mentioned above. I don't think there's a song on it that I don't like. I do occasionally skip over Sausalito Summernight, however. But I like listening to the CD when I'm working on the computer. I've seen the track listing for Volume 1, but it isn't as appealing as the second one. And exactly how is "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats a lost hit? I hear it on Backtrax USA (the 80s) a lot.

[mst3k]

ulij20 said:

I've seen the track listing for Volume 1, but it isn't as appealing as the second one. And exactly how is "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats a lost hit? I hear it on Backtrax USA (the 80s) a lot.

I guess it was the first time the 45rpm single version had been available on CD. I have a couple other compilations with "The Safety Dance" on them, and they're both the longer different mix of the song (the one that starts off spelling out the word "safety"). That's also the version that my local '80s station plays, which is weird because they play the single edits for most of the songs on their playlist.

[Hervard]

mst3k1 said:

I guess it was the first time the 45rpm single version had been available on CD. I have a couple other compilations with "The Safety Dance" on them, and they're both the longer different mix of the song (the one that starts off spelling out the word "safety"). That's also the version that my local '80s station plays, which is weird because they play the single edits for most of the songs on their playlist.

Oh yeah, that's right. I like the shorter version better (runs slightly under three minutes). I just don't like the longer version with the spelling of "safety".

[stevie nice]

Uli and Aaron, you are both my idols!!! What a super schmaltzy pop song!! And Barry's first 2 volumes are great obscure stuff, save MWH. As for "Sausalito..." I agree with you Uli, however it is nice to have a CD copy of the song, and I barely remember it from its original release. I don't agree with "Precious..." being a workable dance remake, but I suggested to my friend Rory who's VP of Finance at Jive, that I thought "If You Remember Me" by Night would have been a perfect fit for BSB. Give it a listen and tell me if I'm wrong. In fact I'm listening to Rubicon's song from the same disc rigjt now. I bought Vol. 2 especially for "Wham Bam..." which I always thought was a super underrated mid 70s song. and "Paloma Blanca" which sucks, but I remember its slow ascent up the pop charts in 1976 I think. and figured it would be good to own on a CD.

I also have Vol. 1 and it is great to have Chiliwack's 2 hits on both of these CDs. Canadian board members should investigate this band, they were underrated and had lots of critical acclaim in the 70s. And it is great to have Van Stephenson's "MDD" on CD, where can I find their other song "What The Big Girls Do" on CD?

And special mention to Dean Friedman's "Ariel" which I also have on 45, "we got the munchies. so I made some spaghetti" hahaha. and Vol 1 with "MTJTTOU" by Sneaker. Impossible, (at least at one time they were) songs to find on CD.

[mst3k]

A few of those songs I already had on CD (I bought the whole 25 volumes of Rhino's "Have A Nice Day! Super Hits Of The 70s" set a few years back... a marvelous treasure trove of one- and two-hit wonders). But the Barry Scott CDs did have quite a few lost songs that I didn't have yet.

Don't know where you'd be able to find the other Van Stephenson song, sorry. :(

[reception]

I barely remembered it.

[billme]

The sad thing is that Phil died in 1993 from cancer. The poor guy was only like 41.

[cartman2002]

ulij20 said:

An awesome song from 1981, only peaked at around #23 or so - didn't get anywhere near as much exposure as it deserved.  This song is one of many great songs from the CD "Barry Scott presents: The Lost 45's of the '70s and '80s".

It reached #22 in Billboard back in 1981

[Hervard]

Yeah, I remember when AT40 Flashback did a rare 1981 show in March, 2001 and I believe the show they featured (March 21) was the week that "Precious To Me" was peaking.

[WotUNeed]

Love this song. Seymour had been a member of The Dwight Twilley Band, who, in my opinion, laid down some of the best power pop ever recorded. Twilley and Seymour solo both made some great records, and obviously I don't consider this an exception.

[Mirago]

One of my favorite lost 80s hits. Should have been a top 10.

[areyoureadytojump]

I just heard this on an AT40 countdown show from 1981.



More info:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Seymour

[gonecountry]

this is a lost forgotten semi-classic. power pop at it's best. sad that he died so young (cancer at 41)