Beyond The Guess Who: One To One- "Angel In My Pocket"
Welcome to Beyond The Guess Who. Each week I cover a lesser-known Canadian musical artist. This week: One to One.
Welcome to Beyond The Guess Who. Each week I cover a lesser-known Canadian musical artist. This week: 80’s pop duo One to One. If you enjoyed this article, please either like, share, comment, or hit subscribe. Thank You!
One To One are probably one of the more prolific acts that I have covered for this series so far. The duo, which consisted of Louise Reny and Leslie Howe, recorded from 1985-1992. Under the name Artificial Joy Club, they scored a further hit in 1997. They had ten RPM chart entries and two of their singles even scraped into the bottom reaches of the Billboard Hot 100. Despite this, none of their music is available on streaming services and aside from the occasional Canadian classic hits radio play for 1986’s “Angel In My Pocket”, they’re in danger of being totally forgotten as a result.
I realized two things going into this:
Despite reading about One To One a few times over the years, the only song I knew was “Angel In My Pocket”
“Angel In My Pocket” actually wasn’t their biggest hit. That last realization shocked me.
One To One were formed out of the ashes of an Ottawa cover band called Mainstream. Reny and Howe were part of that band and decided to try their luck as a duo. They recorded some demos and were eventually signed to the British Bonaire label.
From what I can find on 45cat, Bonaire looks to be an Arista/BMG-affiliated label that only released a handful of singles. In North America, One To One and another Bonaire singing, Scottish band Strangeways, were handled by WEA with Bonaire’s logo printed on the label.
Anyway, whatever the case, One To One signed to Bonaire with WEA distribution in North America and released their debut album, Forward Your Emotions towards the end of 1985. Compared to a lot of things that get covered here, it was pretty big.
Their debut single “There Was A Time” hit #14. When the chorus kicked in, I realized I actually knew this one. Must have heard it on the radio at some point.
“Angel In My Pocket” was their follow-up. I like this one better. An oldies station I used to listen to about twenty years ago switched to a classic hits format briefly and they played this A LOT. That’s where I really remember hearing it. That’s why it was a shock to me that when researching for this article, I found out “Angel” actually charted lower at #24.
In terms of success across the border, it’s their biggest hit. “Angel In My Pocket” managed to hit #92 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s sort of a cross between The Motels and Berlin with some Dale Bozzio-style vocals thrown in for good measure. It’s 80’s pop perfection and should have been bigger, actually.
A third single, Black On White stalled at #90 on RPM. 1
One To One were nominated for three Junos, including Most Promising Group Of The Year after this success.
Two years later, a follow-up album 1-2-1 was released. The big single was “Hold Me Now” which peaked at #13. I personally prefer the singles from their first album, but there were some moments.
The album contained three more minor hits: a cover of The Supremes’ “Love Child” (#43), “Do You Believe” (#34) and “We’ve Got The Power” (#90).
Their version of “Love Child” is better than Sweet Sensation’s awful 1990 hit cover version, so I’ll give them that:
“Do You Believe” is better, closer to their earlier singles in terms of pop sound and reminds me a lot of “Waiting For A Star To Fall” by Boy Meets Girl.
I didn’t include “We’ve Got The Power” here because it’s basically just more of the same.
After this, Leslie Howe produced the first two pop albums by Alanis Morissette who at this point was just going by “Alanis”. I know her dance-pop stuff gets played constantly as a curio, so I’ll refrain from posting it again here. Interestingly Reny and Howe were about to take a similar direction to Morissette throughout the 90s.
In 1992, One To One returned one final time. This time as One 2 One with an album called Imagine It on A&M. The big single was “Peace Of Mind” which hit #11 on the RPM charts.
I would have been a kid when One 2 One put their last singles out. Even though they were still having hits, I don’t recall ever hearing their later singles as Canadian airplay items. I didn’t expect their later direction to be adult album alternative:
“Peace Of Mind” also briefly scraped onto the Hot 100 at #95. It’s a good single and deserved to do better, but this was also around the time that musical tastes were going through a major overhaul.
Two more singles, “Memory Lane” and “Friends” charted at #34 and #36, respectively. I couldn’t track down the latter, but here’s the former:
The duo didn’t really break up after this. Rather, they decided to change direction once more, teamed up with some other musicians and became Hal’s Birdland. Hal’s Birdland later morphed into the alternative band Artificial Joy Club. Artifical Joy Club signed to Interscope and scored a Canadian hit with “Sick & Beautiful” in 1997. That, however, is a story for another week.
Next Week: Bubbling Under: Rupert Holmes- “Blackjack”.
Beyond The Guess Who will return in August.
I enjoyed writing this because for once, RPM information was easy to come by!
I'd only heard "Angel In My Pocket", but I don't hate that "Love Child" cover.