You Should Know About: Trevor Horn

From Yes to ABC and The Pet Shop Boys in ten tracks

Welcome to You Should Know About. This is a five-part series focusing on one subject each week via ten tracks. This Week: Trevor Horn.

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Initially, You Should Know About… was going to focus on music producers. While putting these together, I realized there were other topics that would be great for this series.

Take, for instance, Trevor Horn. In a career spanning nearly fifty years, he was part of Buggles, joined Yes for a spell, and went on to produce Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Grace Jones, among others. Here’s a look at his career in ten tracks.

1). “I Can Breathe Again”- John Howard (Ariola, 1978)

Among the early singles Trevor Horn produced for other artists was this one by UK singer John Howard.

By 1977, Howard had recorded two unsuccessful albums for CBS as well as a third that went unreleased for thirty years. It’s said that the openly gay Howard’s recordings were deliberately underpromoted at the time.

Upon meeting Trevor Horn, who at the time was dating disco singer Tina Charles (“I Love To Love”), Howard offered this song to the young producer for Charles to record. Instead, Horn suggested Howard perform it himself. (This interview with Howard is worth checking out)

The single included most of Horn’s crew. Bruce Woolley, Geoff Downes and backup singer Linda Jardim were all later involved with Buggles.

Howard also recorded a second single with Trevor Horn, “Don’t Shine Your Light”. He continues to record and maintains a fairly active online profile.

2). “Caribbean Air Control”- Big A (Sonet, 1978)

Chart Position: Did Not Chart

This absolute banger of a track is the forerunner to his work with Buggles. There was a second Big A single, “Fly On UFO”. Both singles were repackaged as part of a space disco-themed album for a studio group called Chromium. The project resulted in one album, Star To Star.

3). “Into The Lens”- Yes (Atlantic, 1980)

Chart Position: Did Not Chart

As Buggles, Horn and Downes had a string of successful singles, notably "the classic “Video Killed The Radio Star”.

The duo were working on a second album. Yes happened to be recording in the studio next to them. The prog rock giants had recently lost both Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. Both acts shared a manager, Brian Lane.

Horn and Downes offered a song to Yes called “We Can Fly From Here”. Lane and Yes bassist Chris Squire instead invited Horn and Downes to be the new vocalist and keyboardist for Yes.

This incarnation of Yes only lasted one album, but it led to Geoff Downes joining 80s supergroup Asia, and he later rejoined Yes in 2006, remaining with them to this day.

Horn, of course, produced Yes’ 1983 hit “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”. By that point, Jon Anderson had rejoined the band.

A second Buggles album, Adventures In Modern Recording, was eventually finished without Downes’ involvement. “Into The Lens” resurfaced on that album as “I Am A Camera”.

4). “Handheld In Black and White”- Dollar (WEA, 1981)

Chart Position: #19 (UK)

I’ve covered early ‘80s pop duo Dollar twice. Before teaming up with Trevor Horn for a brief run of hits, they’d gone through something of a dry spell. They were also covered in my piece on Phil Wainman, a collaboration which did little to revive their fortunes.

“Handheld In Black And White” was a Top 20 UK hit that led to one of Horn’s most fondly remembered productions:

5). “The Look Of Love”- ABC (Neutron/Mercury 1982)

Chart Position: #4 (UK), #18 (US)

“The Look Of Love” is, without a doubt, one of the greatest singles of the 1980s. In addition to being a Top Ten UK hit, it was one of a handful of singles (another was “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League) that opened the floodgates for the Second British Invasion.

By 1981, Horn had switched to producing. He’d had some luck with Dollar, and his recordings with the duo gained the interest of Martin Fry, frontman for ABC. The result was the classic 1982 debut album Lexicon Of Love.

While ABC went on to a fairly successful career with other producers, they never quite matched their debut.

6). “Lenny”- Buggles (Carrere,1982)

Chart Position: #17 (Netherlands)

Trevor Horn eventually finished the second Buggles album, but by 1982, the Buggles name had reached its sell-by date, and the singles were only really successful in the Netherlands. It’s a shame, because “Lenny” is a fantastic track that sounds a few years ahead of its time. Horn should have saved this for one of the many acts he’d begun to produce.

7). “Relax”- Frankie Goes To Hollywood (ZTT, 1983)

Chart Position: #1 (UK), #10 (US)

“Relax” was perhaps the defining moment of Trevor Horn’s production career. The single was the first release for his ZTT label, and it was also a #1 UK smash that also hit the Top Ten across the pond.

ZTT also had success with other artists, including:

8). “Dr. Mabuse”- Propaganda (1984)

Chart Position: #27 (UK)

German synth band Propaganda were signed to ZTT in 1983. They scored a UK Top 30 hit with the catchy “Dr. Mabuse”, but Horn became tied up with Frankie Goes To Hollywood. A follow-up, “Duel”,was the band’s biggest hit, but it took months to be released because of the delay in promoting Frankie.

Eventually, the band worked on a debut album with producer Stephenn Lipson. Unfortunately, a series of legal issues with ZTT (who were also in court with Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes To Hollywood around this time) derailed their career, and it took a full five years for them to release a second album on Virgin Records.

9). “Slave To The Rhythm”- Grace Jones (1985)

Grace Jones’ “Slave To The Rhythm” was her final release for Island Records, the label she had been with since the start of her recording career in the 1970s.

On the album, the track is called "Ladies and Gentlemen: Miss Grace Jones" due to the LP essentially being different versions of the same track.

“Slave To The Rhythm” became Jones’ signature single and one of her biggest hits.

10). “Left To My Own Devices”- Pet Shop Boys (1988)

This song mostly came about because the iconic dance music duo Pet Shop Boys were set to work with Trevor Horn and needed a song to record.

While the single was a UK Top 5 hit, it marked the beginning of a downturn in Pet Shop Boys’ US chart success, peaking at #84. The duo did remain popular everwhere else, including Canada, and are still going strong.

Trevor Horn continues to produce, but he lost his way somewhere along the 1990s. His signature sound is nowhere to be found on faceless later productions such as “Can’t Fight The Moonlight”, an early 2000s Max Martin-esque pop crossover hit for country star Lee Ann Rimes.

For a while, though, Horn produced some really interesting pop records.

Further Listening

I find it hard to listen to full albums. Maybe I can’t concentrate, or perhaps I don’t make enough time. Part of writing this series is to encourage myself, first and foremost, to listen to more albums. I’m going to offer at least one recommendation and suggest you check it out, also, if you’re interested in hearing more work by Trevor Horn.

The Lexicon Of Love- ABC (Mercury, 1982)

While it would be easy to pick Slave To The Rhythm, it’s always nice to listen to something new in its entirety. This includes some major 80s hits and feels like a good representation of Horn’s work at the time.

Next Week: TBA