Artist:Bow Wow Wow
Song I Want Candy
Album:The Best of Bow Wow Wow
The British New Wave band Bow Wow Wow had their greatest success when the video for their 1982 single I Want Candy was played to death on MTV. I think radio was very slow to pick up on it. The guy behind Bow Wow Wow was Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. Adam Ant wanted McLaren's advice when the latest Adam and the Ants album didn't sell. He persuaded the band to leave Adam Ant and form a new band. The band was Matthew Ashman on guitar, Leigh Gorman on bass and David Barbarossa on drums. They began an audition process to find a lead singer. Talent scout Dave Fishel heard 13 year old Annabella Lwin singing along with the radio while working at a dry cleaner. Fishel convinced McLaren to audition her and she was hired. A second lead singer George O'Dowd was hired but he didn't stay and of course he became Culture Club lead singer Boy George. Bow Wow Wow signed with EMI Records and released a couple of cassette singles. When they didn't sell EMI dropped them and RCA signed them. They released the 1981 album See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!. The cover had a nude pic of Annabelle. When her mother complained, McLaren was told by Scotland Yard not to promote Annabelle as a sex kitten. Bow Wow Wow scored a top ten hit in England with Go Wild in the Country. They opened for The Pretenders and The Police in the US and for Madness in Japan. Then they released the EP The Last of the Mohicans produced by Joan Jett producer Kenny Laguna. When the video started getting played on MTV, RCA in the US released the EP with some tracks from the previous album under the title I Want Candy. The record reached #62 on the Billboard Hot 100. In those days, a video's success did not always translate to radio play and chart success. Of course this was a cover of the 1965 hit single by The Strangeloves. After releasing the 1983 album When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going, Bow Wow Wow went on tour. They weren't getting along and Annabelle was fired and the band split up. She released a couple of solo albums. The other members formed Chiefs of Relief with Ashman as lead singer. They released an album in 1988. He was in the band Agent Provocateur when he died in 1995. Barbarossa became a session musician. His band Republica released an album in 1996. Gorman got into production and reformed Bow Wow Wow with Annabelle in 1997. Gorman continues to lead a version of Bow Wow Wow today. Here's the video for I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow.
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