Summer Gold: Amii Stewart's 'Jealousy'

From 'Voulez-Vous' the summer gold runs hot into Amii Stewart's 'Jealousy' and once again, wtf? Another non-hit.

Stewart had two hits in Australia earlier in 1979 (I'm assuming Summer Gold came out late in the year, probably around October-November, because, like, the name apart from anything else). 'Knock on Wood' was number two in March, and 'Light My Fire' no. 11 in July. So old mate putting this collection together and kind of predicting the big artists and the big hits of late '79 would not have been crazy to imagine one of them would be 'Jealousy', a classy piece of work very much in the mould of 'Knock on Wood' at least. Unlike the hits from earlier in the year, for 'Jealousy' Stewart and her producer Barry Leng took a punt on a new song - still I suppose technically a cover because Stewart didn't write it, but like most of the tracks on her Knock on Wood album and the one this new single was from, Paradise Bird, the songs were written by Leng along with Simon May, who amongst other things was later known for writing the theme tune for the British soap opera Eastenders. On this track the two composers were joined by one 'Morris' who I assume was bassist Gerry Morris (but should one ever assume). 'Jealousy' was top ten in Italy and Switzerland and, get this, #18 in Flanders (?! Flanders has/had a chart?! Great!).

The more I listen to 'Jealousy' the more I get a frisson of 'Boogie Wonderland' from it, which I suspect is a question of synchronicity ('Boogie Wonderland' had been out about four months when Paradise Bird was released) more than imitation.

Stewart also did another non-intuitive sixties cover on Paradise Bird, the Box Tops' 'The Letter', which was her next single after 'Jealousy'. It didn't chart in Australia - came low in the top 40 in Britain, for what that's worth. Not much, right?!