T'Pau - 'China In Your Hand' [single]


Aside from the fact that just after me and Julia started dating I did an interpretive dance of that song which she claims forced her to fall in love with me...

It sealed the deal?

Now that does have to fucking go in inverted commas. That "sealed the deal".

When I was about 11 I used to get a lift to school with my friend because I didn't live near the school I was going to. His dad drove the car and was quite grumpy. There were two songs which were played almost nonstop on Metro Radio which was the local Newcastle station, one of which was 'Got My Mind Set On You' by George Harrison which is basically THAT for three minutes. The other was 'China In Your Hand'. So basically, when we were sat in the car you had to pick a side. Who did you want to win? Jocks versus Geordies. Man United versus anybody fucking else on Earth. All of that. I chose 'China In Your Hand' and I won. I can say that in the same way as when people say "We won the World Cup that year". What? You and your mates won? Congratulations. It was my first experience of winning something in music so I was very excited to win. It was number one for five or six weeks.

I still can't get over that line in the middle where Our Carol sings [starts doing an unnervingly passionate impersonation of Carol Decker], "Eyes wide like a child in the form of maaaaaan". It's such a strong image, that. You could hang a song off that image but, really, I think you could hang a religion off that image. I'm prepared to go that far. I think it's beautiful.