WE SALUTE @ A LOVE WORTH WAITING FOR

Damn Lionel and that dreary song 'Hello', along with that awful video with the blind girl and bad clay faces. Why all this fuss over ol' Mr Richie? It's coz that bloody record of his held 'A Love Worth Waiting For' off the No.1 spot in the UK Chart in 1984. Think about it.. without Lionel's 'Hello', we'd be saying 'Hello' to another number one single, and ALWWF would have been played a lot more over the years and not a forgotten 'No.2' which it is now. You Drive Me Crazy was so massive at the time that it remains strong in the public's memory. However, ALWWF and the other No.2 classic Blue Xmas EP are sadly forgotten in time.

Green Door Songsheet 'A Love Worth Waiting For', taken from The Bop Won't Stop album, had such a strong production and different sound for Shaky at the time. A superb latin feel was brought to the table with it's 16 string section. The Latin American feel was achieved by the production from Shaky himself and a guy named Richard A Hewson. Richard has worked with many greats including Cliff Richard, The Beatles, James Taylor, Herbie Hancock, Supertramp, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Leo Sayer, Al Stewart, Chris de Burgh, Fleetwood Mac, Chris Rea, Toyah Willcox, and Five Star. That's quite a list eh!

Richard A Hewson is probably best known for his massive 1985 hit 'Clouds Across The Moon' which his then Wife Liz did the vocals for. The band name was basically just Richard's name initials - 'The RAH Band'. Another big hit for The Rah Band was 'The Crunch'.

So back to ALWWF, This track was written by Gary Sulsh and the late Stu Leathwood. They have written other tracks for Shaky too (Yes I Do, I Might, You Shake Me Up and more) but this song was without a doubt their greatest Shaky hit. I was lucky enough to have a chat with Gary Sulsh at the Bolan celebration last year in London. He told me he really missed Stuart Leathwood and that the guy was an amazing talent. Gary said they really worked well together as a team.

Shaky was vocally perfect on this track. He put a kind of 'wobble' to his voice at the end of each line (hard to explain) but have a listen with the headphones and you'll see what I mean. The build up of strings with a great hook and bridge makes this a fantastic and pretty much spot on track.

Green Door Songsheet A Love Worth Waiting For was the final track to be taken from The Bop Won't Stop album and was the biggest hit single from the album.

The video was one of the best! I believe some of our very own forum members were featured on film. The video also featured Shaky's own son Jason too. It was filmed in Farnham and Chiddingfold, Surrey.

HERE ARE SOME FACTS ON A LOVE WORTH WAITING FOR...

  • It First appeared in the UK Chart on 24/03/1984, a new entry at No.22. It was last Seen in the UK Chart on 26/05/1984, final Chart position at No.57. The length of time in the UK Chart was 10 weeks. Highest position it reached was No.2.


  • It charted around Europe too reaching #26 in Germany, #36 in Poland and #38 in Holland. It was also a chart hit in Australia too reaching #44.


  • The sleeves varied only a little in Europe with a beige border around the cover on the reverse. The Oz release had a beige border on the front too.


  • It was available on 7" and 3 Track 12".


  • There was a very limited Fold Out Poster Sleeve 7" which is one of the rarer poster bags to collect. It did not even have a different cataloge number which is unusual.


  • The co-Shaky written B-Side 'As Long As' was another track taken from The Bop album but this time it was a Live version. The 12" Single was not extended but instead contained another Live track, written by Shaky called 'Don't Tell Me We're Through'. It was taken from the 'Give Me Your Heart Tonight' album. Both tracks were recorded from different gigs on the same Nov' 83 Tour. As Long As was recorded at the Birmingham Odeon on the 15Th Nov, and Don't Tell Me We're... was recorded days earlier at the Bristol Hippodrome on the 6th. I wish i'd been there on that Tour!