Breakout 1986

I think we all have our special “marching songs” in life. Those songs or groups or melodies or artists that come into our lives at certain times and make much difference. A difference greater than many of the other thousands events of life. The song “Break Out” is perhaps my personal marching song and takes me back to the year 1986. The piece is a single from the Bristish group Swing Out Sister’s debut album It’s Better to Travel (1986). The single reached the number four position in the UK in the autumn of 1986, and rose to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and number one on the Adult Contemporary in the US in 1987. The song also resulted in a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

The single was written and performed while the group was still a trio. It was one of their biggest hits, and the song most closely associated with the act. In the US, “Breakout” remains a staple of adult contemporary and smooth jazz radio station playlists. But the song was somewhat a synchronsitic encounter for me as it came when I was truly making a “break out” from one period of my life to another. This is what I mean when I say we all have “marching songs” in life.

The 2018 album Almost Persuaded is the tenth studio album released by Swing Out Sister. Produced by Andy Connell, it is the culmination of the “Moveable Feast,” a  project that had been running for several years. In 2015, the band had released Rushes, an in-progress version of the album. Almost Persuaded was released via direct MP3 download in November 2017 and then via autographed CD to those had pledged to the project in December 2017. The album was released on 22 June 2018. A CD version of the album without vocals was available at the band’s gig at Islington Assembly Hall on 13th November 2018.

One of the “Rushes” for Almost Persuaded 2018