The Bluebells — Cath (US mix)

(from the EP The Bluebells, Sire Records 1983)

This version of the Bluebells’ “Cath” is an odd little anomaly, but I didn’t learn that until considerably later. Like most EPs released by US record labels in the early 80s, The Bluebells consists of songs the Scottish new wave folkies had released on UK singles for the past couple of years; American labels always being allergic to stand-alone singles, EPs seemed like a good introduction at the time. When Sisters came out not quite a year later, I noticed that the version of “Cath” on it was a slightly different (and to my ears inferior) mix, which I put down to another annoying tendency of record labels at the time, the inability to leave a kick-ass single alone, resulting in botched album mixes that usually kinda sucked. But around a decade later, I ran across and purchased the original UK single of “Cath” (the Bluebells released so few records that I don’t mind being a completist) and discovered that it was fundamentally identical to the version on Sisters. This led me to wondering what the deal was with the version on the US single (yep, I have that too) and the American EP. Because, if months of reading Little Hits hasn’t already made this crystal clear, I am a big fuckin’ geek.

Purchasing a UK CD compilation called The Singles Collection that had some anomalies and extended mixes on it led me to the suspicion that the origin of the American mix of “Cath” is a rather botched extended version that was originally released on the UK 12″. That version isn’t actually very good; after opening with the song’s chorus, it leads into an extra verse that really saps the song’s energy. However, it does have the defining element of this version of the song, a vocals-drums breakdown on the second chorus that’s not on the original single version and which has always been my favorite part of the song. Doing a quick A-B comparison just now (remember, BFG), I think this mix is the harmonica fanfare intro of the original single mix edited onto the last 2:50 of the extended version. So there you go.

Incidentally, if any of our UK readers are interested: the other songs on the Sire EP are the single mixes of “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” and “Sugar Bridge,” the same version of “The Patriot Game” that’s on Sisters and a lovely Elvis Costello-produced ballad called “Aim In Life” that’s one of my favorite things they ever did. Other bits of trivia: Bluebells bassist Lawrence Donegan (the son of skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan) left the group to join Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, and the group’s biggest hit, the countrified fiddle tune “Young At Heart,” was originally recorded on the first album by Bananarama, which featured lead singer Robert Hodgens’ girlfriend Siobhan Fahey. Bananarama’s version of the song is actually a lot better than the Bluebells’, I think.

–Stewart Mason