#1 Deuce - 'I Need You' (1995)

Selection process : A Song For Europe
Voting result : 3rd place (73,467 votes)
UK winning entry : Love City Groove - 'Love City Groove'

OK, OK - yes, so I'm a Deuce loon, which is a fairly niche position to cling onto within the loon-world due to their limited success and fairly short shelf-life as a pop act, however this has in no way clouded my judgement in the slightest...in short, this track was the one that burrowed it's way into my head/heart 18 years ago and hasn't left me since.

I LOVE IT. It's insanely simple with it's plinky-plonky keyboards and pseudo-rave Eurodance organ introduction plus a basic but insistent chorus that instantly catches the attention. The lyrics are pretty nonsensical (vaguely to do with a dazed, homeless man wandering about Blackpool? (Golden Mile reference) but then when has that ever stopped a Eurovision hopeful - although it's funny listening to one of the writer's Rob Kean in the VT prior to the performance claiming how it's really meaningful actually and that it was written for someone special in mind (!). I think it was the energy of the track that really stood out for me at the time - it certainly didn't sound like anything else I'd ever heard entered into Eurovision. Indeed I was fairly surprised that relative newcomers Deuce, who had just scored a respectable chart hit with 'Call It Love', were ready to put their fledgling careers on the line by entering the contest which had been a death knell for many before them.

 

Oh Deuce - how shiny, perky and polished (kinda) they were although I think this may have been part of their eventual downfall in this particular competition. They were just a bit TOO smiley on the night of the voting - the dancing was just a bit TOO maniacal - the costumes were just a bit TOO costumey. It's like everything had been ramped up slightly too high when it mattered, with diminishing results. Kelly's rich, cartoony vocals lost their impact due to added echo effects on the mics too and the group seemed directionless as they flailed about on a huge stage. It's a shame that the special TOTP performance where they all wore white and performed in a smaller, more intimate studio wasn't used for the final voting - the

band sang well, looked great and toned it down but it wasn't to be.

The track came third overall behind Dear Jon's (boring) 'One Gift of Love' and Love City Groove's eponymous winner and that was that. In fact, it was probably a blessing in disguise as in 1995 there was the still that old Eurovision tradition of the composer and orchestra being present and I can't fathom how 'I Need You' would have sounded played live! (Love City Groove's performance suffered in Dublin due to the rather stilted nature of the instrumental played by a live band) The track peaked at number 10 in the charts in April 1995 and became Deuce's only top 10 hit (other than their appearance on the Childliners single later that year). In little over a year, the band had lost lead singer Kelly, changed record labels and flopped with their comeback and it was all over (other than an attempt to break Australia).

 

But this glorious 2:52 of high energy pop captured my attention as a teenager, had me running to record it onto cassette any time I heard it on the radio (desperately rewinding over and over to fathom out the lyrics to the second verse), made me take notice of all UK pre-selection competitions from that year on and developed my obsession with a faintly-remembered blot on the grand scheme of pop that still (rather sadly) continues to this day

To Deuce, and 'I Need You' - my favourite ever Eurovision could've been.