At the start of 1987, Judas Priest recorded a cover version of You Are Everything by The Stylistics as a collaboration with S/A/W, the English songwriting and record producing trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, well known for their U.K. pop hits with Bananarama, Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue, has surfaced on YouTube and can be heard below.
According to blabbermouth.net, Tipton told Super Channel 88 in 1988, “We went in [with Stock, Aitken and Waterman], we did four days in Paris, we got four days in between Christmas and going back into the studio. It was a mutual thing, an experiment to just see what would come of it. We weren’t chasing hit singles; we’d actually finished our album anyway and we had only got mixes left to do.”
He added, “I think what a lot of people don’t realize about them is there’s far more to them than ‘hit’ producers. I mean, Mike Stock’s a great guitar player and we work really well together.
“The tracks we came up with were very interesting. I don’t suppose they’ll ever be on a JUDAS PRIEST album, but we’ve been approached a lot recently to do film soundtracks and things, so maybe they’ll be used for that. Who knows? But were really pleased with them. We’ve never been scared to experiment, so…
…What I think people thought, you know, it was bizarre because we were surprised at the sudden, almost like a backlash. People thought it was going to be like ‘Judas Bananarama Priest’ or something, God forbid we should ever do that — we wouldn’t compromise the band in anything of that nature. But as it’s turned out, we’ve got a fantastic heavy ballad and we’ve got two real good rock tracks; but we’ve got too much material for Ram It Down…”
15 Responses
Hooh, boy….. First, Rob can sing ANYTHING. ANYTHING, and it would be good. But, I sorta wish I hadn’t heard this. I totally understand why the guys never wanted this stuff out there. I bet they’re not happy about this getting out, to be honest.
everything is wrong with this song. nice picture, dana. it complements the song.
Yep, it pretty much sums up the Turbo era.
While I admitted, when Turbo first came out, I was pretty upset. Especially since, Screaming is my all time favorite Priest record, talk about a departure. 🙁
But, I will admit with time, Turbo has grown on me. However, their image from that era? No, that will never grow on me. LOL!!
D 🙂
Dana,
I felt the same way. When I first heard TURBO, I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe they followed up DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH with an overly commercial, guitar synthesizer drenched album like TURBO. But, some of the songs grew on me, like “Locked In”. And the tour for that album was a big one for Priest.
The image? That was inexcusable! Rob rocking a curly mullet, KK looking like a poodle in sunshades…What kept me from getting mad about that was I got a laugh out of how silly they looked.
Turbo was an experiment, aside from that title track, and “Private Property,” both of which also work great live, much of side one does not work. Side two, however, works at a high level all the way through. Priest’s versatility is what I like most about them; that, and the fact that they have the talent to actually do it.
As for the look, it doesn’t bother me, but, besides that, I don’t listen with my eyes much anyway.
This is a band who really paid their dues, I am certainly not going to begrudge them any attempt at selling lots of product. They have such a high standard of excellence anyway: composition-wise, performance level, and with interpretations of musical styles outside of metal. This song really shows how much more this band is capable of, and I welcome it.
I can hear this song playing while John Cusack holds up the ghetto blaster. Or when Tom Cruise sees Kelly Mcguiness standing by the juke box at the end of Top Gun, or Nicole Kidman at the end of Days of Thunder. This song could’ve been the soundtrack of our lives.
Well, all I can say is they made the right decision by never putting something like this on an album. I’ve let stuff on TURBO and RAM IT DOWN slide and, like Dana, TURBO has grown on me over the years to, albeit VERY slowly. That being said, I’ll NEVER consider those two albums as among Priest’s best. Not counting the Ripper albums, because I had a hard time accepting Priest without Rob, TURBO and RAM IT DOWN are easily my least favorite Judas Priest albums. If this track shows anything, it proves how Rob can sing in any style, not just metal. But we can all thank the Metal God for sticking to what he does best.