” Ali the Bachelor”
Howard Jones’ debut album “New Song” was released in September 1983. This was the first album to feature guest appearances by both Cream’s Andrew Collins and DJ Wright. The single climbed to number three on the UK Singles Chart, lasting just 20 weeks at number 75. On the UK seven inch single, the lyrics of the single are printed in a black spiral on the left A-sided label, while the credits are printed on the right A-side. This is the only album which features two different fonts for the credited characters on the front and the back of the sleeve.
The single “New Song” was largely considered a success, due to the singles “Change lives” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” Though it failed to chart with the same sales as the aforementioned two singles, it did manage to top the chart with “New Song,” which is still the fourth bestselling single of the decade. By this time, other artists who had made hit-making albums during the same time period such as Prince, Madonna, J.Lo, James Morrison, and several others had also released new songs which would become hits such as “Bodily Servants,” “Tears in Heaven,” and “White Room.” The music industry took notice of the new sound and changed drastically, adding new elements and vocals to their albums and paving the way for the massive pop revolution which would come in the next few years.
In 1984, a political rally in Washington, DC introduced a song by African American singer/songwriter Muhammad Ali which was later covered in the hit “Who is it?” Though many people assume that ” Ali the Bachelor” was actually written about political oppression, according to The New York Times, it was actually about “a white girl who goes into a white house with some other black girl and finds that all the white men have been shipped off to prison.” With his lyrics, Ali hoped to bring attention to the plight of minorities in the United States and around the world. As a result, the multi-million record sales that followed made ” Ali the Bachelor” one of the most profitable singles of the decade.