Trivia / Squeeze (Band)

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• Black Sheep Hit: Squeeze seem to make a habit of being atypical in their successes:
  • Their first significant success was “Take Me I'm Yours”, In which the lyrics depict an exotic fantasy world. Then they went on to a career of closely observed Slice of Life pop songs. The song is also an early synthpop track at odds with their usual rock-oriented style.
  • "Cool for Cats", one of their biggest hits in the UK, was sung by guitarist Chris Difford rather than usual lead singer Glenn Tilbrook.
  • "Tempted" is a blue-eyed soul song sung by Paul Carrack (with Glenn Tilbrook singing the second verse) in contrast with the band's usual new wave style.
• Breakup Breakout:
  • Jools Holland went on to have a very successful career as a television presenter with his show Later... with Jools Holland while also having a solo career which produced two platinum selling albums.
  • Paul Carrack went on to a successful career, both as member of the Mike Rutherford supergroup Mike + the Mechanics (notably of "The Living Years") and a solo career where he had two top 30 hits, including his top 10 hit "Don't Shed a Tear". Funny enough, Paul's appearance in Squeeze was itself a breakout from the mid-70s band Ace, which was a One-Hit Wonder before breaking up in 1977.
• Chart Displacement: "Hourglass" charted higher than "Tempted" in the United States, but the latter remains their most well-known song in the country, due to appearances in television and movies and airplay on classic rock stations.
• Creator Backlash: Glenn Tilbrook is not a big fan of "853-5937".
• Follow the Leader: "Black Coffee in Bed" is another slab of blue-eyed soul in the vein of "Tempted", right down to the backing vocals by Elvis Costello.

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