Flashback – Yazz

I love house music. I love techno. Some people find that weird. When I explain that I lived for a while in Germany, “it all begins to make sense”. I don’t see why though. The two are mutually exclusive.

About a decade ago when you could download songs from the internet I searched for and found one of my favourite songs from childhood – The Only Way is Up by Yazz. Each time I would play it, I would pump my fists up high like she did in her music video. I still have that MP3 laying around somewhere.

Today, I had the wicked idea of searching for the video on YouTube. Success! It is just as I remembered it. She is as skinny as I recall and with that platinum blond pixie cut that I thought was totally radical. I always thought of her as a white woman. But a different type of white woman – she had a certain oomph, unlike the other three pixie cut Brits (Sinead O’Connor, Lisa Stansfield, Annie Lennox) with amazing voices and strong will of that era. And yes I know they are Irish, English, and Scottish respectively. Now, with the power of the internet, I know Yazz’ father is Jamaican.

Anyway, The Only Way is Up! always got me up of the couch. I didn’t even know what she was saying except that the only way was up and I needed to hold on!

That song is still amazingly fantastic. Can’t believe all that energy she has! Researching it some more I see that it only hit #96 on the US charts. Oh whatever! It was #1 in the UK for over a month and #3 in Germany and that’s all that matters! Love it!

After that I learned to Stand Up For My Love Rights and enjoy it! Subliminal messages? I don’t know. Great beats? Totally! The harbinger of my love for house? Possibly.

This video/song probably never even saw the US Charts at the time. Schade!