Burning Bridges

Cherry Pop expanding Burning Bridges, the debut album by British New Wave duo Naked Eyes. Pete Byrne and Rob Fisher were already known in their local music scene in the town of Bath, England; an earlier band, Neon, featured fellow Bathites Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith before they founded Tears for Fears. But as Naked Eyes, the duo hit it big thanks to heavy-duty use of the relatively-new Fairlight CMI synthesizer, the pop production of Tony Mansfield and…a chestnut from the Burt Bacharach/Hal David songwriting catalogue. “(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me,” a heartfelt tune detailing the narrator’s inability to get away from the signs of a failed relationship, was a hit for Sandie Shaw in the U.K., whose oddly chipper version topped the British charts in 1964. But neither Shaw, Lou Johnson nor Dionne Warwick could push the tune past the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100 – that honor went to the ornate, pulsating Naked Eyes version, a Top 10 single on our shores but, ironically, a total flop in England. Follow-up single “Promises, Promises” (not the Bacharach/David tune, humorously enough) peaked at No. 11 in the States but again fizzled natively. (“Promises” remains a favorite of music trivia enthusiasts for a background vocal appearance by a little-known Madonna on the 12″ single.) Follow-up singles “When the Lights Go Out” and “(What) in the Name of Love,” from sophomore LP Fuel for the Fire (1984), scraped the U.S. Top 40, and Byrne and Fisher would separate to pursue session work. (Byrne played on Stevie Wonder’s hit “Part-Time Lover,” while Fisher formed a more locally successful duo with fellow songwriter/session player Simon Climie. Climie Fisher’s “Love Changes (Everything)” peaked at No. 2 in the U.K. in 1988.) Byrne and Fisher had reunited as writers for a third Naked Eyes LP, but following Fisher’s death following cancer surgery in 1999, Byrne included them on a solo disc, The Real Illusion, in 2001. Byrne still tours under the Naked Eyes moniker, reportedly planning a new album for 2013. Cherry Pop’s Burning Bridges expansion features five bonus tracks, including 12″ remixes of “Promises” and “Always Something There,” two non-LP B-sides and the hit U.S. single mix of “Promises.”