Johnny Hates Jazz (GB)

About

Also known as: Johny Hates Jazz, Jonny Hates Jazz

Few pop acts from the late 1980s can claim a debut album that entered the UK chart at No. 1 and sold four million copies, but Johnny Hates Jazz managed exactly that with Turn Back the Clock in 1988. The British duo of Clark Datchler and Mike Nocito built their sound around sleek, hook driven pop with a sophisticated sheen, and their breakthrough single "Shattered Dreams" became a genuine global hit, reaching No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and topping the Adult Contemporary chart. Follow up tracks "I Don't Want to Be a Hero", "Turn Back the Clock" featuring Kim Wilde on backing vocals, and "Heart of Gold" kept them firmly in the charts across Europe, Asia and North America. After Datchler left in 1988 and the band eventually dissolved in the early 1990s, the two reconnected in 2009 when Datchler wrote a song he felt was perfect for JHJ. That led to the album Magnetized, recorded at Real World Studios and Angel Recording Studios with string arrangements from Anne Dudley of The Art of Noise, who had also worked on "Turn Back the Clock". The record proved they still had plenty to say as a songwriting partnership.