"(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" is a

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

written in the 1960s by songwriting team

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

and

Hal David Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David ...

. Originally recorded as a

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick (; born December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on ''Billboards Hot 100 pop singles cha ...

in 1963, "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" first charted for

Lou Johnson Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – October 1, 2020), nicknamed Sweet Lou, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. Johnson's professional baseball career lasted for 17 seasons, and included 8 years in the majors: parts of 1960� ...

, whose version reached No. 49 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the summer of 1964.

Sandie Shaw Sandie may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Sandie Clair (born 1988), French professional racing cyclist * Sandie Fitzgibbon, Irish former camogie player * Sandie Jones (1950/1951–2019), Irish singer * Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (1879 ...

took the song to No. 1 in the UK that same year, while the duo

Naked Eyes Naked Eyes are an English new wave band"All Eyes on Pete Byrne", ''Newsday'', 15 October 2013 that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. The band had four US top 40 singles. The group's first hit, "Always Something There to Remind Me", was ...

had a No. 8 hit with the song in the US two decades later in 1983.

Sandie Shaw version

British impresario Eve Taylor heard Johnson's version while on a US visit scouting for material for her recent discovery

, who consequently covered the song for the UK market. Rush-released in September 1964, the song was premiered by Shaw with a performance on ''

Ready Steady Go! ''Ready Steady Go!'' (or ''RSG!'') was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light enter ...

'', the pop music TV program. The first week after its release, the single sold 65,000 copies. Shaw's version reached No. 1 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, spending three weeks at the top of that listing in November 1964, and that same month it debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. However, despite reaching the Top Ten in some markets including

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and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Shaw's version failed to best the US showing of the Lou Johnson original; the Hot 100 peak of Shaw's version was No. 52. A No. 1 hit in Canada and South Africa, Shaw's version of "...Always Something There to Remind Me" was also a hit in Australia (No. 16), Ireland (No. 7) and the Netherlands (No. 10), the track's success in the last territory not precluding hit status for the Dutch rendering by entitled "Ik moet altijd weer opnieuw aan je denken" (No. 12). Shaw herself recorded "...Always Something There to Remind Me" in French, as "Toujours un coin qui me rappelle", with lyrics by , which reached No. 19 in France, and in Italian, as "Il Mondo Nei Tuoi Occhi". A cover by

Eddy Mitchell Claude Moine (; born 3 July 1942), known professionally as Eddy Mitchell, is a French singer and actor. He began his career in the late 1950s, with the group Les Chaussettes Noires (The Black Socks). He took the name ''Eddy'' from the American ...

was more successful, reaching No. 2 in France in April 1965 and also reaching No. 3 on Belgium's French-language chart. Shaw made a bid for a German hit as well, rendering "...Always Something There to Remind Me" as "Einmal glücklich sein wie die ander'n". It was not a success.

Chart history

R. B. Greaves version

"(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" – as "Always Something There to Remind Me" – entered the US

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

for the first time via a version by

R. B. Greaves Ronald Bertram Aloysius Greaves III (28 November 1943 – 27 September 2012) was an American singer who had chart success in 1969 with the pop single " Take a Letter Maria". A number two hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, this single sold ...

which reached No. 27 in February 1970. Recorded at

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is an American recording studio in Sheffield, Alabama, formed in 1969 by four session musicians known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. They had left nearby FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals to create their own recor ...

in 1969, with production by

Ahmet Ertegun Ahmet Ertegun (, Turkish spelling: Ahmet Ertegün; ; – December 14, 2006) was a Turkish-American businessman, songwriter, record executive and philanthropist. Ertegun was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. He discovered and ch ...

and Jackson Howe, Greaves' version was also a No. 3

Easy Listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

hit. This version peaked at number 48 in Australia. In Canada, it reached number 12.

Naked Eyes version

Nearly 20 years after its composition, the song became a major hit in the US for the first time via a

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

reinvention by

titled "Always Something There to Remind Me", which reached the top 10 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the summer of 1983. Vocalist Pete Byrne and keyboardist Rob Fisher first cut "Always Something There to Remind Me" as one of a number of demos recorded in Bristol upon forming the duo later known as Naked Eyes in early 1982. Byrne would recall: "I had always loved the song "Always Something There to Remind Me" so we called a friend who had the record, he read the lyric over the phone and we put it together from memory." On the strength of the demos cut in Bristol, Byrne and Fisher were signed to EMI Records in May 1982 and the track "Always Something There to Remind Me" was cut on 1 September 1982 in a session at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

produced by

Tony Mansfield Tony Mansfield (born 19 January 1955) is an English songwriter, musician and record producer. Early work Mansfield was born in Wimbledon, London, and became best known as the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that perfo ...

. Byrne would recall: "The record was recorded at Abbey Road, and we were invited to a party downstairs, with

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and many other stars...When we returned upstairs to the studio around 1 a.m., I decided to have a go at the vocal, it was the first time I have ever recorded a vocal in one take". Released in the US in 1982, Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me" gradually gained attention, entering the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in March 1983 to peak at No. 8 that June. The cachet of entering the US top 10 allowed the single, previously overlooked in its performers' United Kingdom homeland, to make a July 1983 UK chart debut, although it only rose to No. 59. "Always Something There to Remind Me" did afford Naked Eyes top 10 success in other countries besides the United States: Australia (No. 7), Canada (No. 9) and New Zealand (No. 2). In Brazil, the song was included on the international soundtrack of the soap opera ''Guerra dos Sexos/War of the Sexes'' in 1983. Naked Eyes re-recorded the song as an acoustic version for the 2007 album ''Fumbling with the Covers''. This version appears in a

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commercial for

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, as well as the trailer for the fifth season for ''

Arrested Development The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...

'' in 2018.

Charts

Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu version

English

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

duo

Tin Tin Out Tin Tin Out were an English electronic dance music duo, comprising Darren Stokes and Lindsay Edwards. They remixed songs for a variety of artists such as Duran Duran, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, The Corrs and Des'ree, as well as collaborating with ...

recorded a

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

cover of the song titled "Always (Something There to Remind Me)" in 1995. The song features vocals by French singer Espiritu (aka Vanessa Quinones) and went to No. 14 on the

and No. 1 on the

UK Dance Singles Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record s ...

. A

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was made to accompany the single, filmed in the

Café de Paris Café de Paris may refer to: Establishments *Café de Paris (London), a London nightclub * Café de Paris, Chicago, a Chicago nightclub * Café de Paris (restaurant), Geneva * Café de Paris (Rome), a bar in Rome, Italy * Café de Paris (Cubzac-les ...

in London.

Critical reception

A reviewer from Pan-European magazine ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later ...

'' wrote, "The first thing

she She most commonly refers to: *She (pronoun), the third person singular, feminine, nominative case pronoun in modern English. She or S.H.E. may also refer to: Literature and films *'' She: A History of Adventure'', an 1887 novel by H. Rider Hagga ...

reminds you of is all the previous versions of this

song. Spirited and dancey as it is, it doesn't make a poor figure at all." Brad Beatnik from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

s ''RM'' Dance Update commented, "This unabashed

cover of

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop music, p ...

's 'Always Something There To Remind Me' is already on its way into the dancefloor history books thanks to its initial

Hooj Choons Hooj Choons is a house record label formed by Alex Simons and Red Jerry (real name Jeremy Dickens) in 1990. The first release was "Carnival de Casa" by Rio Rhythm Band, however, it was not until 1992's release of Felix's "Don't You Want Me", ...

release and its ability to whip a club into a total frenzy. Simple in its piano house format and chugging Euro rhythm, this is hardbag house at its purest and most joyful." Another editor, James Hamilton noted, "Vannessa calmly croons the title over piping wheezy organ and plonking piano in naggingly effective simple jiggly chugging 0-129.7bpm

rack Rack or racks may refer to: Storage and installation * Amp rack, short for amplifier rack, a piece of furniture in which amplifiers are mounted * Bicycle rack, a frame for storing bicycles when not in use * Bustle rack, a type of storage bin ...

Sandie Shaw version

Chart history

R. B. Greaves version

Naked Eyes version

Charts

Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu version

Critical reception

Track listings

Charts

References

Further reading