Claire and Friends were an English music group, consisting of schoolgirl Claire Usher and her friends, from St Winifred's Roman Catholic Primary School in

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

. Their one

hit single A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

was with the novelty record "It's 'Orrible Being in Love (When You're 8½)", which entered 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 ...

on 7 June 1986, and reached number 13. The song is about a girl who has a crush on a boy in her class. The song consists of: The song was intended as a kind of follow-up to the number one hit "

There's No One Quite Like Grandma "There's No One Quite Like Grandma" was a number-one hit in the UK Singles Chart, by the Stockport-based primary school choir St Winifred's School Choir from 21 December 1980 to 3 January 1981. It was written by Gordon Lorenz. The song was a Chr ...

", which the St Winifred's School Choir recorded at the start of the 1980s. The song was written and produced by another act who had reached number one on the UK Singles Chart with their only credited entry as Brian and Michael, with Mick Coleman writing the song (under the name D.M. Coleman) and Kevin Parrott ('Brian') producing it. This was because Brian and Michael's 1978 number one hit " Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs" had featured an uncredited St Winifred's School Choir as backing vocalists (with the choir going on to release an album called ''The Matchstalk Children''). The

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 ...

was submitted to a talent-spotting feature on the BBC children's television programme ''

Saturday Superstore ''Saturday Superstore'' is a British children's television series that aired on BBC1 from 2 October 1982 to 18 April 1987. It was shown on Saturday mornings with presenters including Mike Read, Sarah Greene, Keith Chegwin, and John Craven. The s ...

'', where it beat a thousand other entries. Claire and Friends' hit was released on both 7" and 12" vinyl by BBC Records and Tapes (now part of

BBC Studios BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...

) in 1986, with the 12-inch version also featuring the 'Megaminormix' version of the song. However in January 1987, future ''

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 ...

'' chart analyst Alan Jones reported in his ''

Record Mirror ''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...

'' column that only 0.2% of the sales of "It's 'Orrible Being in Love" were on

12-inch The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

, the lowest proportion of any hit single available on the format in 1986. This equated to fewer than 200 copies being sold on the larger format. After "It's 'Orrible Being in Love (When You're 8½)" was a top 40 success, the BBC followed it up with a solo single by Usher. Called "Superman", this single was credited simply to 'Claire' and continued the story from the original single, but was not a top 75 hit. Claire also issued an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, mostly of

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s but with a few further originals by Coleman. Entitled ''Super Claire'', this release also was not a commercial success, missing the UK top 100 albums chart (as number 100 was seen as a hit in the 1980s until 1989). After no further chart successes, the act has remained a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

. In adulthood, Claire Usher (later Usher-McMorrow) obtained a degree in drama and became a dancer, and appeared in the stage show '' Riverdance'' on Broadway in 2000, and in the show's UK tour. She later wrote songs for indie pop band Shrag.

References

{{Reflist English pop music groups British novelty song performers Musical groups from Greater Manchester BBC Records artists

See also

References