"Hey Matthew" is a song by British musician
Karel Fialka, released as a
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
in 1987. It was later included on his 1988
studio 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 ...
, ''Human Animal''.
The song has minimal
instrumentation with only
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
s and a
drum machine being used. It follows the
lyrics of the stepfather (Fialka) questioning his stepson, Matthew, as to what he sees on
television (to which a young child's voice responds: ''
Dallas'', ''
Dynasty'', ''
Terrahawks'', ''
He-Man
He-Man is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the sword and planet ''Masters of the Universe'' franchise, which includes a toy line, several animated television series, comic books and a feature film. He-Man is characterized by h ...
'', ''
Tom and Jerry'', ''
Dukes of Hazzard'', ''
Airwolf'', ''
Blue Thunder'', ''
Rambo'', ''
Road Runner'', ''
Daffy Duck'' and ''
The A-Team''); and what he wants to be (as a
profession) when he grows up: "a
soldier,
street fighter, a
police man
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In ...
, a
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of a
boat (... big boat),
magic man
"Magic Man" is a song by the American rock band Heart released as a single off their debut album, '' Dreamboat Annie.'' Written and composed by Ann and Nancy Wilson, the song is sung from the viewpoint of a young girl who is being seduced by a ...
, a
cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...
,
train driver, high jump champion, a
fireman, a
pilot, I want to be your friend.").
The
video follows the plot of the song, with the
camera making it appear that the viewer is looking in on the family through the television.
The song was Fialka's biggest
chart
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...
hit, peaking at number 9 on the
UK Singles Chart and spending eight weeks in the listings.
It also reached No. 15 in Germany and No. 29 on the US
Modern Rock chart.
In 1997, both Karel and Matthew appeared on ''
Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' in the Identity Parade line-up. Both were identified successfully.
Charts
References
External links
*
1987 songs
1987 singles
Songs about children
Songs about fathers
Songs about television
I.R.S. Records singles
British synth-pop songs
{{1980s-single-stub