"(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" is a song written by American songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Originally recorded as a demo by

Dionne Warwick Marie Dionne Warwick ( ; born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress, and television host. During her career, Warwick has won many awards, including six Grammy Awards. She has been inducted into the Hollywood Wa ...

in 1963, "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" first charted for Lou Johnson, whose version reached No. 49 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in mid-1964. Sandie Shaw took the song to No. 1 in the UK that same year, while the duo Naked Eyes 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 Sandie Shaw, 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!'', 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, 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

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

and

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

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.

Carpenters version

The Carpenters featured the song on the 1971 album Carpenters. It was included in a medley of other Bacharach and Hall songs including I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Walk On By, and Do You Know The Way To San Jose. The song did not chart but the album reached #2.

Charts

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 a list of the 40 currently 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. "To ...

for the first time via a version by R. B. Greaves which reached No. 27 in February 1970. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in 1969, with production by Ahmet Ertegun 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 the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

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 United States for the first time via a

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

reinvention by Naked Eyes titled "Always Something There to Remind Me", which peaked inside 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 September 1, 1982, in a session at

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

produced by Tony Mansfield. 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 global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

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". Originally released in the UK 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, becoming the duo's only top 10 American hit. 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).

Charts

Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu version

English

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

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 ...

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 c ...

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 UK Singles Chart and No. 1 on the UK Dance Singles Chart. A

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

was made to accompany the single, filmed in the Café de Paris 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 m ...

'' wrote, "The first thing she spiritureminds you of is all the previous versions of this Burt Bacharach & Hal David 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 We ...

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

cover of

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...

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

Sandie Shaw version

Carpenters version

Charts

R. B. Greaves version

Naked Eyes version

Charts

Tin Tin Out featuring Espiritu version

Critical reception

Track listings

Charts

References

Further reading