24 October 1981
Not Dave ‘Eurythmics’ Stewart but Dave ‘Not Dave ‘Eurythmics’ Stewart’ Stewart, an English prog-rocker of the ’70s as was Gaskin. Is this moody synth cover version of a ’60s teenybop classic a brutalist weltschmerz re-reading, or just a serious-muso in-joke that the good people of 1981 didn’t quite get? Your guess is as good as mine, but the shift to a poppy upbeat ending—after Judy came back wearing Johnny’s ring, for God’s sake!—suggests the latter.
That spectacular chorus still sounds great, a Saturn V blast-off of pure teenage angst. However, the rest of ‘It’s My Party’ began depreciating as soon as it left the showroom floor in 1963. Perhaps ironic detachment is the only way anyone could approach its fatal tweeness anyway, which still doesn’t make this a cover version worth listening to, let alone sending to the top of the UK and Irish charts for a whole month.
