Shakin’ Stevens and Bonnie Tyler – ‘A Rockin’ Good Way’

4 February 1984

Uh-oh. I don’t know this one, and I’m not looking forward to making its acquaintance. As usual, I will listen to it for the first time LIVE as I write this. The pairing of Wales’ next-biggest pop stars—Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey evidently being unavailable—promises to be a terrible mis-match of Bonnie’s raspy bellowing and Shaky’s watery Elvis impersonation. My expectations for this are low.

[One listen later]

Incredibly, this is even worse than my low expectations. Instead of being a mismatch, Bonnie is forced—I can’t imagine she did this of her own free will—to sing like she’s Shakin’ Stevens: a terrible Elvis impersonation of her own. Needless to say, it sounds ridiculous. Shaky is as useless as he always is. I’ll absolve Bonnie here; this is another appalling Shaky record but with the added crapness of dragging an innocent bystander down to his level. What did people see in this eejit?