12 October 1985
It would be inaccurate to put this Midge Ure solo number one (in Ireland and the UK) down to a Band Aid dividend. For one thing, Bob Geldof didn’t have any chart-topping hits after this or Live Aid. Also, Geldof was the public face of Band Aid, with Ure very much in a supporting role.
No, I reckon ‘If I Was’ topped the charts because it’s a competent mid-’80s synth-pop track which to my ears sounds really like a hit single and pop-cultural smash from a few months earlier, Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’: almost identical bassline; similar rise and fall in the chorus melody; comparable self-definition lyrics. I’ll leave you to judge which of us is the more cynical here: Midge or I.
