23 January 1988
Sananda Maitreya no longer goes by how we knew him in the late-’80s. He has since re-released and streamed all his old material under his present name, which is what I will use here.
I slightly resented ‘Sign Your Name’ when it was top of the charts. (It only got to number two in the UK, failing to dislodge Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven Is A Place On Earth’.) Maitreya had burst onto our radios in 1987 with two fantastic pop singles: the swooping, hollering soul of ‘If You Let Me Stay’ and the sparse, sexy funk of ‘Wishing Well’. But of course it was the soppy slowie that got to number one. I’ve matured greatly since then, but I still haven’t warmed to ‘Sign Your Name’. It’s a formulaic and featureless romantic ballad, plus it doesn’t showcase the guy’s immense voice and swaggering charisma.
In 1987 and 1988 Sananda Maitreya seemed destined to be a superstar. For various reasons, including a move to Ireland to make one of the most notorious difficult second albums ever, the superstar thing didn’t work out for him. He went on to have some minor hits in the early ’90s and fronted INXS for a brief spell at the turn of the millennium. Today he lives in Milan with his family, still releases new music, and seems to be happy in life. Perhaps the wishing well came good for him in the end.
Irish Number Ones 