1 March 1996
Robbie had left, the other four had just announced their split, and this was the obligatory new track on their imminent greatest hits compilation. Those are the facts. However, Take That releasing a schmaltzy ’70s ballad cover version as a high-profile single was a surprise and a disappointment. Were the boyband who delivered credible pop hits like ‘Back For Good’ and ‘Never Forget’ now seriously lowering themselves to the level of Boyzone? Then came the video, where the four lads are tied up in a basement at the whim of a Misery-style crazed admirer, and it all started to smell like a pissy in-joke, a cynical cash-in, or even an unbecoming sneer at the same ardent fans for whom, in the UK, a helpline had to be set up to support their genuine upset at news of the split. Whatever the motivation or intention, Take That’s ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ was an unpleasant business.
Listening to it now, I can separate ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ from its disagreeable context, which still leaves us with the schmaltzy ’70s ballad. It’s well made and competently sung for this sort of thing, but we shouldn’t need to measure Take That against bargain basement boybanditry like Boyzone just for scraped-up brownie points. If this was some sort of in-joke, the person laughing loudest in 1996 was undoubtedly Robbie Williams, here proved right. Second-loudest laugher was probably Louis Walsh, as his competitors not only exit the market but also helpfully validate his own inferior line of product.
We now know that the classic-schmaltz angle pitched here doesn’t float Gary Barlow’s solo career aspirations. Take That return for a successful second act in ten chart-years’ time, and they even briefly welcome Robbie back. All that additional activity allows us to take the long view of ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ and, in tax adviser style, write it off as an unfortunate and ill-timed lapse of judgement.
