Nick Straker Band
Encyclopedia
The Nick Straker Band, from London
, England
, was a fusion pop music
group
, led by musician
and vocalist
Nick Straker
, who had a handful of hits
on the U.S.
Hot Dance Club Play
chart
. The group also consisted several members of the band New Musik. Their most successful song
in the U.S., "A Little Bit of Jazz", spent one week at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play Chart in 1981. Their song "A Walk in the Park" hit #20 on the UK Singles Chart
in 1980, having previously been a substantial hit in Continental Europe
in 1979.
Group members included Straker, Tony Mansfield
, David McShera, Pete Hammond and Phil Towner.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, was a fusion pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
group
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
, led by musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and vocalist
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
Nick Straker
Nick Straker
Nick Straker is a London born musician, who had hits in Europe and the U.S. in the late 1970s and early 1980s.-Career:...
, who had a handful of hits
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
on the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. The group also consisted several members of the band New Musik. Their most successful song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
in the U.S., "A Little Bit of Jazz", spent one week at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play Chart in 1981. Their song "A Walk in the Park" hit #20 on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in 1980, having previously been a substantial hit in Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
in 1979.
Group members included Straker, Tony Mansfield
Tony Mansfield
Tony Mansfield, born May 28, 1943, Salford, England, is an English songwriter, musician and record producer. Mansfield was the main songwriter/producer for New Musik, a synthpop band that performed from 1979 to 1982.-References:...
, David McShera, Pete Hammond and Phil Towner.
Singles
| Year | Song title / singles | Club Play Singles Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
R&B singles Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | "A Walk in the Park" | - | 20 | - |
| "Don't Come Back" | - | - | - | |
| "Leaving on the Midnight Train" | - | 61 | - | |
| 1981 | "A Little Bit of Jazz A Little Bit of Jazz A Little Bit of Jazz is a 1981 single by post-disco/new wave band Nick Straker Band. The British band had their only American success with "A Little Bit of Jazz" when it hit number one on the Dance Chart for one week and number thirty-five on the Soul Singles Chart... " / "The Last Goodbye" |
1 | - | 35 |
| 1982 | "Like Dust" | - | - | - |
| "Straight Ahead" | - | - | - | |
| 1983 | "You Know I Like It" | - | - | - |
| "Against the Wall" | - | - | - | |
| 1984 | "Turn Me Down" | - | - | - |
| "Must You Dance" | - | - | - | |
| "It Only Takes a Minute" | - | - | - | |
| 1987 | "A Walk In The Park '87 (PWL PWL Pete Waterman Entertainment is the production company one-time pop and dance record label owned by pop mogul Pete Waterman. The label, originally PWL, is most famous for being the home of hit record producers Stock Aitken Waterman.... Mix)" |
- | - | - |
Albums
| Title | Release date |
Chart positions | Information | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
|||
| Future's Above My Head (German LP) | 1979 | – | – |
|
| A Walk in the Park (U.S.) | 1980 | – | – |
|
| The Nick Straker Band (U.S.) | 1981 | – | – |
|
| Nick Straker | 1983 | – | – |
|
| The Best of Nick Straker: A Walk in the Park | 1993 | – | – |
|
See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart