TORE kicks off its first episode with Yazoo’s ‘Only You‘
When Netflix sold the just premiered TORE as “a Swedish feel-good-and-bad dramedy about running away from all the things that hurt while trying to figure out who you are”, I was intrigued.
The minute I watched the first episode and realized the music on its soundtrack featured some of my favorite artists, I was hooked.
Artists like Yazoo, whose brings-back-memories ‘Only You‘ was the first song to play on TORE, Episode 1, “Something New Will Do You Good” as his dad is trying to persuade him to move out of the house.
Come on, it’s Yazoo, and ‘Only You‘ is still a banger over 40 years since it first hit the airwaves.
How can you not love a drama that kicks off with that?
Yazoo’s ‘Only You’ was the reason the duo was founded
Yazoo fans, of course, will know ‘Only You‘ was the British synth-pop duo’s debut single.
Released in March, 1982, the song went on to put Yahoo on the music map.
It charted at #2 on the UK Singles chart, then at #5 in Ireland, #6 in Australia as well as on charts in four other countries including the U.S. where it made it to #67 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Fascinatingly, ‘Only You‘ was also the reason Yazoo began as a duo, as it was written by Vince Clarke who had just left Depeche Mode, and was looking for a singer to record a demo of a new song.
The song was a track he wanted to impress Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records, with so he wouldn’t be kicked off the label.
Alison Moyet, who had recently had her band The Screamin’ Ab Dabs collapse, was approached by Clarke asking if she would be interested in singing on his demo of ‘Only You‘.
Not interested in singing pop, Moyet eventually agreed to record the demo. But only because she needed the money.
When Daniel Miller heard the song, then played it for others in the music publishing industry who loved it, he decided Clarke and Moyet should get together and form a synth pop duo.
The rest, as they say, is music history.
Listen to Yazoo’s ‘Only You‘, the opening song from TORE, in the synth pop track’s official music video.
It is also one of the tracks on the British pop duo’s debut album Upstairs at Eric’s.
Listen to that on the Spotify player below.