“Tenderness” by General Public

"Tenderness" came out as a single on I.R.S. Records in May 1984, one of the first from General Public, the English new wave band, and it comes from their debut album All the Rage. It's about as irresistible as new wave got that year: a skipping, sprightly beat and a chorus that seems written to be shouted back across a crowded dance floor.

Underneath the bounce there's a plea. The song is about a man who needs tenderness before he can feel like a man at all, which gives all that sunshine an ache. Dave Wakeling, Ranking Roger and Micky Billingham wrote it together, and the band produced it with Colin Fairley and Gavin MacKillop. The guests give it its odd charm: Justine Carpenter adds extra vocals, and Bob Porter slips in a bassoon, of all things, burbling away under the pop sheen. Even the packaging had a wink to it, with the extended versions' sleeve carrying a line that punned on conviction and sentence.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.