“Hey Matthew” by Karel Fialka

"Hey Matthew" was Karel Fialka's biggest hit: the British synth-pop man put it out on I.R.S. as a single in August 1987, and it later landed on Human Animal, his second album, in 1988. It's bare-bones, just synthesizers and a drum machine, and it plays out as a conversation, Fialka quizzing his stepson Matthew about what's on the telly and what he fancies being as a grown-up, the boy reeling off a torrent of TV shows and cartoons and a list of dream jobs that ends somewhere much closer to home.

The video's camera sits behind the TV screen, watching the family watch. The single reached No. 9 in the UK, No. 15 in Germany and No. 29 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, and a decade later Karel and Matthew both turned up in the Identity Parade on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, where each was picked out.

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