“Always Something There To Remind Me” by Naked Eyes

Naked Eyes dragged a Burt Bacharach and Hal David chestnut into the synth age with "Always Something There To Remind Me", the calling card from the duo's 1983 album Burning Bridges. The song had first charted for Lou Johnson back in 1964, and Sandie Shaw carried it to number one in Britain that same year, but this version belongs entirely to its own moment: Tony Mansfield's production wraps it in gleaming, hiccuping synthesizers and crisp electronic clatter, and the aching melody floats over the top, colder and lonelier than before.

It paid off handsomely. Two decades after its first run, the song became an American hit all over again, climbing to 8 in the US.

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