“Talk Talk” by Talk Talk

Mark Hollis had first tried "Talk Talk" with his old band the Reaction, who put it on Streets, a Beggars Banquet punk compilation, under the stuttering title "Talk Talk Talk Talk". Rebuilt as synth-pop, co-written with Ed Hollis and produced by Colin Thurston, it became the second single from Talk Talk's 1982 debut The Party's Over. Simon Brenner's keyboards sparkle and jab, Paul Webb and Lee Harris hold a tight, nervy groove, and Hollis sings as if the whole conversation is going badly.

The first pressing stalled at 52 in Britain, so they re-recorded it and tried again in October 1982. This time it reached 23 at home, dented the Billboard Hot 100 at 75 and got into the top 40 of the Mainstream Rock chart, and in 1983 it went all the way to number one in South Africa.

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