Dollar (band)

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Dollar
Origin UK
Genre(s) Pop
Years active 1978 - Present
Members
Thereza Bazar
David Van Day

Dollar were a photogenic teen-targeted UK vocal duo[1] from the UK, who enjoyed their biggest hits between 1978 and 1983.

Contents

[edit] Career

The band members were Thereza Bazar and David Van Day, who met and became a couple when they were aged seventeen in the cabaret act Guys n' Dolls. The act had enjoyed some chart success in the mid 1970s.

Dollar's first single, "Shooting Star", was released in late 1978 and, after a slow climb, reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart. The follow-up, "Who Were You With In The Moonlight?", was released in early 1979. A mid-tempo song it also reached number 14, selling 250,000 copies. After two hit singles featuring Van Day on lead vocals their third, the ballad "Love's Gotta Hold On Me" was sung by Bazar.

It became Dollar's first Top Ten single and one of their biggest, climbing to number 4 in the UK chart. In a change of pace the band released a cover of The Beatles' song "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which reached number 9. By the autumn of 1979 the band had scored four Top Twenty hits, but this run of success was not to last. Their record producer Christopher Neil became more busy with a potential new star, Sheena Easton.

[edit] 1980s

Bazar approached another producer, Trevor Horn, whom she had met during her days in Guys n' Dolls, and asked if he would work with them. He agreed, and produced their 1981 and 1982 material. Horn's production work gave Dollar a more distinctive sound, and their four Horn-produced singles represented the high point in the band's career. It gave them another two Top Ten singles ("Mirror Mirror" and "Give Me Back My Heart") and two more Top Twenty hits.

Dollar first split up in early 1983: the production on these four hit singles had brought Trevor Horn to the attention of other bands, notably ABC, and it was not long before he was too busy to continue working with the duo.

"Give Me Some Kinda Magic", a Top 40 hit Dollar had written and produced themselves, and the lead-in single to their final studio album, The Dollar Album, which was a mixture of Horn's and the duo's own efforts.

Van Day had ambitions to be a solo artist after he and Bazar split. He released the single "Young Americans Talking", which was written and produced by the people behind Bucks Fizz. Meanwhile Bazar recorded an album, The Big Kiss, with producer Arif Mardin. But neither one of them enjoyed the same kind of success as solo artists as they had had as Dollar.

By 1986 they reformed, and released the single "We Walked In Love", and in 1988 the eventual UK Top Ten hit "Oh L'amour", a cover of an Erasure song. Their last single was "It's Nature's Way", and by late 1988 Dollar had disbanded again.

[edit] 2000s

In 2002 they took part in the "Hear And Now" tour, a series of arena sized concerts featuring other singers and bands from the 1980s. They followed this up by appearing on the reality television show Reborn in the USA alongside Elkie Brooks and Tony Hadley in early 2003.

Dollar later made another live appearance in 2004, in a show celebrating the career of Trevor Horn. It took place at Wembley Arena and Dollar appeared alongside ABC and The Pet Shop Boys, amongst other acts who had worked with Trevor Horn over the years.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

1978 "Shooting Star" (14)
1979 "Who Were You With In The Moonlight" (14)
1979 "Love's Gotta Hold On Me" (4)
1979 "I Want To Hold Your Hand" (9)
1980 "Love Street" (-)* Unofficial release
1980 "The Girls Are Out To Get Ya" (-)
1980 "Takin' A Chance On you" (61)
1981 "You Take My Breath Away" (-)
1981 "Hand Held In Black And White" (19)
1981 "Mirror Mirror (mon amor) (4)
1982 "Ring Ring" (62) * Unofficial release
1982 "Give Me Back My Heart" (4)
1982 "Videotheque" (17)
1982 ("Give Me Some Kinda Magic" (34)
1986 "We Walked In Love" (61)
1986 "Haven't we Said Goodbye Before" (-)
1987 "O L'Amour" (7)
1988 "It's Nature's Way (No Problem)" (58)

[edit] Albums

1979 "Shooting Stars" (36)
1980 "The Paris Collection" (-)
1982 "The Very Best Of Dollar" (31) * Unofficial release
1982 "The Dollar Album" (18)


[edit] Album Tracklistings

SHOOTING STARS (Carerre Records, 1979)
Overture
Shooting Star
Tokyo
Star Control
Who Were You With In the Moonlight
I Need Your Love
Ring Ring
Love's Gotta Hold On Me
Love Street


THE PARIS COLLECTION (WEA Records, 1980)
Radio
The Girls Are Out To Get Ya
Young Love
You Take My Breath Away
Love At First Sight
Takin' A Chance On You
Ebony
No Man's Land
Don't Change Your Life
Heartbeat


THE DOLLAR ALBUM (WEA Records, 1982)
Mirror Mirror (mon amor)
Give Me Back My Heart
Hand Held In Black And White
Pink And Blue
Anyone Who's Anyone
Guessing Games
Give Me Some Kinda Magic
Videotheque
Dangerous Blondes
You Made Me Love You
I Got Your Number Wrong
The Second Time Around


THEREZA BAZAR SOLO ALBUM
THE BIG KISS (MCA Records, 1985)
The Big Kiss
I See It in Your Eyes
Too Much In Love
English Girl Should Not No! No!
Give Me Back My Heart
Never Make The Same Mistake
Traitor Of The Heart
Save Me
Give Yourself Up
You're All I Ever Wanted

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums, 19th, London: Guinness World Records Limited, p. 164. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
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