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“Don’t Marry Her” — The Beautiful South
Their 1996 album “Blue Is The Colour”, which included the very funny and somewhat quirky “Don’t Marry Her”, really defined The Beautiful South as a band…
Beautiful South co-founders Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway had both been in The Housemartins previously. That Hull-based band had enjoyed success in the 1980s with hits including an a capella cover of the Isley-Jasper-Isley song “Caravan Of Love”, which reached Number One in the UK singles charts during December 1986.
The Housemartins spawned another important British musical act beyond The Beautiful South…their bass player Norman Cook would go on to find considerable success of his own as Fatboy Slim with hit records like “The Rockafella Skank”, “Praise You” and “Right Here, Right Now”.
The Beautiful South were one of my favourite bands of the 1990s. Initially Briana Corrigan provided the lead female vocals for hits like “A Little Time”, but by the time “Blue Is The Colour” came along, Jacqui Abbott had joined as the female lead vocalist.
While The Beautiful South continued on The Housemartins’ path of recording somewhat quirky, politically-infused songs…and would later develop their unusual brand of wry social commentary into an art form…for me, Jacqui Abbott’s voice remains one of the warmest, smoothest voices in recent musical history. Her tone…
