Another Lover by Giant Steps

The late 1980s brought a lot of new British acts to the United States, several of which charted over here before (or instead of) charting in their native Britain.  The Eighties had also, by this time, brought forth the dance-pop genre from the ashes of disco.  It was natural, then, that some of those British acts which were successful in the US first would have that chart success with dance-pop music.  One such act which had success at the time but which, 30 years later, is largely forgotten by radio, was Giant Steps.

Relaunching as Giant Steps

Giant Steps was pretty much a continuation of The Quick, a duo of Colin Campsie and George McFarlane.  As The Quick, the two had reached the top of Billboard’s dance chart but had not made the Hot 100.  The name change/relaunch as Giant Steps made sense to the two, as Mr. McFarlane stated in 1988:

We changed the name because we decided there was a certain stigma attached to The Quick. We had released records for quite a few years, but there were never commercially successful. We finally decided that, at least in this country, we’d never get DJs to notice our records as The Quick. Plus, we felt we needed a fresh start. That’s what this is for us, a new start.

With this new start came a new producer after the original one proved to be too busy to be useful.  Following that little speed bump, Giant Steps released its debut album (under that name, at least), The Book of Pride.

(The Book of Pride peaked at #184 on Billboard’s Top Pop Albums chart. Album ℗1988 A&M Records, Inc.  Photo courtesy Discogs.com.)

The (Only) Hit Single

The first single from The Book of Pride was titled either “Another Lover” or “(The World Don’t Need) Another Lover”, depending on whom you were to ask.  The female vocals on the single were provided by Edie Lehmann (now Edie Lehmann Boddicker), who can be seen in the video for “Another Lover” as the somewhat bored-looking blonde who appears twice, one time near the end of the song.*

Chart Performance

“Another Lover” entered the Hot 100 (again, this was something the duo had never accomplished as The Quick) at #89 for the week ending August 20, 1988 (chart).  It peaked at #13 in its 13th week on the chart, the week ending November 12 (chart).  The single remained on the Hot 100 for a very healthy 22 weeks; it did not make the year-end chart, though, possibly because it hit its peak position just as Billboard was ending its chart year.

That pretty much sums up the chart success of Giant Steps.  A follow-up single charted well short of the top 40, and Giant Steps never released another full-length album.  “Another Lover” did get a little bit more exposure the next year, though, playing over the opening credits to the not-very-successful film Loverboy.

After “Another Lover”

In the years since then, Messrs. Campsie and McFarlane both turned more toward songwriting, with Mr. McFarlane also producing.  For reasons known only to them (or at least not to me), they never recorded together after 1989.

And how forgotten is Giant Steps today?  The Book of Pride is only available from third-party sellers on Amazon, and it certainly isn’t found on Spotify.  I don’t think I’ve heard the song on terrestrial radio since probably 1989.  It deserves better.

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