Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club: Video Killed the Radio Star (1979)

Whenever the story of the Buggles' hit Video Killed the Radio Star is told, two things are invariably mentioned: the clip of it was the first song to be played on MTV in 1981 and that the Buggles -- real one hit wonders and merely a studio band -- never played live.

However there is more to the story and it is told by chief Buggle/songwriter and famous producer Trevor Horn in his modest, conversational memoir Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZZT.

Horn as an aspiring producer had prepared a demo of the song which he co-wrote with Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley. He was trying to flog it off to various record companies and constantly being knocked back.

Eventually someone at Island was interested so now the Buggles -- just Horn and Downes by this time, the band name a play on the Beatles -- had to knock it into shape.

A 23-year old with an impressive Prophet-5 keyboard appeared on the scene to add the vital ingredients. His name was Hans Zimmer and he became the Hans Zimmer of soundtrack fame (Gladiator, The Lion King etc etc).

But before they could get their song out Bruce Woolley -- who now had his own band -- liked it so much he started playing it with Camera Club and, with help from Thomas Dolby, they recorded it for their album English Garden.

As you may hear it is similar but notably different from the Buggles' production. And it did nothing.

However even before the Buggles' version was released it got radio play and started to become popular.

Suddenly Horn, who only thought of himself as a studio boffin, was wearing over-sized glasses and promoting the song. It became hit -- over 12 million copies sold globally -- and they were on the treadmill.

"In Spain we did forty interviews in two days."

Their next single Living in the Plastic Age from their debut album The Age of Plastic enjoyed no such acclaim.

And so the Buggles -- after another album -- faded from view, Horn joined Yes when their singer Jon Anderson left and he went into a steller career as a producer for everyone from ABC, Grace Jones and Paul McCartney to Pet Shop Boys, Seal and Jeff Beck.

And what of Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club?

Look him up.

Even though he didn't have a hit with Video Killed the Radio Star he did rather well for himself.

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For more one-off or unusual songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults.