I started listening to Squeeze when I was about 7 or 8 because I remember buying Take Me I'm Yours at a flea market (I used to go to look for old original records) for about 25p on cassette single, and I remember buying it just because I liked the cover art. At another flea market pretty soon after I got the Squeeze album for about 75p and ever since then have loved their music.
Squeeze are an English New Wave band which formed in London in 1974 and originally consisted of Glen Tilbrook, Chris Difford, Jools Holland, Harry Kakoulie and Paul Gunn but there have been many changes to the lineup since then. In the early days they performed under several different names (Captain Trundlow's Sky Company and Skyco) before settling on Squeeze, which is a tribute to The Velvet Underground's album of the same name. Most people, if you ask them if they watch "Later, With Jools Holland" will know what you're talking about but few people know he is a member of Squeeze.
The debut album Squeeze was released in 1978 and in Canada and the US it was named UK Squeeze because of legal issues with an American band called Tight Squeeze and also in Australia because of a band also called Squeeze. the album contains the hits Take Me I'm Yours, First Thing wrong and Bang Bang.
Cool For Cats, the second album was released in 1979 and contains more of their hits than any other of their albums. The most notable hits were Cool For Cats, Up The Junction, Goodbye Girl and Slap And Tickle.
In 1980 Squeeze released their new album Argybargy which saw a whole different approach to the way the band played musically, and some of the songs from the album were Pulling Mussels (From The Shell), Wrong Side Of The Moon and Another Nail In My Heart.
Tempted the single which was from the East Side Story album released in 1980 is probably their most commercially successful song and was their first US hit. The album was produced in part by Elvis Costello and it is reported he had to fight to have recorded as the band felt the song was too "Country" for their image at the time.
Sweets From A Stranger was released in 1982 and was not as successful as the previous albums and also due to stresses from touring Squeeze split up later in the year. The band re-formed in 1985 for a charity gig and it went so well they decided to start recording again and released the album Cosi Fan Tuti Fruti late in 1985.
Between 1986 and 1990 they released two more albums Babylon And On in 1987 and Frank in 1989. In 1990 Jools Holland left Squeeze again to pursue other interests, mainly his solo career and then the TV show Later With Jools Holland.
Since Jools' departure Squeeze have released four more albums Play in 1991, Some Fantastic Place in 1993, Ridiculous in 1995 and Domino in 1998.
