Hereβs the Thing!
Let's get straight to the point!
Hazel O'Connor β "Hanging Around"
This Thursday (1st August 2024) I will be posting part 1 of a three-part article about my friend, the great Hazel OβConnor.
Here (below) is a video of Hazel from 1981 covering the 1977 song βHanging Aroundβ, originally from The Stranglersβ debut album Rattus Norvegicus.
Hazel dated Hugh Cornwall, the lead vocalist from The Stranglers, for about a week in 1981, just days before he got imprisoned for drug possession. In the weeks following his incarceration Hazel (amongst others, including Toyah Willcox and Robert Smith) covered for Hugh at London gigs that The Stranglers had scheduled, where she first publically performed βHanging Aroundβ.
Hazelβs version, produced by Tony Visconti, charted in the UK in 1981, reaching number 10 in the Indie chart.
The Stranglerβs original version, produced by the late-great Martin Rushent (who would later produce many recordings for Hazel) was intended to be a single but never got released, apart from as the B-side of a 1977 limited edition pink vinyl EP version of their third single βSomething Better Changeβ.
Please note: I have another infotainment channel on Substack, called Unleashed & Unlimited, where I post podcasts, articles and content unrelated to music.ππ₯π