The Greatest Song that Exists for Me in this Universe

                My favorite song is unashamedly “One Night in Bangkok” by the most talented Murray Head, which was released in 1984 (four years before I was born). On a historic note, the song was composed as a part of the musical Chess. It was written by the guys from ABBA (named Björn and Benny in the great Scandinavian naming tradition), and Tim Rice, who is apparently a big deal in musicals. But the history isn’t why I like this song. It is hard to quantify all of the reasons I love this song, but I will do my best.

                First off, is my incalculable love of 80’s music. The 80’s seemed to be a time of rampant creativity in music among other things. The new tools available to musicians, such as synthesizers and music videos were being explored and experimented with to great effect at the time. Musicians weren’t afraid to be different, and there was no formula to what made a hit song. The songs are typically so packed to the gills with intensity that I can’t resist getting into the mood of the music. 80’s musical also has the super convenient feature that all of the bad music has been filtered out in the intervening years, and only the very best samples still circulate today (not to say that there aren’t plenty of good songs that don’t get radio time). To be completely honest I may also like 80’s music, and 80’s culture in general, because of some subconscious desire to be different and shun popular culture of my own time. Clinging to the culture of the past is an easy way to do that, but I’m not a psychologist so this is only speculation (like my self-diagnosed case of Asperger’s). Not only does this song fall into my favorite genre of music, it is also in a couple of my favorite sub-genres.

Murray is having none of it

                One Hit Wonders have a very special place in my heart. The fact that a song is a band’s only hit typically ensures that it is high quality. Many mediocre songs have become hits just based on the artist’s reputation (I’m looking at you “Say Say Say”). For a song to come out of nowhere and become popular across the world means that it has to be something special. “One Night in Bangkok” is just such a wonder.¹ Even I will admit that I don’t like any of Murray Head’s other songs, but that just makes “One Night in Bangkok” even more amazing. Many bands that are called One Hit Wonders had other popular songs (see Two Tribes, or I Wanna Rock), but they just happened not to hit the American Top 40, so they aren’t technically hits. “One Night in Bangkok” is fairly stylistically different from anything else that Murray Head did, so it's like he condensed all of his raunchy 80’s goodness into one song and got solid gold. To specialize even further, my favorite One Hit Wonders are the ones from European artist. Thomas Dolby, The Boomtown Rats, and Nena are all among my favorite musicians, all of them European One Hit Wonders (the Nena thing is probably due to the fact that I have a huge crush on Nena herself, possibly even more than I like Sheena Easton). Murray Head just happens to have being British going for him, which is nice. If you reduce my favorite music down as far as you can go, you will get “One Night in Bangkok.” In other words, it is my atomic favorite song.

Nena: still being sexy to this day

                I don’t just like “One Night in Bangkok” because it is the single best representative of what kind of music I like. The song itself is also an excellent analogy for my whole life. The song tells the story of an American Chess player who finds himself at a world class chess match taking place in Bangkok, Thailand. The American continuously states that he's only interested in chess, while a chorus repeatedly describes the pleasures of Bangkok that he's missing out on. This parallels my life story in the aspect that I prefer to follow intellectual pursuits, while seemingly everyone around me pushes the importance of physical pleasures. My chess game just happens to be activities like reading about philosophy or playing video games at home, and my Bangkok is the much humbler night life of South Dakota. It may just be the common plight of the nerdy introvert, but this song really speaks to me. When I hear the American’s annoyed tone at having to explain why he's happy with what he's doing, I know exactly how he feels. The whole song can be summed up in my favorite line, “I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine.” I will quote that line at the drop of a hat, since it expresses my lifestyle perfectly, and has a much better ring to it than “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t like casual sex, but I do like science fiction novels.” The song also has other great lines and great rhymes. Other favorites are “This grips me more than would a; muddy old river or Reclining Buddha” or “I’d let you watch, I would invite you; but the queens we use would not excite you.” There are also an epic intro buildup, some good Thailand puns, and Murray’s American accent is entertaining all by itself. Basically, what is not to love about this song? I rate it a Chess King.

[1]          Authors Note: While doing research for this post I found out the Murray Head another hit song with “Superstar”, from Jesus Christ Superstar, that made it to #14 in the U.S. in 1971. That was way back in the 70’s though, so I’m still willing to call “One Night in Bangkok” a One Hit Wonder within the boundary of the 1980’s.