Yazoo (band)

The below article is about Yazoo the music band. For alternate meanings, see Yazoo (disambiguation).

Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) were an English electropop duo from Basildon, Essex, who had a number of top ten hits in the British and American charts in the early 1980s. They were formed in 1981, using a moniker that Alison Moyet had seen on the labels of old blues albums... 'Yazoo'.

Yazoo consisted of:

Alison Moyet - singer
Vince Clarke - synthesizers

Clarke had been the main song-writer in Depeche Mode, who had at that point recorded one album and three singles for Mute Records, including the hit Just Can't Get Enough. Clarke surprised many by quitting Depeche Mode just as they were beginning to reap success, claiming that they "just weren't getting on, really", forming Yazoo with the then unknown Moyet. Mute Records continued to release the output of this new Clarke project.

Their biggest hits included the singles "Don't Go", "Situation". and "Only You" (later successfully covered by both the socialist acapella group The Flying Pickets and also translated into spanish and appearing on Enrique Iglesias's 1997 album Vivir).

They recorded two albums entitled Upstairs at Eric's and You and Me Both. Heavily influenced by earlier bands like Kraftwerk, Yazoo expanded upon the synthpop formula by juxtaposing Moyet's bluesy emotional vocals with Clarke's clinical electronic hooks. Their art pop sound referenced disco but added a more new wave disaffected attitude that disco lacked.

The You And Me Both album saw greater songwriting input from Moyet, adding a rather more mature and soulful flavour, particularly on the hit single Nobody's Diary.

After the band split in 1983, Alison Moyet went on to a successful solo career. Vince went on to record a single with Paul Quinn, had a brief project with Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly, and then founded the pop group Erasure

Discography

1982 "Upstairs at Eric's" #2 UK, #92 US
1983 "You and Me Both" #1 UK, #69 US
1999 "Only Yazoo - The Best of Yazoo" #22 UK

UK hit singles

1982 "Only You" #2
1982 "Don't Go" #3
1982 "The Other Side of Love" #13
1983 "Nobody's Diary" #3
1990 "Situation" #14
1999 "Only You" (re-issue) #38

The highest charting single in the US was the original release of "Only You" at #67.