Trivia / Scritti Politti

• Creator Breakdown: As documented in the main page, it caused Green to start to change the sound of the group.
• Troubled Production: Songs to Remember qualifies for this.
  • Its saga began in early 1981, when a cassette sampler distributed with an issue of New Musical Express included a demo of "The 'Sweetest Girl'", a synth-and-drums love song that was a radical departure from the band's previous work, which had been reggae-tinted social and political commentary. Fans were divided — it was either the greatest pop song ever written or a complete sellout. But everyone was talking about it, and assumed the band's label, Rough Trade, would capitalize on the buzz and release it as a single.
  • However, Geoff Travis, head of the label, felt that the single would benefit from some further tweaking in the studio (it was just a demo, after all) and encouraged the band's leader, Green Gartside (who was rapidly becoming the whole band, effectively) to do so. Since the members were all being paid fifty pounds a week, on top of a very generous advance they'd already gotten, sure, they figured, why not? ... and took their time.
  • Lots of time. They finished the whole album in the process by August of that year ... and decided not to release it just then. Instead, they imagined, they could release the finished version of "The 'Sweetest Girl'", plus a few more singles, building up to the album's release. However, when they finally released the finished single in October, the British pop scene had moved on. Other artists had capitalized on the moment, and what had seemed like a contender for hit song of the year wound up barely grazing the charts.
  • A few more singles were released, none of them becoming great hits, before the album was finally released in September 1982. Gartside in the meantime complained that Rough Trade hadn't promoted the singles as effectively as it could have. The album sold well, giving Rough Trade its first ever Top 20.
  • However, around the same time Rough Trade, which had expanded upward from the eponymous London record store to become a distribution, recording and promotional operation as well, found out it had overspent on just about everything, not least the small fortune Scritti Politti had cost the label while putting the finishing ... and finishing ... and finishing touches on their debut album. Were it not for the indulgence of Mute Records' Daniel Miller over the million pounds or so he owed, Rough Trade would have ceased to be right then and there.
  • Travis and Richard Scott, his cofounder, fought heavily over this and the net result was a major corporate restructuring. He had to let Scritti Politti go to a major label, along with Aztec Camera, who had delivered in "Oblivious" the hit pop single that "The 'Sweetest Girl'" had been expected to be. Both bands went on to success at their new labels. And fortunately for Scott, this gave him the space to sign The Smiths, who helped keep the label afloat for another six years.

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