Love and Pride: The Best of King

King burst onto the UK music scene in late 1984 with their top 3 hit "Love and Pride", though it wasn't released in the U.S. until the following year, and then only managed a chart placing in the 50's. What most people didn't know, including myself until I was doing research for an upcoming reissue of "Bitter Sweet", was that "Love and Pride" and "Won't You Hold My Hand Now" had been previously released as singles, along with "Soul On My Boots", all of which made little impact. It wasn't until a re-release that things began to take off. King's debut album, `Steps in time', was a careful combination of chart geared dance pop and some of the wonderful New Wave eccentricities, which were becoming harder to find in 1984/85. The combination gave them well deserved chart success and a fanatical following... in the UK. As history states, Paul King had a real desire to become a hitmaker in the U.S., however the follow up UK hit, "Won't you hold my hand now" made no impression in the U.S. and the album (unjustly) faded into obscurity. It's unfortunate because there is not one bad song on that album, though some are not extremely strong. `Love and Pride - The Best of King' offers six of the albums original ten songs, along with one single B side.