Double – The Captain Of Her Heart (1986) *NEW VIDEO

It is rare indeed when I find myself declaring a song as my top favorite for a given year. Usually there are at least three or four competing for the position in my mind in any given year, and often from pivotal years like 1968 or 1972 or 1979 there are far too many to bestow such an honor. However 1986 was such a year … a year with a clear favorite. And it wasn’t because 1986 wasn’t a pivotal year itself, it was and for me it marked a rejuvenation in pop radio music and the coming of age of sophisticated cable television music videos. I can think of many songs from that year I loved, including Madonna’s „Live To Tell,“ „West End Girls“ by Pet Shop Boys, and „Sara“ by Starship. All through the year, slowly moving up the charts, was a soft, jazzy love song that grew on me every time I heard it. It was destined to be a late summer hit by a group I never heard of before called Double in what would be their only major appearance in the US pop charts. I don’t know how long it was before I bothered to check their MTV video out, maybe years later … I was captivated by the sound and that was enough. Yes, if you were to ask me what the best song of 1986 was, it was Double’s „The Captain Of Her Heart.“ Thirty-six years have passed and so have many faces and places, but the song’s effect on me remains unchanged. There was a sense of the new and looking ahead, but also one of longing, loss, and sadness, then whenever I listened to it, and that sense, if anything, has never died.

Released in September 1985 on the album Blue, it reached #16 on Billboard and #20 on Cash Box, September 27, 1986.