THROWBACK: RAH Band - Clouds Across the Moon

There was a time in the late 80s when everybody seemed to be obsessed with this song. It came out of nowhere – It hasn’t been in the German charts (although it peaked at 6 in the UK charts in 1985) – and was traded on cassettes. And even I was drawn mysteriously to this happy pop tune.

Clouds Across The Moon tells the story of a woman’s annual call to her husband who is based on a spaceship somewhere around Mars. The music is pure 80s cheesy synth pop, including hideous synthetic horns, but there is some inherent sadness in the song (unless you watch the video), in particular after the call was interrupted and she whispers “I’ll try it again next year”.

RAH Band was the studio vehicle for Richard Hewson, who has worked with pretty much every big name during the 60s and 70s, including The Beatles. The vocals on Clouds are sung by his wife Liz.

I completely forgot about the song until I saw, well, clouds passing the full moon the other day. It still evokes many memories.