Idolator

Time for another installment of the Coulda-Shoulda-Woulda Files, where we raid our cassingle collection in search of a lost gem.

Artist: Crush
Song: "Jellyhead," 1996
What happened: Donna Air and Jayni Hoy were both actresses on the UK soap Byker Grove, and they were signed to the UK label Telstar after singing in a group spun off from the show; the duo released two singles, "Jellyhead" and "Luv'd Up," before Hoy left and was replaced by Luciana Caporaso. After Caporaso came in, Crush released a self-titled full-length (it used Hoy's vocals on eight of its 12 tracks) that flopped, despite the presence of three songs penned by Saint Etienne singer Sarah Cracknell.
Why it should have been a hit "Jellyhead" opens with the classic put-down "So what if your jeans are torn / They've been torn since Bros were cool," and it heads even more into the red from there. If Andrew WK's "Party Hard" had an aggrieved teenage sister, the radio edit of "Jellyhead" would be it, thanks to its keyboard sugar rushes, multitracked vocals, and exhortations to turn the music up really loud. (Although we don't think that Andrew is as big a fan of the Prodigy as the Crush ladies seem to be.) The Motiv 8 edit, while not as instantly grabbable as its radio counterpart, is pretty endearing, too, thanks in large part to a disco-trashy piano breakdown that's lifted straight out of "100% Pure Love."

Crush - Jellyhead (Radio Edit) [MP3, link expired]
Crush - Jellyhead (Motiv 8's Pumphouse 7" Edit) [MP3, link expired]