promo entitled ‘The Rapino Brothers featuring Take That’ but then it was made into a seven-inch and people loved it. Charlie says, ‘Gary Barlow was on tour when he heard it and he said when he heard the mix, he went nuts!’ This was eventually the version of the song that won the Brits’ Best Single of 1992 with the production credit of the Rapino Brothers/I. Levine/Billy Griffin. (Oddly, the band was not invited to perform at the ceremony that year, quite a snub given their profile.)
Stephen Budd, who manages the two Italians, remembers those times with relish: ‘I got this call from Nigel Martin-Smith and he said, “What have you done? I’ve got them in the studio with those Italians and they’ve got soft-core mags! Tell them not to bring those magazines into the studio ever again!” Also, what was amazing was that when they were working with us there were these code words. We were issued a list of code words to tell us which day and which studio they would be at and we were not supposed to talk to each other unless we used these code words—the problem being that if the fans found out about it there’d be two thousand girls outside the studio. Robbie used to go to the Rapinos’ house but they were always well-behaved in front of Nigel. The only scandals were with the Rapino Brothers themselves.’
Charlie agrees: ‘The band turned up with bodyguards at the studio some days when there were no fans around and we were like, “What do you need bodyguards for?” and we later realised it was probably to protect Take That from us!’
Stephen Budd loved the result: ‘We were in the Roundhouse for the seven-inch version of “Could it Be Magic” and Nick Raymonde came in and listened to it and we all had that moment when you know without a shadow of a doubt we had a monster smash record—that very rarely happens, it was a big moment. Nothing was going to stop it being a huge hit, clear as daylight.’
The fans weren’t the only ones who loved the song: ‘We then took a call from Barry Manilow,’ recalls Stephen Budd, ‘he said, “I’ve heard this arrangement and it’s the best I have heard of one of my songs that I didn’t do, so could you come over and meet us at Wembley Arena?” So we did and met him and he did the actual arrangement live on stage, which was a nice moment.’
The use of two versions of the song did cause controversy behind the scenes, but Ian Levine’s scintillating mix was available on the vinyl while the Rapino version was on the CD format. For Take That fans interested in seeing one song treated in equally fascinating ways, both tracks are vital.
***
As far as the public were concerned, Take That was still a fledgling boy band with only one chart hit to their name and no album to speak of. After the disastrous chart placing for ‘Once You’ve Tasted Love’ there was enormous pressure on the next single—the band’s fourth. In the post-millennial climate, a boy band with a seven-figure investment behind them would probably not reach their fourth single with statistics as poor as Take That’s were at this stage. Korda Marshall and Nick Raymonde’s belief in the band remained strong, but the lack of a chart success was heaping pressure on the balance sheets at RCA. Ultimately, it cost Korda his job.
‘After those first two RCA singles had stiffed,’ says Korda, ‘there was a lot of pressure on me because of the lack of success and the un-recouped debit balance that was on my head. If you included the spiralling album costs, RCA had spent a million quid on Take That and they weren’t even going in the Top Forty. To make matters worse, I’d also signed a band called M People that had also stiffed at that point. So here I was, I was carrying the can of a million quid on one band and 1.2 million on the other. That’s the nature of pop bands, it’s like rolling two dice and trying to get a double six. A new MD came in to the company, looked at what was going on and said “There’s nothing really here”, so I was dismissed.’ The debut album was still to be completed at this point.
Less than two months after Korda stopped working at RCA, Take That released their third single on the label, a cover of Tavares’ disco classic ‘It Only Takes a Minute Girl’, which, to everyone’s delight, flew into the Top Ten at No. 7 on its June 1992 release, spending a full two months in the lists. The excellent video featured some incredible dancing from Howard and Jason—a frequently missed or underrated aspect of the band’s success.
The record company and band mustered up huge PR opportunities, dozens of signings, meet-and-greets, store appearances, club shows and PAs, everything anyone could think of to work the record. There was also a very clever strategy of data collection, which might sound like some business buffoonery to the average pop fan but was actually a very astute piece of marketing on RCA’s part, as Nick Raymonde explains: ‘I’d got one shot left after the first two singles had stiffed. So I went in to see Hugh Goldsmith [Head of Marketing at RCA], and said, “I need you to come and see Take That. Come with me because it’s only if you see them, then do the maths like I did, that you will understand the potential and, hopefully, think of the missing link that will stop the next single failing.”
‘We drove up to Warrington to see them at a club PA and he just watched the show, turned to me and said, “Yeah, I get it. I totally understand what we need to do.”’ Hugh suggested they ask fans to fill in forms each and every single time the band played, so that they had the addresses and details of what they knew to be a large fan base. This might be standard procedure now, but back in 1991 it was innovative stuff. And it was all done manually, as e-mail was not yet commonplace. Within five weeks, RCA had over 10,000 girls’ names on a list. So when the song was released, the fans knew about it and…bingo.
The track was recorded with producer Nigel Wright at his home, which had a studio and swimming pool, so it was an enjoyable experience. The choice of song was also a masterstroke, giving the band huge visibility overnight. Given that the previous two singles had only spent five weeks in the charts put together, this was massive progress, but most importantly it put Take That in the Top Ten and onto the nation’s television sets. Take That had finally
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