Favorite Song No. 361: Orange Juice – Rip It Up

I haven’t much to write about this song. I knew of Edwyn Collins, the lead singer of Orange Juice, primarily from his Britpop-era hit “A Girl Like You.” I used to try to work that into DJ sets in the mid-’90s, but I had to be selective with who I played it for, as not every crowd was receptive to the song. When it worked, it worked well, but if I wasn’t judicious with where I played it, it could clear a dance floor. What I did not know about Edwyn Collins at the time was that he’d been in a band called Orange Juice in the early ’80s. I didn’t discover that until 15 years later.

I was in London in 2010, and every trip to London involves at least one pilgrimage on my part to Rough Trade Records on Brick Lane. It was there that I found The Celestial Cafe, a book, not a record, by Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of one of my favorite bands of life, Belle & Sebastian. I thoroughly enjoyed that book, and highly recommend it to anyone reading this, even if you’ve never heard of Murdoch or his band. In any event, having made a short story long, let me conclude by saying that somewhere in the book Murdoch mentioned having been a big fan of the band Orange Juice in his youth, so I listened to some of their songs. “Rip It Up” is my favorite of the bunch. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and perhaps one day it will become your 361st most favorite song as it has become mine.