Martha's Harbour

"Martha's Harbour" is a song by the English rock band All About Eve. It became known as the group's signature song, reaching No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart and helping the group's self-titled debut album reach No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. The song was highly unusual for a 1980s pop hit, featuring only Julianne Regan's voice, acoustic guitars played by Tim Bricheno and background sound effects of the sea.

"Martha's Harbour"
Single by All About Eve
from the album All About Eve
Released1988
Recorded1987
Genre
Length3:08
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Paul Samwell-Smith
All About Eve singles chronology
"Every Angel"
(1988)		 "Martha's Harbour"
(1988)		 "What Kind of Fool"
(1988)

Background

On its creation, Julianne Regan has said, in an interview on BBC radio, "This song happened by accident when we were recording the first album. It was one of those things when we had the day off and we were sat in this very idyllic setting beneath a willow tree besides a stream by this beautiful residential recording studio and it just came out so naturally. It was a miracle of a little song and it's very dear to us because of that, because it was very pure, a really happy accident. Everybody went to the pub and we put it down and by the time they got back Martha's Harbour was committed to tape. Martha's Harbour is a fictitious backdrop for this happening."[1]

Top of the Pops performance

The song is well known for an incident on the popular BBC UK music show Top of the Pops, when the group, ready to do a mimed (as was BBC policy at the time) performance of their hit, were not played the backing track through their monitors, so they sat motionless while the television and studio audience could hear the song.[2] Due to this error on the part of the BBC, the band were invited back the following week and insisted on playing the song live.

Personnel

Charts
Chart (1988) Peak
position
Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[3] 34
Ireland (IRMA)[4] 23
UK Singles (OCC)[5] 10

References
  1. BBC Sold on Song Top 100 – Martha's Harbour
  2. Paphides, Peter (4 February 2014). "Six of the most memorable moments in miming". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  3. "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 5 no. 35. 27 August 1988. p. 17. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  4. "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Martha's Harbour". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  5. "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 November 2020.



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