Single flashback

Glass Tiger - Thin Red Line [1986]

Glass Tiger’s debut album ‘The Thin Red Line’ first hit the charts in March 1986 and did not slip off the album chart until 70 weeks later.

Four times platinum here, gold in the USA and powered by five huge singles, the Jim Vallance produced LP was a phenomenon.

The lead single was, of course, ‘Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)’ which only went and hit number one!

Surely Capitol Records didn’t expect the follow-up to have that kind of success, but you can bet they intended to give whatever song was chosen a push.

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That song turned out to be the album’s title track, and so the single dropped in May ‘86 with a respectable peak of #19.

Pretty good for a single that is basically a war story set to music.

So join us for a lesson on the Crimean War and the Battle of Balaclava!

“Remember no retreat, from here you die where you stand
It's chance that brings the Rory's to this foreign land
The crimson and the claidemaugh make you strangers to fear
A thin red streak tipped with a line of steel”

Musically, the lyrics are set against a military drum beat, a guitar line evocative of bagpipes, and cinematic keys.

You can dance to it, but you could also march to it.

Here Sam Reid [keyboards] and Alan Frew [vocals] discuss the origins of the song, working with Jim Vallance, and most interestingly the feeling that ‘Thin Red Line’ the single cost them a shot at a US #1 for ‘Don’t Forget Me’ thanks to many US DJs opting for the title track as opposed to those near the border favouring the more obvious blockbuster.

Now, a little bonus for you. In 2012, GT released a hits package with some new material. Please enjoy this stripped down version of ‘Thin Red Line’ - the Reverence Mix.

Do you have a fave Glass Tiger song or album? Let us know in the comments.