The rise and rise of Texas
from The Evening Chronichle, by Gordon Barr
Sharleen Spiteri was 18 years of age, living alone in a rented flat in Glasgow and dividing her time between working in a hairdressing salon and partying in clubs and bars.
She had also just written a song with Johnny McElhone, who had already had hits with the likes of Altered Images.
That was 12 years ago, the song was I Don't Want A Lover - and it became the debut single for Sharleen's group, Texas, reaching the dizzy heights of eighth spot in the UK charts.
Several, much lesser hits, followed. Then Texas disappeared from the British charts - until 1996 and one of the biggest comebacks in the pop world.
The Texas album White on Blonde was a chart-topper, spawning five top 10 singles and put the band firmly back on the musical map.
Fast forward another five years, and 15 million record sales, and Texas are undeniably one of the country's most popular bands.
Their recent Greatest Hits album has already gone five times platinum in Britain alone and had the distinction of knocking The Beatles' 1 album off the top spot last week.
Texas are big news with a sell-out gig at Newcastle's Telewest Arena on Monday and a further show just announced there for April 12.
"Did I dream that some of my first songs would still be on the radio 12 years later?" says Sharleen.
"Well, yes, that really was the big dream from the start, to write good songs that would stand the test of time.
"Texas made this big 'comeback' with White on Blonde, but there was also an important past there and we thought it was time to join all the dots and pull everything together.
"I do still think we're getting better but the dream remains the same.
"I still want to hear my songs on the radio in another 11 years - for us, this is Greatest Hits Volume One."
The album, of course, features all of Texas's singles and, on release, a couple of new tracks, too - now singles also.
Sharleen says: "It's difficult to write new material specifically for a Greatest Hits record, so we just concentrated on writing a whole other album's worth of new songs.
"Then we took things to the next level and collaborated with the other songwriters, like Dallas Austin and Greg Alexander, and, after that, we hand-picked only a couple of specific songs for the Greatest Hits.
"I like the way you can play In Demand next to I Don't Want A Lover, the very first song we ever wrote, and they sound really good alongside each other. I'm really proud of the album we've pulled together.
"I've always loved good Greatest Hits collections, from Madonna's The Immaculate Collection to Kate Bush's The Whole Story, to the U2 collection.
"I'm not embarrassed in the slightest about repackaging everything again and adding new singles.
"I think the time is right and that there's an art to a good balanced Greatest Hits.
"I don't know if we've cracked it, but I know there is nothing worse than putting out some Best Of years after everyone's lost interest.
"I was always excited about Prince putting out a killer singles collection but, by the time he did it, the moment seemed to have been lost. It was a wasted opportunity.
"Some people seem to avoid Greatest Hits records altogether and for the wrong reasons. I buy into great albums full of good songs. I buy into fun."
So, what is a good song to Sharleen?
"A good song to me is worth more than a thousand rave reviews," she says.
"For years, I've idolised Ashford and Simpson, Neil Diamond, Dann Penn, Holland and Dozier, Carole King - the list stretches on and on.
"These people weren't moody, hip rock 'n' rollers. The fact that Johnny and I were nominated for three Ivor Novello awards after White on Blonde meant so much more to us than all the other acclaim and fuss of that year.
"And we got the award that really counts, the outstanding body of work award. Say What You Want and Summer Son aren't the only good songs we've written."
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