Dollar (band)

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Dollar were a boy/girl pop duo from the UK who enjoyed their biggest hits between 1978 and 1983. The band members were Thereza Bazar and David Van Day, who met and became a couple when they were seventeen in the cabaret act Guys n' Dolls. The act had enjoyed some chart success in the mid seventies but work was becoming harder to find as the music scene was changing. When the group got wind of David's intention to record a solo single they sacked Thereza and David quickly followed.

That first single, "Shooting Star", was released in late 1978 and after a slow climb reached number 14 in the UK charts. The follow-up, "Who Were You With In The Moonlight?", was released in early 1979. A lush, mid-tempo song it also reached number 14, selling 250,000 copies. After two hit singles featuring David on lead vocals their third, the ballad "Love's Gotta Hold On Me" was sang by Thereza. However this wasn't the original plan but after trialling David on lead it was decided that it suited Thereza's style more. It became their first top ten single and one of their biggest, reaching number 4 in the UK charts. In a change of pace the band released a cover of the Beatles song "I Want To Hold Your Hand", which reached number 9. By the autumn of 1979 the band had scored four top twenty hits, but this run of success was not to last. Their producer Christopher Neil was busy with a new star, Sheena Easton, and their career took a tumble when they took over the production themselves and released the "Paris Collection" album.

After a series of flop singles it almost looked as if their career was over until Thereza approached Trevor Horn, whom she had met during her days in Guys and Dolls, and asked if he would work with them. He agreed, and produced their 1981 and 1982 material, and through Dollar, introduced sampling to a wider audience; notably, Bazar's voice got the multi-sampling treatment. Horn also extensively used Fairlight CMI samples and other new technologies. Horn's multi-layered production gave Dollar a very distinctive sound. For many, the four Horn-produced singles represented the high point in the band's career, giving them another two Top Ten singles and two more Top Twenty hits.

Dollar had an acrimonious split in early 1983: the production on these four hit singles had brought Trevor Horn to the attention of other bands notably ABC and it wasn't long before he was too busy to continue working with the duo. Left to their own devices they couldn't match the quality of Horn's work and their last hit during that period was the pleasant if not very exciting "Give Me Some Kinda Magic", a top forty hit they had written and produced themselves and the lead-in single to their final studio album The Dollar Album, a mixture of Horn's and the duo's own efforts.

David still had ambitions to be a solo star and after he and Thereza split during a trip to Japan he forged ahead on his own. He released the single "Young Americans Talking", which stalled just outside the UK top forty. Ironically it was written and produced by the people behind Bucks Fizz, the duo's one time rivals. Meanwhile Thereza recorded an album, "The Big Kiss", with producer Arif Mardin. But neither one of them enjoyed the same kind of success as solo artists as they had had as Dollar, with Thereza's "Big Kiss" project unfortunately not realizing its fullest potential and David's solo career over as soon as it began.

In 1986 they reformed and released the single "We Walked In Love", and later the UK top ten hit "Oh L'Amour", a cover of an Erasure song, in 1988. Their last single was "It's Nature's Way", and in late 1988 they disbanded again. In 2002 they took part in the "Hear And Now" tour, a series of arena sized concerts featuring other singers and bands from the 1980s. They followed this up by appearing on the reality television show Reborn In The USA alongside Elkie Brooks and Tony Hadley in early 2003. Dollar later made another live appearance in 2004 in a show celebrating the career of Trevor Horn at Wembley Arena alongside ABC and The Pet Shop Boys amongst other acts who had worked with Trevor Horn over the years.

In a chart career spanning ten years Dollar sold 10 million records in britain alone not counting other worldwide sales.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Notable singles

• "Shooting Star" (1978) #14
• "Who Were You With In The Moonlight?" (1979) #14
• "Loves Gotta Hold on Me" (1979) #4
• "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (1979) #9
• "Taking A Chance On You" (1980) #62
• "Hand Held in Black and White" (1981) #19
• "Mirror Mirror (Mon Amour)" november (1981) #4 17 weeks in the UK charts.
• "Give Me Back My Heart" march(1982) #4
• "Videotheque" (1982) july #17
• "Give Me Some Kinda Magic" september(1982) #34
• "Haven't We Said Goodbye Before" (1986)
• "We Walked In Love" (1986) #61
• "Oh L'amour" (1988) #7
• "It's Nature's Way" (1988) #58