Shame #2 - Juice Newton - Queen Of Hearts

First there was disco shame - now let us introduce you to pop/country shame stylings of world renowned two hit wonder Juice Newton. Leaving aside the searching power ballad "Angel Of The Morning" for now let's take a look at her other momentary flash of pop superstardom - Queen Of Hearts.

There are so many reasons to be ashamed of liking this song. The fact that it is as 80's as anything ever released is chief amongst them - that it is barely disguised country is another. But when has barely disguised 80's country/pop ever been a bad thing? To be entirely frank I like Islands In The Stream so this is an absolute doddle for me.



Another point against Juice is that it has one of the shonkier clips in a long standing tradition of bad 80's videos. The highlight of this is Juice being put in jail just for making a man fall off a swing. This IS as ridiculous as it sounds.

The song itself, though, rattles on charmingly and always makes me nod along. In an ideal world I'd also sing along but that's never going to happen unless I'm really, really drunk. What really takes it to another level in my book is the clever double layered chorus where just when you think they're going to verse up again it goes into the "laying out another lie" bit. Most importantly her voice suits the track perfectly - especially when she sings "fooooooool" - it's just nice and there's not enough niceness in music these days. The whole track might be as cheesy as f**k but there's a certain indisputable feelgood factor to it. In an era where everything's about bitches, hos and shaking that ass what's wrong with a 'nice' song?

With it's appearance as one of the songs on the K-Rose radio station in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Queen Of Hearts has enjoyed somewhat of a revival amongst younger people that hadn't heard it before. Despite this, and the related images of driving over people in trucks and shooting them with machineguns while listening to it, you would not drive down the street with your windows down and 100% Juice blasting over the stereo. Therefore it is a natural inclusion in the Shame FM files. But just how shameful?

Shame rating: - quite shameful

Disclaimer: This Juice Newton not to be confused with Leigh "Juice" Newton who played 13 games and kicked 6 goals for Melbourne in 1997. We do, however, believe this to be the first and so far last example of 80's country pop forming the basis of a sporting nickname.