Emma/ A Love Like Yours

This was the group's first foray into the U.S. pop charts, and made it all the way to the Top 10... though I doubt many radio listeners from that period remember it clearly or have any idea who the group was. Hot Chocolate was a multiracial U.K. outfit that had a gazillion hits in their native Britain starting in the late 1960s and running through the early 1980s. Their biggest U.S. hit, "You Sexy Thing," has made the U.K. charts on 3 separate occasions--most recently in 1997--and each time it rose to the top 10.

"Emma" was their first single after the classic "Brother Louie," which was covered in the States by the band Stories. Their music was hard to fit neatly in a particular genre because it was so wide-ranging. "Emma" is one of the hard ones, but also one of the yummiest.

Note that the group's producer is none other than the legendary Mickie Most, who also produced numerous hits for The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Lulu, and many other U.K. acts. Note: This copy comes in a vintage Atlantic/Atco Records factory sleeve. The audio is a strong EX.