Electric Blue

This is the Australian group Icehouse's biggest hit in the United States. In it, a man thinks he has a chance at the love of a woman who seems to be above his station. When she looks at him, he gets a strange, frozen feeling that he describes as "electric blue."

Icehouse is immensely popular in Australia, where they formed under the name Flowers. Their 1980 debut album was called Icehouse, which they used as the band name when they found out other bands in other countries were called Flowers ("Icehouse" is Australian slang for an insane asylum). Their song "We Can Get Together" from that debut album cracked the American chart at #62, and "No Promises" from their fourth album, Measure For Measure, reached #79, but they had little impact in the States until their next album, Man Of Colors. The first single was "Crazy," which charted at #14, with "Electric Blue" following at #7. In their native Australia, "Electric Blue" was a #1 hit and continues to get airplay.

John Oates of the duo Hall & Oates wrote this with Icehouse lead singer Iva Davies. In 1986, Hall & Oates split up to pursue other interests; Daryl Hall released his second solo album that year, while Oates worked as a producer and songwriter. They reunited in 1988, releasing the album Ooh Yeah!. The pair got together when Icehouse was touring America in 1986. Davies was having a drink at a hotel bar in New York City when Oates called him, eager to collaborate. Oates ended up flying to Australia, where they wrote the song together. When they were done, Oates told Davies that if he didn't use it, he would record it with Hall & Oates because he knew it was a hit.