Review: “I Wanna Have Some Fun” by Samantha Fox (Vinyl, 1988)

Today’s Pop Rescue from a fate uncertain is the 1988 third album I Wanna Have Some Fun by the British model, presenter, and singer, Samantha Fox. Will this album be Fun, or will you Only Wanna Be putting it in the bin? Read on…

Samantha Fox - I Wanna Have Some Fun (1988) album — Samantha Fox – I Wanna Have Some Fun (1988) album.

This 12 track LP opens with the ‘Hello‘ of the titular second single I Wanna Have Some Fun. Drum machines arrive in a flurry, with dramatic synth stabs. Samantha is soon on the mic and she’s aptly in a playful mood here. Her backing singers give a wonderful contrast to Sam’s vocals, although at times she sounds a little like La Toya Jackson. A tiny sample of Love Sensation, used by contemporaries Black Box, can be caught. The sampling and beats make this a wonderful example of late 80’s music, and it’s definitely influenced by the hip-hop sound of the song’s writers and producers Full Force. However, the UK singles-buying audience wasn’t convinced and it sadly flopped at #63. Despite this, it’s a great start to the album.

“Are you ready to do things tonight that you never dreamed were possible?” says a voice, as a gurgling synth and dance beat piles in at the start of lead single Love House. I’m reminded a lot here of the debut Dannii Minogue album, and it gives us another good track. It narrowly missed the top 30 in the UK, when it reached #32.

Next up is Your House Or My House follows, and this brings Samantha into some fantastic pop. She effortlessly makes her way through the lyrics. The end result is a great bouncy pop song, complete with key change that Samantha delivers with ease. It really reminds me of Sonia’s Climb To The Top Of A Mountain in the chorus, but there’s plenty here that remains different, and doesn’t detract from it being a banger. This should have been a single.

Next To Me is er… next, and this drops in a gentle drum machine and vocal sampling. Samantha gives a lyrical nod to earlier hit Touch Me (I Want Your Body), but here the vocals are somewhat muted, heavily sampled, and feel almost secondary to the drum machine and samples. In 1988 this will have undoubtedly have sounded really fresh, but now it’s a 5m 36s filler.

That leads on to Ready For This Love, and this gives us an upbeat pop track, that includes a really nice blast on the saxophone. The track bounces along merrily, with a catchy melody, and could easily pass as an early Kylie track. Sam’s vocals are really strong throughout, and she shows off her power and range with great ease. I really think that this track should have been a single.

Side One closes with a sort of pseudo-heavenly sounding introduction, leading us to Confession. A hard beat drops in with a descending bass and piano line. Samantha takes the microphone and sings this breathy down-beat song. It’s a nice contrast to the previous song, and is actually quite a slow foot tapper. It’s a good track to close this first side with.

Then it’s on to hit third and final single, I Only Wanna Be With You, a cover of Dusty Springfield’s hit debut single from 1964. Pop svengalis Stock, Aitken, Waterman are behind the dials of this galloping romp. Samantha belts this track out without taking any hostages. It’s only 2m 47s long, but it really goes for it. Thankfully it was a single, and when released as the third and final one, it gave Samantha a decent #16 UK hit.

S/A/W’s second and final offering for the album – You Started Something – is next. This continues the familiar pop sound, and whilst it’s slower than the previous track (which isn’t difficult!), Samantha gets to show of her vocals once again as the song cheerfully bounces along alongside her. It’s a nice little pop song.

Taking the songs up a notch, to a level also found in intense Nintendo games, is One In A Million. Once again the track gallops along without a moment for a breath, as a ton of dramatic synths and drum-fills pour into our ears. Keyboard brass, bass, and vocal samples are littered throughout and it’s certainly a fairly catchy track. Why this also wasn’t a single – I don’t know!

We’re Walking On Air next, which is good, because poor Samantha probably ran out of oxygen with the pace of the last song. Here, the track allows her a few moments before she’s needed back on the mic. Dramatic synth stabs herd her towards the first verse. This this a gentle pop song, that isn’t too far in sound to a Stock, Aitken, Waterman song. It’s produced by Fred Zarr, who also produced the earlier Kylie-sounding Ready For This Love on side one, and once again he does a great job.

Hot For You is next, and here we get guitar and bass straight off the bat – and this gives the song a much harder rockier feel. This works nicely as Samantha tells us that she is ‘hot hot for youuuu‘. There’s a nice guitar solo in the final third that helps to give the song a harder grunt to it, which fits in perfectly with Samantha’s hot ‘needs’. It’s another foot tapper, and this style works as well for her as pop does.

The album closes with Out Of Your Hands, and this gives us an echoey vocally layered slow plodding ballad lasting just 2mins 45s. The drama is here in the vocals, the beats, piano and guitars. I can almost hear Bonnie Tyler giving this song a crack.

Samantha Fox’s lead single ‘Love House’ (1988).

Verdict

Over all, this album is a belter of pop songs, and should’ve-been singles.

I remember I Only Wanna Be With You coming into the charts, but the rest of the tracks here had passed me by at the time. Now, here in 2024, I Only Wanna Be With You sits alongside the rest of the tracks here and it really does stand out as being a total romp through a classic hit, and is joined by several other (perhaps better) pop songs too.

The highlights are clearly Ready For This Love, I Only Wanna Be With You, Your House Or My House, and One In A Million, all but one of which was a single (why!?!). At its weaker moments, tracks like Next To Me, You Started Something, and Out Of Your Hands just bring us down to tracks that are good but just a bit dull.

‘I Wanna Have Some Fun’ is the title of the album, and I guess that ‘Yes’ that is what you’ll have with this album, as it gives an exciting, funky, upbeat ride through late 1980s music, impatiently waiting for the 1990s.