Yazoo, known in America as Yaz, were the duo of instrumentalist/programmer Vince Clarke and vocalist Alison Moyet. Clarke was an original member of Depeche Mode and wrote "Only You" for them. He was about to leave the band in late 1981 and he wanted them to have a good single to start off 1982. Depeche Mode didn't want it; instead they released "See You," a song Martin Gore wrote when he was only 15. "Only You" ended up on Yazoo's debut album,
Upstairs At Eric's, in 1982.
This was the first song Clarke and Moyet recorded together. In a
2010 Songfacts interview with Vince Clarke, he explained: "One of the big reasons I asked Alison to sing 'Only You' was because I felt that it was a ballad that needed someone with a soulful voice. And it wasn't like I thought to myself, 'Okay, you have a chance to marry electronics with song.' It just turned out that way, and it happened Alison had a great voice, and it worked really well."
With his departure from Depeche Mode imminent, Clarke was looking for a female vocalist to sing on this track. He told Songfacts how he found Moyet: "The first time I heard her sing, she was in a punk band called the Vandals. And my best friend, Rob, he was the guitarist for the Vandals, and they played at one of the local pubs. And then I saw her a couple of times after that. She sang for an R&B band. So when I finally had her do this demo with me, I knew she had a great voice."
The Clarke/Moyet partnership was supposed to be just for this single, but when it took off, the record company asked them to make a whole album, which they did. After one more album (You And Me Both, 1983), Yazoo split up, with Clarke teaming with Andy Bell to form Erasure in 1985.
When we spoke with Clarke, he told us that this song stands out among his work. Said Clarke: "'Only You' I'm very proud of, because it almost makes sense lyrically. (laughs) And lots of people seem to like that song, so that would be one of my favorites. I've tried to write lyrics that perhaps express the way I feel sometimes. I've struggled with that feeling. I find it easier to write lyrics about someone else's situation other than my own."
This song deserves a place in the "History of Electronic Music" playlist, as it merged a warmer synthesizer sound with a jazz-styled female vocalist. Along with Clarke's lyrics about a desire and longing for a loved one, it was a step forward in electronica.
The British group Flying Picketts recorded an a cappella version of this song in 1983, earning the coveted Christmas #1 spot on the UK charts that year. It was also the first a cappella song to hit the top of the UK charts. Considering that Vince Clarke has a hard time pouring his soul into words, he did a pretty good job on this one.
Vince Clarke told
Mojo magazine February 2013 that this song was directly influenced by Simon & Garfunkel's "
The Sound Of Silence." He said: "It was written on guitar, a very simple melody with a kind of understated, uplifting chorus, and I hoped the words were kind of poetic."
"Only You" has appeared in a number of TV shows, including episodes of The Office ("Christmas Special: Part 2" - 2003), Fringe ("Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11" - 2012) and Cold Case ("Bombers" - 2010). In 2014, Yaz was part of the storyline on the "Dimebag" episode of The Americans, which was set at the time the song was popular. In the episode, a Russian spy is seducing a teenage girl who plays the song for him. The spy later buys the album for his teenage daughter.
This was used in the movies Can't Hardly Wait (1998), A Home At The End Of The World (2004), Take Me Home Tonight (2011), and Behaving Badly (2014).
Becky Hill
covered this for a McDonald's 2022 Christmas ad. Her twinkly acoustic version is more reminiscent of The Flying Pickets' rendition than Yazoo's original track.
When Yazoo performed in the early '80s, Vince Clarke used a computer connected to a synthesizer to play back the tracks and didn't bother pretending to play the keyboard. He also bucked the trend of looking very serious at his synth (as seen in groups like the Buggles and A Flock Of Seagulls).
"Synthesizer bands do get into this rut of having to look dead cool and composed, whereas we intend to make complete idiots of ourselves," he admitted to Smash Hits magazine.
The album title, Upstairs at Eric's, is a reference to Eric Radcliffe, who produced it with Clarke and Moyet and owned Blackwing Studios in London, where they recorded it.
