A surprisingly complicated tale to tell when it comes to the various versions of Hard Corps and their final single release, ‘Lucky Charm’ (in English) / ‘Porte Bonheur’ (en Français) that go beyond just the different language variants. In short – most have never been issued on CD and remain exclusive to the various original vinyl releases of the time, both UK and France, since the 7” and 12” versions not only differ in language, but in some cases the edits (rather than mixes) too. The only versions from vinyl that have ever appeared on CD are the 7” mix of ‘Porte Bonheur’ – found on the B sides of the UK 7” and French 7” – this version appeared on the ‘Metal and Flesh’ CD – and the UK 12” A side on a semi-official(?) compilation CD (and possibly a needle-drop at that?) ‘Euro Disco – The Lost Legends Vol. 2’. If you’re thinking that the ‘Metal and Flesh’ CD had the French language 12” mix on it… pardonez moi, non! It nearly did… the mix is there, but edited down much shorter.
^ Hard Corps – Lucky Charm UK 7 inch single front cover
If you are not familiar with the track in any detail, the bigger picture in summary – the shorter 7” mix (in French and English versions) was produced/remixed along with Mute Records founder Daniel Miller and the band. ‘Lucky Charm’ was one of about half a dozen tracks the band worked on during 1986 in the period where the relationship with Polydor Records had gone cold and they were trying to disentangle themselves from that contract. These tracks (according to ‘Showcase’ fanzine of the period, produced by Nick Linazasoro, which contains an excellent, in depth interview with the band) also included ‘Killing Fields’, ‘Desire’, ‘Rain in the UK’ and ‘Lovers and Strangers’. (Likely also ‘Coeur Clos’/‘Change Your Heart’?)
Re-recorded for the eventual single, it varies quite a bit depending on the record you have. My original experience when bought at the time was that the 7″ mix starts off with some lush synth string pads and electronic percussion before the main thrust of the song kicks in. This 7” mix is quite a bit different in many ways from the longer 12” version (which again exists in both French and English) – this mix starts off with a sequenced, sampled voice and gets going with a different bass synth sequence and more of a four to the floor kick drum pulse. This mix doesn’t have the Daniel Miller involvement and was produced by the band (and with some involvement from Pascal Gabriel too) judging by the various sleeve credits. This mix was edited down for the A side of the French 7”.
Getting confusing now, huh? But wait, there’s more… there is also the wholly instrumental mix of the track too (which again is different on the UK and French releases). So, note the following in short (there’s a hell of a lot more detail at the end…) (more…)
