The perfect parable for April Fool’s Day

In the late 80s, a lot of musical snobbery was directed at Stock Aitken & Waterman. They were derided for their phenomenal success in producing hits for the likes of Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. Real soul fans loathed what they regarded as this plastic, manufactured pop. But they adored “obscure” old American funk tracks like this one – extremely rare with only a few white-label promos in circulation. Once demand for it was off the scale, Stock, Aitken & Waterman revealed the truth: it was them all along. This “authentic” rare groove track was a fake. They knocked it up one afternoon, and the vocalists were just girls from the office. Their critics looked very foolish. They could hardly now claim that they didn’t like it. And why would they? “Rare groove” or not, it’s still a great track. So whatever you think of Pete Waterman, the one thing he’s not is a fool.