When Ullman appeared on Top Of The Pops in 1983, singing Irma Thomas’ Breakaway into a hairbrush, it was clear that this�was one small-screen starlet who wasn’t taking her singing career too seriously. A comedy show regular, our Trace kept her tongue firmly in her cheek, but still chalked up album sales in excess of 150,000.
This seductively silly debut also saw her cover the likes of Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield and Blondie, but it was her version of an earlier Stiff flop, Kirsty MacColl’s They Don’t Know, which fell just short of No 1 (the pivotal ‘baby!’ high note sampled from the original, fact fans). MacColl also penned the hilarious title track, and had a hand in most of the vocal arrangements.
Now a huge star in the US, and with a couple of decent Woody Allen movies on her CV, Ullman still occasionally dabbles in music, more often than not as part of comic skits. But this is where her good humour and willingness to send herself up actually resulted in genuine, but brief, pop stardom.
