The CNN Review  
Texas goes 'White on Blonde' for new album

August 22, 1997
From Correspondent Bill Tush.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- "Texas" legend has it that Sharleen Spiteri decided on the name of her Glasgow-based band after falling in love with the 1984 Wim Wenders film "Paris, Texas."

In recording "White on Blonde", the new album from Texas, Spiteri did a lot of the song-writing with bassist Johnny Mcelhorne, long distance, from where else ... Paris !

"I was living in Paris for a year for this album, while we were making the album and Johnny, my soulmate-partner and I, you know were communicating over the telephone. It was funny because it was the first time that we hadn't been in the same city writing a record," says Spiteri.

"Say What You Want" is the group's new single and it sounds an awful lot like the old Marvin Gaye tune, "Sexual Healing."

"Marvin Gaye is a massive influence on me as a singer so you know I'd be more than proud if somebody said there's a slight touch of that in there," she says. "I'd be like, wow." Indeed, it's sexual feelings that play the biggest part in the new album.

"It's kind of sexual in a way, even virginal and then you got all this hip hop and rap, this kind of real street beats," says Spiteri. "I really like a sexy beat."

Continuing in that vein, Spiteri says, " ... any good music's always got a sexual vibe, always. There's got to be to make you get up and dance to make you get up and move around and move your body."