The Dean of Dance

The production team of Stock-Aitken-Waterman were geniuses at taking the irresistibly cheesy genre of dance music known as "hi-NRG" out of the gay club scene and into the pop mainstream. If Kylie stood alone at the megastar end of the SAW spectrum, and The Dolly Dots teetered on the lowest rung of transient pop ephemera, then Hazell Dean was SAW's reliable workhorse: earthier than the pop-star-glossy Rick Astley, less self-consciously camp than Bananarama, with the kind of sturdy professionalism which meant that she could, and would outlast, say, Brother Beyond. (Despite the unfortunate mom jeans.)

But no one who came into contact with SAW was immune from the terminally clumsy 1980's video treatment; here, you can practically smell the trepidation as Hazell gamely "dances" in excruciating closeup. "The Dean of Dance" celebrates her 52nd year on this earth today, and we're sure that she's made peace with this endearingly naff blast from the past.