Gehman FM standard in France and Germany
Just Around the Corner moves on a steady mid-tempo pocket with Peter Kingsbery’s anchored vocal and Anna LaCazio’s answering lines. Synths shine without crowding; guitars stay almost murmured; the mix leaves air. Cock Robin, led by Kingsbery, never owned the U.S. mainstream the way they owned continental radio. In the mid-80s Europe (especially France and Germany) made the band an FM staple while America stayed cooler. Producer Don Gehman (known for Mellencamp’s heartland rock) let the arrangement breathe instead of stacking 1987 bombast.
Cash Box called the cut darkly ominous yet hopeful; that read still fits. The emotional geometry is careful: every part placed, no desperate key-change finish. Kingsbery delivers lines as if they have already been lived. The band’s chemistry was always more dialogue than standard frontman-plus-backup posing. In a year when overproduction was normal, they chose clarity and got a song that does not glue itself to one fashion season.
The melancholy stays controlled; no soap-opera excess. That is why French and German oldies radio still cue it without irony. The single asks little of the listener and stays mid-volume rather than waving a banner. Late-80s pop often forgot that clarity can carry a room; this record did not.
Darkly ominous, brooding, yet hopeful, a brilliant cut with a highly original sound, with the Call and Prefab Sprout possible reference points.
(Cash Box, 1987)
Decades later the track still works on playlists that mix Prefab Sprout, Spandau, and soft rock without shame. Gehman’s depth without clutter is audible next to louder 1987 singles. Cock Robin’s European second home explains the chart geography better than any mystique. Put the needle down and you get melodic assurance that never begs for attention yet commands the room.
Concrete legacy: a named producer, a continent that said yes, and a mid-tempo single that never dominated US charts yet never left European oldies rotation.
Kingsbery’s writing voice (American, literate, slightly theatrical) met European radio programmers who still wanted melody in 1987. LaCazio’s harmonies answered without turning the single into a duet gimmick. Gehman’s Mellencamp schooling shows as space around the vocal rather than walls of gated reverb. French TV performances helped lock the faces to the hook for an audience that treated Cock Robin as domestic FM furniture.
Compare it with louder US chart rock of the same year and the restraint is obvious. Compare it with Prefab Sprout or The Call, as Cash Box suggested, and the reference points make sense: literate chorus, dark tint, commercial clarity. That triangle explains the durable European oldies rotation better than any soft-focus memory of neon. Gehman’s mix still leaves space around the vocal; that is why the track still works between Prefab Sprout and soft rock on a playlist.
