Cut from the Loverboy mold of rocking gently and non-offensively (which sounds like an insult, I realize, but isn’t really), Niagra Falls, Canada’s Honeymoon Suite (get it? GET IT?!?) got their big break when their self-produced single “New Girl Now” won a radio contest, attracting the attention of Warner Brothers Records in 1984.



“New Girl Now” is a nearly perfect slice of 1984, from the shiny synth chords laid over a pristine guitar crunch, to the low-budget video featuring our hero, The Lead Singer, trying his best to dump his girlfriend who bears more than a passing resemblance to Imogene Coca. The fact that he’d want to ditch this chick is understandable, given her propensity to call him at all hours and throw bricks thru his window, but why then is his New Girl Now “a lot like you”? Some guys never learn…or they just crave psycho strangestrange.

This song was another of my secret guilty pleasures back then, the 45 tucked away between my Smiths and Echo & the Bunnymen albums, lest I lose my punker cred. Back then, my friends and I would listen to it in an ironic fashion, mockingly air guitar-ing along to the solo and pumping our fists at the “SHE’S JUSSS LAHK YOO!” part at the end. Today, I love it unabashedly and without shame. I mean, 3:37…intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus to end. Perfect.

Honeymoon Suite went on to have a slightly bigger hit two years later with a single called “Feel It Again”, but that DIY AOR feeling was gone. The band had quite a few hits up north, but limped along in the States. They’re still together, apparently, releasing a new album in 2002.

But for now, it’s 2005, Friday night, June, summertime, hot summer night…storm clouds in the air – get in the car, roll down the windows, and blast this tonight. You’ll thank me Monday.

Download "New Girl Now".

Purchase Honeymoon Suite's debut.

”New Girl Now” peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984.