"Came a long way from the Valley / Aim so high / Shot so true"
When it comes to spectacular pop flame-outs, it’s still tough to match the Knack, even 25 years after the phenomenal success of “My Sharona” and their debut album, “Get the Knack.” While that debut sold millions upon millions, their second album, “…but the little girls understand” did just okay, topping out at double platinum.
That third album, though…
“Round Trip” was released in 1981, just three years after “Get the Knack”. In that short amount of time, the group had alienated the rock press and even their fanbase so much that it peaked at a partly #93 on the Billboard Top 200. The Knack were actively despised. “Knuke the Knack” buttons and t-shirts were sold at Spencer’s Gifts nationwide. “Round Trip,” a sort of head-hung-low apology of an album, was dead before it was born.
As a junior high school student, I can remember seeing copy after copy stacked in our local Camelot Music’s cutout bin, a place I haunted like clockwork for buried treasure (Fred Schneider and the Shake Society for only 99¢!?? Sold!). Of course, I had some earlier familiarity with the Knack, thanks to their massive hit and the fact that I regularly checked out “Get the Knack” from the Elyria Public Library and quite liked it.
I have distinctly vivid memories of G-98, our local Top 40 outlet, playing “Round Trip’s” first single “Pay the Devil (Ooo Baby Ooo)” during the nightly Smash It or Trash It call-in show I taped every night. In fact, I saved that tape for months and months, playing that song again and again.
It got a 78% “Trash It” rating. Well, I liked it.
You have to give Capitol Records credit for releasing a country-ish waltz as the first single from the album. Either it was a bold statement that the Knack was expanding its sound and moving away from horny teen anthems or it was a horrible blunder. Take a pick.
Soon after, I heard another song from “Round Trip” on Smash It or Trash It called “Boys Go Crazy”. Now this…this was the Knack. “The boys go crazy when the girls say ‘no.” Back to speaking from the dick, a complete retreat from “Pay the Devil’s” experimentation.
It got a 64% “Smash It” rating. It didn’t even warrant a release, Capitol pulling it from the schedule when the Knack broke up, a scant three weeks after “Round Trip” hit the stores. Had the group stuck it out, leadoff track “Radiating Love” would have made a great single.
I made the 99¢ investment in “Round Trip” several times. At one point, I owned it on vinyl, cassette and even 8-track, just to have them. It’s a decent album, sort of all over the place and it betrays Doug Feiger’s drug problem at the time in certain moments. I came back to it now and then, especially to “Pay the Devil,” which with maturity, I posited might have been written about the Knack themselves:
You got it made And you made it your way Life’s looking great Now you found the right games to play
Came a long way from the Valley Aim so high, shot so true
Ooo baby ooo ooo baby ooo Everybody got to read the review Ooo baby ooo ooo baby ooo even you Got to learn to give the devil his due
Contrition only gets you so far. In this case, it got the Knack in the mid-60s of the Billboard Hot 100. 21 years later, I bought “Round Trip” one more time…this time on a lushly remastered CD, complete with demos and bonus tracks.
Got to give the devils their due. Eventually.
”Pay the Devil (Ooo Baby Ooo)” peaked at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Boys Go Crazy” was pulled from release.
Welcome to Lost in the ‘80s. Here’s where you’ll find the other side of all the big hits you remember…the failed follow-ups to the one-hit wonders, the album tracks that got significant airplay in some parts of the country/world but ignored in others, and the songs MTV may have played to death but never translated into sales or chart action…songs that didn’t deserve to be forgotten…songs that got Lost in the ‘80s.
With the blog’s mission statement out of the way, I must admit a fair amount of hand-wringing went into picking what song with which to debut the new blog. The song had to represent all aspects of the mission statement in a big way. After stewing it over, I narrowed it down to two songs – two songs that represented completely different musical eras that belonged to the ‘80s, New Wave and Hi-NRG, two songs that were failed follow-ups to a major hit, yet didn’t deserve to be Lost in the ‘80s.
It was by chance that both songs happened to be by the same artist – Kim Wilde.
Long before Joseph Simpson creeped everyone out by pimping out his daughters Jessica and Ashlee, father Marty and brother Ricki brought Kim Wilde into the pop world, writing and masterminding her material, while Mom Wilde played manager. They hit paydirt right out of the gate, unleashing the imminently catchy “Kids in America,” which climbed the charts worldwide. “Kids in America” remains a classic pop song, one of my top ten picks for single of the ‘80s, still vital and energizing to today’s ears. Don’t believe me? Put it on in a club…any club…and watch the crowd react.
When it came time for a follow-up, the Wildes had plenty of hummable tunes to choose from, since Kim’s debut disc was packed with them. “Chequered Love” was the pick, a hyperkinetic, very much of its time new wave stomper, perfect for the 1982 airwaves. “Chequered Love” was a hit everywhere “Kids in America” hit, peaking in the mid-teens and top tens of pop charts worldwide…
…except for the kids in America.
In the U.S. “Chequered Love” stalled immediately upon release. A third attempt at a U.S. single, “Water on Glass” fared a little better, scraping the bottom of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart. But save for a campy, fun-to-look-at video which MTV played a few times, the hooked-filled “Chequered Love” got Lost in the ‘80s, and Kim Wilde became a one-hit wonder.
Two years later, after a few more worldwide hit singles, the Wildes and MCA, Kim’s new American label, tried to break the U.S. again, this time jettisoning Kim’s appealing new wave sound and image and replacing it with a sound that positively dripped with every sad excess that permeated Top 40 radio in 1984. “The Second Time” (renamed “Go For It” for its U.S. release, for reasons that are self-evident at first listen) was Big ‘80s all the way, from its Trevor Horn/Frankie Goes to Hollywood deep bass-popping sound, to the blasting synth horns, booming drums and bombastic background singers screaming along the chorus with Kim. And good golly, just exactly what did Kim want her man to do for a second time…? Let’s check the lyrics:
I’m never letting go - baby don’t expect me to How can you stop when my whole world’s exploding Look in the mirrors - and see the heat of something new Why don’t we do it - just do it once again
There’s such an urgency in everything I need from you Stop giving up - you know you can’t refuse me I’ve every reason to believe there’s still a man in you You done it once so come on go again
Just go for it Just go for the second time
Oh, that. That’s all well and good, I suppose. Women need more time, foreplay, and WAITAMINUTE! Wasn’t this song written for her by her FATHER AND BROTHER?!?
Eww.
It’s all so ridiculously over the top that you can’t help but smile and nod along while you turn it down before anyone else catches you listening to it. “The Second Time” peaked at number 29 on the U.K. charts.
Except for some club play, again, America ignored it.
Did these songs deserve to be Lost in the ‘80s? Both sound dated by today’s standards, but curiously enough, the new wave sound that MCA thought was dated by 1984, sounds more vital in 2005 than the “sound of today” that the label forced upon Kim with “The Second Time”. Both songs are well-crafted slices of pop, with strong, well-structured melodies and choruses, and they both follow my rules for a classic pop song – verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus and no longer than four minutes.
Oh, and don’t feel bad for Kim’s American chart career. In 1987, the Wildes jumped yet another pop train and hijacked the Stock/Aiken/Waterman sound to produce a remake of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”. Of course, it was shlockey and familiar enough to U.S. ears to hit number one.
”Kids in America” peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Chequered Love” did not chart. “Water on Glass” peaked at #53 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. “The Second Time” peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as "Go For It" in 1985. “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
"with a will, there's a way / but there's no way I can see / coming up with something you'd enjoy / as much as TV"
I love Ringo. Unashamedly. While the other solo Beatles get all the accolades and major hits, I've always been partial to the laid back, laconic goofiness and self-deprecating pop of Mr. Starr. From "Photograph", "It Don't Come Easy", "No No Song", all the way through his '90s work with Jellyfish, each Ringo album has at least two or three guaranteed pop classics.
I am dead serious here, people, stop that snickering.
While Ringo's solo career got off to a great start in the first half of the '70s (at one point he was the most successful solo Beatle in terms of charting), by the end of the decade a string of flop albums and singles weighed him down to the point of shopping around for a new label. As Starr entered the '80s, he signed to Neil Bogart's Boardwalk Records (them again!) and began recording an album tentatively titled You Can't Fight Lightning. Helping out were Paul, George and John (separately, of course). Paul contributed a couple songs, while George offered Ringo a tune he wrote about his frustration with his record label who had rejected his last album. "Wrack My Brain" is one of those deceptively simple pop songs that seems quite slight until you realize it's earwormed its way into your consciousness, possibly forever. The genius lyrics can not only be interpreted as a frustrated plea to a lover, but also towards an indifferent record company. After finishing the album in 1981, complete with a title change to Stop And Smell The Roses, "Wrack My Brain" was wisely chosen as the lead-off single, giving Starr his first Top 40 hit in five years. In keeping with the new trend of the time, a video was shot for the single - squint hard and you can spot Ringo's girlfriend Barbara Bach in a straightjacket.
George also wrote another song for the album that Ringo rejected because he wasn't feeling the lyrics and the range was too high for his voice. Harrison took it back and "All Those Years Ago" became the hit his record label was searching for, peaking at #2. And what of the songs John Lennon wrote for the album? Lennon offered Ringo two new songs for the project, but before Starr had a chance to record them, Lennon was gunned down. Too distraught to record the tunes in the aftermath, the songs never saw the light of day until one of them, "Nobody Told Me" was released in demo form as a single for the "final" Lennon LP, Milk & Honey, becoming Lennon's final Top 40 hit, peaking at #5. Now that you know that, doesn't those just sound like Ringo songs? And isn't it just Ringo's luck to decline two of his biggest could-have-been hits?
"Wrack My Brain" peaked at #38 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart in 1981.
"I needed the heat from a young man's lips to break the darkness of my room..."
New Wave slammed headfirst into the '60s girl group aesthetic and out came Get Wet, a duo led by the chirpy vocals of Sherri Beachfront (really?) aided by songwriter Zecca Esquibel. Signed to Neil Bogart's post-Casablanca label Boardwalk Records, the band had some promotional muscle behind it that scored the duo a shot on American Bandstand, where they mimed their single, "Just So Lonely."
An upbeat, chirpy number at odds with its lyrics, "Just So Lonely" caught the ears of a few regional Top 40 program directors and began to climb the charts, thanks in no small part to the superb Phil Ramone production. Beachfront's voice didn't hurt either - a mix of classic teen romance angst with a new wave squeal, not unlike her contemporary, the lead singer of a similar retro-futurist combo called Blue Angel who went by the name Cyndi Lauper. The Blue Angel/Lauper comparison was even more striking on "Lonely's" b-side, "Turn On Your Lights,", a more straight-ahead new wave number.
Get Wet bested Blue Angel by copping a Top 40 hit, something Lauper's band was unable to do. But despite the promotional push and nationwide TV exposure, Get Wet was left with that single (barely) hit and not much else. Their self-titled debut album is long out of print, but "Just So Lonely" turned up on the awkwardly named Then: Totally Oldies '80s Again Vol. 7, keeping this should-have-been summer smash available.
Like the vast majority of Americans in 1983, I had no idea Spandau Ballet existed before True, much less were funky New Romantics embracing disco and fashion, having paved the way for an entire underground club movement in the UK.
I just thought they were sappy Adult Contemporary crooners.
Now, don't get me wrong. Thanks to my co-worker at Wendy's (hey, I was 15), Brad, I soon came around and became a huge Spandau fan - once you got past "True" the song, the rest of the album was pretty darn good, particularly "Communication" and "Code of Love". Once Brad turned me around there, that's when he blew my mind and let me borrow the band's first two albums, Journeys To Glory and Diamond. Talk about a difference in style.
Where True was calculated for mainstream chart success, the first two Spandau LPs were all about the clubs and I happily jumped on board, instantly loving the groove of "To Cut A Long Story Short" and "The Freeze" and album cuts like "Reformation", which had the same white-boy/fake-funk sensibility as the Human League's Dare. Although they tried to be funky, something was always a little off and that something is what made them unique yet still danceable. I also recall Rolling Stone's vicious one-star review of Journeys, savaging it as fashion over music. Don't you have a Mick Jagger solo album somewhere to give five stars, Jann?
While the band did try a half-hearted attempt at a (I think) ballad on their second album Diamond, the majority of the platter was again filled with dancefloor stompers, in particular, "Chant No. 1" and "Instinction", here in its original 12" version. It would later see a single release remixed by none other than Trevor Horn, with a Russell Mulcahy video to match:
Somewhere along the way, Spandau lost all the homosexual undertones ("Tough is the leather that's strapped to my skin...work 'til you're musclebound"..."Loving makes the cream taste nice...", etc.) and went from pirate shirt wearing New Romantics:
...and most of America was none the wiser. They also got a Top Five hit and a Gold album for their efforts. But I like to think of them as two separate bands, both who released albums I adore. To think of them as the same band is to invite madness.
"The Freeze" peaked at #68 and again at #33 as a b-side of "To Cut A Long Story Short" on the Billboard Club Play Chart in 1981. "Instinction" did not chart.
Live from the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport Men's Restroom, it's Senator Larry Craig's Dance Machine!
"Good evening, everyone. Let's get this party started with a big favorite where I'm from...The B-52's "Private Idaho"! I know it gets this Idahoan's privates movin'! You might even say it's a real toe tapper!
"And how do you know when you've made it big in the '80s dance world? When Bobby O rips you off blind, that's how! Here's his studio creation, Barbie & The Kens' wholesale thievery of 'Private Idaho', retitled 'Just A Gigolo', and you know that's fine by me! Except I don't like to pay.
"So wave your hands under a stall in the air! Senator Larry Craig's Dance Machine will return right after this press conference!"
"Private Idaho" peaked at #74 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1980. "Just A Gigolo" peaked #45 on the Billboard Club Play Singles Chart in 1981.
"being an island / shying from trying / seems the easy way / such an easy way"
I've said it a few times before...don't get me started gushing about The Human League's Dare, quite possibly my favorite album of the '80s. No matter how many times a track from the 1981 masterpiece pops up in my iTunes, I can never bring myself to hit the "skip" button.
Forced to nail down a favorite track (no, not that one...), I'd probably pick the widescreen beauty of the ABBA-licious "Open Your Heart". From its en media res opening, picking up Phil Oakey's internal (?) monologue in progress, to the soaring synth chords over the verses, from the shiny, chrome Martin Rushnet production, to the optimistic hope in the lyrics:
And so you stand here with the years ahead Potentially calling With open heart or with a spirit dead You walk on
Lies the reason Faith or treason Playing a part End concealing Try revealing Open your heart
..."Open Your Heart" just gets me each time. And the video is a shot on tape, New Romantic, meaningless symbolism hoot and a half:
If you like this site and you don't already own it, please, I'm begging you here, get yourself a copy of Dare. It's even been re-mastered with the long out of print Love & Dancing instrumental EP tacked on as a bonus, and the music is more relevant today than ever. Plus, through the magic of iTunes, you can even delete...that song.
That much is true.
"Open Your Heart" was not released as a single in the States.
"dancin' the night away / everything is going right / when you hold me close & tight"
If Disco was dead by 1981, no one bothered to tell Canada.
When even the Village People had denied Disco and gone New Romantic by that time, Voggue, a studio creation fronted by Chantal Condor and Angela Songui, kept the mirrored ball spinning and had a number one dance hit with the not wholly original title of "Dancin' The Night Away". While the track was huge in the clubs and enjoyed a mild charting in the UK, it was far too unabashedly disco for crossover success in the States, even with a serverly chopped radio edit.
In one of the more blatant examples of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", "Dancin's" follow-up, "Love Buzz" is a nearly note-for-note carbon copy of Voggue's first hit, excepting minor melody and lyric changes. When you sing along, make sure you sing it "Love. Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." like the girls.
"Love Buzz" did okay on the dance charts, but again, no dice on crossing over. Chantal went on to some minor solo success as a dance act in Canada for the remainder of the '80s. Voggue live on, however, as their debut CD is still in print, and their singles still get airplay on stations such as Sirius' Strobe dance classics channel.
Of course, after I wrote all this and uploaded the tracks, I did a Google search for lyrics and discovered Joe.My.God. wrote about these songs over two years ago, echoing many of the same thoughts. Great minds?
"Dancin' the Night Away" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Club Play Singles Chart in 1981. "Love Buzz" peaked at #16 on the same chart in 1982.
* All songs are for sampling purposes only. If the album is currently in print, you'll see an Amazon link to purchase it. Supporting artists is a good thing, since labels are run by soulless whores. I KEED! Sorta. Look, if you like it, and it's in print, support 'em. If you're the artist or copyright holder, a quick e-mail to me will bring the song down ASAP. But compliment my writing first.
* Don't e-mail me asking me to repost dead links or to send you a song you can't find. Believe it or not, I have a life outside my blogging. I KEED! But don't do it.
* One more, and this is a biggie -- do NOT hotlink directly to my audio files and post them on your site, big shot. That's just disrespectful, rude, and a theft of my hard-earned bandwith.
Now, get readin', get downloadiN', and play nice. I loves me some comments. Bring it!
or on 
While Ringo's solo career got off to a great start in the first half of the '70s (at one point he was the most successful solo Beatle in terms of charting), by the end of the decade a string of flop albums and singles weighed him down to the point of shopping around for a new label. As Starr entered the '80s, he signed to Neil Bogart's Boardwalk Records (them again!) and began recording an album tentatively titled You Can't Fight Lightning. Helping out were Paul, George and John (separately, of course). Paul contributed a couple songs, while George offered Ringo a tune he wrote about his frustration with his record label who had rejected his last album. "Wrack My Brain" is one of those deceptively simple pop songs that seems quite slight until you realize it's earwormed its way into your consciousness, possibly forever. The genius lyrics can not only be interpreted as a frustrated plea to a lover, but also towards an indifferent record company. After finishing the album in 1981, complete with a title change to Stop And Smell The Roses, "Wrack My Brain" was wisely chosen as the lead-off single, giving Starr his first Top 40 hit in five years. In keeping with the new trend of the time, a video was shot for the single - squint hard and you can spot Ringo's girlfriend Barbara Bach in a straightjacket. 
An upbeat, chirpy number at odds with its lyrics, "Just So Lonely" caught the ears of a few regional Top 40 program directors and began to climb the charts, thanks in no small part to the superb Phil Ramone production. Beachfront's voice didn't hurt either - a mix of classic teen romance angst with a new wave squeal, not unlike her contemporary, the lead singer of a similar retro-futurist combo called Blue Angel who went by the name Cyndi Lauper. The Blue Angel/Lauper comparison was even more striking on "Lonely's" b-side, "Turn On Your Lights,", a more straight-ahead new wave number.
Where True was calculated for mainstream chart success, the first two Spandau LPs were all about the clubs and I happily jumped on board, instantly loving the groove of "To Cut A Long Story Short" and "The Freeze" and album cuts like "Reformation", which had the same white-boy/fake-funk sensibility as the Human League's Dare. Although they tried to be funky, something was always a little off and that something is what made them unique yet still danceable. I also recall Rolling Stone's vicious one-star review of Journeys, savaging it as fashion over music. Don't you have a Mick Jagger solo album somewhere to give five stars, Jann?
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Forced to nail down a favorite track (no, not that one...), I'd probably pick the widescreen beauty of the ABBA-licious "Open Your Heart". From its en media res opening, picking up Phil Oakey's internal (?) monologue in progress, to the soaring synth chords over the verses, from the shiny, chrome Martin Rushnet production, to the optimistic hope in the lyrics:
When even the Village People had denied Disco and gone New Romantic by that time, Voggue, a studio creation fronted by Chantal Condor and Angela Songui, kept the mirrored ball spinning and had a number one dance hit with the not wholly original title of "Dancin' The Night Away". While the track was huge in the clubs and enjoyed a mild charting in the UK, it was far too unabashedly disco for crossover success in the States, even with a serverly chopped radio edit.
