I know what you’re thinking … how can a Duran Duran song possibly be considered Lost in the ’80s? How about when the band itself basically dislikes the single so much they haven’t played it live in more than 20 years and didn’t even put it on any of their compilations? Don’t believe me? Take it away, John Taylor:

The only song from Rio you don’t play is My Own Way. Why not?

JT: Hmm. Not a favourite. We were doing it in a medley with Some Like it Hot for a while. Not a favourite.

Released between their self-titled debut and their big breakthrough, Rio, “My Own Way (Single Version)” (download) was meant to keep the momentum going on the charts while the band prepared their follow-up. With its hyper beat and sweeping disco strings, the single was slight, but pleasant, and served as the link between the group’s New Romantic beginnings and new, Roxy Music-meets-teen pop image.

The internal dissatisfaction with “My Own Way” must have been nearly instantaneous, since the band featured a rerecorded version (download) on Rio when it was released less than a year later. Slowed down to a more danceable funk beat with some changes in the arrangement and lyrics, the new version reflected the cosmopolitan, sophisticated gloss of the re-invented Duran. Still wasn’t enough to sway the band, though, since “My Own Way” didn’t make the cut on either the Decade compilation or Greatest (but “Serious” did?!). To add insult to injury, even the fun video, an important artifact in the evolution of the group, has been left off every DVD and video compilation since the original Duran Duran video LP in 1983.

Too bad, because the song was always a big favorite of mine (the Rio version, at least). But to this day, I still wonder — just where the hell is “45, between 6th and Broadway?”

“My Own Way” did not chart.

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The Cars were on an extended hiatus in 1986 and its members were off doing their own thing. Ric Ocasek and Elliot Easton had both released solo discs since the group’s last studio album, Heartbeat City, in 1984. Since Lakewood, Ohio’s Benjamin Orr handled the vocals on that album’s biggest hit, “Drive,” it seemed only natural that he would do the solo thing as well.

Due to the astonishing similarity of his and Ocasek’s voices, people tend to forget/not know that Orr sang on many of the Cars’ hits, including “Let’s Go” and “Just What I Needed,” so an Orr solo album seemed like a sure bet. Orr scored right out of the gate with the ballad “Stay the Night,” a very “Drive”-ish adult-contemporary evergreen (you can probably hear it today on your local soft-rock radio station). “Stay the Night” was a fair-sized hit, and things looked good for sales on the accompanying album, The Lace.

“Too Hot to Stop” was chosen for the album’s second single — a sensible selection, thanks to its more upbeat sound. In fact, the song (download) was probably the most Cars-like pop single to come from their many solo projects (with the possible exception of Ocasek’s “True to You”), with the signature harmonies, glossy production, and participation from keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson. And the video was from the ’80s school of teased hair and tons o’ hot chicks:

It seemed like a slam dunk, but “Too Hot” failed to make a showing on the charts (except for some middling action on the AOR chart). That doesn’t keep it from being a catchy lost Cars curio, though. Orr spent the next few years fiddling with an ultimately aborted follow-up to The Lace that never saw the light of day. Sadly, we lost Orr to pancreatic cancer in 2000, along with the last hopes for a full-fledged Cars reunion.

“Too Hot to Stop” peaked at #25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart in 1987.

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Ah, the age-old struggle of Art vs. Commerce. Many a critically acclaimed band has succumbed to the pressure for that all-elusive hit, sacrificing credibility for a chance at some cold, hard moolah. But I am here today not to judge the Comsat Angels for seeking to add some commercial sheen to their sound, but to praise them.

After three heavily atmospheric and Joy Division-esque albums, Sheffield U.K.-based Comsat Angels (sometimes billed as “The C.S. Angels” in the States, due to a similarly named satellite company) signed to Jive Records in 1983, and the push was on to score a hit. Teamed with OMD and A Flock of Seagulls producer Mike Howlett, the band decided to re-record one of its first singles, “Independence Day,” for the new album, Land. Covered in contemporary synthpop sheen, the new version of “Independence Day” (download) is superior to the earlier, rougher version, and even charted in the lower 70s of the U.K. pop chart while scoring the band its first American record deal.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to break the band entirely. After another album for Jive and a song (”I’m Falling”) featured in Val Kilmer movie classic Real Genius, Comsat Angels fan Robert Palmer used his pull to get the band signed to Island Records, but nothing there seemed to take either. The Angels continued to record into the Nineties before splitting up. As bands like Interpol and the Editors adopted a similar sound, the Comsat Angels saw their catalog re-released with bonus tracks in the early ’00s, but some have already slipped back out of print.

“Independence Day” did not chart.

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German new wave combo Nena secured their place in rock history with the one-hit wonderdom of “99 Luftballons” in 1984, but I’ve always been a bit of a sucker for the equally catchy follow-up, “Just a Dream” (download) (an English-language remake of a German hit titled “Nur Geträumt”). With its Blondie ambitions and playground sing-along chorus, “Dream” was taken from the 99 Luftballons LP, a U.S. compilation of Nena’s first two German albums with some English translation added on one side. “Dream” was accompanied by one of those wacky, made-on-the-cheap videos that were de regur at the time — look at us and the shenanigans we get into while on tour! And I wasn’t the only one that found lead singer Gabriele “Nena” Kerner kinda hot, hairy European armpits and all:

Despite the band’s best efforts, “Just a Dream” failed to crack the Hot 100, which was incredibly disappointing coming off a huge #2 single like “99 Luftballons.” Perhaps the lack of any kind of melody in the verses hurt. The video did grab some light MTV rotation and alternative radio play, but not enough to make too much of an impact. The album, however, remains in print, which is sort of surprising when you consider the number of compilations on which “99 Luftballons” has been featured.

“Just a Dream” peaked at #102 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Chart in 1984.

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The most interesting thing about British pop band Curiosity Killed the Cat is that Andy Warhol appeared and co-directed the video for their biggest hit. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely fair, but Curiosity Killed The Cat was one of those mostly faceless Brit bands like Danny Wilson, China Crisis or Johnny Hates Jazz that traded in watered down blue-eyed soul with a touch of synthpop.

Actually, “Misfit” (download) is a bit more memorable than “Mary’s Prayer” or “Shattered Dreams,” yet didn’t fare nearly as well on the charts, at least in the U.S. Not even a cameo by the Pop Art prince couldn’t help the Cats crack the Top 40:

And seriously, just what was Warhol doing in this video, much less co-directing? Did he know someone in the band or connected to them? Did someone in the group have incriminating pictures (like Andy would care)? In any case, the band tried for two more albums, squeaking out a few hits in the U.K., but never charting stateside again. Lead singer Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot (there’s a name for ya) continues to tour under the Curiosity brand.

“Misfit” peaked at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1986.

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In 1983 (The Best Year For Music Ever!) Heaven 17 must have been inspired by the worldwide smash success of Human League Mark II’s Dare LP. Since splitting with the League and singer Phil Oakey, Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware had recruited Oakey soundalike Glenn Gregory to form Heaven 17, scoring some hits in the UK, but nothing near Dare’s level. Listening to their second album, The Luxury Gap, you can sense the trio upping their game to compete. The songwriting takes a giant stride forward, as songs like “Let Me Go” are more focused on hooks than synth wizardry and dancefloor domination.

“Let Me Go” was only a minor hit in the UK, but it was the closest Heaven 17 came to a breakthrough in the States, charting in the 70s, but garnering significant airplay on KROQ and other cutting edge New Wave radio stations of the time. When it came time for a follow-up, you’d think the logical choice would be “Come Live With Me,” a Top 5 smash in the UK. “Come Live With Me” (download) was a ballad in the classic canon of pop songs about Skeevy Old Guys With Underage Girls — judging by this tune, along with Winger’s “17″ and Bill Summers & Summers Heat’s “17,” that seems to be the magic age all these songs decide it’s “okay” to lust after a teenage girl:

I was thirty-seven
You were seventeen
You were half my age
The youth I’d never seen

A 20-year spread — yowza. Vocalist Glenn Gregory sort of vindicates himself with a bit of self-realization and a nice twist of phrase later in the song:

Dinner parties followed
And all my age implies
My friends began to talk
I began to realise
If half the things they say
Are quarter true of me
Then how can I eclipse the youth
You gave to set me free

(more…)

The story of Kent, Ohio’s Human Switchboard would make a great screenplay — a trio of Velvet Underground devotees start a band, get signed, release one critically acclaimed, but low-selling LP … after splitting, the founder/lead singer works his way up through the record industry to become president of a major label … only to be charged and sent to jail for hiring a detective to tap his girlfriend’s telephone.

Okay, maybe a slightly diverting Lifetime movie.

Human Switchboard formed in the mid-’70s and released a single mixed by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas that caught the attention of IRS Records, whose Faulty Products division put out the band’s debut album, Who’s Landing In My Hangar? Driven by the Lou Reed-isms of vocalist/guitarist Robert Pfeifer and the farfisa of singer Myrna Marcarian, Hangar is a modernized New Wave salute to the Velvets without falling into the trap of being solely derivative. In fact, songs like “(Say No To) Saturday’s Girl” (download) laid the groundwork for bands like 10,000 Maniacs — it’s tough to hear this without suspecting Natalie Merchant once owned a copy as well.

Pfeifer’s angular guitar work and tense, twitchy vocals give songs like the title track “Who’s Landing In My Hangar” (download) a slightly Elvis Costello feel and a punk aggression the Velvets never quite approached, while the expansive art rock of “Refrigerator Door” (download) recall that band’s spacier moments (complete with a section sung in Slavic tongue!).

Here’s the band performing “Who’s Landing In My Hangar” at NYC’s Peppermint Lounge in 1981 (note to the people who jump onstage to dance: we’re not here to see you, thanks): (more…)

There’s something somewhat satisfying and shadenfreude-y watching Malcolm McLaren, one of the bigger thieves and musical grifters of pop music, get ripped off himself. After all, this is the man who allegedly siphoned off every possible penny from the Sex Pistols, stole the Ants from Adam to create Bow Wow Wow, and booted Boy George from that group in the process.

As a recording artist (what did he actually do in the studio besides take a piece of the publishing? You tell me), McLaren notched a worldwide dance hit lifting early hip-hop with 1983’s classic “Buffalo Gals,” then turned his sticky little fingers to opera in 1984 with a synthed-up version of “Madame Butterfly.” So when it came time to record another album five years later, why not hop genres again to … waltz and ballroom?

Waltz Darling featured a collaboration between McLaren and Bootsy Collins’ Bootzilla Orchestra called “Deep In Vogue,” (download) an ode to the ballroom scene started by young, gay black and Latinos in New York City featured in the documentary Paris Is Burning. Dedicating the song to all the “Houses” of ballroom and vogueing, the track featured vocals from vogueing legend Willi Ninja. (more…)

It’s the age-old story in pop music — when the hits start drying up, it’s time to grab the current “hot” producer and jump on the latest trend, hoping to ride it to the top of the charts. You know what I’m talking about, Madonna. After all, it worked at the dawn of the ’80s, when Streisand rode the Bee Gees’ heat to score a few huge hits from her collaboration with Barry Gibb on the Guilty album. But Streisand hadn’t had a Top 40 hit in four years when 1985 rolled around, yet she wasn’t quite ready to become relegated to standards and schmaltz yet (that would come with her next release, The Broadway Album). Babs wanted a hit, so the call went out and producer Richard Perry answered it.

Perry was white-hot at the time, coming off his production of the Pointer Sisters’ mega-platinum smash, Breakout, which just seemed to spawn hit after hit after hit (an astounding six singles were drawn from that album). Perry brought a song called “Emotion” (download) to Babs’s attention, and it was chosen to not only be the album’s namesake, but its first single. While not really new wave, per se, it was definitely awash in the synths and drum machines of the day, sounding much like a Pointer Sisters outtake. That could also have to do with the fact that the Sisters provide backing vocals on the tune.

Streisand’s longtime label, Columbia, must have had high hopes for “Emotion,” since they pulled out all the promotional stops. A sumptuously lavish video featuring guest stars Roger Daltrey (?) and Mikhail Baryshnikov (?!?) had thousands of dollars thrown at it, including securing heavy rotation as an MTV exclusive. The result was a camp-tacular spectacle. Make sure you at least get to the 2:30 mark to witness … PUNK-ROCK STREISAND! (more…)

Led by brothers Brian and Kevin O’Neal, the BusBoys burst from suburban Los Angeles in the early ’80s with their uncategorizable blend of Rock, New Wave and old-fashioned rhythm and blues. This eclectic yet appealing mash of styles made it tough for radio programmers: Were they Rock? But they’re African-American! Were they Soul? But they play weird, New Wave-y rock songs! It seemed the only way to make a BusBoys believer out of people was to see their fantastic live show. And what a show it was.

The group wrote barnbusters with wit and style, taking back rock while ironically lamenting that it had become a white man’s game. Take the provocative “”KKK” (download) for example, where the protagonist laments that people think he has to be white to play Rock ‘n Roll:

I am bigger than a n*gger
Wanna be an all American man
Wanna join the Ku Klux Klan
Play in a rock ‘n’ roll band.

I remember the first time I saw the BusBoys. It was on ABC’s Fridays in 1981. Fridays was ABC’s copy of Saturday Night Live that sometimes (read “often”) was funnier than SNL at the time, plus Fridays regularly featured much hipper musical guests like Devo, The Clash and The Jim Carroll Band. One Friday night, the BusBoys came on and completely destroyed my 12-year old mind. Luckily, I taped it way back when; from a wobbly, deteriorating VHS tape, here’s nine minutes of unadulterated rock ‘n roll insanity:

Sadly, apart from some strong buzz on the West Coast due to their spectacular live show and some scant radio play, their debut album, Minimum Wage Rock & Roll, wasn’t the big breakthrough the band and their critical supporters hoped for. On their second LP, American Worker, the band recorded a song called “Heart & Soul” that failed to stir up much interest until a year later, when Huey Lewis & the News recorded it and rode it to super-stardom. Such is the rock ‘n roll life. The band finally scored a couple of minor hits later, when their number one fan Eddie Murphy got them on SNL (finally) and featured the group on his Delirious concert video. From there, the BusBoys scored minor hits with “Cleanin’ Up The Town” from the Ghostbusters soundtrack and “The Boys Are Back” from 48 Hours, but sadly never did break through to the platinum big leagues.

The band continues to tour and release songs on its website. Here are the other songs the band performed on that fateful Friday, but you really should grab Minimum Wage Rock & Roll in its entirety off iTunes - it’s fantastic (especially the should-have-been New Wave smash “Did You See Me”) and available now for the first time in years.

“Minimum Wage” (download)

“Johnny Soul’d Out” (download)

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