“Here Comes the Night … Oh! Oh!”

I consider myself a hopeless sucker for vocal pop.  But even I have my limits.  This was produced by the once-great master of sunshine pop, Curt Boettcher.  For more on him, listen to Andrew Hickey’s excellent episode on “My World Fell Down” by Sagittarius.

Disco was an odd phenomenon.  For a year or two people couldn’t get enough, then a massive “disco sucks” reaction set in.  I struggle to think of another popular genre that lost so many of its fans so quickly and vehemently.  I also struggle to think of a genre where so many artists from other genres so spectacularly made asses of themselves trying to cash in.

There’s also an extended club mix of “Here Comes the Night” posted on YouTube, if you really must.

Fun fact (just learned from Hickey): that’s Glen Campbell singing the lead on the verses of “My World Fell Down.”

Clever

Marshall Crenshaw kind of fell off my radar during the past decade or two, then I ran across some cheap and decent copies of his first two lps in a store last week.  I’d forgotten how strong those albums are.  I’ve always liked how this song bridges the double verses with a false start of the chorus.  A clever tactic.  I’m sure other songs have done it, but for some reason I’m drawing a blank trying to think of one.

Something Fishy

Turns out Endless Shrimp was more than a lousy idea; there may have been shrimp-supply chicanery involved.  But the attraction here is Patrick Boyle, who gets the comedy of business like no one else.

More Cowbell!

I wanted to submit this for today’s Music League round (songs about drinking), but it’s not on Spotify.  This one may surprise you.  Atypical for PH, as it was written by their guitarist instead of one of their two keyboardists.  He began asserting himself more in the later albums of his tenure with the band, sometimes for better, sometimes not.  The one thing he should never have done is sing.