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Tag: Infatueighties

  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #92: “Christmas Wrapping”

    The Infatueighties Countdown: #92: “Christmas Wrapping”

    Waitresses Christmas Wrapping
    The cover of the Christmas Wrapping 45 by The Waitresses

    I’m not sure if this was a New York thing, but starting when I was 10 or 11, I would hear “Christmas Wrapping” on the radio constantly. For a long while, I wondered “Hmmm, where can I get that Blondie Christmas record?”, since the deadpan vocals of Patty Donohue matched the somewhat bored tones of Deborah Harry-at least to my ears.

    Wasn’t till about maybe ten years later until I found out the song wasn’t performed by Blondie after all. Talking to a friend about something or other, they casually mentioned that the chick who played bass on “The Rosie O’ Donnell Show” used to play for The Waitresses. “Who the hell are the Waitresses?”, I asked. My friend mentioned “I Know What Boys Like” and “Square Pegs”, both of which I was vaguely aware of, and then proceeded to sing a few bars of “Christmas Wrapping” to me.

    “You mean that’s not Blondie?”

    I’m pretty sure I had a copy of “The Best of The Waitresses” within a week (might have even been within a day, seeing as I was working at a record store at the time).

    Anyhow, the bassist’s name was Tracy Wormworth, the guy that formed and led the band was named Chris Butler, the singer (as mentioned before) was Patty Donohue (since sadly departed), and The Waitresses were one of the most underrated bands of the decade, as I retroactively discovered.

    Despite the sarcastic edge usually displayed on Waitresses songs, “Christmas Wrapping” is actually fairly sweet from a lyrical standpoint. The song’s protagonist is a single woman whose plans to meet up with a guy she met in a ski shop keeps hitting snags. Resigned to spending the holidays alone, she heads out to A&P to pick up some cranberries, and lo and behold, there’s her guy. By some strange twist of fate, wouldn’t ya know it, he forgot cranberries too!

    Supreme storytelling aside, this song is also easily one of the most festive holiday songs ever recorded. It’s certainly one of the most danceable, and the horns blasting on every chorus (and on the song’s bridge) are certain to inspire intoxicated dancing around the Christmas tree.

    Way better than “Do You Know It’s Christmas” and “Last Christmas” (the only two songs that would even be close in contention as the best holiday song of the Eighties), “Christmas Wrapping” is the alpha and omega of festive holiday cheer…and it’s even survived a horrid Spice Girls cover.

    And here’s the “I Know What Boys Like” video:

  • The Infatueighties Countdown Resumes: #93: “Rock the Casbah”

    The cover of the 45 of The Clash's 1982 hit single "Rock the Casbah".
    The cover of the 45 of The Clash's 1982 hit single "Rock the Casbah".

    Sometimes we have to justify what we really love with what our friends (or in this case, readers…well, actually both) will think is cool. Which is why I switched my Clash song three or four different times while compiling this list.

    Truth be told, I actually really do love The Clash. Were they “the only band that mattered”? Well, they certainly weren’t to me then. But then again, when Joe Strummer, Mick Jones and the boys were popular, I wasn’t even old enough to tie my shoes. So…The Jacksons mattered more to me then. Hall & Oates mattered more to me then. Hell, Air Supply mattered more to me then. Is it the same now? Well…Air Supply doesn’t matter to me as much, for what that’s worth.

     

     

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  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #93: “Just Be Good To Me”

    By the time “Just Be Good To Me” hit the R&B charts in 1983, it looked like all The S.O.S. Band was going to show for their years of toiling in the Atlanta music scene was the 1980 disco smash “Take Your Time (Do it Right)”. Two albums worth of follow-ups had come and gone while making little noise.

    The S.O.S. Band\'s 1983 album \"On the Rise\", which featured the hit single \"Just Be Good To Me\".

    S.O.S. then became one of the first artists to benefit from the magic touch of Time members Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The budding producers laced S.O.S. with a nasty midtempo groove, complete with a blazing guitar solo on the unedited (9 minute!!) version. Add in slightly eyebrow-raising lyrics (the song’s protagonist shrugs her man’s infidelity off, singing “I don’t care about the other girls…just be good to me”), and you have the makings of a classic. This was the beginning of a very fruitful 3-year relationship between Jam, Lewis & the band, which resulted in a handful more R&B classics, such as “Tell Me if You Still Care”, “Just the Way You Like It”, “No One’s Gonna Love You” and “The Finest”. For a time, S.O.S. was a mainstay on the R&B charts, even if none of these songs made it to the Top 40 pop back in the days when you had to “cross over”. Although Jam & Lewis’s production career has become legendary in the past quarter century, this, their first major hit, remains one of their all-time best songs.

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