The Toy Box: 1979

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Retro Spins: Pat Benatar - In The Heat Of The Night

Pat Benatar exploded on the scene in 1979, competing with the predominantly male dominated hard rock scene, clawing her way to the forefront to become one of music's leading ladies of the 1980's. With an explosive list of hits, multiple platinum albums, and several Grammy Awards, she is anything but just your average singer.

Inspired one even after taking in a Liza Minnelli concert, she decided to pursue a career in music. Quitting her bank job, she shifted her focus to the night club, The Roaring Twenties, where she worked as a singing waitress. It was here where she met Phil Coxon, and together they formed Coxon's Army.

Benatar had married her high school sweetheart, Dennis Benatar in 1973, and when he returned from the army in 1975, the couple moved to New York so that she could continue her pursuit of music. During this period, she would perform regularly at Catch A Rising Star. Between 1977 and 1978 she would continue to perform at various venues, even recording commercials for Pepsi-Cola. However, it would be her headline at New York City's Tramps club in 1978 that would prove to be the opportunity she needed. The show was heard by representatives of several record labels, but it would ultimately be Terry Ellis of Chrysalis Records who would sign her. Though she would divorce her husband shortly after, she would keep his last name.

Her debut album, In The Heat Of The Night (1979) would serve as her breakthrough album, reaching number three in Canada, and paving the way for future albums, which seemingly only got bigger and better. Throughout her career, she was able to achieve a unique sound, combining both hard rock and pop.

Pat and her guitarist, Neil Giraldo would soon start dating, and by 1982 were married. To date, they remain together, and continue to tour together. A true love story that is so rare these days.

Over her four decade career, Pat Benatar has released twelve studio albums (1979 - 2003), and over twenty compilations of various formats (cassette, CD, VHS, etc.). Though I think it's fair to say her main popularity were her albums released between 1979 and 1991. Yes, sadly, she became another victim of the grunge era, losing popularity in the early 90's as the new sounds of music quickly dominated airways. Despite this, she continues to remain active, touring frequently.

Today, I'm going back to 1979 to revisit that first album which paved the way to her rock-stardom, In The Heat Of The Night.

The album punches you in the face with one of her biggest hits of all time, Heartbreaker, and from there transitions into a subpar rendering of John Mellencamp's I Need A Lover. From there, while it delivers decent tracks, nothing really stands out as amazing by any means.

It wasn't until the tail end of it all, songs seven and eight, X-Rated and Don't Let It Show, that I got interested again. Even then, these are far from "hits". Overall, it was a bit disappointing that for how popular Pat Benatar is that this album was just...Well, adequate. I expected more.

This by no means taints my opinion on her as a singer. She has a ton of hits, and I like a lot of them, if not all of them. I was just hoping to find more to add to my shuffle list than what was already there, which I suppose I did with the two aforementioned tracks.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Retro Spins: M - New York, London, Paris, Munich

Back when we were living overseas, my sister used to introduce my brother and I to all kinds of music. One such artist was M, with his only hit, 1979's Pop Muzik. As it was typical for those days, she played it for us on her series of records from Springbok Hit Parade. Volume 45 to be exact.

This was back in the days when we had no clue that those singing on the albums usually weren't the original artists. However, the tune was good enough that it got and held our young attentions.

M fell off my radar for the longest time, but when I did think back to his one hit wonder, I often considered it a song from the 80's. Ultimately, I would learn that this was incorrect on my part.

Now before I go any further, I should establish here that M is not the name of any one particular artist, but rather the group created by singer Robin Scott, who created the pseudonym as a "project" in 1978. However, prior to this, he had a humble beginning as a college student, who showed a talent for writing and performing topical songs. This led to the release of a solo album, Woman From The Warm Glass in 1969.

Though this didn't garner much attention, it did lead to Scott performing folk songs at various clubs throughout the early 70's, sharing the billing with the likes of an up and coming David Bowie. As his popularity grew, he was given the opportunity to create the multimedia project, The Voice, for the BBC, and from there set off to travel Europe and North America.

Upon returning to England, he began work on a series of demos with other artists, found himself the winner of a Star national talent show. The latter led to an offer of a recording contract, which he ultimately turned down because it did not include his backing band.

Between 1973 and 1978, he continued to work with other up and coming artists, and co-founded the record label, Do It Records, which he released the Roogalator's debut album, Play It By Ear through. However, the label's most noteworthy talent would be Adam And The Ants, who they released the first recordings for in 1979.

Scott would eventually relocate to France around 1979, and it was here that he created M, utilizing session musicians for the group. It was with them that he created and recorded the number one hit, Pop Muzik for the 1979 debut album, New York, London, Paris, Munich. Though it would become their only US chart topper, there were several other songs which charted in the UK. Despite this, M's follow up albums, The Official Secrets Act (1980), Famous Last Words (1981), and Jive Shikisha (1984 recorded, but released in 1998) would all be failures.

Today, I'm going back to my childhood, to relive those times where we sat in a circle around my sister's record player to finally listen to the full debut album of M. The aforementioned 1979, New York, London, Paris, Munich.

Sadly, I can sum this one up relatively quickly. It was difficult to get through. Normally, when I create these posts for my Retro Spins reviews, I type as I listen. I couldn't do this with this particular album. The reason being was that the tracks were very distracting. Almost to the point of annoying. What made this disappointing for me was that the songs themselves weren't actually bad. But, something about them left me unable to focus, and even now, I'm not sure what that was.

With exception of Pop Muzik, which still stands the test of time as a great tune, nothing else was all that memorable. I can't really say much more than that.

Retro Spins: Lipps, Inc. - Mouth To Mouth

Alright! Get your platforms on, and let's go dancing!

Lipps, Inc. may not be a very note worthy group for their long term contribution to the world of music. In fact, many people probably won't even recognize the group's name, let alone the lead singer, Cynthia Johnson.

For those that do happen to recognize them, many will confuse their only top ten hit as an 80's song. This would be because while the album was released in November of 1979, the track, Funkytown, didn't hit the charts until March of 1980. By May of that same year, it shot all the way up to the number one spot, and in fact became a number one hit in a whopping twenty-eight countries! In The USA alone, it spent five consecutive weeks in the number one spot.

Not bad for a group that started out as one individual, Steven Greenberg, who was a wedding DJ of all things. Cynthia Johnson joined the group, creating a duo, after auditioning to sing Greenberg's first single, Rock It. Several other members would soon come together to create what would be the debut album, Mouth To Mouth. However, of the other seven members who contributed, several would exit and be replaced for subsequent albums.

Despite having such a successful debut album, Lipps, Inc. failed to garner much attention with their follow up albums, Pucker Up (1980), Designer Music (1981), and 4 (1983). With decreasing interest, and less and less contributions in the group starting long before their final album, Johnson officially quit the group in 1983. Though she's gone on to be a successful business owner, as these things tend to happen, Johnson has returned to the stage to perform various one-off renditions of Funkytown. However, in doing so, it doesn't appear to have been with founding member, Steven Greenberg.

Well, today let's jump in our wayback machines and head to 1979 for a listen to Lipps, Inc.'s debut, Mouth To Mouth. A time in which both Johnson and Greenberg were present driving forces of the group, their music, and their most popular song, Funkytown.

Sometimes short and sweet are the best, and that's the case with this album. Mouth To Mouth only has four tracks on it, and while the average song is eight minutes, it packs quality in the overall lack of quantity. Of the tracks, Funkytown, All Night Dancing, Rock It, and Power, I liked all by the latter.

What stood out the most was the heavy groove and funk, which left me tapping my toes and bobbing my head to each tune. I dug it a lot, and was really surprised at how good it was. In hindsight, it made it all the more odd that only their 1979 debut was popular, and that their future attempts failed so poorly. Clearly the group has the ability to deliver strong songs. My only thought would be that perhaps with the changing times from disco to new wave, that Lipps, Inc. simply didn't change with the times, making them obsolete. But that's just speculation on my part. I honestly don't know.

For what it's worth, this album is solid, and definitely worth checking out. Especially if you're a fan of disco.

Retro Spins: The B-52's - The B-52's

Though it wouldn't be until the 80's that "New Wave" would become a popular term for music, the concept of this musical category was around as early as the 70's, and The B-52's, while debuting in 1979, fell among that classification. But what exactly is New Wave?

Truth be told, it was a category created to be a catch all for music that didn't necessarily fall into one. The "New Wave" term is regarded as so loose and wide-ranging as to be "virtually meaningless", according to the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock. For me, it simply means music that was unique, or sometimes cutting edge in terms of shaping a generation.

The B-52's definitely fall into the definition of the word unique. They sounded different, they were kind of weird, were they a joke? Or were they being serious? Who knows. Kitschy in all manners of the word. They were the kind of music teens could relate to, but light enough that even your mom would listen to them.

Their self titled debut, though mildly successful at the time, would ultimately serve as the ground work for their future success, boosted all the more by consistent rotation on MTV. However, what I myself found myself feeling with their album was a sense of uniqueness and fun that soon wore thin, bordering on annoying. The music wears thin fast.

I personally bought this album for Rock Lobster, and really, that's all I walked away with. Mind you, even that's not a song I would actively throw on just to hear. But if you caught me in the right mood of a random shuffle, I may or may not skip it.

They remind me a lot of Weird Al Yankovic, which is odd, because they certainly aren't a parody band. Still, this definitely the vibe I get from them. Not a bad thing, but not something I necessarily would want to hear everyday. I don't think I would go to any great lengths, or necessarily have any interest in tracking down any other albums. Well, beyond their 1989 Cosmic Thing Album (for Love Shack and Roam), which I already have.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.