New Wave Outpost Forum

had so many more great songs that should have been given attention on new wave radio back in the day? Some that have plenty of new wave treasures that I really like are:

The Buggles
Kajagoogoo
Naked Eyes
Men Without Hats

I agree with all of those and will add:

Re-Flex
Real Life
If we're talking US, then Thomas Dolby


"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

oh yeah. you totally nailed those. I FINALLY bought Thomas Dolby's first few CDs and the 12 x 12 collection a few years ago and couldn't believe how many great new wave songs he had. Don't get me wrong, She Blinded Me is a classic if overplayed pop hit, but it's nothing special in the new wave genre. The only other songs I'd ever heard by him were Hyperactive and Airhead and all three are just so novelty that I never expected him to be a legitimate new wave artist in any of his other tracks. I collected all of Re-Flex's 12"s and vinyl LPs a few years back. Was never a big fan of Politics of Dancing, so I didn't expect much from them but they are awesome. And Real Life, well, I fell in love with Send Me An Angel back in the early 80s when it first aired on MTV, so I had their stuff all along.

The Knack.
They only had two major hits _ "My Sharona" and "Good Girls Don't" but EVERY song on "Get the Knack" is a gem and a lot of stuff after that is excellent too. It's just that the ridiculous backlash against them was so bad, they didn't get much airplay after the second album save for "Pay the Devil" a bit off "Round Trip" and "Rocket O' Love" from "Serious Fun" in 1991.

Yello
The Fixx
Blancmange

All the best,
eighties

Thomas Dolby
Ultravox
Haircut 100
Shriekback
Icehouse
Greg Kihn Band
Soft Cell

Modern English
A Flock Of Seagulls
Haircut 100
The Outfield
Men @ Work

"Keepin the '80s alive!"

Probably JoBoxers. RCA U.S. didn't give a shit about them. Didn't even release anything after "Just Got Lucky."

Nena, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Flash and the Pan also had better songs than "99 Luftballons," "Come On Eileen" and "Hey St. Peter" but they went nowhere. The Payolas' one chart single in the States, "You're the Only Love," was, naturally, the one single of theirs I didn't like.

And Moon Martin, who fell right off the charts after 2 hits, which paled in comparison to most of his later singles that stiffed.

[quote][i]Originally posted by SomebodySomewhere[/i]
<br>Probably JoBoxers. RCA U.S. didn't give a shit about them. Didn't even release anything after "Just Got Lucky."

Nena, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Flash and the Pan also had better songs than "99 Luftballons," "Come On Eileen" and "Hey St. Peter" but they went nowhere. The Payolas' one chart single in the States, "You're the Only Love," was, naturally, the one single of theirs I didn't like.

And Moon Martin, who fell right off the charts after 2 hits, which paled in comparison to most of his later singles that stiffed.



[/quote]

I totally agree about The Payolas (although I like that song, too) - what an incredible band, and they really deserved so much more. They did OK in Canada, but that's it. They put out an EP of new material a couple of years ago that is actually quite good (and has a harder edge to it, probably Bob Rock's influence!)

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

Actually, Ment At Work had about 6 US Top 40 hits.

Dexy's Midnight Runners had 9 UK hits in the Top 40. Soft Cell has had 12 UK Top 40 UK hits, Blancmange had 7 UK Top 40 hits in the UK and Ultravox had 17(!) in the UK Top 30.

Pretty sure Icehouse had more than one or two Australian Top 30 hits as well.


Cool site for all British Top 40 Hits since the early 1950s.
http://www.everyhit.com/index.html

In terms of the USA, there are too many excellent bands that are termed "One Hit Wonders" to even keep a list, unfortunately.

Blue Peter has a lot of fantastic songs beyond "Don't Walk Past" !

B-Movie
Soft Cell
Blancmange
Sparks
Baltimora
Cee Farrow
Fiat Lux

Much more...

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definitely Modern English. [i]After the Snow[/i] had a ton of potential follow-up hits.

The Vapors quickly come to mind. While "Turning Japanese" was brushed aside as a novelty song, their album "New Clear Days" was an excellent pop-rock album that featured several other songs that could've/should've been bigger hits.

[quote][i]Originally posted by SomebodySomewhere[/i]
<br>Probably JoBoxers. RCA U.S. didn't give a shit about them. Didn't even release anything after "Just Got Lucky."

Nena, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Flash and the Pan also had better songs than "99 Luftballons," "Come On Eileen" and "Hey St. Peter" but they went nowhere. The Payolas' one chart single in the States, "You're the Only Love," was, naturally, the one single of theirs I didn't like.

And Moon Martin, who fell right off the charts after 2 hits, which paled in comparison to most of his later singles that stiffed.



[/quote]

The Payola's "Eyes of a stranger" is dope man. I dig that song alot.

"Keepin the '80s alive!"