Earliest New Wave Songs

[Gyroscope2]

I'm looking to compile a collection of early new wave pioneers (from the late 70's). I'm not as interested in the roots of new wave, as in early groups whose sound was adopted or adapted by new wave groups in the 80's. Any obscure groups that people may know of would be especially helpful. Thanks all!

[Frau_Blucher]

If you discount the proto stuff (Stooges, Bowie, Dolls, etc), I see the signature sound really starting to come from '77-'79. Some selections I'd make...

Nerves - Hanging on the Telephone
The Cramps - The Crusher
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat
Elvis - Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes
Iggy - The Passenger
The Stranglers - Hanging Around
Devo - Uncontrollable Urge
Fabulous Poodles - Mirror Star
Joy Division - No Love Lost
Squeeze - Goodbye Girl
20/20 - Yellow Pills
A Certain Ratio - All Night Party
B-52's - Planet Claire
Gang of Four - I Found That Essense Rare
Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric?
Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
XTC - Making Plans for Nigel
Telex - Moskow Diskow

Plus the usual Clash, Police, Cars, etc suspects. The list is really too big to mention.

[firefall]

Tubes-Prime Time
Tubes-White Punks on Dope
Debris-One Way Spit
Split Enz-I See Red
Ducks Deluxe-Coast to Coast
Burlesque-I got me baby
Damned-New Rose
Chris Spedding and Vibrators-Pogo Dancing
Zolar-X-Timeless
Kursaal Flyers-Television Genaration
Radiators from Space-Enemies
Big in Japan-Suicide a Go Go(incredibly influentialgroup for all post punk-alternative 80s scene)
Eddie and the Hot Rods-Smoking in the boys' room
Boomtown Rats-Looking out for No 1

[Bitter Almonds]

You have to get Japan! Start with the Moroder-produced "Life In Tokyo" and "European Son", and move on to their 1979 album, [i]Quiet Life[/i]. You might also wanna try the earliest Human League cuts available (I think it's called [i]The Golden Hour[/i]).

[hutter]

Ditto on the early Human League stuff. Empire State Human is a great example of early new wave. Although it kind of sucks, M's first(and last?) album was out in '79, so it qualifies.

[Gyroscope2]

Thanks all, and definately ditto on Japan. They're One Of my favorites!

[guyinsf]

I would say Blondie's X-Offender is one of the first NW songs to get airplay, when Rodney what's his name, the DJ from LA introduced the band to his west coast audience, probably around 1977.

[Ape Module]

[quote][i]Originally posted by guyinsf[/i]
<br>I would say Blondie's X-Offender is one of the first NW songs to get airplay, when Rodney what's his name, the DJ from LA introduced the band to his west coast audience, probably around 1977.


[/quote]

KROQ's Rondey on the ROQ, aka Rodney Bingenheimer. But by then, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television and others were already playing CBGB's in NYC pretty regularly.

DEVO was certainly making what I would call New Wave as early as 1974 (see the "Hardcore Devo" collections), Cabaret Voltaire was doing the same in the UK, though I think of them as more like early industrial in their early days. If you wanna call Kraftwerk NW at all, they were hitting it pretty early too..

[BHols]

Wasn't the song "Starry Eyes" the first real new wave song? I forgot the name of the band but the song came out around 1977. Am I right or grossly misinformed?

[firefall]

The band,was the Records.In fact was one of the first power pop/punk
songs to have a vast airplay.

[oneno]

Flying Lizards-Summertime Blues 77' or 78'

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="blue"/font>[i]Chuck[/i]</FONT>

[Jimbo L]

In the power pop-new wave category, don't forget entries by Nick Lowe ("Bowi" EP), the Motors ("Danging the Night Away"), and Eddie & the Hot Rods ("Do Anything You Wanna Do"), all from 1977.

Squeeze's "Packet of 3" EP was also issued in 1977. In fact, "Take Me I'm Yours" was pressed as a single as early as Jan '77 but was withdrawn and rerecorded later on.

[WolverineSyr]

Would I be way off base to suggest that Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder's heavy synth stuff like "I Feel Love" from '77 helped to get radio listeners more used to a totally electronic sound?

I wouldn't consider it new wave, but it really helped to set the stage for later groups like Visage, etc.

[takobets]

songs by adam and the ants, bow-wow-wow, siouxsie & the banshees, the fall, modern english, martha & the muffins, lets active, altered images

[seffe]

Don`t forget the brilliant Simple Minds album "Life in a day" from 1979