Posted on 08/03/2014 9:27:36 AM PDT by SamAdams76
Summer of 1982, stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA. Many weekends spent on Oceanside Beach with tinny portable radios playing the hits of the day. MTV was still fresh and new and playing non-stop in the "rec room" at the barracks. With the video age upon us, you had many "one hit wonders" who only made it because they had snazzy videos to go with their one or two good songs.
Exception to this is Haircut 100 in which they had a perfectly crafted pop song (with xylophones and horns!) to go along with a very cheesy video.
Bursting from radio receivers all over Oceanside Beach that summer of 1982 - in between tracks from Fleetwood Mac's "Mirage" album and songs from Men at Work, Asia and Toto - just to give you the musical background of the era, was this song called "Love Plus One" from a curiously named band called Haircut 100.
When Haircut 100 was signed by Arista Records in 1981, high hopes were had for the band. They had a very eclectic sound that was tailor-made for the video era. Once you heard one of their songs, whether their big hit "Love Plus One" or other of their strong tracks like "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)", it kind of got stuck in your head. So I'd be body-surfing in Oceanside Beach all that summer with "Love Plus One" running through my head and whenever I hear that song today, I am immediately transported back to the sand and surf of Oceanside Beach, CA.
The band could have been much bigger than they were but frontman Nick Heyward stopped showing up for recording sessions and such because he wanted to go solo. Bad move. He did have a few UK hits as a solo artist but never had major U.S. success again.
Anyway, we do have this one slice of pop perfection in "Love Plus One".
I was stationed at 32nd Street and my ship went in for Routine Overhaul in early ‘82. I was a Florida boy in SoCal so surfing was the order of the day. Caught many a wave at Trestles that year.
KROQ wore that song out.
+1. Thanks. My dad hated this, because they sang with a higher pitch than he was used to, coming from the ‘40s, when men sang with a much lower pitch.
Sitting in my moms Volvo 240DL station wagon listening to “the tide is high” by Blondie and “heat of the moment” by Asia. Same time frame. That Volvo was a piece of crap- except for the sound system.
CC
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Absolutely one of my favorite bands.
Thomas Dolby ("Blinded by Science") and Gary Numan ("Cars") anyone?
Peter Gabriel always seemed to have the best videos though.
I really liked Thomas Dolby. And he’s continued to have a career post being a “one hit wonder”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dolby
Buzz Aldrin and Thomas Dolby Perform "She Blinded Me With Science"
The Golden Age of Wireless is still one of my favorite albums.
Mine too.
Airwaves is my favorite.
Does that bring back fond memories. I spent the summer of 82 on Camp Del Mar, part of it on a beach work party during the day and body surfing and the E club at night. Weekends I drove up to Hollywood to dance clubs. Great time. Then the summer was over and sent to my permanent duty station with the 11th at Las Pulgas.
Thanks, I stand corrected. According to Wikipedia, Gary Numan also had some other commercial success.
I started at a college radio station in Mass. in March of 1981—and am still at the same station all these years later* (unpaid, for fun etc). These days I do blues, local music, etc. Sometimes I’ll guest on someone else’s show and play that stuff from the 80s, or rare and cool stuff from 60s and 70s.
Another great Haircut 100 song was Fantastic Day.
What was my first song of the very first show? Not too well known a cut, but it was by Gary Numan: “Praying to the Aliens”. I knew it because he had done it on Saturday Night Live.
On Mon 3/30/81 I was in the studios and the UPI teletype started furiously spitting out news. Reagan had been shot.
*—I am Bob Nelson/ WMWM Salem MA
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