Favorite song from a band you know sucks

John Hall, the guy in the middle of the album cover, served two terms in Congress.

 

Wow, haven’t heard the “19” song in a long time. Great pull!

 

I will neither confirm nor deny that Winger's "Headed for a Heartbreak" has resulted in an increase in volume on my car stereo.

 

Wow Graham Parker....talk about a pretty much forgotten name from the past. Rolling Stone went all brown bunny on him and thought so much of him they thought two of his albums - Squeezing Out Sparks and Howlin Wind - were two of the top 100 albums released from 1967 - 1987 (RS issue 507, Aug. 27, 1987 which I am staring at right now). These are ahead of albums which would probably be included on any such list of top albums from that era today: Zeppelin 4, Graceland, Moondance, Murmur, Electric Ladyland, Imagine, The River, Off the Wall, Ramones debut, Rumours, After the Gold Rush, Thriller (no. 85!!!!) and Bitches Brew.

 

Man are you ever a dork. Everyone knows the Winger song worth cranking is "Easy Come Easy Go."

 

Folks. “Cherry Pie.”

I was a teen and thought that was creepy. YMMV

 

Graham Parker has a role in "This is 40," the excellent Paul Rudd movie. The Rumor were outstanding, I've got some vinyl of them buried somewhere in my collection.

 

If we’re talking 1980s hair bands, the song that best fits this category is “Talk Dirty to Me.” Poison put out a whole lotta dreck, but they stumbled upon a good riff and somewhat decent lyrics with that one.

 

I think there's a pretty good case to be made for Squeezing Out Sparks on that list. That's a great album. I'm not as big on Howlin' Wind.

I would argue that Graham Parker's greatest album is The Mona Lisa's Sister from around 1986. Brilliant album that came and went largely without notice.

 

One of my favorite musical stories is that Jani Lane insists the album was going to be called "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and that he wrote "Cherry Pie" in protest in like five minutes when the record company demanded it. Nobody is calling an album "Uncle Tom's Cabin." And while I could bore you all to tears w/how underrated the "Cherry Pie" album actually was and how sharp a songwriter Jani Lane could be, he also wrote dumb cock rock songs like the rest of us eat Swedish Fish.

 

The title track of that album is such a great track. That and Empty Lives are my favorite songs of his. But I also love Howlin' Wind.

 

I once played "Beth" by KISS 16 times in a row in my college dorm room. Although that should probably go into the creepy admissions thread.