Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the ’80s, Vol. 5

1994: Rhino R2 71698

1. I Want Candy
   

   Bow Wow Wow

2. I Know What Boys Like
   

   The Waitresses

3. Kids In America
   

   Kim Wilde

4. Love Plus One
   

   Haircut One Hundred

5. Someday, Someway
   

   Marshall Crenshaw

6. Hold On To Something
   

   Great Buildings

7. Town Called Malice
   

   The Jam

8. 867-5309
   

   Tommy Tutone

9. Vacation
   

   Go-Go’s

10. Valley Girl
    

    Frank & Moon Zappa

11. I Ran (So Far Away)
    

    A Flock of Seagulls

12. Sex Dwarf
    

    Soft Cell

13. I Love a Man In a Uniform
    

    Gang of Four

14. The Art of Parties
    

    Japan

15. Homosapien
    

    Pete Shelley

16. Mickey
    

    Toni Basil

I’ll have to address this collection’s tracks individually, some day, to really address why its tracks are (in my estimation) either worthy or not of inclusion and of such classification, but I do want to note that there’s one not-like-the-others track here: “867-5309.” That one is an informative inclusion in that it gives you a sense of how mainstream/classic rock and roll was sometimes responding to New Wave and other early-1980s innovations. In this case it’s a straight-up rock delivery of a lyric that presents a downright creepy scenario…and that’s the kind of edginess that made stuff work so well back then.

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Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.