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- [00:00]
Narrator/Announcer
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:14]
Chris Melanfi
Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate Magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number one Series. On our last episode we talked about the rise of three British singer songwriters, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Graham Parker, who came up through pub rock and power pop, adopted punk attitude, helped shape new wave and were tagged with the moniker Angry Young Men. We're now in the early 80s, when all three of these men would evolve their sound in directions far removed from punk, Elvis Costello had been on a roll with his friend and producer Nick Lowe. Over five straight albums, they had developed a punchy new wave sound that encompassed a range of styles but still all came out sounding like Costello's brand of power pop. On the final album of their five LP streaks, 1981's Trust, Costello and Low ranged even more widely, with songs alluding to jazz, rockabilly, even country. The singles veered from the reggae meets cabaret of clubland. To the minor key soul and melodica dub of Watch your Step.
- [02:03]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Step.
- [02:11]
Chris Melanfi
One track from Trust, the hard rocking from a whisper to a scream, got Costello on Billboard's Rock Tracks chart for the first time, where it peaked at number 46. The song featured counterpoint vocals from Squeeze frontman Glenn Tilbrook.
- [02:36]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
From a whisper to a screaming.
- [02:42]
Chris Melanfi
Returning the favor to tilbrook, Costello produced Squeeze's own 1981 album east side Story. As I noted in our Legacy Hits edition of Hit Parade, on the Squeeze single Tempted, you can briefly hear Costello's voice taking a second verse lyric.
- [03:08]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
I said it's no occasion.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
For all.
- [03:14]
Chris Melanfi
This effort by Costello. His own Trust album was only a moderate success, charting lower than its recent predecessors in both the US and uk, and like Get Happy failing to go gold, the album signaled two things to Costello. First, that it was probably time to try a different production arrangement. There were no hard feelings with Nick Lowe, and second, that his interests were veering far beyond new wave. For his next lp, Almost Blue, Costello went fully in the direction of country music, recording in Nashville and working with producer Billy Sherrill, famed for recording such legends as George Jones and Tammy Wynette. All of the Almost Blue tracks were country cover songs, including the lead single, Costello's take on the George Jones hit A Good Year for the Roses. The album charted even lower than Trust had, and Costello and the Attractions did not enjoy working with Cheryl, but it scratched an itch for Elvis and hit the reset button on his career, freeing him to try other experiments. Joe Jackson, too, was feeling the itch to spread his wings on his late 1980 album Beat Crazy. The title track went deeper into dub reggae than Jackson had ever attempted before, and Jackson even let his bassist Graham.
- [05:10]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Maybe trade off the lead vocals with him. And on the Beat Crazy single, one to one, Jackson reduced the drumming to just a soft tap.
- [05:32]
Chris Melanfi
The torch song was his most minimal to date. When Beat Crazy sold modestly and generated.
- [05:50]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
No hits, Jackson doubled down.
- [05:53]
Chris Melanfi
He went further, dismantling the Joe Jackson Band. His drummer had given notice anyway, and he devoted his fourth album to 1981's Jumpin Jive, to the sound of 40s.
- [06:07]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Big band jazz and jump blues.
- [06:20]
Chris Melanfi
Amazingly, Jackson's cover of the Cab Calloway classic Jump and Jive was a minor hit in the uk, and the album held its own on the charts compared with Beat Crazy. It emboldened Jackson to try an even more eclectic mix on his next LP. For Graham Parker, as the 80s dawned, the big stretch would be in his.
- [06:47]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Choice of producer Arista Records, eager to.
- [06:51]
Chris Melanfi
Make him the next Bruce Springsteen connected Parker and the Rumor with producer Jimmy Iovine, who had engineered or produced albums by Springsteen, Patti Smith, John Lennon and Tom Petty. On the Up Escalator, Iovine paired Parker's typically sardonic lyrics with a mainstream album rock sound, as on the lead single Stupefaction, Parker's disdaining ode to Los Angele.
- [07:31]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
We're gonna get Twitter out of this Sunday.
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Chris Melanfi
And on Endless Night, a song Parker wrote for the 1980 Al Pacino movie.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Cruising, if I could only find a switch that turns on the endless night that turns on the endless night Iovine.
- [07:56]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Called in a favor, getting Bruce himself to sing backup.
- [08:01]
Chris Melanfi
Springsteen was a fan of Parker's music, and his stock had never been higher as he was just coming off his.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
First top 10 hit, hungry heart.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Everybody's got a hungry heart Everybody's got a hungry heart.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Springsteen's presence helped get Parker's Endless Night.
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Chris Melanfi
On some album rock stations.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
That turns on the Endless Night that turns on.
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Chris Melanfi
The Endless night and the up escalator LP sold decently, matching squeezing out Spark's.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Peak of number 40.
- [08:45]
Chris Melanfi
But critics complained that Jimmy Iovine's production neutered the rumor's raucous sound. Commercially, Graham Parker was always facing an uphill battle. Chart victories were small and hard won. When his 1982 single Temporary Beauty finally got Parker on the Billboard Rock Tracks chart for the first time, it only got as high as number 52.
- [09:23]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
By 1980, the music business had become.
- [09:27]
Chris Melanfi
Much more visual, thanks, of course, to.
- [09:30]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
The 1981 launch of MTV. Any act from the 70s that could.
- [09:36]
Chris Melanfi
Translate their sound into the video medium suddenly found themselves in heavier rotation.
- [09:43]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?
- [09:51]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Bands like Talking Heads, who came up.
- [09:54]
Chris Melanfi
In the original wave of punk, were one of the first bands played on mtv. For his part, Elvis Costello had been shooting videos for years, and interestingly, on the video channel's first day, his Oliver's army was one of the first 40 videos MTV played.
- [10:28]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
But Costello's videos were mostly relatively low tech affairs.
- [10:34]
Chris Melanfi
By 1982, videos like the Human League's don't you want Me were not only slicker, glossier and more expensive, They were changing the very sound of new wave from power pop and post punk to synth pop. It was a changing of the guard.
- [11:04]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Moment that could have passed the 70s.
- [11:07]
Chris Melanfi
Angry young men by. For the next few years they would develop fitful relationships with the music video era, at times questioning whether the mini movies were even worth it. This became a live question for Costello right away in 1982, when he released his most ambitious album yet.
- [11:32]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
So in this almost empty gin palace through to welcome Glance, you see a.
- [11:41]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Beyond Belief was the lead off track.
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Chris Melanfi
Two, Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello's seventh studio album and his first LP of original material not produced by Nick Lowe. The album was helmed instead by renowned Beatles engineer Jeff Emmerich, and it reflected not only Emmerich's history, but also Costello's ambition, ranging from psychedelia to baroque art pop in a post Sgt. Pepper style. When it arrived in the summer of 1982, many critics hailed it as Costello's masterpiece.
- [12:28]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
My hands were clammy and cunning she's been suitably stunning But I know there's not a hope in haters.
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Chris Melanfi
If it had been up to Costello.
- [12:42]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Beyond Belief would also have been the.
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Chris Melanfi
Lead single for Imperial Bedroom, or if.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Not that, then man out of Time.
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Chris Melanfi
A stately, lush recording with some of Costello's best lyrics. He called it the heart of the.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Record.
- [13:13]
Chris Melanfi
But the record label overruled Costello on both tracks, issuing instead the lighter pop number you, Little fool as the first single. And commissioning a single cinematic music video for the track, in which Costello and his Attractions bandmates were supporting players in a British teen drama, Costello played a wordless school headmaster. The video and the single failed to capture what made Imperial Bedroom unique, and despite the album's critical acclaim. Like this year's model in 1978, Imperial Bedroom topped the Paz and Jop critics poll for 1982, the LP performed modestly on the charts and produced no major hits. Even you Little fool only got as high as number 52 in the UK.
- [14:34]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Costello had made the album he wanted to make, but he would have to.
- [14:40]
Chris Melanfi
Move in a more commercial direction afterward.
- [14:54]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
You might say Joe Jackson's 1982 was the opposite of Elvis Costello's 1982. Like Costello, Jackson released his most adventurous, widest ranging album that year. But not only didn't it fall short commercially, it wound up being Joe Jackson's biggest selling, most hit packed lp. And it all started after Jackson moved from London to New York City. In the fall of 1981. With his band broken up and his latest tour ended, Joe Jackson took up residence in the East Village and started recording in a small Soho studio. Quote Soho then was a gritty neighborhood of warehouses and loft rentals. He later told music journalist Mark Myers, at night it was deserted. I recorded late at night. Those hours suited me, unquote. When he wasn't recording, Jackson absorbed New York nightlife. In jazz clubs, he took in the avant garde sounds of peak modern jazz. On any given night, he might hear combos like, say, John Laurie's Lounge Lizards. This in turn informed some of what Jackson was recording. In Latin clubs, Jackson heard salsa and merengue. At a time when Hector Lavaur was dominant. This too informed his songwriting and recording. These sounds and styles would all wind up on Joe Jackson's fifth studio album, an LP all about New York City that he would title in homage to Cole Porter, Night and Day. On top of all these urban sounds, Jackson had been experimenting with synthesizers and drum machines. He told Mark Myers, quote, I liked Kraftwerk's electronic dance beats and bass riffs on albums. Computer world, unquote. So in his small SoHo studio, Jackson programmed a Prophet 5 synthesizer and a Boss Doctor -55 drum machine. These would be his tools for the centerpiece Song of Night and Day.
- [18:41]
Chris Melanfi
A.
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Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Dreamy ode to New York nightlife about a couple who'd been fighting but were now going to make it up to each other by going out dancing. Jackson wanted the song to sound like the 80s and the 40s all at once, projecting the style of vintage jazz age New York into the electronic age. He called the song Steppin Out. This was the true Joe Jackson, a so called punk who'd really been a sophisticate all along. In the song's music video, filmed at New York's St. Regis Hotel, a housekeeper reimagines herself as a Cinderella for the night, going out on the town with her date as Joe Jackson plays piano and sings in white tie and tail. Steppin out and Night and Day reinvented Joe Jackson's career. The video became an MTV staple at the peak of 80s synth pop. The album, packed with Latin jazz and electronic pop sounds, became Jackson's most acclaimed LP since Look Sharp and his biggest hit, arriving in the summer of 82. Night and Day eventually reached number four on the Billboard album chart and the single brought Jackson back to the American top 40. Casey Kasem counted it down.
- [20:45]
Narrator/Announcer
In the summer of 1979, Englishman Joe Jackson hit the top 40 for the first time with a song called Is She Really Going Out With Him? That record got as high as number 21 on the chart this week. His second top 40 hit climbs three notches to number 32, Joe Jackson stepping out.
- [21:10]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
By December, Steppin out peaked at number six on the Hot 100, the biggest pop single any of the so called angry young men would ever have. It also kicked off a brief flurry of hit making for Joe Jackson, who immediately followed Steppen out with another top 20 hit, the tender, urbane, jazzy ballad Breaking Us in Two, which reached number 18 in early 1983. And on mtv, a third track from Night and Day, a searching dramatic torch song about male sexuality called Real Men, went into rotation and won praise from critics who compared its anthemic chorus to Bruce Springsteen and Phil Spector. These would be Jackson's last music videos for quite a while as he detested making them and concluded that they over interpreted and limited his songs. But Jackson had now established himself on the charts enough that he would score more hits even without MTV by 1983. If anyone was going to have to make peace with MTV and the age of new romantic pop, it was Elvis Costello. On his next album, Punch the Clock, Costello worked with 80s hitmakers Clive Langer and Alan Winn Stanley, who'd worked with MTV staples Madness and Dexie's Midnight Runners. Costello was ready to record some hits and in an attempt to write one, he took inspiration from this ditty by his friend Nick Lowe, a song Lowe had recorded in 1980 with his Dave Edmonds group Rockpile called When I Write the Book.
- [23:43]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
About My Love. It's Wealthy, about a man who was toning head about his hope and ambition.
- [23:51]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Costello took that title and adapted it into his own ditty about writing a book with a wickedly catchy piano hook and chanting female backing vocals. He called it Every Day, I Write the Book.
- [24:11]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Every Day, Every Day, Every Day, Every.
- [24:15]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Day, paired with a cheeky music video that depicted celebrity lookalikes of Prince Charles and Princess Diana navigating domestic life. Every Day I Write the Book took off on MTV and on the charts to this date, no single by Costello had even cracked the Hot 100, let alone the top 40. Every day I Write the Book finally changed that. Casey Kasem counted it down.
- [24:49]
Narrator/Announcer
We're up to the first hit single by the man who for many years has been a favorite among rock critics around the world. Many have called this bespectacled guitar player one of the greatest songwriters in pop music today. In Rolling Stone, critic Gheal Marcus wrote one of the unquestioned originals of modern pop music. He combined the brains of Randy Newman and the implacability of Bob Dylan, the everyman pathos of Buddy Holly and the uniqueness of John Lennon. This man who has pleased so many critics dared to name himself after the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley. And now he's got his very first hit single in the USA. It debuts this week at number 38. Elvis Costello in the Attractions with Every Day I Write the Book.
- [25:39]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Though Every day I Write the Book only wound up a number 36 pop hit and number 33 on the rock tracks chart, it fueled Punch the Clock to Elvis Costello's best album sales in more than three years. It also made Costello conversant with mtv, reupholstering his image for the synth pop age. On his follow up LP, 1984's Goodbye Cruel World, Costello again worked with Langer and Winstanley. Though the album was savaged by critics, it got Costello back on MTV with such synth heavy singles as I wanna be Loved your Heart. And the Daryl hall duets the Only Flame in Town, which just missed the pop top 40.
- [26:48]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
She's not the only flame in town.
- [26:56]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
She'S by 1984 and 85, thanks to the MTV and radio success of new wave, all of the post punk survivors of the late 70s were scoring pop hits. Joe Jackson went deeper into sophista pop on his next album, Body and Soul, which was also recorded in New York City and infused with even greater influence from Latin pop and jazz. Its lead single, the irresistibly syncopated you can't get what you want till you know what you want reached number 15. In the summer of 1984, at the height of synth pop, Joe Jackson was getting smooth jazz on the radio.
- [27:58]
Chris Melanfi
And.
- [27:58]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
A duet between Jackson and singer Elaine Caswell called Happy Ending also reached the Hot 100. As Body and Soul broke into the top 20 on the album chart. In the uk Nick Lowe returned to the pop chart with the rockabilly flavored Half A Boy and Half a Man, whose retro beachy video got low onto mtv.
- [28:37]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Half a Boy.
- [28:45]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Even Graham Parker finally became a hit maker. In 1983, he cracked the Hot 100 for the first time in six years with the synth pop friendly Life Gets Better. Okay, it only got as high as number 94. But in 1985, after Parker switched labels again from Arista to Elektra, and formed a new backing band called the Shot, he recorded a Smokey Robinson style slow dance ballad that was easily his most romantic song ever. Wake Up Next to youo. And Casey Kasem finally had a reason to say Graham Parker's name on American top 40.
- [29:57]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Number 40.
- [29:58]
Narrator/Announcer
Here's a debut song in more ways than one. It's by the English singer and songwriter who's been a favorite of rock critics since 1976, Graham Parker. But this is the first time Graham's hit the top 40. His song is Wake Up Next to youo.
- [30:27]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
I don't know.
- [30:30]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Wake Up Next to you peaked at number 39, Parker's first and last time in the pop top 40, but not his last time on a Billboard chart. So in the 70s, the angry young men had been on trend with post punk and new wave. In the early 80s, MTV forced them to play catch up. By the late 80s, as new wave pivoted toward what became known as alternative rock, the formerly young men, all in their 30s, began to resemble elder statesmen. And however unwittingly, they again seemed a little ahead of the curve, mostly because they were doing whatever they wanted.
- [31:25]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Good. Oh, Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
- [31:32]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
In 1986 alone, Elvis Costello released two albums that sounded like they could have come out in the 90s. King of America was produced by T Bone Burnett, who a decade and a half later would win Grammys for producing the oh Brother, Where Arts Thou soundtrack. But Burnett first honed his Americana sound with Costello. King of America was a collection of roots rock and country folk gems, including a cover of the Animals classic Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, which got Costello back on rock radio. It peaked on the album rock chart at number 38. Then later that same year, Costello reformed the Attractions for one last 80s album, the bruising and raucous Blood and Chocolate. Recorded near live in the studio and loud in as few takes as possible, the album was later tagged by critics as a kind of proto grunge before that term had even been coined. Ironically, the best remembered song from Blood And Chocolate was a rather slow song. The sinister I want you, a paean to romantic obsession that many mistook for a love song. Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas called it neurotic. I Want yout remains one of Costello's most covered compositions.
- [33:36]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
I want you did you mean to tell me but seem to forget I.
- [33:45]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Want you Joe Jackson, meanwhile, was even more determined to follow his muse. He tried a little bit of everything. His 1986 LP, Big World, for example, was a live album of all new material recorded for the first time in front of an audience who were instructed not to cheer or applaud. It produced an album rock radio hit with Right and Wrong, which got all the way to number 11 on that chart. That same year, Jackson backed up rising folk rocker Suzanne Vega on her Pretty in Pink soundtrack single Left of Center. Jackson didn't sing. He played piano on the track. On his concert tours, when Jackson played old material, he refused to play the songs as they were originally arranged on record, alternately confounding and delighting his audiences. His 1988 live album captured three versions of Is she really going out with him? In three styles, including jazz, rock, acoustic and even acapell.
- [35:30]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Is she really gonna take him home tonight?
- [35:36]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
And Jackson even tried fulfilling his original teenage dream of being a classical composer with 1987's vocal free LP Willpower. Some critics called it pretentious, but many were impressed he did it at all. Speaking of Willpower, Graham Parker was perhaps the most willful of all, switching record companies two more times over just one album that he refused to compromise on. That album was called the Mona Lisa's Sister, a record Parker wanted to write and produce himself. He just signed to Atlantic Records, already his fourth label in a decade. Parker had the worst luck with record labels. He played them the demos he'd been working on and offered to record the lp. When Atlantic insisted that he work with outside producers and give the tracks some studio sheen, Parker flatly refused, left Atlantic Records, signed to RCA Records, and produced the whole album himself with members of the Rumor for less than $60,000.
- [37:23]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Start a Fire.
- [37:26]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Get Started, released in 1988, the Mona Lisa's Sister generated two airplay hits in two radio formats. Get Started, Start a Fire reached number 23 on the album rock chart. And when Billboard launched Modern Rock Rock Tracks, the magazine's first alt rock chart, in September of 88, Parker's Don't Let them break you down was on the very first chart, peaking at Modern rock at number 27.
- [38:12]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Don't let it break you down.
- [38:14]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
For a brief time, Parker was welcomed at modern rock radio as a kind of alternative godfather. In 1989, his single Big man on Paper cracked the modern rock top 20, peaking at number 18.
- [38:34]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Big man on Paper.
- [38:42]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Joe Jackson too made an early appearance on the modern rock chart, taking his single 19 Forever, a track from his 1989 album Blaze of Glory, all the way to number four. But the capo of these alt rock godfathers was Elvis Costello, who went all the way to number one in the modern rock charts first year. Funnily enough, he did it with what turned out to be his all time biggest pop hit. And he had an assist from a certain pop legend. Veronica was co written by Costello with former Beatle Paul McCartney. A character study of an elderly woman suffering from memory loss, the song featured numerous Beatlesque touches, not least its baseline which McCartney himself played on his trademark Hoffner bass.
- [40:04]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Veronica veronica.
- [40:12]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Released in the winter of 1989 as the lead single from Costello's new Warner Brothers album Spike, Veronica first rose to number one on the modern rock chart for two weeks, then crossed over to the Hot 100 where it reached number 19, Elvis Costello's first and only US top 20 pop hit. While it was climbing the Hot 100, sitting just a few notches below it was another Elvis Costello Paul McCartney composition. This one with McCartney as the singer and the official artist. My Brave Face gave the former beatle A number 25 hit. McCartney also played bass on Costello's follow up single the number four modern rock hit this town. At age 35, Costello was emerging as an alt rock radio fixture. Perhaps the most uncanny moment on this.
- [41:39]
Chris Melanfi
Chart for the not so Angry no.
- [41:42]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Longer young men came two years later in the summer of 1991 for three weeks while Elvis Costello held down the number one spot with his frothy single the Other side of Summer, Sitting directly behind him at at number two Modern Rock for three weeks was none other than Joe Jackson with his comeback rock single Obvious Song. It was the last time either Costello or Jackson would place that high on any Billboard chart. Still, that's a pretty good fluke chart story, right? Well, I've got a better one. It's one of my favorite music biz flukes of all time. And it happened one year later to new wave fellow traveler Nick Lowe when this pop legend recorded this classic song. What does this have to do with Nick Low, you ask? When Whitney Houston dominated the Hot 100 with her cover of Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love you, recorded for the soundtrack to Whitney's 1992 film The Bodyguard, The Bodyguard soundtrack became a blockbuster, selling 20 million copies in the U. S alone and some 45 million copies worldwide. Now it so happens that Houston's cover of Parton's song wasn't the only remake on that album. Famously, Houston also covered the Chaka Khan hit I'm Every Woman as well. But buried in the back half of the Bodyguard soundtrack was this recording by a smooth jazz vocalist named Curtis Stigers. It was a cover of what's so Funny Bout Peace, Love and Understanding, the song Elvis Costello had made famous in 1978. Except Costello didn't write Peace, Love and Understanding. His friend Nick Lowe did. The peacenik anthem Lowe wrote for his first band, Brinsley Schwartz. Wound up up on an album that sold tens of millions of copies. The man whose cruel to be kind had made him a one hit wonder who hadn't scored so much as a gold album, let alone platinum. Even Costello had a couple of those. Nick Lowe was now, thanks to the royalties from the Bodyguard soundtrack, a millionaire. As of his mid-40s, Nick Lowe was set for life.
- [45:23]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
God help the Beast in Me.
- [45:33]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
This incredible good fortune meant that Nick Lowe needn't record ever again. Fortunately for music fans, he did not rest on his laurel. He continued to release albums and tour, writing gems like the Beast in Me, a song covered by Johnny Cash, among others, and She's Got Soul, the lead single from his acclaimed 2001 album, The Convince.
- [46:01]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
She's got so so I've just found a pearl. She's.
- [46:11]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
As for Elvis Costello, he has released more than a dozen albums since the 90s, refusing to be limited to any one genre or medium. He has recorded a hybrid classical pop album with string players, the Brodsky Quartet.
- [46:30]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
Now there's nowhere for you to go, so you just have to come out and face the music. Jackson.
- [46:43]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Written with songwriting legend Burt Bacharach for the soundtrack of the musical film Grace of My Heart, And even joined Fiona Apple on stage at a VH1 live event for Apple's cover of Costello's brooding lust anthem I Want you. Joe Jackson has continued to inspire generations of musicians, especially pianists. Alt rock piano man Ben Folds has claimed Joe Jackson was a primary influence on his hits with the Ben Folds Five. And Jackson himself has continued to record well into the 21st century. His 20th album, fool, was released in 2019, and it sounds like vintage Joe.
- [48:05]
Chris Melanfi
Bassist Graham maybe by the way, is.
- [48:08]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Still in Jackson's band after more than 40 years.
- [48:18]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
You're so fabulously. Absolutely.
- [48:24]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
And Graham Parker, he too kept recording, both with and without the Rumor, even as that one big pop hit always eluded him. He had enough of a sense of humor about this to play himself in the 2012 Judd Apatow comedy this is 40, in which Paul Rudd, owner of an indie record label, signs Parker and reunites the Rumor to try and get them the hit they deserve.
- [48:57]
Chris Melanfi
Tonight we have them solo because we.
- [49:00]
Narrator/Announcer
Couldn'T afford to fly in the Rumor.
- [49:03]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
Grand Parker.
- [49:09]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a singer or musician)
We without a doubt. I got to intercept Must be time. Someone shouted in the.
- [49:20]
Guest or Interviewee (possibly a music historian or critic)
What these formerly angry young men, now in their 60s and 70s, all have in common is a catalog of great songs and a sense of perspective. You can hear it in the voices of Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe when they tour together and perform the song that made them both pseudo pop stars, the song's title daring you to call peace, love and understanding funny. Well, it still sounds a little bit punk, but the message now sounds totally appropriate coming from a pair of happy old men.
- [50:26]
Chris Melanfi
I hope you enjoyed this episode episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanthe. That's me. Special thanks this month to AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine for research support. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly Hit Parade, the Bridge shows, which are available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I talk to Stephen Thomas Erlewine about the angry young men of the 70s and the pub, rock, power, pop and punk scenes that lay a foundation for their careers. To sign up for Slate plus and hear not only the Bridge but all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hitparadeplus Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcast and Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanfi.