REVENGE OF THE NERDS | FOREVER YOUNG

To paraphrase from a movie I recently watched (yet again), the incredibly funny 1984 film, REVENGE OF THE NERDS, “I’m a singles chart nerd, and I’m pretty proud of it.”

In the years leading up to adulthood, and for a few years after, I was a faithful listener of Casey Kasem’s AMERICAN TOP 40 program, and while I am a self-proclaimed singles chart nerd, I concede that, if there’s a song out there you love, and have loved for years, what position they reached on the singles chart (if they even reached it at all) doesn’t matter. I think if Casey Kasem were here with us today, he might agree. Still, all these years later, there are some songs out there whose peak chart positions surprise me. One of those songs is “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” by Utopia.

For years, Pennsylvania native Todd Rundgren had been going back and forth, releasing solo albums and albums with his band, Utopia. As for his solo career, Todd is best known for his BILLBOARD Hot 100 hits, “I Saw The Light” (No. 16) and “Hello It’s Me” (No. 5, both from 1972), his original 1978 version of “Can We Still Be Friends” (No. 29; covered by Robert Palmer in 1979, and by many others since), and 1983’s fun “Bang The Drum All Day” (No. 63).

Todd Rundgren’s band, Utopia, started out as a Prog-Rock band in 1973, and had several incarnations over the years, releasing nine studio albums between 1974 and 1985. Their biggest album, late 1979’s ADVENTURES IN UTOPIA, was their biggest, blending Rock, Disco and Prog-Rock, and gave the band their only Top 40 hit on the Hot 100, “Set Me Free,” which spent a week at its peak position of No. 27 in April 1980.

NERDY SIDE NOTE: A song Todd Rundgren wrote for Utopia’s 1977 album, OOPS! WRONG PLANET – the last song on the album – called “Love Is The Answer,” was a single released from the album, but it was not a hit. It did, however, end up being a Top 10 hit for Adult Contemporary favorites England Dan & John Ford Coley in May 1979, and it was among the 100 biggest U.S. hits of that year.

From Utopia’s second self-titled album (and their second album released in 1982), there were two singles released from the album: “Hammer In My Heart” and “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now.” With the album recorded just a year after MTV was born, both songs featured videos on a VHS collection called THE UTOPIA SAMPLER, which received a Grammy nomination in 1983 for Best Short Form Video. Speaking of MTV, footage for the “Hammer In My Heart” video was recorded live at MTV’s official first birthday party, hosted by MTV VJ (and current Maine resident and weather enthusiast), Nina Blackwood. That song reached No. 31 on BILLBOARD’s Mainstream Rock chart.

The cheeky video for the other single released from the UTOPIA album, “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” featured the band members dressed up as different types of bugs who can’t move their feet. The video kinda reminded me of videos The Cars would end up producing in the 80s, like 1984’s MTV Video Of The Year winner, “You Might Think” (which at one point features singer Ric Ocasek as a fly). In an odd coincidence, Todd Rundgren took Ric Ocasek’s place as lead singer of The New Cars in 2005 (featuring original Cars members Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes) for one album and a tour, which I unfortunately missed.

“Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” has always reminded me of a cross between the U.K. Pop band, Bucks Fizz (who had three No. 1 songs in the U.K. back in the early 80s) and XTC, which, in yet another coincidence, Todd Rundgren produced the brilliant XTC album, SKYLARKING, in 1986, the same year Utopia broke up.

On the BILLBOARD Hot 100, “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” debuted at No. 90 in early January 1983, but sadly, it was the legs, not the feet that failed “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now,” and it peaked at No. 82 a couple weeks later, staying there for three weeks. It was the last time Utopia would see the Hot 100.

I was a bit late learning about “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now” (it wasn’t until after I started STUCK IN THE 80s, my little 21-year 80s radio program on WMPG community radio in Portland, Maine), but every time I’ve heard it since, it’s never failed me. I suppose maybe 20 years from now, if I hear this song and of course, want to dance to it, I might say, “Feet, don’t fail me now.”

But, for the moment, I’ll proudly dance to this quirky and fun gem at home, because unlike the meaning of the word “utopia” (which means “no place” or an imagined place), here’s a good as place as any to dance, not to mention it’s a place where I don’t have to worry about taking anyone out on the dance floor on account of my mad dancing skillz (those who have seen me dance are laughing, because they know it’s true)…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytAi9yr7t1E

In my last post, I talked about one of the (real) American one-hit wonders of the 80s – the Guildford, England band, The Vapors, and how it’s sad they are only known for their one big, great hit, and that they were really much more than the one-hit wonder name they became known for.

Situated about 100 miles Northeast of Guildford is Colchester, England, the hometown of Modern English, another memorable New Wave band with a number of albums and singles but primarily known for their one big, great hit, “I Melt With You.”

Modern English was formed in 1979 and signed to one of my all-time favorite record labels, 4AD, the following year. Influenced by Joy Division (as many bands were in the early 80s), Modern English released their first album in 1981, MESH & LACE. It was well-received, and one of the band’s singles that year, “Smiles And Laughter” (which appeared on the CD version of MESH & LACE), reached No. 16 on the U.K. Indie singles chart.

The following year, their second album, 1982’s AFTER THE SNOW, was the first of three albums released on my all-time favorite record label, Sire Records, here in the United States. That album reached No. 78 on BILLBOARD’s album chart and gave the band their biggest hit, “I Melt With You.”

Though the single stopped at No. 78 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in April 1983 and spent just seven weeks on the chart, it’s one of those singles that has stood the test of time despite its chart rank (a 1990 re-recording of “I Melt With You” peaked at No. 76).

1984’s RICOCHET DAYS matched the No. 5 peak of their debut album on the U.K. Indie album chart, and, like AFTER THE SNOW, also reached the top half of BILLBOARD’s album chart here in America. RICOCHET DAYS gave the band their only other Hot 100 single, “Hands Across The Sea,” which reached No. 91.

The last album released by Sire Records here in the U.S. was 1986’s STOP START. Overall, it was not well-received, and a brief AllMusic review calls it a “regrettable, overtly commercial album which impressed no one.” I, for one, enjoyed the album, especially “Ink And Paper,” the lone single released from STOP START.

“Ink And Paper” was co-written with Tommy Dunbar of the Berkeley, California Power Pop band, The Rubinoos (who had two songs on the soundtrack of 1984’s REVENGE OF THE NERDS, including the film’s title song). “Ink And Paper” is a song about a long-distance breakup through, well, ink and paper. (“So many miles separate us / And they’ve come between us in the end / Once upon a time you said forever / But this is now and that was then…”)

After STOP START, the band broke up for a few years, got back together for another couple, with the next incarnation of Modern English getting back together in 1995. It’s this incarnation I saw in Portland, Maine around 1997 (the memory is a little fuzzy on whether or not that’s the year); I do remember it was a great show.

The band is still together today, having toured North America and performing material from their 4AD days (the last stop of the tour was in Boston in June 2016), and fresh off of the early September 2016 release of TAKE ME TO THE TREES, their first studio album of new material in 20 years.