This is how long you’ll have to listen to today’s earworm, my pretty!
Only in America can you set aside a day to honor laborers everywhere by expecting them to not actually do any labor. Well, if you’re a one of the privileged, that is. We here at The Nest employ no such critters who are promised unnecessary days off (or even pay), so today is just plain old Monday. That means it’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and put another lazy ass old record to work straight out of that sweatshop of lost songs we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy is always working overtime to ensure we play only the finest Monday earworms on this blog, while the Sponkies continue to pitch in their cheap child labor to our efforts. It’s a tough job, but somepony’s gotta do it…
The band that went by the unusual name of Squeeze was one of the hottest acts in the UK back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. And their timing was great, as America was just about ready to embrace the coming New Wave invasion that made superstars out of a number of British acts. Unfortunately for the lads, the US didn’t seem to pay much attention to them. While most Americans are familiar with their 1981 song “Tempted,” it was only a very minor stain on the Hot 100 notebook when it was released (peaking at #49), and didn’t become accepted as an 80’s standard of commercial radio until almost two decades later…
Tempted by the fruit of another…
Squeeze had to break up and reform again before they finally got a solid piece of mainstream radio on this side of the Atlantic. Their 1987 album Babylon and On gave them their only two claims to Top 40 fame, both of which just as quickly fell into a musical black hole. One was a song about the 80’s second most memorable phone number, and the other is this awesome three minute ditty that was their biggest hit, making it all the way up to #15…. “Hourglass.”
By 1987, music videos had become a big enough deal that the artists who created them had quit just throwing weird shit together and were actually trying (sometimes too hard) to come up with something new and innovative. For “Hourglass,” the idea of the band playing on a set designed with numerous optical illusions was submitted for our approval, and I think it actually worked pretty well in conjunction with the song!
There will be no selfies in this mirror. 1987 or not…
And if you’re one of those young punks who is wondering if we really kept time on hourglasses way back in the prehistoric days of the 80’s since one wound up in a song title….. well, get off of my lawn and just keep listening to your Maroon 5 MP3’s…
I’m at a payphone trying to call home in 2012!
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the earworms of our lives. I’ll have another one for you next Monday…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
oh I loved it… it was good to hear some “real” not synthesizered music in the 80’s … sadly a lot of the people around me boycotted the dj’s and refused to dance to real music… those who thought meatloaf is the thing they will have to dinner and men at work is a program by employment agency…
I should have thought to use a Men at Work song for today! Maybe next year…
Snappy tune that employed some clever optical illusions in the video. Sadly, I do not remember hearing this one but wished I did. Guess Duran Duran and Mike and the Mechanics too up too much airplay in my household in the 80’s when the kids were growing up and I think I was still mourning the death of disco. 😇
Squeeze and Mike & the Mechanics have something in common… vocalist Paul Carrack! Granted, Carrack was out of the band Squeeze by the time they did today’s song, but it’s Carrack’s voice on “Tempted.” Paul got around, as he also sang lead on Ace’s “How Long”…
Oh I don’t remember this one either but like the optical illusions and the lead singer’s voice – do those comments qualify as an official “I LIKE THIS ONE” ????
Pam
Sounds like a like to me. Like, really!
My son is working too and had this been a year when Garry and I were working, he would also be on the job. A lot of people don’t get regular holidays off … probably half the workforce at least. But now, we get EVERYDAY off. I really like that more than i can possibly say!
This is the only holiday I have worked every single year. I feel proud to be upholding the fine tradition of labor on its dedicated day. I would love to have every day off, but I’m not sure it’d be great for my health. I would vegetate myself into a very early grave…
“Only in America can you set aside a day to honor laborers everywhere by expecting them to not actually do any labor. ”
Wrong, so wrong … look up 1st of May for the rest of the world …
It just seems like such a perfectly American innovation… celebrating work by not working.
It’s not celebrating work – it is celebrating workers’ rights … at least that is what the 1st of May is. Our “Day of work” – when we are all “off work”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day
Some even say it is International Worker-fight-day … but that would be far too radical for the US.
I almost remember that one. I used to see ‘Tempted’ and ‘Black Coffee in Bed’ on MTV all the time.
I missed both of those songs the first time around, probably because I wasn’t introduced to MTV until 1984. I heard “Tempted” for the first time on the college radio station circa 1994, and just assumed it was some current alternative weird crap they used to play all the time!
My 17-year-old may remember this song as the one that woke him up too early on his last day of summer break because I just accidentally blasted it outside his door. Oops! Those saxophones are quite ear-piercing too!
LOL! It does start off pretty loud and catches you off guard if you aren’t ready for it. Instead of an hourglass, this song might make for a great alarm clock!
Yet another one blocked in my country – which is weird since it’s a UK band…
Anyway, I got Alexa to play it for me (thanks, Amazon, no thanks “UMG”, whoever you are) and it was the song I thought it was. I even remembered most of the words – it was massive back in the day (as was Squeeze). In fact Jools Holland is very well known, has had several TV shows and usually his own one to see in the New Year.
Ha! I was wondering if even the UK band was going to be blocked in the UK! Boo YouTube! YAY Alexa!
Thank you for connecting the missing dots with Jools Holland. The name was very familiar when I dug into the info on Squeeze, but I couldn’t place why I knew it. His show was being carried by VH1-Classic for a while, and I remember the ads for it…