They know what boys like…
Howdy, y’all, and welcome to Evil Squirrel’s Diner! We have a booth for one ready for you right over here… let me just wipe up that ketchup off the seat…. well, I think that’s ketchup. Since it’s Monday, that means we have a special on the menu today! That’s the day we fire up the jukebox in the corner and play another long lost hit that will have your ears watering out of that greasy spoon of expired tunes we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! If you don’t like the song DJ Scratchy’s serving up today, then you’re more than welcome to kiss her grits… while the Sponkies check the kids’ menu for the chicken nugget platter. DING! Order up!
In the late 70’s, Chris Butler, guitarist for the Ohio band Tin Huey, decided to start up his own group on the side to record some songs he had written. That group of seven wound up being The Waitresses, who would have a small, but significant impact in American new wave music. The group would drop a member and change a member before recording their 1982 single that thanks to a lot of MTV airplay helped put them on the map…
What a unique song and video! Just the kind of weird stuff I liked about the 80’s. While “I Know What Boys Like” only made it to #62 on the pop chart, that video helped cement it as an uber 80’s classic. The intro with lead singer Patty Donahue casually puffing on a cigarette is iconic….. and a bit sad since the video’s catty tease wound up dying from lung cancer at only 40 years old in 1996.
This is why we need candy cigarettes as a safe alternative!
Among the other odd things about The Waitresses is that even among hardcore 80’s music lovers like myself, they’re really only remember for two songs…. and that other song is a Christmas song! How many other pop groups can make that unusual claim?
No! Don’t even go THERE!
I know what boys and girls like! Another lost earworm, which you’ll hear next Monday…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I like the song it has something special… the middle finger statement in a song ;O)
This was how they had to convey that message before Cee-lo Green came along…
Hmm……I give it a 2 out of 10. Kinda boring really. I DO like a lot of new wave-ish music but this just kinda – well – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Pam
I’ll admit this one’s not for everybody. But boy does it bring back memories of MTV when it was actually worth watching…
The lyrics deserve a big thumbs down.
Since when do birds have thumbs?
That was so much fun. It was so different. I’m surprised I’d never heard it before. Cute cute cute. I immediately thought of the Good Charlotte song Boys and Girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FTS2tdmyYM
That certainly wasn’t what I expected… probably because I couldn’t get the similarly named song by Blur out of my mind. Get those old people off of my lawn!
Not sure sugar is all that much better than nicotine. I mean, it’s a bit of a toss up…diabetes or lung cancer, isn’t it? Funny I don’t recall this tune or the band at all. Sorry.
It depends… there are people who can chain smoke into their 100’s and never get the Big C, and those like me who can drink Pepsi by the gallon and still ward off a family history of diabetes. I’ll take the sugar, though, because the smoke is nasty!
Sugar over nicotine…not even close in my books either.
Very quirky. I’m glad the sax player finally got a go. A bit repetitive but quirky enough to be “not too bad”.
So many 80’s bands had that guy who only played the sax, so he always got time to take a few tokes before his solo started…