In 1981, a sixties rust belt one-hit wonder would rocket out of semi-obscurity to claim his own stake in '80s pop culture with the smash hit "Ah! Leah!".
Like many rags-to-riches stories, the song that introduced Donnie Iris to America began life as just one of a handful of songs being prepped for the locally-recorded album project that boasted an all-star cast of veteran Pittsburgh rockers but wound up finding a national audience.
Whatever initial hopes Iris and producer/writing partner Mark Avsec had were soon dashed by the initial mixes, which failed to excite the duo.
As a last-ditch effort, Iris and Avsec chose to take a "more-is-more" approach, ushering all musicians into the vocal booth to begin stacking vocals in a nod to "Bohemian Rhapsody"-era Queen that was a) unheard of for a local release in 1981, and b) sounded like nothing else on the charts at the time when it began getting national rock radio play and a smattering of spins on new cable network MTV.
While "Agnes" has a life of its own back in Pittsburgh, I remember thinking it was the second-best song and, thus, deserving of its own release as a single.
What did they do instead?
The suits at MCA chose it to be the B-side to "Ah! Leah", of course. As a result, there was really no other song on the debut to push to radio with any confidence. I recall being just as infuriated when the second-best tune on Get The Knack ("Frustrated") wound up being the B-side to "Good Girls Don't" instead of the album's second (or third) single.
While impressed with Iris's first musical blast, I had also seen a number of artists just like him fade into the darkness because they just couldn't come up with another album as catchy as the first. The cut-out bins are full of 'em, many with the MCA logo.
Yet King Cool was ever bit the equal to Back On The Streets; one great song ("Love Is Like A Rock", one good song "Sweet Merilee", and one lame song that sounded a little too much like Innocent Man-era Billy Joel for this fan's comfort, but. as luck would have it, actually became Iris's highest charting single ("My Girl").
Despite no noticeable radio or MTV airplay, "My Girl" broke the Top 40 when "Love Is Like A Rock" got heavy airplay and only squeaked into the Top 40.
In what universe does a song with a chorus that devilishly relentless not go Top 20? Oh right, MCA was starting to act like the MCA we all knew and loved - the one Tom Petty had sued at the risk of the rest of his career to get away from a few years earlier.
Of course, by the time of Iris' third album, The High And The Mighty, things had gotten just a wee hit formulaic and radio programmers who'd jumped on "Ah! Leah!" now took a pass.
Then the curiously-titled Fortune 410 appeared out of nowhere with an album cover that was trying way too hard to appear "cutting edge" when, underneath its hood, it was a 50's and 60's-inspired rock & roll tour de force that had more in common with Billy Joel's An Innocent Man, which, itself, was an unabashed celebration of much the same era Iris & The Cruisers were exploring.
Of the two computer-themed songs on the album, once again the lesser song of the two was chosen as a single while the eerily prescient (and horribly-titled) "I'm A User" was not.
I used to be a working manHokey as the lyrics may be almost forty years later, Iris didn't just predict "telecommuting", but also "automation" rendering human jobs obsolete, yet it was "Do You Compute" that was chosen as the album's first single, only to get no traction at radio or on MTV.
I rode the bus to the working land
Now I sit at home and I watch tv
My computer does my work for me
I'm a user
But I used to be a working man, ooh-la-la-la
I'm a user
But I used to be a working man
I sent work to the CPU
I wanna run the list I'm programmed to
I go to work 4 to 1310
Debug me fast 'fore I lose my head
Meanwhile, Joel's foray into pop revivalism would go on to sell over ten million copies worldwide.
By 1985, Iris and MCA had finally parted ways, freeing Iris to release his next album No Muss No Fuss on a no-name indie label. While even Iris can no longer be bothered to remember the name of the long-defunct label (HME Records), the album and single actually charted higher than his last two MCA releases.
Of course, by then, The Cruisers were beginning to drift off to other projects (including a metal band that included Trent Reznor). Iris would resurface in 1988 on Mark Avsec's second Cellarful Of Noise album, which sold poorly and remains hopelessly out-of-print..
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why mca?