Drawn from a previous piece, this is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but it's a contender for the hypothetical Volume 2.
An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!
Just because punk can be pop doesn't mean all punk is pop. I love the Sex Pistols, and believe their intrinsic worth as an exciting rock 'n' roll band is undervalued because folks can't see past the anger and anarchy. But I can't plausibly consider the Pistols as power pop. Some punk and punk-adjacent bands--the Ramones, the Jam, the Buzzcocks, Generation X, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Rich Kids with ex-Pistol Glen Matlock--at least dabbled around the edge of power pop. The Sex Pistols and the Clash did not.
Nor did the Dead Boys, really, though the group's guitarist Jimmy Zero claimed that the Raspberries' Side 3 was his favorite album. There's no discernible power pop influence in the grooves of the Dead Boys' first album Young, Loud & Snotty, and while you can maybe hear a little bit of closeted janglebuzz in their second album We Have Come For Your Children, it still ain't quite a record that demands to be filed under Teen Beat Vocal.
Which makes it all the more remarkable that former Dead Boys lead singer Stiv Bators briefly became a full-on power pop performer with the singles he did immediately after the Dead Boys' dissolution in 1979. The Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" isn't power pop. Stiv's "It's Cold Outside"/"The Last Year" is. Unmistakably. Undeniably. Follow-up 45 "Not That Way Anymore"/"Circumstantial Evidence" is, at the very least, pretty damned close. And the singles were released by power pop proselytizer Bomp Records! Of course!
Bators knew who he needed to form his power pop band. Guitarist Frank Secich had been in the shoulda-been-famous '70s rockin' pop combo Blue Ash, and his presence imbued Bators' immediate post-Dead Boys work with power pop gravitas. After the singles, Secich was also involved in the first Stiv Bators solo album Disconnected; when Bators moved on to the Wanderers and the Lords of the New Church, Secich and the above-mentioned Jimmy Zero joined forces in Club Wow, a terrific but mostly unheralded group whose fabulous Who-inspired track "Norman Green" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made. (For additional information on Frank's work and rockin' pop history, check out his two autobiographical books, Circumstantial Evidence and Not That Way Anymore.)
"It's Cold Outside" was originally a 1966 regional hit by the Choir, a Cleveland group otherwise canonized in power pop history because it included three future members of the Raspberries, guitarist Wally Bryson, drummer Jim Bonfanti, and bassist Dave Smalley (though I don't think Smalley was on the Choir's recording of "It's Cold Outside").
The Choir's "It's Cold Outside" is a fabulous record. Stiv Bators' remake slays the original, and it's not even close. The world used to be sunny. Jokes used to be funny. The pain of love's failure to melt a cold, cold heart is met by a blizzard of drums, bass, and guitar. Cancel school for the day. Find something (or someone) warm. And credit one more notch to the punk and power pop alliance.
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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.
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