Songs of '83: "It's a Mistake"

1983 was the year Men at Work finally fully grasped the American radio recognition and critical plaudits and huge money that they'd been steadily building towards for the previous three years; it was also the year they let it all go, never to remotely approach such popular success again. "It's a Mistake" is, in my opinion, their greatest pop achievement; it was also their last major radio hit. In less than a year, Men at Work's two albums that had earlier been released in the Australian market, and had had some success in the UK and Canada, were released in the U.S., to far greater success than they'd experienced on either side of the Atlantic or Pacific. As 1983 began, Men at Work already had two #1 Billboard hits under their belt, and by August they'd have two more Top Ten hits, including this one, which entered the Billboard charts 40 years ago this week. By the end of the year, they'd won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, and were beset by internal tensions that would lead the band to split up and never again achieve the kind of pop alchemy they'd enjoyed during that one magical year.

Men at Work weren't really New Wave, despite having picked up some cosmopolitan tricks and technologies from playing in the pubs around Melbourne. But simply because of the era, they were occasionally grouped in as part of the Second British (Commonwealth) Invasion. However you categorize them though, this song, written by Colin Hay, simply rocks, with Ron Strykert, the co-founder and lead guitarist of the band, providing on of my favorite guitar solos from any song released that whole year. Give it a listen, and see if you don't agree.