Songs of '83: "Come On Eileen"

Shooting up the Billboard charts 40 years ago this week, right behind "Billie Jean" (and right ahead of Michael Jackson too; this song eventually landed for one week in the #1 slot in between "Billie Jean" and "Beat It," robbing the King of Pop of having two back-to-back number ones), was "Come On Eileen." I suspect I'm like a large majority of radio-listeners from back then who remember the song fondly, but mostly associate it with one-hit-wonderism and a Simpsons joke. But Dexys Midnight Runners--a hard-working bunch of Birmingham punks who took a soul turn, and named their group after dextroamphetamine, the drug that would keep them going through the midnight hours--had a long history in the UK, and a decent number of hits. With their fiddles and overalls, it might be easy to think they provide some sort of counter-point to my thesis last week the about multiracial, cosmopolitan, deeply urban roots and influences of New Wave on American radio, but no: Birmingham in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the same kind of polyglot, struggling industrial landscape you saw all across the United States, so when these folks turned to early R&B, blues, and rock 'n' roll (however technologically updated) for their music, they were merely pointing out to American audiences the same mix of influences that were already there and waiting. Enjoy!