November 08, 2002
10:58 PM

October 2002 CE, Part II (Spiral Starecase)


This is my 69th post! What does that mean? Absolutely nothing.

Have you ever heard a song that you REALLY liked, because it REALLY stuck in your head? Maybe even in a genre you don't listen to that much, if at all? But you really, really wanted to find the song. What made it completely frustrating though, was that you had no idea who the band was, nor did you even know the proper title of the song. But you were too embarrassed to hum that catchy chorus to somebody else, so you never asked anybody. And then, one day, you hear it on the radio! You wait until the end, in hopes the DJ will say who it is. And...he doesn't! Damnit! Or maybe he DID say it, but it just sounded like some other random stuff that DJs usually rattle off.

Back in June I was in my soon-to-be realtor's car. It started to rain. I think we were heading down Lexington street. And that song came on the radio. It was a swingy song, but definitely pop. Upbeat melodically, but laid back at the same time. Nice bass walk. I thought it always sounded like Chicago, a band that was always one of my dad's favorites [Trapezoid Trivia: Chicago was the first band I ever saw in concert. I was 8.]. Actually, it reminded me a lot of their song "Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?" I think the realtor changed the station, but I asked him to change it back. I asked the Realtor if he happened to know who sang the song. He wasn't sure. "I think this is somebody like...New Edition." "No, it's not New Edition." My little brother was a huge New Edition fan in the 80s, and I'd definitely know them if I heard them. Maybe he thought it was someone with a similar sounding name, like "Fifth Dimension".

It was definitely in that whole vein of that stuff baby boomer suburban fathers listen to: Chicago, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Boz Scags...you know, like those bands Vh-1 used to play, but rewound back to the early 70s. AM Gold stuff.

So a few months back I went to good ol' CD Now. A site that I used to end many pro-Napster arguments from people too afraid to admit they just wanted CDs for free ("Well what if I want to hear the song before I buy it?" "Well why don't you go to a place like CDNow.com, where they have free streaming samples of all the songs?" "Well, err, like, um, uh...Metallica sucks!") I listened through all those songs on the Chicago box set and compilations, just to make sure it wasn't them. This was definitely a hit song, so it would be on one of these. It wasn't.

Months passed. And now, tonight, the song crept back into my head for some reason. I went back to CDNow.com, then went to the Chicago section. Now somebody who likes Chicago would probably like this mystery band too, right? I clicked the "Customers who bought Chicago also bought..." link. Lot more listens, no dice.

Finally, I checked the compilations and soundtracks that Chicago was on. If there was a compilation of hits from the same style of music, I'd probably find it there. So I'm clicking and listening and clicking...and I finally found it!! I got the song title!! And it's by..."Various Artists"? Shit, now I had to find out WHO the band was who really did that song. A lot of bands actually covered it, but I wanted to find that version I'd heard on the radio. When it comes to compilation albums, CDNow only lists all the artists clumped together at the bottom, if at all. But I compared the lists of artists on different compilations that all featured that same song, eliminating those other artists that I could already match up with the other songs, and I finally found the artist.

They were a short-lived, one-hit-wonder band called Spiral Starecase. Yes, the misspelling was intentional. And the hit was "More Today Than Yesterday". I'm sure the song would make most people of my generation cringe. I'm sure the song is in many people's "cheesiest songs of all time" list, and even older folks would probably brand it as "tacky". But damn, that groove and melody are both fucking catchy.

When it comes to music, I don't have any "guilty pleasures". That's because I take no shame in what I like.

The Spiral Starecase may be a one-hit wonder group, but if you're only going to be allotted one, then their "More Today Than Yesterday" is the type of solitary charter you want as your lasting legacy. A bouncy shuffle that has become a heavy rotation staple of oldies radio, the tune sports a simple but well-crafted lyric and a melody that sticks to the brain and refuses to leave. A further look into the group's scant discography reveals that musically, the group was capable of even more hits, had not poor management and sheer bad luck cut their career short. - UBL.com

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