[Love Plus 40] -- Pelican West, the debut album by Haircut One Hundred (or Haircut 100) turned 40 this week. Released on 2/1/1982, Pelican West featured three singles, all of which were top ten hits in the band's native UK: "Love Plus One," "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)," and "Fantastic Day." Only one of those singles, "Love Plus One," landed on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #37. Although "Love Plus One" barely cracked the top 40 in the States, I have a memory that it was everywhere that summer, maybe because its peak occurred in July, just two months after its May 1982 release, and it remained on the charts for a total of 17 weeks, not falling off until September of that year.
Haircut One Hundred had a kind of breezy sound, mixing jangly pop and slight funk, and smoothing it out with jazzy saxophone. In revisiting Pelican West, I found there was more to them than their one-hit wonder. The other two UK singles are pretty strong, but it's the non-single tracks that really cook, particularly "Surprise Me Again" (as strong a college rock song as you'll find from 1982) and "Snow Girl."
Pelican West was the only record with Haircut One Hundred founder and vocalist Nick Heyward. After being the chief songwriter and principle architect behind Pelican West, Heyward departed for a solo career. Or he was fired. The story has changed over the years. The remaining Haircut members would record one more album, but it was a commercial failure and the band broke up shortly after its release.
At least we have the pop gem known as Pelican West (and its 1992 reissue with bonus tracks, Pelican West Plus)! The embedded playlist this week uses the original 12-song track listing.
Flashback: Pelican West by Haircut One Hundred (1982)
That's all till next week. Dedicated 80s-philes can find more flashbacks in the Prophet or Madman archives or via Bookended's 80s Flashback tag. As always, your comments are welcome on today's, or any other, flashback post. And if you like what I'm doing here, please share the link with your friends. If, however, you don't like the flashback, feel free to share it with your enemies.
I'll see you in seven!
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