In the times of Mass Media, the Internet and Itunes, it’s hard to remember a time when you could hear a song on the radio a few times, fall in love with it, and never hear the song again!
But that’s just how it was back in the day. A song that you loved on the radio might be completely unattainable as far as locating a single, especially if it wasn’t brand new or if it was only a minor hit. Your local record store might have only brought in a few copies of the song, and once it was gone, that was it! All you could do was hope to hear it again on the radio, and if it was a one-hit wonder...well, those chances were slim!
There were so many songs I can remember loving and never being able to get a copy of the single for my own collection. “Crackerbox Palace” by George Harrison was one, and I remember trying desperately to get a copy of “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder, all to no avail!
Anyway, back in 1980 or so, there was this rocking, poppy song that they would play on the radio every once in a while, and I just loved it. The group was called “Spider”, and the single was a song I believed to be called “It’s A Mystery”, due to it’s catchy refrain. I remember trying to find the 45 at my store, but no luck. Just when I resigned myself to only hearing it on the radio, it seemed to disappear! Suddenly, I never heard the song again!
Years later, I was with a bunch of school friends, and we were talking about cool songs we liked. I casually mentioned liking a song that no one seemed to know, by a group called Spider, and began singing “ooh, it’s a mystery, do you know what I’m talking about?” I was quite surprised when one of my friends immediately said “ Yeah, “New Romance”! My sister has their album!”
I was instantly hopping around, saying that we HAD to get to his house so that I could tape a copy for myself! Yes, this is back in the days of cassette recording, friends. And so it was for the first time I was able to see the actual vinyl myself!
Hearing the song again really brought back memories for me! It was just as good as I remembered, and we all listened to it, wondering why this great group never made it big!
As an adult, I was happy to find they had finally gotten around to releasing their two albums onto a CD, and so without further ado, let us take a listen to the wonderful sounds of SPIDER!
