Honeymoon Suite exploded on to the scene back in 1984 with their self-titled debut album all propelled by their debut single “New Girl Now”. The song went to #23 in their home country of Canada and only went to #57 in the U.S. So, maybe they didn’t explode on to the scene and it was more like a whimper. I remember seeing the song on MTV and I thought it was a great tune, but honestly, it didn’t make me run out and buy it. Granted, I didn’t have a job that year so I had no money to go out and get it.

The picture sleeve is really basic as it is a copy of the cover of their debut album. The back cover has a picture of all the band members including Gary Lalonde who plays bass; however, he didn’t play on the album as that was handled by Brian Brackstone. Gary was added to the band after the completion of the album. My pressing is the standard U.S. pressing and no non-album track on the B-Side. But I love saving 80’s picture sleeve singles from sitting in record stores and not getting loved.

The song was written by guitarists, Dermot (Derry) Grehan and the song was semi-biographical as he wrote after ending a relationship and moving off to college. The band started out as a cover band and would sneak their own songs in at the end of the sets and people noticed. They entered the song in to some local contest and actually one. This lead to more demos and eventually a record deal. For now, we are only focusing on the 7″ Single that I found this Summer while on vacation in Florida. It was in decent shape and it look like it needed to be adopted so I grabbed it. I figured my Canadian friends would be mad if I left it behind.

A-SIDE:

The song is pure 80’s cheese…and that isn’t a bad thing. It is about as AOR as you can get too. Crunchy guitar riffs, banging drums, stinging keyboards and a catchy chorus. Johnnie Dee has that high-pitched vocal of the time and of course there is a guitar solo. All the boxes are checked. With that being said, it is a great song as this was the sound of the time and Honeymoon Suite did it well. It is an earworm and will stick in your heard long after it is over.

B-SIDE:

The B-Side is “It’s Your Heart” and it turns the keyboards up a notch above “New Girl Now”. Is it a cross between Herbie Hancock or Jan Hammer, I don’t know but it does sound like a familiar keyboard riff. The song is an album track so not anything you don’t have if you have the album. I like singles that give us non-album tracks, but a good song is a good song. And despite this one being more dated then the A-Side, the band is really good at what they do so you can’t fault them for that.

And there you have it. The last of the four singles I found when I was on vacation in Florida. I still have one more single that I found this Summer, so it will be up next week. It is kind of Special!