April 27 – Sunday – The Waitresses – Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful?

This was a particular favorite of mine and my old friend Vicki’s, who was the new wave devotee, not I, but I discovered The Waitresses. The group was made up of four guys and two women, the bass player and the lead singer. All the songs were written by guitarist Chris Butler, who co-produced the album, and sung by Patty Donahue, whose near monotone voice oozed with sarcasm. If her voice was a layer of paint it would be a matted hue.

They single of the song they were probably known best for, “I Know What Boys Like” was released in 1980. It starts side two of this album, which was released in 1982, but was in no way the impetus for its purchase. I think I heard it somewhere, and then there was the theme song they sang to a show I really liked, Square Pegs, which introduced us to a very young, geeky Sarah Jessica Parker. Vicki and I done wore out “No Guilt,” a song of independence that had motivated me to rearrange the furniture each time after the ex and I broke up, which was a lot. The rest of side one was also very well played, and I recall it was pointed out by our friend who we had just lost four months before Vicki passed, that the song “It’s My Car” was reminiscent of Vicki’s sister. The Waitresses had another hit single later that year, but not from this album. “Christmas Wrapping” is still played every holiday season and holds up well. Unfortunately, this was a short-lived band and only released one other record. Even more unfortunate was Patty Donahue’s death of lung cancer at the age of 40.

The workout? Really good. Side one failed to disappoint once again after all this time, and I could sing along to most of the songs while having myself quite the energetic exercise routine. It’s an enjoyable album, a good album to exercise to, and has some fine memories attached to it. Yes, yet another addition to the Ram list, which is really building at the tail end of the project.