The Kinks -- "Sleepwalker" (1977)

After stumbling through much of the 70's without a hit since 1970's "Lola," cranking out lukewarm concept albums for RCA (Preservation Act 1, Preservation Act 2, Soap Opera and Schoolboys in Disgrace), somehow music legend Clive Davis remembered Ray Davies could write a damn good rock song, and signed them to his Arista label.

Leave it to "Mr. Golden Ears" to basically tell Ray to forget about the concept records and artsy pretensions meant for the cutout bins, just write those witty rock songs we know you can do. Mr. Davies obliged on the Sleepwalker album, taking a big leap forward of ripe overdriven power chords, acerbic observations on gigging ("Life On The Road"), a woman who can't stop dancing ("Juke Box Music"), and even failed suicide ("Life Goes On").

Happily, the title song broke through on FM radio play, floating on air guitar ready riffs and lyrics that, well, have more than one interpretation 30 years on. A vampire? A stalker? A guy who is just flat out losing his marbles? Davies has written about so many crackpots over the years, any scenario is possible.

I personally like the break where the music dies down, the piano plinks, Davies bounces from speaker to speaker and then that E major riff sledgehammers its way back into the scene.

Ev'rybody got problems, buddy. I got mine.
When midnight comes around, I start to lose my mind.
When the sun puts out the light,
I join the creatures of the night,
Oh yeah.

I'm a sleepwalker.
I'm a night stalker.
I'm a street walker.
I'm a night hawker.

Ev'rybody got secrets that they wanna hide.
When midnight comes along, I take a look inside.
Don't go talkin' in your sleep:
I might come in for a peep,
Oh yeah.'

I'm a sleepwalker.
I'm a night stalker.

When ev'rybody's fast asleep, I start to creep.
Through the shadows of the moonlight, I walk my beat.
Better close your window tight:
I might come in for a bite,
Oh yeah.

When the night time comes, I start to creep.
I prowl around when you're fast asleep.
I walk around on my tippy toes,
And I get into places that nobody knows.

I'm always around if you wanna meet.
You can find me on almost ev'ry street.
You'll always get me on the telephone.
I'll even come to your home if you're ever alone.


Luckily, Sleepwalker was just the beginning of a raft of excellent Arista albums, one of which yielded their big comeback single, "Come Dancing." That was a silly song, but if it drew listeners back to the Kinks in massive numbers, my tongue is held.

Here are the Kinks live with "Sleepwalker."

Dwight Twilley -- "Girls" (1984)

In the 80's, Tom Petty did a Quentin Tarantino by pulling some of his heroes out of the mothballs and reviving their careers. Tarantino did it with Pam Grier, John Travolta and Robert Forster. Petty revived the careers of Del Shannon ("Runaway"), Roy Orbison and Dwight Twilley.

Twilley was a die-hard rock and roll fundamentalist from Tulsa who believed in a few simple chords, a ridiculously catchy melody, thumping electric guitar notes, and plenty o'slapback reverb. Along with his buddy, drummer Phil Seymour, they had one huge classic hit, "I'm On Fire," and unfortunately fell victim to record company runarounds and rejections, so he was unable to follow-up his initial success. Seymour split and had a one-hit solo career around "Precious To Me."

Finally in 1984, after being tossed around record labels and finally landing on EMI America, Twilley, along with his amazing lead guitarist Bill Pitcock IV, put out his second big hit single, "Girls." Ironically following the musical blueprint he created several years before that, Petty's endorsement of his friend and contributing background vocals finally put Twilley back on the well-deserved map.

Yes, it's got about three chords, an insane guitar hook matched by the one-syllable chorus ("Girls!"), and just about nothing in common with the big-sounding artists of the day like Phil Collins, Wham, Van Halen and Duran Duran.

That was Twilley's last roll through the Top 40. Since then,he's put out a number of fine independent albums (including a couple of cover collections), and compilations of unreleased material.

Two fun videos below. The first, the official 80's style video, seemingly modeled on Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher," where it's all frisky babe cheerleaders with big hair cascading through the gym locker. The second, the required appearance on weekly music TV show "Solid Gold," all rolled up jacket sleeves, lip-synched away, while Tom Petty's distinct nasal background vocals drift over the audio.

Gary U.S. Bonds - "This Little Girl" (1981)

Rock and roll comeback stories like this are far and few between. They don't seem to happen anymore, really. So before we even talk about the song, this story has to be told first. It's become rock music urban legend.

In the early 60's, Gary U.S. Bonds had a few big rock party hits, along the same lineage as The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and J.J. Jackson's "It's Alright." Bonds' recordings were kind of primitive but they zoomed up the charts and became classics of the era -- "New Orleans," "Dear Lady Twist," and the one that went to the top, "Quarter to Three."

Then, nothing. The hits stopped coming after a three year ride.

Fast forward 15 years later. Bruce Springsteen and the Street Band are touring to promote Darkness on the Edge of Town. As a matter of fact, he's been doing "Quarter To Three" as an encore. The band hears that Bonds is performing at some Jersey hotel nightclub, so they go see him. They agree to keep in touch.

A couple of years later, Springsteen is touring for his double album The River, which is heavily influenced by those early 60's rock songs. Springsteen and Miami Steve reunite with their hero Bonds and record an entire album with him, with the two of them contributing songs and vocals. EMI Records signs Bonds and out comes his big comeback album Dedication, blessed by the E Street Band.

The record opens up with a joyous version of an old Cajun song, "Jole Blon," where Bonds duets with Springsteen, and E Streeter Danny Federici joins in on accordion. But the next song becomes Bonds' comeback hit, "This Little Girl," written especially for him by Springsteen, and man, it does not disappoint.

Coming right out of that River-era mold, it starts with a slow A minor strum across a Telecaster through a tube amp, like a curtain opener. Then right into that 60's party beat you can clap your hands to -- "Here she comes... Walking down the street." Mighty Max Weinberg builds up on his booming snare drum to the chorus, "This little girl is mine, wo-oh, this little girl is mine. This little girl, this little girl, this little girl is mine!" It's like the hands of time spun all the way back again, and Bonds has himself a moderately-sized FM radio hit.

Bonds, who already years touring, hits the road again with a new band, this time with the Bruce Blessing. He tours clubs everywhere, bringing back his original hits while playing his new album.

And that is history, my friends. Bonds followed up with another Springsteen/Miami Steve album called On The Line, which was good but never broke through like Dedication. A few years later, he was back on the nostalgia circuit, still as smooth and young looking as ever.

As an aside, there was a time when people where covering Springsteen songs left and right (remember the Pointer Sisters doing "Fire?")and he was giving them away or co-writing them with notables like Patti Smith ("Because The Night"). It's been many years since he's done that and boy, we could use some more of those Springsteen tossaways.

Below is a video of Bonds and his band making an early 80's pit stop on the wonderful cult New Jersey local TV access program, "The Uncle Floyd Show," which attracted many rock notables of the day like the Ramones. The songs were always lip-synched, but that was part of the corny fun of that program, which is also missed.