Songoftheday 10/5/12 - With your heartbreak open so much you can't hide, put on a little makeup make sure they get your good side...

Adam Ant - "Goody Two Shoes"
from the album Friend Or Foe (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12 (three weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is by the man born Stuart Leslie Goddard, but changed his stage name to Adam Ant in the mid-70's, where he with a his backing group the Ants were contemporaries of the Sex Pistols in the punk movement, but dressed and acted like their New Romantic brethren in Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. The original version of the Ants were "swiped" by manager Malcolm McLaren to become his new creation Bow Wow Wow, but Adam recruited a new band, including guitarist Marco Pirroni. Their first hit single to make big waves, "Kings of the Wild Frontier", from their sophomore album of the same name, was a minor hit in England and a top-20 hit on the American dance club chart in 1980 (it was re-released the next year and went up to #2 in the UK). The followup, "Dog Eat Dog" went one better, becoming their first top-5 hit.

By then, Adam and the band were wildly popular with the British youth, and when it came time to release their third album, Prince Charming, their returns were exponential, with two #1 singles in the UK, "Stand And Deliver" (which also went top-10 in Austria and Holland), and the title track. But after this success, Adam decided to go it alone, canning the band save for Pirroni (now his behind-the-scenes collaborator) and drummer Chris Hughes (who would go on to produce for Ant).

The first single in the US released under just "Adam Ant" was "Goody Two Shoes", written by Ant and Pirroni and produced by them with Hughes. It poked fun at the media's obsession over bad behavior of the music world, and the expectations based on their dress and music styles...

"Goody Two Shoes" broke Adam through in America in a big way, with the bouncy song making the top-20 on the pop chart, the top-10 on the rock radio chart, and topping the British singles chart (where it was still credited to Adam & the Ants). He would wait another eight years before scoring another pop top-40 in the US, however, long after he left the makeup, makeup behind.

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There was a second video made of the song with just Adam and moving furniture in it...

Is it me, or does he like like a young, punk Billy Crystal?

The punk group Unwritten Law did a cover of the song in 1997 for the compilation Before You Were Punk...

Up tomorrow: The Marvellows get "freeze-framed".