Robbed Hit of the Week 7/23/12 - Missing Person's "Words"...

Missing Persons - "Words"

from the album Spring Session M (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42

This week's "robbed hit" is by the California new wave outfit Missing Persons. The band started up as guitarist Warren Cuccurullo met husband & wife Terry and Dale Bozzio as studio musicians backing Frank Zappa in the start of the 80s. They released their debut full-length album in 1982, and the first single from it was the delightfully quirky "Words"...

 While the album was pretty big, making the top-20 on the LP chart and going Gold, the song  just missed out of the top-40, and barely grazed the rock radio list at #60. That's so odd, since the song was played non-stop on WPST when I was growing up. To add salt to the wound, the followup single would also miss out on the top-40 (it will definitely  be coming up later on as another "robbed hit"). Since then the Bozzios split, and Cuccurillo would go to join the fractured Duran Duran for awhile.

Still, Spring Session M remains an awesome album and worth pulling out for a little 80s flashback party moment...