Robbed Hit of the Week 7/29/13 - Genesis' "Illegal Alien"...
from the album Genesis (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44
This week's "robbed hit" was a crazy choice for a follow-up single to a top-10 breakthrough for progressive rock group Genesis. As they were finding their ground as more of a "pop" act, with tighter production and shorter songs, they got their first top-10 pop hit in 1984 with the second single from their self-titled album, "That's All". But instead of going with one of the stellar pop songs from the set, like "Taking It All Too Hard" or "Just A Job To Do", the band released the novelty single "Illegal Alien", complete with faked up accent by Phil Collins and a video that pretty much hits most of the stereotypes still held by the Republican party today regarding immigration...
As much as they were trying to poke fun at the stereotyping of Mexicans, and the repeated chorus of "it's no fun being an...", pop radio really didn't know what to do with it (though MTV loved the comedic clip), and the single stalled right under the top-40, as it also did in their native England. You really don't hear this anymore as well, though I'm sure Limbaugh and the ilk would probably lean to this...
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
..Here's the band with it in concert behind the new album (they don't perform it live anymore...)
Up next week: a family soul group gets particular about their romance.
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