Songoftheday 11/24/14 - What in the world is this feeling catch a breath and leave me reeling? It'll get you in the end it's God's revenge!

The Blow Monkeys - "Digging Your Scene"
from the album Animal Magic (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day comes from the British new wave band the Blow Monkeys, who came together in the early 80s under lead singer Dr. Robert (Bruce Robert Howard), and released their debut album in 1984. That record went unnoticed, but with their second, Animal Magic, the band struck gold with a lite-disco-ish number that coyly referenced the AIDS crisis in the gay community and bars. "Digging Your Scene", written by Howard, was just enough subtlety to avoid being blacklisted for its theme, and the video completely whitewashed it all into a simple club performance...


Blow Monkeys - Digging Your Scene (1986) from MTVClassic1 on Vimeo.


"Digging Your Scene" became the Blow Monkeys' first and only American pop hit in August of 1986, while climbing up to #7 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single was a top-40 hit in Germany and Italy, and peaked at #12 in their native Britain.

The following year the band released their next album, She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter, which was their biggest success in England, with first single "It Doesn't Have To Be This Way" going up to #5 on the pop chart there. They followed that with Whoops! There Goes The Neighbourhood in 1989, which included the Dr. Robert and Kym Mazelle house jam "Wait", which went to #7 on the chart in the UK. A hits set gave them their most recent top-40 rank with "Choice" (#32), and after that they faded, with their next album Springtime For The World only scoring a minor pop hit in the UK with the title track. In 1990 the band split, though they reconnected in 2008 and released a couple more albums.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's the Monkeys live on tour back in the day with the song...

...and from last years' Rewind Festival...

Up tomorrow: "The Mod" sings about some Legal Eagles.