All My Records: Adam Ant “Goody Two Shoes / Crackpot History”

I remember seeing Adam Ant on an episode of Northern Exposure when I was young. That must have been in the early 90s. I can recall almost nothing about the episode other than (I think) Mr. Ant was having some pain in his arm or wrist due to the way he held his guitar. Dr. Fleischman suggested that he quit playing guitar that way, but the rocker in him wouldn’t allow it. What an 80s British rock star was doing in Cicely, Alaska I can’t recall, and I’m sure it doesn’t matter. I’m kind of proud of myself for remembering as much about the episode as I did.

This half-forgotten memory of a moderately successful television show that went off the air who knows how long ago has been, for the most part, my only exposure to the man known as Adam Ant. I have, of course, heard the song Goody Two Shoes before, but up until I listened to this record for the purposes of this review, there’s no way I could have told you who had sung it. Was this Adam Ant’s only hit? I couldn’t tell you.

Goody Two Shoes, as far as goofy ’80s hits go, isn’t that bad of a song. When I think of that decade, I think of songs that sound like this. It would fit right in on any of those “Best of the 80s” CDs they used to sell on T.V. (and I’d be willing to bet it has done just that at one point or another).

The video is kind of great, in a totally terrible sort of way. I love the early days of music videos (this single is from 1982), everything was so open and experimental. Everyone was just being weird and having fun (although, almost everyone in the video for Goody Two Shoes looks somewhat uncomfortable and embarrassed, which makes it even better). I imagine some cigar smoking executive yelling at the band “It’s great! The kids’ll eat this up! You’re wonderful, baby! We’re gonna make millions!”

The B-Side, Crackpot History, is a weird song. It has a “rap” portion in it that so many early 80s songs had. Those parts always make me cringe. Judge for yourself.

Overall, the record is decent. It’s a nice bit of 80s nostalgia.