Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXV--Taxxi: Cocktail Queen

A couple of years back I wrote about a tune by Dwight Twilley called "Somebody to Love" that I thought should still be being played in all its anthemic glory on FM station after FM station...but alas, it isn't.  This week's tune is much the same, though it should be as fondly remembered of a one hit wonder as Looking Glass' "Brandy" or Blues Image's "Ride Captain Ride..."

Amazingly enough, Taxxi did have a Wikipedia entry (a whole couple of paragraphs) because I could find absolutely nothing else about the band--the only album mention I found just stated the album and its songs without any review, and for the first time in the history of Friday Night Jukebox there was no lyric sheet to be found (gasp!).  For the record, Taxxi formed in London (surprise to me as I thought they were an American band) in 1979 and lasted until 1987 despite an utter dearth of commercial success.  They released four studio LPs, one compilation, one unreleased tracks album (?!!!), and had a song on two separate soundtracks (Weird Science and The Secret of My Success).  The band did get its start with help from the Who's manager Kit Lambert, so there's that.  Otherwise, singer/guitarist David Cumming, keyboardist Colin Payne, and drummer Jeffrey Nead's only claim to fame is making a song I deemed worthy of inclusion on FNJ (which I hope doesn't give them pause as to the breadth of their career)...

Fun Fact:  Randy Jackson of American Idol fame played bass as a session musician for the band on its first three albums.  Fascinating, my God....

"Cocktail Queen" was released in 1982 on Taxxi's second album, States of Emergency.  Neither the single nor the album so much as sniffed the charts, though the song did receive some steady MTV airplay (and is where I became familiar with it).

Regular readers (both of you) know of my love for power pop, and "Cocktail Queen" has the commanding guitar chords and driving drums that make my heart sing (to coin a phrase).  There's also plenty of hand claps, great backing vocals, and a story about a cocktail waitress who may (or may not) be everybody's angel (and what man among us hasn't fallen in love with a waitress at least once?).  But if you really want to know how I feel about the song, check out keyboardist Colin Payne in the video below--I may not be as graceful as he as he bop, bop, bops along, but my heart dances exactly as he every time I hear "Cocktail Queen."  Don't she love to rock and roll (rock and roll!), indeed.

Lyric Sheet: [Blogger's Note:  I actually own the LP of States of Emergency and these lyrics are verbatim from its...uh...lyric sheet]  "Cocktail queen, like a fire in the night/Burns with a flame that will set you alight/And she can keep on burning, all night long..."

Enjoy:

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emaycee