13 Wonderful Will Songs: The Next Generation - Vol. 17

Featuring songs by Suede, Olivia Newton-John, Peter Murphy, Dada, Depeche Mode, the Innocence Mission, and many more

That’s right, it’s time for another installment of 13 Wonderful Will Songs: The Next Generation, a series of playlists which are, in fact, in no way distinguishable from the original incarnation of 13 Wonderful Will Songs playlists. So don’t feel as though you need to have listened to those in order to appreciate these, because that’s not the case at all.

Hit “play,” and here’s hoping you enjoy what you hear!

1. Mike Farley, “Moments and Memories”

It’s relatively rare that I find myself friends with musicians who live outside of the Hampton Roads area, but I’ve known Mike Farley since 2005, when I first started writing for Bullz-Eye.com. (In addition to being a great singer-songwriter, he also has his own publicity firm: Michael J. Media.) He’s got several albums - some under his own name, some with the Mike Farley Band - but this is my favorite of the bunch, and the title track has a heck of a lot to do with it.

2. Suede, “My Insatiable One”

Yeah, I know, in America they’re known as the London Suede, but they were Suede when I first started listening to them, and they’ll always be Suede to me. I actually discovered this song, which is the B-side of “The Drowners,” because Morrissey started doing a version of it in his live set. Eventually, however, it became easier to find, thanks to the band releasing a B-sides collection called Sci-Fi Lullabies. Still, it’s staggering to me that they had so many great songs that they were comfortable placing this one on a B-side.

3. Olivia Newton-John, “What Is Life”

Obligatory cover alert! This has always been one of my favorite solo hits by George Harrison, but until recently I’d never heard Olivia’s version of it. I dig it!

4. Jude, “The Not So Pretty Princess”

One of the non-Madonna artists signed to Maverick Records, Jude had a few minor hits with songs like “I’m Sorry Now,” “Rick James,” and “I Know,” the latter appearing on the soundtrack to City of Angels. The first song to really catch my ear, though, was this track from his second Maverick album, King of Yesterday, although I think the “hit” from the album was his cover of Bread’s “Everything I Own.” Jude went on to be more successful in France than in the States, and although he hasn’t released an album in quite awhile, he released an EP in 2017 (Me and My Monster) and a few one-off singles in the 2020s.

5. Peter Murphy, “Soothsayer”

I wasn’t even fully finished with my first spin of this album and I’d already declared that it was probably the best thing Peter Murphy had released since his mainstream breakthrough, Deep. (You know, the one with “Cuts You Up” on it.) ?t’s been a few weeks since then, but I stand by this position, along with the position that this song absolutely kicks ass.

6. Dada, “Beautiful Turnback Time Machine”

You probably know these guys for their semi-novelty hit “Dizz Knee Land,” and while I know it’s not really a novelty, but the whole thing is built around the punchline of a long-running post-Super Bowl commercial (“I’m going to Disneyland!”), it’s pretty close to one. Anyway, if you were distracted by that song and thought they were just a one-hit wonder, you’ve really missed out on some amazing music, including this awesome track from their self-titled third album.

7. Depeche Mode, “New Dress”

I’ve been a Depeche Mode fan since hearing “People Are People” on the radio when it was originally released, but I didn’t really become the kind of fan who actually bought their albums until Music for the Masses. At that point, I had to start playing catch-up, and upon doing so, I discovered the album that remains my favorite DM LP to this day: Black Celebration. I toyed with putting “Dressed in Black” on here instead, but this was a little outside-the-box for the band, musically speaking, at the time, so it’s always stood out for me.

8. Ridel High, “Monsters Under Your Bed”

This is another one of those bands that I discovered as a result of them being mentioned in the Not Lame Records mail-order catalog…or at least I think that’s where I discovered them. They were certainly mentioned in the catalog, that’s for sure, but now that I’m thinking about it, I may have found them from a magazine ad. Was it in PopSided, Amplifier, or The Big Takeover? Hard to say for sure, but wherever I found them, it was a great discovery. I actually have the indie album that preceded this one (Hi-Scores), but the track listing’s mostly the same as Emotional Rollercoaster, which was released on A&M. But I have them both, of course.

9. Adrian Belew, “Men in Helicopters”

In the process of looking for a song by Adrian Belew to include, I discovered that my favorite of his albums - Young Lions - is no longer on Spotify. Not sure why, but it’s the same for the album that preceded it, Mr. Music Head. Fortunately, there’s a track from Young Lions that Belew re-recorded with strings, and I may actually love this version more than the original.

10. The Innocence Mission, “Black Sheep Wall”

This is another one of those bands that I discovered when I was working at the record store, thanks to A&M Records sending us a promotional copy of the cassette and no one else at the store wanting it. (You’d be surprised how many great albums I discovered just because I was the only one who wanted to take them home.) I haven’t really followed the band’s career since they left the major-label world behind, but my buddy Neil Soiseth swears by them, so between that fact and my enduring love for this song, I still check in on them once in awhile.

11. Derek Sharp and the Champagne Jam, “The King”

The story on this band is a crazy one, in that this song comes from an album that was originally credited to the Guess Who. Unfortunately, the higher-profile members of the Guess Who weren’t having it, and they clearly had more power in the relationship, since the album is now being billed as being by Derek Sharp and the Champagne Jam. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not actually the worst thing in the world, because this LP doesn’t even remotely sound like the Guess Who. Indeed, if anything, it sounds more like Jellyfish than the Guess Who, so you can appreciate why I like it as much as I do.

12. Blossom Dearie, “Figure Eight”

I don’t really have a good reason for including this classic Schoolhouse Rock song, but I don’t suppose I really need one, do I? It’s a classic for a reason. I do look back at those songs, however, and marvel at how they introduced a generation to jazz folks like Blossom Dearie, Bob Dorough, and Jack Sheldon even as they introduced them to such key things as the preamble to the US Constitution, the definition of an adjective, and - lest we forget - their multiplication tables.

13. Night Ranger, “Color of Your Smile”

Like a lot of kids who grew up in the ‘80s, I listened to a heck of a lot of Night Ranger. It was only inevitable: their singles were all over the radio and MTV, and…I want to say that “Sister Christian” was the theme to our senior prom, but don’t hold me to that. By the time their Big Life album came out, their fanbase had reached a point where they were only averaging one hit single per LP, and…this wasn’t it. (Their theme to the Michael J. Fox film The Secret of My Success had that honor.) But I bought the album, I loved the album, and the hook to this song grabbed me immediately…and all these years later, it still hasn’t let go.