Flying high on a rocket in the sky

Artist: Westworld
Title: Sonic Boom Boy
Year: 1987
Chart peak: 11

It's funny how the mind plays tricks. I'd always remembered this as a huge hit, and to find that it only reached number 11 came as a bit of a surprise. I think what wrong-footed me was the way that this song so perfectly captures the era. Just look at that sleeve, for starters: could that realistically have come from any decade other than the 1980s?

More importantly, "Sonic Boom Boy" sounds absolutely right as an eighties pop capsule - three minutes that say pretty much nothing lyrically, but with a catchy backing (a kind of rockabilly guitar riff over a very 80s beat) that invites you to get up and dance, or at least sit there with a big grin on your face.

And then there's the video - and what says 1980s more than a good live action / animation hybrid? It was made by Giblets (you'll recall their claymation vid for Jackie Wilson's "Reet Petite") and features the classic "people sitting around until animated whatsits do weird stuff to them" scenario. It's not as polished as, say, the vid for a-ha's "Take On Me" (oh, now there was a classic!) but it was perfect for showing on "The Chart Show" and the like. Like I said, it was the 80s. They were great.

The group comprised guitarist Bob Andrews, formerly Billy Idol's right-hand man in Generation X, drummer Nick Burton and singer Elizabeth Westwood (not Westworld... but close). They put out three albums in this guise (this came from their debut "Where The Action Is", re-titled "Rockulator" for the US market) before Andrews and Westwood relocated to Arizona and formed the more heavily-dance-oriented Moondogg, who have themselves released three albums to date, the most recent being 2007's "All The Love In The World".

Further reading...
Moondogg website