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A couple of months ago the folks at Omnivore Records released Just Desserts: The Complete Waitresses, a comprehensive two-CD look at the early-80s new-wave band known almost exclusively for its freak 1982 Top 40 hit, “I Know What Boys Like.” I have fond feelings for the band’s “Christmas Wrapping,” one of the few good holiday rock songs, as well, and the Waitresses also wrote the theme for the short-lived, now cult sitcom Square Pegs. To be honest, that was pretty much the extent of my Waitresses knowledge until I checked out the reissue. Of course, I’ve known for years that Chicago saxophonist Mars Williams was an integral part of the band, taking a typically overheated solo on today’s 12 O’Clock Track, the aforementioned “I Know What Boys Like.” Although Williams is known primarily as one of the city’s most powerful fire-breathing jazz reedists, he’s logged a lot of time playing in new-wave bands, whether stars like the Psychedelic Furs (with whom he still tours) and Billy Idol, or overlooked obscurities like the great Swollen Monkeys (with future Tom Waits reedist Ralph Carney).
The Waitresses – I Know What Boys Like by DemonPreyer
