Crawling From The Wreckage/ Queen of Hearts

Now, here's a terrific two-fer! The A side is an Edmunds classic, a rockabilly cover of a Graham Parker tune. On the B side, you get the original version of the catchy song that Juice Newton took Top 10 in 1981. Written by pedal-steel player Hank DeVito, Edmunds was clearly prescient in picking up on its charms, and his is far and away the best version I've heard. In the U.K., Edmunds' "Queen of Hearts" was released on 45 rpm and reached #11 on the charts.

Both tracks on this single are from Edmunds excellent 1979 album Repeat When Necessary, which also featured his hit version of Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk." The album also showcased the semi-official band that became known as Rockpile, and included Edmunds' friend Nick Lowe on bass. In 1980, Rockpile released one top-notch album with its own brand of rockabilly, Seconds of Pleasure, which yielded the hit single "Teacher Teacher."