Just Missed My Top 200: Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach

Martha & The Muffins took the #168 spot on my Top 200 with "Women Around The World At Work", my favorite song of theirs. That tune was off their second album, 1981's This Is The Ice Age. The year before, however, they had burst onto the Canadian new wave scene with "Echo Beach", from their debut album Metro Music. 

"Echo Beach" hit #5 in Canada and propelled Metro Music to platinum status. It also made #37 on the US dance chart. Martha Johnson and company soon became household names among music fans in the Great White North. "Echo Beach" nearly made my Top 200, but in the end just missed it.

As an aside, at this time many Canadian women were hitting the charts, all pop artists with a pseudo-new wave sound. Here are some examples.

#1 - Luba, who had two monster Canadian hits with "Storm Before The Calm" and "Innocent (With An Explanation)" in 1984 and 1986, respectively. While not actually a new wave performer, Luba attached herself to the new wave movement, associating with many bands and solo artists in that genre and wearing and affecting new wave fashions and styles.

#2 - Sherry Kean, who won the Juno award (Canadian Grammy) in 1984 as Best New Artist in the country. Formerly a punk rocker with The Sharks, Kean scored a massive solo hit with "I Want You Back" (#19 on the Canadian Hot 100), then went on to release a country album in 1986 before eventually leaving the music business to work in a museum. Like Luba, although Kean wasn't technically a new wave artist, she did everything under the sun to ride the coattails of the movement while it remained popular.

#3 - Finally, we have Nancy Martinez. More a dance artist than anything else, this latina singer from Quebec nevertheless made new wavers very welcome in her fanbase, as everything from comments in her interviews to the music played before her concerts seemed to indicate she was "one of us". Her 1986 hit "For Tonight" shot to #2 in Canada and reached #32 on the Billboard chart in the USA.

Be back next week with another great song that almost made my list.