Modern Rock Tracks No. 1s - Psychedelic Furs and "All That Money Wants"

Post-punk new wave, the merits of popularity vs. purity in a band's catalog, and the first modern rock chart success for the Furs

Psychedelic Furs - "All That Money Wants"

Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart: 3 (10/1/88 - 10/15/88)

Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:

• Bobby McFerrin - "Don't Worry, Be Happy" (10/1/88)

• Def Leppard - "Love Bites" (10/8/88)

• UB 40 - "Red Red Wine" (10/15/88)

I actively listened to the Psychedelic Furs for the first time in my life the other night. This isn't a slight against the band; I've definitely heard the name Psychedelic Furs multiple times over the years, and I've often been told that I should check them out, given their influence on other bands. In addition to their place in '80s new wave history, they've also been listed as inspirations for more modern bands like the Killers, Foo Fighters and even Korn, who did a cover of the Furs' "Love My Way."

Speaking of "Love My Way," I was prepping a playlist of the most popular singles in the Furs' catalog and I played the first 3 seconds of "Love My Way" on my phone. From the other side of my house, my wife texts me and says, "That's a 'Wedding Singer' song!" I was puzzled, since I didn't recall hearing that song in the 1998 Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy, but she showed me a video of the sequences where "Love My Way" played as a backdrop to a couple of scenes. This further underscores just how little I knew about the Furs before this past week: my wife, a wonderful woman who loves music but not someone I'd call a lover of late '80s British post-punk new wave, knew more about them than I did!

Among other things, it's the use of the band's songs in popular movies and TV shows that have propelled the band to continued success with a devoted following for more than 40 years. "Love My Way," easily the most played of the Furs' singles based on Spotify's numbers, not only played twice in "Wedding Singer," but also featured prominently in the 2017 film "Call Me By Your Name," which was a success at that year's Sundance Film Festival and is widely lauded as one of the best movies of the year. The use of the band's single "Pretty in Pink" was used in the movie of the same name, which generated its first real crossover reach into a mainstream audience.

 "Love My Way" was the band’s first mainstream U.S. hit, falling just short of the American Top 40 and peaking at No. 44 on the Hot 100 in April 1983. Their next charting single, "The Ghost of You," topped out at No. 59 on the Billboard chart in 1984. These early successes kept the Psychedelic Furs out of the mainstream spotlight, but they continued to hone and develop their sound and build a large following both in the U.K. and other areas around the world. For U.S. audiences, the band came to prominence thanks to the Molly Ringwald vehicle "Pretty in Pink," penned by John Hughes and featuring Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer and others. The Furs single "Pretty in Pink," though thematically not aligned with the plot of the movie, resonated with audiences who saw the movie and it led to their strongest Hot 100 performance to date, ending up at No. 41 in summer 1986.

When the band released their "Midnight to Midnight" album in late 1986, the lead single "Heartbreak Beat" rode the wave of the band's summer success and became their only Hot 100 top 40 hit, peaking at No. 26 in May 1987. Despite that commercial success, articles like this one from the L.A. Times in 1987 noted that hardcore Furs fans became "disgruntled" with how the band, in their view, "retreated to the safety and comfort of commercialism." And it's at this point the band came together to release their first best-of album, "All of This and Nothing," featuring the best songs of their early career and one new single, the subject of today's article: "All That Money Wants."

If you're looking for a song that moves the band away from that overly pop-centric aesthetic, I think "All That Money Wants" succeeds, both musically and literally. Lead singer Richard Butler conceded in the L.A. Times article that the band's style "wasn’t getting through to people. We certainly weren’t getting radio airplay. I wanted us to have radio airplay. I wanted as many people to find out about the band as possible." They clearly achieved that, but the band's focus shifted back to their experimental roots, and "All That Money Wants" proved to be the bridge between their commercial height and their post-'80s alt-rock success.

The contrast between "All That Money Wants" and "Heartbreak Beat" is striking at first listen. While beautifully composed, "Heartbreak Beat" feels very much like a popular song from the era, evoking David Bowie or Simple Minds or even Modern English with upbeat synthesizers and a rock guitar groove. "All That Money Wants," by contrast, is stripped down, rougher around the edges and more jangly with the guitars, akin to early tracks from R.E.M. The lyrics add to the abstraction of the track, talking about "drowning in my sleep" and "painted lies on painted lips," nebulous constructs building to a nondescript chorus that seems to cast a shadow over the excesses of material gain and possessions. It's almost as if the track is a lament from the band about their chase for commercial success, and a desire to wash away that version of themselves “like rain, through all the alleys to the sea." If that's what they were trying to capture with this song, I think they did a solid job.

For as long as I’ve been alive, whenever a band creates a hit that strikes a chord with a mass audience, there’s always debate about whether a band “sells out” by creating something that gains mainstream popularity. In some cases, bands work really hard to reach as wide an audience as possible, and bask in that success. For others, the purity of their obscurity … (whoa, I should trademark that … “purity of obscurity” … that’d be a great name for a rock band … but I digress) … Anyway, the purity bestowed upon a band by maintaining a low profile earns them more “credibility” with a smaller core fanbase, but robs the band of being well known in larger circles.

In this case, I can appreciate why Psychedelic Furs may have alienated their “core” audience with their pop chart successes, but it’s really hard to imagine the band evolving into new and interesting creative areas without exploring a more “mainstream sound.” And I can’t imagine a song like “All That Money Wants” being as good without the experience that led to its creation. In a way, the band was able to reconnect with their hardcore fans as a result of the influence of their mainstream sound. There will always be debate about this with just about every band, but I think Psychedelic Furs benefit from being in both worlds.

I'm hardly the expert when it comes to interpreting a band that I've known for decades but know nothing about, so you can take my interpretations and impressions and slice them apart all you want. But it's clear this track resonated more with "hardcore fans" of the band, as it did not chart at all on the Hot 100 yet became the third single overall to top the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It stayed on top for three weeks, which was the longest such streak at the time. And in playing to their base and sticking with the spirit of their early sound, the band would continue to find success on the MRT chart. We'll hear from the Furs again before too long.

Rating: 7/10

Chart notes:

The charts during this time were pretty static, with Siouxsie and the Banshees holding down the top 5, along with "Wild Wild West." A couple of interesting tracks stood out, though.

• "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" by Transvision Vamp: This is a surprisingly crisp pop/punk/new wave U.S. sleeper hit for a band I most assuredly never knew existed until the writing of this column. That said, it makes me want to look deeper into their catalog; the band was consistently popular both in the U.K. and Australia, and even scored a chart-topper in Norway in the 1990s. I appreciate the Go-Gos vibe I get from the song. It peaked at No. 9 on the MRT chart behind "All That Money Wants," and even managed to hit No. 87 on the Hot 100.

• "Don't Go" by Hothouse Flowers: Tonally different from both Psychedelic Furs and Transvision Vamp, this track from Irish rockers Hothouse Flowers features a folk-rock edge, reminding me a lot of U.S. acts like Bob Seger or even the Traveling Wilburys. The album featuring this track, "People," topped the Irish album charts and peaked at No. 2 in the U.K. The band maintained a strong following through the mid 1990s before disbanding and reforming in the early 2000s. "Don't Go" was the first track to chart on MRT, and it peaked at No. 7 behind "All That Money Wants."