Classic Songs of My Youth Revisited #46

The Romantics – What I Like About You

It’s easy to forget this now, in our world of Shazam and asking Siri about pretty much everything, but not so long ago, it could sometimes be a challenge to find anything out about a random song that you heard. One of the things that drew me to listen to Mike Viola’s music was this line from his Spotify profile: “I’ve spent a lifetime chasing a secret AM radio hit coming out of my mom’s kitchen radio balanced on the windowsill in the summer of 1973.” If you’re part of my generation, you know that feeling. Even in early 1998, when in a feverish haze I heard Fastball do an acoustic version of “The Way” during a radio station visit and thought, “Well, I’ll never hear whatever that was again”. I was happily wrong: by June, it was the #1 song in Canada.

For years, I danced to “What I Like About You” at weddings and bars having no idea who the performer was. I don’t even remember now if I wondered about that at the time. How it ended up on Canadian disc jockey playlists is a mystery, since as best I can tell the song never even charted in this country, and only reached #49 in the U.S. (though it was a massive hit in Australia). 

When I learned it was by The Romantics, I had a bit of cognitive dissonance trying to match this song that I loved with the guys in this video. Not that I didn’t like “Talking in Your Sleep”, which was a Canadian #1. But the video is just, umm, weird: the first appearance of the band, floating up into the viewfinder like glossy big-haired aliens, is chuckle worthy. And while you can hear the similarities in the two songs once you know it’s the same band, I don’t think you would make that connection unguided. I certainly didn’t.

I don’t think my failure to appreciate that this was a 1979 release is all that odd since the song sounds like something out of the 1960s. The Wikipedia page for the tune lists such influences as The Yardbirds, Chuck Berry and Neil Diamond (!) – you know, acts from the ‘60s. Bob Seger’s 1969 “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” could be this song’s hungover uncle. There is a certain timelessness to the tune, with jangly garage band guitars, hand claps, “Hey!”s and “Uh-huh-huh”s and “Ahhhhhh”s. Pounding but unobtrusive drums provide a steady backbeat, and while there is a guitar solo, it is then immediately upstaged by a harmonica solo, which is so incredibly rock and roll. At one point, it seems to be heading into the fade out, before revving up again, then suddenly ending on one last “Hey!” The song jumps in, does its job, then slips back out in a nifty 2:54.

AllMusic has this great feature that links a record to thematically similar works. The album this tune came from is categorised under Guys Night Out, Late Night and Hanging Out, all of which feel pretty appropriate. Guys Night Out is by far the best match, with tunes that include Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town”, Joe Walsh’s “All Night Long”, Kiss’ “Rock and Roll All Nite”, The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman”, “I Wanna Be Sedated” from The Ramones, and “Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen. “What I Like About You” fits quite nicely, albeit with a slightly more bubblegum finish. AllMusic missed out though by not having Community Hall Wedding Reception as a theme. What else would be on there? “Don’t Stop Believin’”? “Livin’ on a Prayer”? “Shout” (Isley Brothers, not Tears for Fears)?

There is something about “What I Like About You” that has kept it in the airwaves for over 40 years. It’s the kind of tune that a kid in his bedroom hears and thinks, “I could play that”, and that kid isn’t wrong. I have danced to this song with male and female friends, with a girl I was (secretly) in love with, even with my mother at my stepbrother’s wedding reception. I have soberly danced in my kitchen to this tune, and tapped my toes while sitting on my couch drinking coffee, but it works best when you’re just a little drunk, in a room where there are a few too many people, so that everyone is a bit too warm and starting to run out of steam. It’s at that moment that those opening bars kick in, and everyone feels energised again, ready to take on the night. That might be the key to its longevity: hearing it just makes you, well, happy. And what’s not to like about that?