My Top 1000 Songs #844: Another Girl, Another Planet

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I was introduced to Britain's Only Ones, and their killer late 70s skinny-tie single "Another Girl, Another Planet," by the Replacements, who frequently covered it live; I finally heard the original a few years later when it showed up on a fantastic 1993 Rhino Records compilation of UK Power Pop.

I did eventually pick up the Only Ones' self-titled 1978 LP, where it first appeared (as well as the rest of their catalog), and found the band to be both great and understandably below-the-radar. A little punk here, some power pop there, sprinkled with some glam drama and Lou Reed-isms... Arguably England's answer to Television, but that's a pretty imprecise take. Yet for all the genre-blending adventurism, "Another Girl, Another Planet" finds them corralling all that creativity into a slyly radio-friendly power pop track. The riffs are great, the chorus is joyous ear-candy... yet it's still just off-kilter enough to keep it from settling for simple pop.

The Replacements:

The Only Ones, live 1979: