Love Conquers Some

Album: The Plimsouls, Everywhere at Once, 1983

Best Track: "Play the Breaks"

Lasting Memory: The Plimsouls were the bar band in the classic 1983 teen romantic comedy Valley Girl. The band's "Everywhere at Once" plays as Romeo stand-in Nick (what happened?) Cage escorts Juliet surrogate Deborah (still a major crush) Foreman past the bouncer and to the night club table right after the "save the radio" scene."

Then, the band fires up with "A Million Miles Away." You won't find a more on-the-nose musical number this side of "76 Trombones." Still, it works. And it's what led me to fish Everywhere at Once out of a $2.99 bargain tape bin 20 years ago and enjoy the album's "Magic Touch" ever since.

I love Valley Girl. I love The Music Man. Hell, truth be told, I'm a sucker for any well-done rom-com. Give me The Truth About Cats and Dogs over Star Wars any day, and give me Say Anything, The Philadelphia Story, and Some Like It Hot twice on Sunday. This makes me a sap -- a 6-foot, 300-pound, goateed, wrestling-refereeing sap. But for all that, a well-entertained sap.

And if I had a single word to describe The Plimsouls' Everywhere at Once, that word would be "entertaining." The album is the acme of early-80s power pop. The guitars chime and lope (especially on "Play the Breaks"), the lyrics are just deep enough to stick with you, and lead Plimsoul Peter Case's voice is just rough enough around the edges to be engaging and endearing without being distracting. Plus, having produced no actual radio hits, the Plimsouls are just under-the-radar enough to gain me back some much needed street cred.

The way I see it, it's okay to have Bringing Up Baby on my DVR "Do Not Delete" list as long as I have Everywhere at Once in my music collection. Right?

Right?*

Up Next: Poi Dog Pondering, Poi Dog Pondering, 1989

* Thank goodness Facebook doesn't have an e-wedgie app.