American Top 40 PastBlast, 12/18/82: Adam Ant, “Goody Two Shoes”

Some weeks you just don’t have much. I’m plenty underprepared for the holidays as per normal, and I’ve got a couple of longish pieces I want to drop in the next few days. This will be brief.

At the time of this show I’d just put a wrap on my first semester of college. The next two-and-a-half weeks would be a mix of get-togethers, some with family, some with high school pals, and others with college friends. It was to be my family’s last Christmas in Walton, and the final holiday season with my maternal grandfather–the treasured holiday gatherings at the farmhouse in Union would soon be no more.

I’d started hearing Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes” just a couple of weeks earlier but it was already becoming a favorite. It’s #27 on this show and would ultimately ascend to #12, Adam’s only time on AT40, with or without the Ants. I must confess I found his shtick more than a little silly. His attempted comeback in 95, the much less ‘antic’ “Wonderful,” got lots of play on the radio station I listened to on travels back and forth between Georgetown and Versailles, in the months after Martha and I started dating.