My Greatest 100 (or so) Albums...

ArgyBargy ( A+M, 1980) and East Side Story (A+M, 1981) by Squeeze. People talk about this group or that group being Beatlesesque. Well, what does that mean? Does it mean that a group sounds like the Beatles, or does it mean that a group features brilliant, poppy songwriting? I think it's the latter, and in that sense Squeeze was Beatlesque. I couldn't decide between these two albums, so I threw both on here. Much later they made and album called Play (Reprise, 1991) that's also awesome. Anyway, ArgyBargy features Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), If I Didn't Love You, and Another Nail for My Heart and a bunch of other great popsongs and really opened a lot of ears.

Their next album, East Side Story, was originally envisioned as a uble album with individual sides produced by Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and Paul McCartney. That's not what ended up happening, though Elvis Costello did produce a bunch of the songs (and sing on) Tempted, and Dave Edmunds did produce In Quintessence, the other outstanding songs were produced by Roger Bechirian. This was also the album where Jools Holland was replaced by Paul Carrack, and if you went to see them back then, as I did on the English Mugs and Others tour with Elvis Costello, Squeeze would play Paul's Ace hit: How Long (Has This Been Going On?) .

Over the years they had a lot of personel turnover outside of main songwriters Difford and Tillbrook, and eventually those two called it quits. But Squeeze really was one of the best pop bands ever and you should own these records.