Awesome post. "Just What I Always Wanted" has been one of my favorite singles since it came out.
Although it failed to chart in the U.S., it reached No. 8 in the U.K.
The stingy, ferret like program director at the FM station where Richid interned for vinyl and tickets, bestowed "Show People" before it aired on MTV. We listened over and over again on chunky headphones in a production room. When we finally saw "Just What I Always Wanted" on the tube, we were transfixed; intently nodding along and mouthing the well memorized lyrics with Mari, pounding the synth drums into the coffee table and shouting the backing vocals. For 3 1/4 minutes we inhabited a pure, perfect and exhilerating Pop World.
I just listened to it again, eight more times.
Thanks
I saw Mari and the Wilsations at the old 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, in 1983. Great show! I won a copy of the LP, which I gave to my date (I'd already bought the British import, of course). He was thrilled.
Took me forever to figure out what the lyric "an Ashworth snap" meant. Ashworth was a photographer. Doh!
Thanks for the fond memories!
I have always loved this song.
I saw Mari Wilson loads of times in the early 1980s. She and her band were always fantastic. I think respect is due to Tot Taylor who was behind a lot of the music.
You score big points with the Mari Wilson post! I know of her from living in the UK at the time - I never would've thought many people in the US would know about her.
In a totally bizarre twist, I was just last week listening to the 45 of "Baby It's True" and thinking about how great it would be to do a post on it. It would appear that I have been "beaten to the post".
Hey, you should do that post anyway - I don't have a copy of that song!
Love "Cry Me A River" and it's jazzy guitar in the background.
Mari Wilson has been a favorite of mine ever since I bought "Showpeople" on vinyl back in '83. I was listening to "Just What I Always Wanted" on the car stereo on the drive to work just this very morning. 
Her new CD is highly recommended!
Did you know that Julia Fordham started her career as one of the Wilsations, Mari's backing singers?
Wilson's backing band was originally called The Imaginations but she had to change it when the soul group Imagination threatened to sue because they thought the name similarities would confuse record buyers. They obviously think people can't tell the difference between three black guys in gold lame and a white girl with a beehive.
Speaking of Imagination, what's up with this 80's samplemania?:
1. First we had (o, what's her name now)... um, Gwen Stefani who seems to have sampled something 80's (from "Breakin'" or "Beat Street"?) for her cheerleading release;
2. Then we had Madonns with "Gimme Gimme Gimme" for her new single;
3. Now we have Mariah with "Illusion" (noneother than Imagination) on her new single;
It's like they're taking secret diva meetings behind our backs or something...
Will you ever post these again? I've been looking for a MP3 of "Just What I Always Wanted" forever!
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