Step Two

To paraphrase David Bowie, this ain't rock & roll. It's genre-cide. Showaddywaddy broke through with a pounding, spangle-soaked approximation of all that made the '50s palatable to an early-'70s Brit teen audience, and racked up three major hits in the blink of an eye. But just how glam were they really — and how glam did they intend remaining? So aptly named if one believes there really was a fiendish plan to subvert a nation of glitterkids into zombie Eddie Cochran clones, Step Two arrived bereft of all but the most superficial layers of spangle and spark, confident in the knowledge that anyone who had traveled this far was hardly going to bail out now. And so it transpired. Step Two was just as big as its predecessor, and its hits were even bigger. Band originals consumed the bulk of the album, but whereas once the group could glitter with the best of them, now the drapes were tightly drawn, and the brothel creeper boots were the platforms du jour. Almost any one of the album's songs could have spun securely on a vintage Sun label, while three crucial covers place the 'Waddy in even darker context. If anything distinguished the British rock & roll crowd (the Teddy Boys of legend and infamy), it was their undying obsession with the movement's fallen heroes. Showaddywaddy's masterful recreation of Cochran's "Three Steps to Heaven" and Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang," and a wry medley of Tommy Dee's "Three Stars" and Buddy Holly's "Rave On," tell you all you need to know on that score. All of which would be a major problem if Showaddywaddy didn't carry it all off with such aplomb, and a die-hard enthusiasm which is impossible to resist. So what if songs like "If You Know What I Mean," "Blue Jean Baby" (dedicated, of course, to Gene Vincent), and "The Latest Craze" have more pelvis than Presley? Catch a glimpse of the band at the peak of their powers, and the smiles are as elvish as they are Elvis, as hearty as they're Haley. In other words, Showaddywaddy might have taken their mission very seriously indeed. But they didn't expect their audience to be even half as dedicated — and would probably have been disappointed if they were. Who else, after all, was going to buy "Hey Mr. Christmas"?