— Shreek of the Week of the Day —

Do You Hear Me? Do You Care?

“Words” by Missing Persons, from the album Spring Session M.
Fourth week of July, 1982.

Annoying, annoying, annoying. And if you sing it in your head, eventually you find the melody and lyrics drifting toward “Walking in L.A.”, Missing Persons’ other Shreek, just as irritating and not that musically distinct. Singer Dale Bozzio squeals like Betty Boop huffing household chemicals and while it’s hard to imagine that’s her natural voice, it’s even harder to fathom why anyone would sing like that on purpose. Then again, Missing Persons clearly aspire to Cyndi Lauper’s “talent,” so who knows. At least they’re colorful.

Bonus trivia we just discovered now: “Spring Session M” is an anagram for “Missing Persons.” And there’s the cleverest thing the band ever did.

Best moment: When the song finally ends (@ 4:26).

—J.A.