For those of you not in the know, Jonathan Richman formed The Modern Lovers in 1970 with Jerry Harrison, David Robinson & Ernie Brooks. The band would eventually travel to Los Angeles, and score a recording contract.

However, while demos and recordings were made, an album was never finished, and the band was dropped (not before appearing on the classic Troublemakers compilation).

Jonathan began recording for Beserkley mid-decade with new versions of The Modern Lovers, focusing on his desire for his band to be more of an acoustic/harmony based endeavor, releasing albums including their eponymous debut (1976), Rock & Roll With The Modern Lovers (1977), Modern Lovers ‘Live’ (1977), and Back In Your Life (1978), even scoring a Top 5 U.K. single in the process.

Putting together a new Modern Lovers in 1980, with Greg Keranen (who played on the early records), drummer Micheal Guardabascio, Ken Forfia, Ellie Marshall, and Beth Harrington. The group toured and record through 1981–82, and in 1983 Jonathan Sings! (Produced by Peter Bernstein, bassist for the renowned LA power pop band The Cretones) appeared on Sire Records. It was worth the wait.

The album not only became an immediate fan favorite, but placed at #8 in The Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop critics poll, and NME put it at #19 in their Album of the Year list. The album has all of the hallmarks that would show why he made frequent appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and was tapped by the Farrely Brothers for their smash film There’s Something About Mary in the 1990s.

Indeed, Jonathan Sings! - now made available again by Omnivore Recordings on November 2nd, 2022, and as Jonathan originally intended - marked a new decade, a new band, a new label, and a timeless sound.

1. That Summer Feeling
2. This Kind Of Music
3. The Neighbors
4. Somebody To Hold Me
5. Those Conga Drums
6. Stop This Car
7. Not Yet Three
8. Give Paris One More Chance
9. You’re The One For Me
10. When I’m Walking

Opening on the sweetly dulcet, windows down, warm breeze, Sunday country drive of That Summer Feeling and the educational, upbeat and groovy This Kind Of Music, those are backed up by the low ebb, at times veritably acoustically-imbibed hipsway of the foot-tapping rhythm’s within The Neighbors, the old school, Motownesque sing-along Somebody To Hold Me and then comes my own personal favorite, the feverish sixties rock n’ roll of Those Conga Drums.

Next up is the gently frenetic Stop This Car and the beautiful, languishing balladry of Not Yet Three and they are in turn followed seamlessly by the atmospherically-imbued hand-clapper Give Paris One More Chance, the album rounding out on the aching yearn within You’re The One For Me, coming to a close on the melodic, one-two beats within the easy going When I’m Walking.

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