Lost Classics: Spys - She Can't Wait

The year was 1982 and a fledgling television network was showing music videos 24 hours a day. Mtv needed content and was willing to accept submissions from practically any band to fill up its broadcast day. Like a radio station, Mtv would select songs that would go into heavy, medium, or light rotation. 

If you happened to be watching in 1982, a video would pop up periodically featuring a catch pop/rock track by Spys — a band out of New York City that featured former members of Foreigner. Keyboardist Al Greenwood was a founding member of Foreigner and played in that band from 1976-1980. Bassist Ed Gagliardi was Foreigner’s original bass player, performing on the band’s first two albums before being fired.

Spys signed with EMI Records in 1982 and released a self-titled debut album that year. The band would record a second album, Behind Enemy, Lines in 1983 but that was it. The band was gone in a flash without ever finding stardom. Despite putting out some decent music, their albums didn’t sell particularly well, and the band had a contract dispute with EMI, which is generally disastrous for bands.

A song from Spys called “Don’t Run My Life” reached No. 82 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 19 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It’s a solid song. It’s melodic, has a catchy chorus, and is well produced by Grammy Award-winning Neil Kernon, who had previously mixed and/or produced for the likes of Yes, Orleans, Judas Priest, Brand X, Neil Diamond, and Hall & Oates (Kernon went on to produce for Kansas, Scorpions, Dokken, The Romantics, Queensryche, and many other bands.)

But it was “She Can’t Wait” that really should have launched the band and that debut album should have become a lot more popular. Greenwood’s keyboards and Gagliardi’s bass are great, but there’s much more to it, including nice guitar riffs from John DiGaudio, solid drumming by Billy Milne, and excellent rock vocals by John Blanco and group backing vocals.

Mtv regularly played the video for “She Can’t Wait,” which is how it came to my attention and I jury rigged my stereo to be able to record songs like that one and “It’s Inevitable” by Charlie, which I couldn’t find in my local record store. 

The song starts out with a cool guitar/drum/bass blast and then the keys come in and grab your attention. It's got a "big" sound to it, like something Rush might put out with a different vocalist. Speaking of vocalists, Blanco comes in with well-phrased if not entirely original-sounding lyrics and sings them well. The backing vocals bring the whole thing together. 

The song breaks into an excellent bridge two-thirds of the way through, with a couple lines of shared vocals and then a short solo by guitarist DiGaudio before returning to the chorus. It’s noteworthy that the video version below and the album version have some slight differences in the vocals. Possibly the video’s vocals were from a demo version, but they’re not terribly different and both are great.

“She Can’t Wait” should have been a big hit in 1982 but it wasn’t. Although it was “Don’t Run My Life” that charted, I can’t recall ever seeing the video for that song back in the day (a YouTube search didn’t turn up anything that looked official) but I never forgot the “She Can’t Wait” video. Blanco seemed a capable enough front man and the band had the right look for the time. The video seemed well produced. But for whatever reason, the band never launched, and many people never discovered them.

But “She Can’t Wait” definitely qualifies as a lost classic to me and I still  think it’s a great song. Decide for yourself.