Proof of how different the pop marketplace was in 1981, the unapologetic '60s throwback "Girl's Night Out" was released by a major label, if one can use that term to describe the post-Presley RCA, then as now a near-moribund label that never quite did manage to find its way in the rock music marketplace. "Girl's Night Out" is a gloriously Spectoresque bit of retro girlypop more or less in the manner of the Go-Go's or Josie Cotton, but the New York-based Lawrence was more of a Shangri-Las-style bad girl than her sunnier California compatriots. Comparisons to early Blondie are also entirely apropos: much as Blondie courted instant girl-group cred by inviting Ellie Greenwich to sing the backing vocals on "In the Flesh," the dramatic chorus of this song is sung by Arlene Smith, leader of the much-beloved Chantels.

-Stewart Mason