Happy Halloween from Little Hits
(from the LP Torn Together, Columbia Records 1981)
Back in MTV’s early days, they used to show “spooky” videos on Halloween night. I tried to make a point of watching, because they played videos then that they pretty much never played otherwise. Landscape’s “My Name Is Norman Bates” was a perennial that night, as was that weird truncated version of Bauhaus’ “Bela Lugosi Is Dead” that was some sort of trailer for that really crap David Bowie vampire movie. And so was the Hitmen’s “Bates Motel,” a song whose video I swear I never saw other than, like, Halloween nights ‘82, ‘83 and ‘84. The Hitmen only released two albums (the earlier Aim for the Feet was the other one), and “Bates Motel” is something of an anomaly for them. Most of their other stuff has a slight mod-revival quality to my ears. But I’ve always loved this song, particularly the truly great bass line.
The Hitmen split up after this record. Dunno what became of the rhythm section, but singer Ben Watkins went almost immediately into an electronic group called the Flowerpot Men, and later wrote and produced an album by Traci Lords that proved only that she was no Andrea True. Guitarist Pete Glenister had a much, much better later career path, co-writing songs with Alison Moyet and my beloved Kirsty MacColl. “Innocence,” one of my favorites of Kirsty’s songs, was one of his co-writes.
–Stewart Mason
RadioZero said,
November 2, 2008 @ 1:46 am
Dear God, the quest is at an end. I have been looking, looking, looking for the video / recording of this song ever since seeing it on MTV. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH
Chris said,
November 2, 2008 @ 2:41 am
I guess it’s on YouTube… as usual,
the sound and video aren’t synced right,
but I guess we’re lucky ANY type of
’80s videos exist anymore.
mzamar said,
November 3, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
Back in the day I bought a copy of “Exposed” a WB compilation at my local record store so I could get a copy of Bates Motel (could not find record of course, suburban NH).
Other hits on the record include:
Gary Myrick - “I’m Not A Number” / “She Talks In Stereo”
Karla DeVito - “Cool World”
Tommy Tutone - “867-5309″
Holly and the Italians - “You Better Tell That Girl To Shut Up”
Needless to say one of those you still get out and play even years later.
I bring out the Landscape record far less often. :>
Thanks for the post!
Webbie @ Football and Music said,
November 5, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong… wasn’t Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode a member of the Hitmen before DM ?
Hang on… yeah is Wikipedia entry has a mention.
But looking at the two videos on YouTube of this song I don’t recognise any of them as Wilder.
Stewart said,
November 6, 2008 @ 12:46 pm
I looked at that Wikipedia page — it reads more like he was just a studio musician who played on the album, not an actual member of the band. He’s not listed anywhere in the credits on the album itself, but no member of the band is credited with playing keyboards, and somebody had to play them.