Steady Nerves by Graham Parker

Steady Nerves, credited to Graham Parker and the Shot, came out on Elektra in 1985, and it was a record made through gritted teeth. Parker wanted Jack Nitzsche, who had produced Squeezing Out Sparks; Elektra said no, then balked at his next pick, William Wittman, fresh from engineering Lauper's She's So Unusual, and fronted the money for just four songs before giving in. Once the tape rolled, Parker has admitted, Wittman ran the show and he simply let him.

The result is lean, glossy mid-'80s rock, and Parker later blamed himself for not holding out for something stranger. Still, it handed him his only US Top 40 hit, "Wake Up (Next to You)", its breathy vocal written into the song from the start, while "The Weekend's Too Short" has him singing from inside a nine-to-five worker's shoes rather than his own. "Break Them Down" is the one the countdowns picked up.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.