“Bedbugs and Ballyhoo” by Echo and the Bunnymen

"Bedbugs and Ballyhoo" landed on Echo & the Bunnymen's self-titled 1987 album as a second go-round: the song first appeared in 1985 as a B-side on the 12-inch of "Bring on the Dancing Horses." For the remake, Laurie Latham produced, Bruce Lampcov mixed, and the Doors' Ray Manzarek sat in on keyboards. Ian McCulloch wrote the words, sings and plays guitar alongside Will Sergeant, with Les Pattinson on bass and Pete de Freitas on drums, and all four share the music credit; the result is slick and swaggering, built for the radio.

It became the album's third single, on seven- and 12-inch through both WEA and Sire, and the Sire pressings came padded with live covers of songs by Lou Reed, the Rolling Stones and Television, taped in Gothenburg for Swedish radio.

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