“88 Lines About 44 Women” by The Nails

The Nails' Marc Campbell and David Kaufman wrote "88 Lines About 44 Women" in a Manhattan loft, and the recipe could hardly be simpler: a rhythm track lifted straight from the presets on Kaufman's Casio keyboard, and a lyric by Campbell that runs through 44 women one quick sketch at a time, each with her own habits and personality. Campbell has said the cast is part real and part invented, much of it drawn from women the band met while relocating from Boulder, Colorado, to New York City. He banged out the whole lyric on a manual typewriter inside two hours, and they recorded it the following day.

The first version went on the Hotel for Women EP in 1981, and it was Los Angeles's KROQ-FM that championed the original single first, spinning it by July 1982. The band cut it again for their 1984 debut album, Mood Swing, and in March 1985, alongside "Let It All Hang Out", it got to number 46 on the US dance chart. Deadpan, list-mad and bone dry, it's new wave at its slyest, and it managed all that without a video: the Nails never made one.

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