WET WILLIE Street Corner Serenade

A rare gem, for me anyway, is this early 1978 hit by the American pop band Wet Willie. Best known for their 1974 hit ’Keep on Smiling’, the band released several studio and live albums during the 70’s, with their last LP issued in 1979, but ’best of’ CDS and other collections have kept them in record stores in the decades since. ’Street Corner Serenade’, released here in Oz in the January from their 1978 LP ’Manorisms’’ was a minor hit in both America and Australia - where it reached #30 in the former territory, and #41 in the latter. The spooky thing for me, is how similar in feel and sound that the song is to one of my favourite Hall/Oates tracks ’Diddy Do Wop’ from their 1980 LP ’Voices’. In fact Wet Willie’s lead singer, one Jimmy Hall sounds much like Daryl Hall, but from what i’ve read, no relation! Both songs have a strong retro feel, harking back to the ’do wops’ of the 50’s and 60’s while also being great blue