Happy June 1st Dialophiles! Tonight, the Dial brings you a
song we’re sure you know quite well, just not in the way you’re about to hear
it. Crank it up for New York based Spider, and their 1981 album cut “Better Be Good to Me”!
“A prisoner of your love… entangled in your web… hot whispers in the night… I’m captured by your spell…”
This classic cut should be familiar to most of you Dialophiles out there, at least those of you who were watching MTV or listening to Top 40 radio in the mid-80s. It is best known as a Grammy winning track from Tina Turner (Best Rock Vocal Performance Female), featured on both her multi-platinum 1984 LP Private Dancer, and the first volume of the Miami Vice original soundtrack, an addition to being featured prominently in a first season episode of that groundbreaking NBC series.
However, not many listeners, then or now, realize that Tina’s hit was originally recorded in 1981 by Spider, a new wave and hard rock informed outfit, whose only Top 40 entry was the #39 “New Romance (It’s a Mystery)” from 1980. This rarely heard original version of “Better Be…” was featured on Spider’s LP Between the Lines, the second out of only two LPs that they released before splitting up. However, Spider’s biggest contribution to the pop music pantheon would prove to be their influence and presence AFTER they went their separate ways. For instance, in addition to Tina covering “Better Be”, John “Missing You” Waite also mined Spider’s discography, and charted at #16 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1982 with the track “Change”.
“Oh yes I’m touched by this show of emotion… should I be fractured by your lack of devotion? Should I… SHOULD I???”
Additionally, several members of the arachnid-titled group gained high profile, or prolific careers after Spider broke up in ’82.
Keyboardist Holly Knight, would go on to write (or co-author) tons of big hits like "The Warrior" by Scandal, "Love Is a Battlefield" by Pat Benatar, "Never" and “There’s the Girl” by Heart, and Aerosmith’s “Rag Doll”. She even had a hand in one of Tina’s later hits, the original track “The Best”.
After playing with KISS on their Dynasty and Unmasked LPs (pre-Spider), drummer Anton Fig worked with Ace Frehley under the Frehley’s Comet banner, in addition to Warren Zevon, Cyndi Lauper, B.B. King, Peter Frampton, and Bob Dylan. However, Anton (“Zip”) is perhaps best known over the last 25+ years as the drummer for David Letterman’s band, both on NBC’s Late Night, and CBS’s Late Show.
And last but certainly not least, lead vocalist Amanda Leigh Blue continues to record, and her entire discography can be obtained at her website at amandablueleigh.com.
So, much like Paul Young’s “Everytime You Go Away”, and UB40’s “Red Red Wine”, (originals by Hall & Oates and Neil Diamond, respectively), Spider’s ode to standing up to a new lover didn’t chart on it’s own, but joined the list of songs that worked magic for another artist in a famous cover version. Take a listen, and consider… if Spider’s version had been released to radio, would it have been a big hit? In the words of Led Zeppelin… it makes me wonder.
“You better be good to me. That’s how it’s gotta be now. ‘Cuz I don’t have no use, for what you loosely call the truth… you better be good to me!”
“A prisoner of your love… entangled in your web… hot whispers in the night… I’m captured by your spell…”
This classic cut should be familiar to most of you Dialophiles out there, at least those of you who were watching MTV or listening to Top 40 radio in the mid-80s. It is best known as a Grammy winning track from Tina Turner (Best Rock Vocal Performance Female), featured on both her multi-platinum 1984 LP Private Dancer, and the first volume of the Miami Vice original soundtrack, an addition to being featured prominently in a first season episode of that groundbreaking NBC series.
However, not many listeners, then or now, realize that Tina’s hit was originally recorded in 1981 by Spider, a new wave and hard rock informed outfit, whose only Top 40 entry was the #39 “New Romance (It’s a Mystery)” from 1980. This rarely heard original version of “Better Be…” was featured on Spider’s LP Between the Lines, the second out of only two LPs that they released before splitting up. However, Spider’s biggest contribution to the pop music pantheon would prove to be their influence and presence AFTER they went their separate ways. For instance, in addition to Tina covering “Better Be”, John “Missing You” Waite also mined Spider’s discography, and charted at #16 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in 1982 with the track “Change”.
“Oh yes I’m touched by this show of emotion… should I be fractured by your lack of devotion? Should I… SHOULD I???”
Additionally, several members of the arachnid-titled group gained high profile, or prolific careers after Spider broke up in ’82.
Keyboardist Holly Knight, would go on to write (or co-author) tons of big hits like "The Warrior" by Scandal, "Love Is a Battlefield" by Pat Benatar, "Never" and “There’s the Girl” by Heart, and Aerosmith’s “Rag Doll”. She even had a hand in one of Tina’s later hits, the original track “The Best”.
After playing with KISS on their Dynasty and Unmasked LPs (pre-Spider), drummer Anton Fig worked with Ace Frehley under the Frehley’s Comet banner, in addition to Warren Zevon, Cyndi Lauper, B.B. King, Peter Frampton, and Bob Dylan. However, Anton (“Zip”) is perhaps best known over the last 25+ years as the drummer for David Letterman’s band, both on NBC’s Late Night, and CBS’s Late Show.
And last but certainly not least, lead vocalist Amanda Leigh Blue continues to record, and her entire discography can be obtained at her website at amandablueleigh.com.
So, much like Paul Young’s “Everytime You Go Away”, and UB40’s “Red Red Wine”, (originals by Hall & Oates and Neil Diamond, respectively), Spider’s ode to standing up to a new lover didn’t chart on it’s own, but joined the list of songs that worked magic for another artist in a famous cover version. Take a listen, and consider… if Spider’s version had been released to radio, would it have been a big hit? In the words of Led Zeppelin… it makes me wonder.
“You better be good to me. That’s how it’s gotta be now. ‘Cuz I don’t have no use, for what you loosely call the truth… you better be good to me!”
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