80's Hit Song Review: "Nice Girls" by Eye To Eye (1982)

U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Peak Position No. 37

Backstory: This American blue-eyed soul/ sophisti-pop duo was formed in Seattle by Deborah Berg and Julian Marshall, who was formerly in the British duo Marshall Hain with Kit Hain, who had a hit in both the U.K. and U.S. in 1978 and 1979 with, "Dancing in the City", which peaked at No. 3 in their native U.K. and No. 43 in the U.S. Marshall was also briefly in The Flying Lizards, who had a surprise hit with their oddball New Wave/ experimental Avant-Garde version of the 1959 Barrett Strong classic, "Money (That's What I Want)", which peaked at No. 5 on the U.K. Charts in 1979, and No. 50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in January of 1980. After leaving both of those groups, he formed this new unique duo in 1980, and then two years later the duo released their first album, a self-titled debut with this song as their first charting single. It would be their first and only ever Top 40 hit. Their only ever other charting song was a really minor hit called, "Lucky", which only got to as high as No. 88 in the Autumn of 1983, and was released off of their album, Shakespeare Stole My Baby. They disbanded the following year in 1984, but reformed in 2001, and released a third album, Clean Slate, on 12th St. Records in 2005, and still make music to this day, although they sadly haven't released an album in over 14 years.

The review: This is an upbeat little sophists-pop/ blue-eyed soul tune in the same styles of Hall and Oates and Simply Red. I really like the soft but still catchy beat, and Berg's nice voice. I also love the little soft and sweet breakdown in the middle of the tune and the catchy extended ending. With the help of Steely Dan's producer, Gary Katz, I can easily see how this became a Top 40 hit. Sadly, many people have forgotten about this great little tune. Should've made the Top 20, though I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.

Final rating: 8/10