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"You try to get up and here it comes again..."
Device was a band whose lead singers looked like Billy Idol and Joan Jett.
My memories of this lost hit are strikingly similar to those for John Mellencamp's "Rumbleseat." It was popular right at the same time, and it had a line that was associated with flatulence.
In 1986, as you know, ripping trouser sneezes was quite the production. At some point, a new custom took hold. Any time you were about to crack a loud-and-proud bunker blast, you would warn, "Here it comes." After the air biscuit was released, you'd say, "There it went."
That was also the year of supposed flatulence references in music. In addition to "Rumbleseat", 1986 saw "Why Can't This Be Love" by Van Halen, whose opening lines declare, "Whoa, here it comes...That funny feeling again." Unlike the lost hits profiled on this blog, that song still receives a lot of play.
"Hanging On A Heart Attack" didn't get to chart as high as those other tracks. But it too had an apparent flatus reference: "You try to get up and here it comes again."
Naturally, a nice, loud pooteroony was supposed to be unleashed after that line every time this song was played. The response to this was the same as it was for "Rumbleseat." I remember playing Dungeons & Dragons in the den, and this song would start sizzling out of the boom box. When the very first note was heard, a fist was brandished as a warning to those who might let one fly. Some people have no appreciation for humor.
It wasn't only songs that prompted a backdoor breeze. For years, The Price Is Right opened each episode with the announcer declaring, "Here it comes!" If we were home on a weekday, and if we knew The Price Is Right would be on, a fart would be saved up for the occasion.
"Hanging On A Heart Attack" was also climbing the chart at the time of my mom's company picnic at Coney Island that went hilariously awry, so that's a bonus.
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