Rate Your Music score: 3.51 out of 5!
This is a song that everyone insists does not exist - even after having the evidence shoved right in their face.
Planet P Project was like a one-man band. It was actually a pseudonym of Tony Carey - who has had several lost hits under his real name. It appears as if some other musicians did work with Tony, but Wikipedia suggests the name Planet P Project refers to Tony himself.
Radio stations in Cincinnati aren't exactly known for making the best choices as to what music to play, but this is one they got right. This record only got to #64, but both top 40 stations in Cincinnati at the time regularly played it, and it was apparently big on our album rock stations too. This was a better choice than some of the others that have been made, despite the record's low chart peak.
But when it was gone, it was gone.
I mentioned this song sometime later, and everyone insisted I made it up. It was like they couldn't remember anything that happened more than a few months earlier. For years, I would mention this song, and they would still deny it ever existed.
Finally, maybe around 1992, I found a 45 of it. I played it for them, and they still insisted it wasn't real!
What did they think it was? Did they think I just put one of our record-shaped beverage coasters on the turntable and played instruments and sang along with it?
It's real! Cope!
At least the cast of Sesame Street knew Mr. Snuffleupagus was real when they finally saw him. But in this crazy world we call real life, sometimes solid proof isn't enough.
I didn't post the video above. That's from someone who had a much bigger 45 collection than I have. The single version posted above is the mix that everyone was familiar with - before they began denying it existed. The song had a video too, but it used a vastly different mix...
Although the single version was better known in 1983, I need to handle my 45 with care, because that mix is so rare today. The rarity of that version is also one of the reasons I keep records instead of relying on YouTube.
Just a few years ago, everyone insisted Toby Beau wasn't real, and that I made them up. But we can count on YouTube to embarrass musical naysayers!
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