Spider - New Romance (It's a Mystery) 1980

Spider was a bit of supergroup before its time. Comprised mainly of South African musicians and New Yorker Holly Knight, the band only recorded two albums before folding.

Drummer Anton Fig was earning a reputation as an excellent session musician. In fact, Anton recorded many of the studio drumming tracks for later Kiss albums. Lead singer Amanda Blue was Anton's wife while Spider was recording.

Keyboardist Holly Knight was about to become one of the most prolific and successful songwriters in the modern music era. She has written dozens of hit songs including "Never" for Heart, "Simply the Best" "One of the Living" and "Better Be Good to Me" for Tina Turner, "Love Touch" by Rod Stewart, "Rag Doll" for Aerosmith... and the list goes on and on.

Sadly, the group broke up after their second album. You can still see Anton every night on The Late Show with David Letterman. Anton is the beret-wearing drummer in Paul Schaeffer's CBS Orchestra.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Spider
• New
• Romance
• It's
• Mystery
• Anton
• Fig
• Drummimg
• David
• Letterman
• Late
• Night

[DaveWollenberg]

Holly Knight cowrote it, but, I guess she felt she couldn't sing it well enough. She did go on to sing in her group called 'Device.' HIt #39 in Billboard. God bless!

[nccvball]

@DaveWollenberg

Yep, Device had a couple of hit songs in the mid 1980's. If I recall correctly, I believe their biggest was "Hanging on a Heart Attack"

Holly wrote many hit songs in the 80's and 90's.

[The096757]

also the pretenders had a leather look too. pat benetar... i like some of her music but the jutting chin and " i wont take nothing from nobody" may have impressed many but not me i value music on how it sounds. the image matters later.

the quality of spider's first album (2nd was fairly good too) was really good quality music and should have been right up there with Heart and The Pretenders. blondie and benetar used gimmicks and were not as good as heart, spider and the pretenders.

[The096757]

i blame this on the radio stations not being willing to play this and then mtv for not picking up the spider videos in 1981 when they launched. i've been around long enough to know whoever gets heard gets to sell. i see no connection with this to disco other than the back cover (something i and others observed THEN ) had a leather look with a somewhat sexual connotation. again, these were observations i and other made THEN and not 30 years later when it is easy to see things in retrospect.

[thespeez]

@The096757 - Don't forget; Blondie and Pat Benetar were still considered 'safer' bets than a band like this. Don't also forget that they, as well as Heart and Fleetwood Mac were all on major labels; Spider wasn't. Moreover Pat Benetar at the time had just one album out. Yes, "In the Heat of the Night" got her recognition, but she wouldn't really make it big until late in 1980 when "Crimes of Passion" was released. Her 'tough girl' image also played a role.

[The096757]

@thespeez

pat benetar, the pretenders and blondie all got radio play at the end of the disco era and this was rock not dance so i do not know what rado stations were being so "safe" about. 2 women fronting a rock-pop band was really cool like Heart., it makes no sense.

there is even a video for this song and the song was still not played much. it got played about april -july 1980 but not very much. i never forgot this song as it sounded so good to me when i was 15 years old.

[thespeez]

@john4951 - I think that because this song might've been ahead of its time, it along with the band were virtually ignored. Don't forget that many radio stations were playing it a bit safe as disco was imploding that year.

[picoharmotimpo]

Thanks for posting this. I loved Device and was interested to learn more about Holly Knight's other work. Hugely talented lady.

[PHX99]

Holy crap! I cant believe there's a video for this song! I thought maybe, just maybe a small chance that someone would put a video together for this. I have the single on Dreamland Records. I remember listening to Casey Kasem do the Top 40 and hearing this song and having to buy the 45. Awesome sone and it sitll sounds good. Should have been a bigger hit. When I get my jukebox, this single is going in it! Thanks for putting together the video...awesome!