This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Iggy Pop's "Pumpin' for Jill"

On many occasions, the best new wave songs drew distinctly if also off-centeredly from artists directly involved in the original thrust of punk rock that helped launch the new form. That wasn't always the case, of course, as new wave emerged as both a refinement and hybridized mainstreaming of the freewheeling punk approach, which meant its ingredients and impulses held much variety. Still, this 1981 track from Iggy Pop, one of punk rock's most influential pioneers as a member of the seminal band the Stooges, stands as a pleasant, sleeper example of a multi-faceted new wave triumph.

I'm also particularly enamored with "Pumpin' for Jill" at the moment because I discovered it through one of my favorite network TV shows of the moment, Chuck, which used the tune to great effect in its November 10 episode. I love those kind of discoveries, and this particular one also has the capacity to remind us how ironically consistent the career of the unpredictable Iggy Pop has been across the decades. When it comes to '80s music, I'm happy to report, there's "always more where that came from."

Album Cover Photo Courtesy of Virgin Records