Concentrated blast of nostalgia

Few people remember Classix Nouveaux. And fewer still realize that singer Sal Solo went, appropriately, enough, solo after the band disintegrated.Before heading out on the Christian contemporary circuit, he recorded one pop album that I'm sure was a big hit in Poland (the one place in the world where Classix Nouveaux was guaranteed to hit the top 10 every time), but was a bit of a flop everywhere else.I got the remastered version of the CD, Heart and Soul, some months back but I haven't really had the time to sit and bask in its weird glory.Then up on my shuffling iPod comes 'Heartbeat.' And instantly I find myself humming along with every note of every riff, struggling not to burst embarrassingly into song here in the middle of my workplace.And suddenly I'm back in my old apartment during a quiet weekend, with the LP on the turntable (or the cassette in the deck; I can't remember), Sal Solo up full blast and me singing a long at the top of my lungs, creepy Peter Murphy-esque warble and all to what was once, for me, the most joyful of all the songs in my collection.My heart's fit to burst, and it's all over some forgotten gem by a refugee from some great but forgotten New Wave band.Sigh.