Mexican Radio
| "Mexican Radio" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Wall of Voodoo | ||
| from the album Call of the West | ||
| B-side | "Call of the West" | |
| Released | 1983 | |
| Recorded | 1982 | |
| Genre | New wave, dark wave, post-punk, alternative rock | |
| Length |
4:08 (album version) 3:56 (radio and music video version) |
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| Label | IRS Records | |
| Writer(s) | Wall of Voodoo | |
| Producer(s) | ||
| Music sample | ||
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4:08 (album version)
"Mexican Radio" is a song written and performed by the band Wall of Voodoo, and produced by Richard Mazda. The track was initially made commercially available on their 1982 album Call of the West, and was released as a single in early 1983. In their native US, the song was a modest hit, peaking at no. 58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was a bigger hit in other parts of the world, peaking at no. 18 in Canada, no. 21 in New Zealand and no. 33 in Australia. It also reached no. 64 in the UK.
Wall of Voodoo lead singer and player of organ, synthesizer and harmonica, Stan Ridgway and guitarist Marc Moreland traced the inspiration for the song to listening to high-wattage unregulated AM Mexican radio stations (among them XERF, XEG, and XERB).
Moreland was the first to begin writing the song, which in a recorded interview in the 1990s he stated, "It was basically just me singing 'I'm on a Mexican radio' over and over again". Moreland stated when he played it for his mother she hated it because of his repetitious lyrics. Ridgway co-wrote with Moreland to finish the song, and added all the verse's lyrics to Moreland's chorus and guitar lick as well as the "mariachi" harmonica melody in the song's middle breakdown. When performing live with Wall of Voodoo, Ridgway usually played the mariachi melody via an organ/synthesizer and Bill Noland used a synthesizer to play the melody when performing with Wall of Voodoo in the 1982–1983 years.
The 7" single mix differs in a few areas from the album cut:
It was rumored that Wall of Voodoo drummer Joe Nanini was very difficult to work with at times in the studio when the band were recording their 1982 album, Call of the West, on which "Mexican Radio" appeared. On "Mexican Radio" in particular, it has been said that Nanini was a little upset when Richard Mazda suggested a snare drum hit on the chorus of the song. Nanini ultimately refused to cooperate, leading Mazda to recording the snare part himself, and with the band's acceptance the snare appeared in the final mix of the song.
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Wikipedia