The American Breed: Short Skirts (Acta 45-808)

Once again, we have an interesting B-side tossed under a rather nondescript A-side. Nondescript, I should say, only if you're not a fan of The American Breed's horn-drenched bubblegum rock, which I'm not. The Breed, from Illinois, were best known for two such items, "Step Out of Your Mind" and the # 5 "Bend Me Shape Me." "Don't Forget About Me," this record's A-side" got sandwiched between those two biggies and didn't chart at all. It's a fairly typical example of their horn-y sound, and a Goffin-King composition to boot.

Speaking of being horny, flip over the record and you'll get a fuzz-soaked toss-off dedicated to the female clothing article of the title that gets our male friends drooling. Starting off with a stinging fuzz riff, the band soon gets down to business with a chant that goes something like this:

We like
short skirts
short short
short short mini-skirts
The shorter, the better
in all kinds of weather
You girls
wear short skirts
make me
wanna flirt

Now, is that poetry or is that poetry? Later on, they reveal that "We like pretty knees/when there is no breeze." What else can you say, but YAH-HOO!!!" Musically, they keep the beat steady, the bass poundin' and the fuzz stingin' and that's about all you have to ask for.

It must have been frustrating for this band to be constantly typecast with the horn sound they'd become known for (much like a previous entry, the Outsiders), so hearing them cut loose like this for 2:27 minutes is a nice little pleasure. Just goes to show you you can't always take those B-sides for granted.