Robin Lane & The Chartbusters

In 1979 Robin Lane & the Chartbusters formed after Robin Lane, who had supplied backing vocals and guitar on “Round & Round” from Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, obtained her own recording agreement with Larry Uttal’s Private Stock Records and therefore required a band. The daughter of Dean Martin’s musical director, Kenny Lane, later recounted to AMG that during summer 1978 “I as an x-hippie chick went looking for my knights in Rat punkdom.” She frequented the historic Boston venue The Rat in Kenmore Square and attracted musicians by offering the label’s recording contract; Private Stock had already issued recordings by Blondie and Frankie Valli yet collapsed before any sessions occurred. The musicians regarded her as “cute and cheeky,” admired her material, and chose to remain with her until another deal materialized, which happened swiftly.

Before joining Modern Lovers members Leroy Radcliffe and Asa Brebner, plus drummer Tim Jackson and bassist Scott Baerenwald—a veteran of Boston 1970s outfit Reddy Teddy and the Archies’ live band—Lane had been personally managed by Mike Lembo. Lembo negotiated both the Private Stock deal and a publishing agreement with Leeds Music, subsequently MCA Music and now Universal. Lane told All Media Guide that Lembo also represented Peter C. Johnson, “half-man-half-tape,” who incorporated art and tape into performances well ahead of prevailing trends.

At Northern Studios the Chartbusters cut a demo containing the originals “When Things Go Wrong,” “Why Do You Tell Lies,” and “The Letter,” the last unrelated to the Box Tops hit yet equally strong. A local disc jockey proposed releasing one track as a single, prompting Lembo to launch the Deli Platters imprint; the resulting three-song EP appeared in a black-and-white picture sleeve, sold briskly throughout New England and the East Coast, and generated abundant unpaid publicity.

Guitarist Asa Brebner’s site records that Jerry Wexler signed Robin Lane & the Chartbusters to Warner Bros. Between 1980 and 1981 the group produced two videos, two albums, and one live EP. Years afterward Lane remarked to AMG, “We should have stuck to the grass roots, but who knew? …we were blinded by the stars in our eyes.” Illustrating the difficulties alluded to in her minor hit “When Things Go Wrong,” the five-song live EP recorded at Boston’s Orpheum Theater proceeded without a sound check amid audience clamor at the doors, resulting in an unadorned release containing no overdubs. After guitarist Leroy Radcliffe departed, the Chartbusters disbanded, though Lane resurfaced in 1984 with the techno/rock EP Heart Connection, performed by her original colleagues augmented by keyboardist Wally J. Baier and Willie “Loco” Alexander & the Boom Boom Band guitarist Billy Loosigian. The same grassroots sensibility that Lane valued rendered Heart Connection as engaging as the earlier three-song Deli Platters EP that had launched the band’s trajectory.

While apart, the members pursued separate endeavors: Lane composed for established artists and issued the well-received 1995 CD Catbird Seat; Asa Brebner launched a solo career; Tim Jackson entered college teaching. The musicians reconvened in a Boston suburb in 2001, performed again for a local television taping, and continued with additional shows. They recorded a new album, When Things Go Right—a playful inversion of their signature song—featuring guitarist Pat Wallace in place of Radcliffe on second guitar. Coinciding with those 2002 reunion sessions, Collectors Choice reissued the band’s debut Warner Bros. album, supplying liner notes by AMG’s Richie Unterberger. Robin Lane now teaches in Western Massachusetts and has authored a biography detailing the Chartbusters’ history; her website is http://www.randomrogue.com/robinlane.