The Smithereens

In leather outfits while wielding weighty guitars and displaying an open enthusiasm for British Invasion pop, the Smithereens stood apart from the late-1980s American college rock environment. Pat DiNizio, who handled lead vocals, songwriting, and guitar, drew notice not merely for his unusual beatnik goatee but also for hooks that felt eerie instead of forceful and for lyrics steeped in melancholy. Over time the band adopted a more direct approach, becoming a capable bar band that delivered pop material with AC/DC-level force. They achieved two Top 40 hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s—“A Girl Like You” dominated modern and mainstream rock airwaves while “Too Much Passion” revealed their pop leanings—yet as the decade advanced the Smithereens functioned as a working band that maintained steady live dates and recorded only occasionally, a course they followed even after DiNizio’s death in 2017.

The Smithereens had in fact begun as a working band. After performing in various cover acts that included prog rock and metal ensembles, DiNizio decided to start his own group after hearing Buddy Holly. An ad placed in a New York newspaper seeking musicians drawn to Holly, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and the Clash led him to New Jersey high school students Dennis Diken on drums, Jim Babjak on guitar, and Mike Mesaros on bass, who had already played together during their school years. By the close of 1980 they had issued the independent EP Girls About Town, containing four tracks whose titles each included the word “girl,” and the record achieved modest local success. For the next three years the group performed throughout New Jersey and New York without releasing further material until the 1983 EP Beauty and Sadness. Although that release received college-radio airplay and a favorable Rolling Stone notice, an audience remained elusive, prompting them to back touring veteran artists such as Otis Blackwell, with whom they cut a full album of material, and the Beau Brummels.

By 1985 the Smithereens grew impatient with stalled progress, as most demos sent to labels went unanswered. A tape reached Enigma, where former college DJ Scott Vanderbilt, an earlier admirer of the band, signed them. Their Don Dixon-produced debut Especially for You appeared in 1986 and drew positive reviews. College airplay together with MTV rotation of the video for “Blood and Roses”—financed by a film studio that placed the song in the B-movie Dangerously Close—helped the album reach number 51 on the charts and secure a Capitol contract. After an extensive tour supporting the record, the band entered the studio weeks after coming off the road.

Green Thoughts surfaced early in 1988, and its opening single “Only a Memory” not only topped college and modern-rock charts but also crossed to album-rock stations. Seeking broader album-rock appeal, the band recruited producer Ed Stasium for the 1989 album 11, whose heavier guitar sound propelled “A Girl Like You”—a track previously turned down as the theme for the comedy Say Anything—into the Top 40 and earned the album gold certification. The first single from their next Capitol release, Blow Up, “Too Much Passion,” signaled a more polished and adventurous direction and also reached the Top 40, though the album itself did not match the commercial performance of its predecessor.

Blow Up marked their final Capitol project; they moved to RCA for the 1994 album A Date with the Smithereens, their first record since Green Thoughts to feature Don Dixon as producer. By then grunge had reshaped both alternative and mainstream rock, leaving the band with few outlets for new releases. Although the album underperformed, a loyal cult audience sustained successful touring into the late 1990s. In 1995 the Smithereens issued two compilations: the hits collection Blown to Smithereens and the rarities set Attack of the Smithereens.

Following a five-year recording break, they returned with God Save the Smithereens in 1999. Additional compilations and live albums appeared between 2000 and 2006, after which Meet the Smithereens! and the holiday release Christmas with the Smithereens both arrived in 2007. Live in Concert! Greatest Hits and More, captured at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick, New Jersey, came out in 2008. Two tribute projects followed: B-Sides the Beatles in 2008 and The Smithereens Play Tommy in 2009. Their first collection of original material in eleven years, Smithereens 2011, appeared in 2011. A pair of falls in 2015 caused DiNizio severe nerve damage, and ongoing health problems limited his performances with both the Smithereens and as a solo artist. Further injuries led to the cancellation of scheduled 2017 shows, and DiNizio died that December at age 62.

The Smithereens honored DiNizio with a star-studded marathon concert in Red Bank, New Jersey, on January 13, 2018, featuring Marshall Crenshaw, Dave Davies, Steven Van Zandt, Southside Johnny, and additional rock performers. Diken, Babjak, and Mesaros resumed touring later that year with a rotating lineup of singers that included Crenshaw and Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms. Also in 2018 the band released the covers album Covers. In 2019 the Smithereens were inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.