As long as I went ahead and gave a shout-out to Thanksgiving in yesterday’s post, I may as well concede my digital space to the sorry fact that today is the busiest shopping day of the year. I’m certainly not going to participate by doing something a hellishly masochistic as going to the mall.

Toni Basil was a choreographer with credits that included Head and American Graffiti and an actress who, among others things, was sitting across the booth from Jack Nicholson when he delivered one of his most famous lines. She released her debut album, Word of Mouth, in 1982. While a sizable enough success to be certified gold, the real accomplishment was the debut single from the release, which happened to a reworked cover of a song by the English band Racey. “Mickey” went to number one on the Billboard charts; even though it only spent one week at that position, it was one of the most unavoidable songs of the year, maybe of the entirety of the nineteen-eighties.

While Basil had other career options to fall back on (IMDb credits her as providing choreography for an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag U” this year), her experience with “Mickey” put her squarely in the category of “one hit wonder.” Her second most successful single on the U.S. charts was the third track released from Word of Mouth, “Shoppin’ From A to Z.” It peaked at #77.

One of only two songs on the album on which Basil shared a songwriting credit, in this case with Bruce Roberts and Allee Willis, the latter of whom probably gets to regularly dive into gigantic piles of money like Scrooge McDuck due to her part in coming up with the theme song to Friends. If nothing else, the song proved Basil’s command of the alphabet. The list she provides may be more suitable for a grocery store trip than Christmas shopping, but it’ll still do for today.

Toni Basil, “Shoppin’ From A to Z”

(Disclaimer: It appears that Basil’s two proper albums are out of print and the one “Best Of” disc that is readily available omits “Shopping,” according to the track listing I found. Thusly, this song is presented here with the understanding that it can’t be purchased through your friendly, local, independently-owned record store. There’s probably about three dozen different compilations that would allow to you to get your hands on “Mickey,” if you’re so inclined. Racey’s “Smash and Grab” looks to be available too, if you want to be thorough about this. Anyway, if I’m contacted by someone with due authority to request the song’s removal, I’ll gladly and promptly comply with any such request.)