Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1988, Reckless Sleepers released their first and only album, Big Boss Sounds. The band’s label, college radio mainstay I.R.S. Records, concentrated the promotional push on the band’s lead singer and chief songwriter, Jules Shear. One sticker slapped on the front of the record even shifted the billing to “RECKLESS SLEEPER Starring Jules Shear,” touting him as “The ‘bossest’ songwriter of these modern times.”

Shear had previously fronted a band called Jules and the Polar Bears, but that gig wasn’t the thing that made I.R.S. Records decide to hinge their campaign on him. Instead, he’d been the songwriter behind a couple eighties Top 40 hits: Cyndi Lauper’s “All Through the Night,” and the Bangles’ “If She Knew What She Wants.” This wasn’t exactly Holland-Dozier-Holland territory when it come to hit-making, but in the neglected wilds of college radio, at time largely before bands started enjoying unlikely crossover successes, it was as if Shear had crossed into some mythical promised land and brought back trinkets shaped like golden records to hold up before an awestruck crowd.

It was arguably Shear’s business model of giving songs away that helped sink Reckless Sleepers. The track from the album given the heartiest push was “If We Never Meet Again,” a lovelorn ballad very much in style of the previous Shear-penned hits. At roughly the same time, another version of the song was included on the major label debut from Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers. That act also released the song as a single. With the weight (and promotional budget) of Columbia behind it, the Conwell take on the song made it in the Billboard Hot 100. The Reckless Sleepers did not chart.

The band deserved better. Big Boss Sounds is a solid college rock album, completely in line with the prevailing sound of the moment: catchy, homespun, polished but not too glossy, endearingly earnest. “Tried to Please Her” is emblematic of the style, practically designed to be the Lego block linking, say, Game Theory and Let’s Active on an afternoon playlist. The album did perform well on college radio, but not quite well enough. Reckless Sleepers didn’t last, scattering the band members to other projects and Shear to an MTV hosting job he exited right before the program became a sensation.

Listen or download —> Reckless Sleepers, “Tried to Please Her”

(Disclaimer: I could be wrong, but I don’t believe Big Boss Sounds is current available in a physical format that can purchased in such a way that it simultaneously benefits the original artist and the proprietor of your favorite local, independently owned record store. Since the music business favors songwriters, going out and buying greatest hits collections from either Lauper or the Bangles would presumably put some change in Shear’s pocket, if you’re so inclined. And Reckless Sleepers guitarist Jimmy Vivino might appreciate it if you watch Conan, and then patronize their commercial sponsors. Basically, I believe I’m on solid ethical ground in sharing this song in this space at this time. Even so, I will gladly and promptly remove the file from my little corner of the digital world if asked to do so by any individual or entity with due authority to make such a request.)