AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Shoes

Artist:Shoes

Song:Too Late

Album:Double Exposure

Shoes is a power pop band that should have been much bigger especially when they had a major label record deal in the late 70s. They were critically acclaimed. They had a loyal fanbase. And MTV played their videos. But similar to Big Star, radio stations simply would not play them. Shoes is from Zion, IL led by Jeff Murphy on guitar and his brother John Murphy on bass. Guitarist Gary Klebe was a high school classmate and they formed Shoes in 1974. According to John Murphy, they liked the name Shoes. They started jamming and made a series of home recordings which they sold at gigs. Drummer Skip Meyer joined in 1977. They recorded the album Black Vinyl Shoes in the Murphy family living room, pressed a thousand copies and sold them at shows. Then they released the single Tomorrow Night on Bomp! Records and Black Vinyl Shoes was released on PVC Records. Then they signed with Elektra in 1979. They released the album Present Tense. The single Too Late reached #75 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album reached #50 on the Billboard 200. That was their highest chart position. The album was produced in England by recording engineer Mike Stone. The members of Shoes all wrote songs. Klebe wrote Too Late. All three Elektra albums were basically self produced. And then Elektra dropped them and Meyer left Shoes. Even with MTV playing their videos, it wasn't enough to keep them on Elektra. Shoes continued to release albums on their own label including this 2CD comp. They still play shows but they last recorded new music in 2012. These days they are mostly managing their back catalog. As I said, Shoes should have been much bigger. If I had to guess, there may have been too many similar bands at the time. Here's the video for Too Late by Shoes.