Billy Idol — “White Wedding”

Entered Top 40:  June 25, 1983
3  weeks 
Peaked at: 36

“White Wedding” is another big MTV phenomenon in which the new-and-buzzy TV network’s reach didn’t translate to top 40 chart performance. It’s also turned out to be example of people not paying that much attention to lyrics. “White Wedding” is a mild diss track in which a guy’s complaining that a woman (either his sister, or an ex-lover, as some sites interpret “sister” as British slang for a girlfriend) isn’t a virgin on her wedding day, and yet the internet tells me it’s an occasional wedding song. Okay then.

Billy Idol came out of a band called Generation X, a London first-wave punk act in the late 1970s. Idol and bassist Tony James named the group after a 1964 book about disaffected teens in Britain at the time, primarily of the Mod subculture (That’s right, the label given to the generation coming after Baby Boomers originated in a book about Boomer teens). The 1980 documentary D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage is mostly a chronicle of the Sex Pistols’ 1978 US tour, but also adds performance clips from a few first-wave punk acts, including X-Ray Spex, Sham 69, and Generation X. I caught up with the film on VHS in 1982 or ’83, and it was evident why Billy Idol was the person from the film suddenly getting pop airplay. Their number, “Kiss Me Deadly,” is a melodic one with hooks, despite its subject matter about teens fighting and discovering sex and drugs. Idol himself is all cheekbones and cheek, and his most menacing or ill-mannered aspect is he’s chewing gum while lip-syncing.

Generation X broke up in early 1981, just after a lineup change and a rebrand as “GenX.” Idol moved to New York and released an EP which included a studio version of “Mony Mony” and a remix of one of GenX’s final singles, “Dancing With Myself” (both of these will figure later in the Billy Idol saga). Idol’s first US hit was “Hot in the City” in 1982. This one was notable for its radio cut-ins at 2:40 or so at the end of the bridge; Idol’s “NEW YORK!” shout out could get replaced with other cities for radio play in different media markets. I definitely remember hearing a “TWIN CITIES!” cut-in back then; there is also a “MINNEAPOLIS!” one online. For those stations who thought St. Paul could go cram it, I guess.

“White Wedding” was originally released as a single in October 1982, where it stalled out just short of the Hot 100. It got re-released in the summer of 1983 based on the popularity of its video. “Dancing With Myself” also got a re-release in 1983, and a new video directed by Tobe Hooper; that song got tons of music-video airplay, but still didn’t chart. Rebel Yell, Idol’s 2nd full solo LP, would follow in the fall. The title track would also be a huge MTV hit, but the single stalled at #46. Idol’s first major Billboard hit would end up being the second Rebel Yell single, “Eyes Without a Face” (#4). But I think to this day if I’m likely to hear a Billy Idol song in the wild, it’s either “White Wedding” or “Rebel Yell.” This is despite his eventual #1 single, but even that comes after the next Bottom Five appearance Idol will have.

Meanwhile, Idol’s old Generation X bandmate Tony James went on to form Sigue Sigue Sputnik, a bizarre New Wave group best known for selling advertising space on their debut LP; this may have been the most Punk Rock act either James or Idol ever committed.