JoBoxers — “Just Got Lucky”

Entered Top 40:  November 5, 1983
4 weeks 
Peaked at: 36

In the summer of 1983, when The Clash manager Bernie Rhodes was dealing with (or hastening, depending on who’s telling the tale) the disintegration of that legendary band, one of his other acts broke out with this fluffy hookfest, without a care in the world.

The JoBoxers formed when American singer Dig Wayne hooked up with four members of one of Rhodes’s other acts, Subway Sect. Subway Sect began as a first-wave punk group and went through a couple of full lineup and style changes, with only singer Vic Godard as the constant. Godard dissolved the band in 1982 after a truly odd lounge/swing revival album that went nowhere, Songs for Sale.

“Just Got Lucky” was the JoBoxers song that broke in the States, but their bigger UK hit was their #3 debut single, the gleefully inane “Boxerbeat.”

And then that was it for JoBoxermania, such as it was. The group had a couple more low-charting UK singles from the debut record, released a followup that didn’t do much, then split in 1986 while recording a third. They reunited for some dates in 2022, and there’s still loose talk about finishing the third album.