The Plimsouls' "A Million Miles Away"

Born in 1954, Peter Case left Buffalo, NY at 15 years old to head west for a music career, ending up in San Francisco in 1973 as part of a band called The Nerves. Their biggest success came with the song "Hanging on the Telephone," which was recorded in 1980 in Blondie. Shortly after that, Case fronted a new band, The Plimsouls, with Eddie Munoz (guitar), David Pahoa (bass), and Lou Ramirez (drums). The band recorded an EP called Zero Hour in 1980 and a self titled debut album in 1981, before creating one of the greatest rock songs of all time, "A Million Miles Away." Here's a rare video of the band performing this timeless classic for a television show in 1983.





"A Million Miles Away" is a really cool song that has stayed with so many over the years. This was mainly due to it's inclusion in the 1983 Nicolas Cage movie "Valley Girl," a film that seemed to run in perpituity on HBO throughout the 1980's along with Footloose, The Best of the Best, and Police Academy 1-27. In this scene from "Valley Girl," the Plimsouls play parts of two other songs, "Everywhere at Once" and "The Oldest Story in the World," as Nic Cage heroically overcomes the perils of the piss poor wingman and the super annoying tagalong girlfriend to make his big move.



The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
The Plimsouls - The Oldest Story in the World

The Plimsouls quickly recorded an excellent power pop album where all these songs were included, Everywhere at Once, but the band had already broken up by the time the movie "Valley Girl" was released. Still, the continued quality of Peter Case's solo work and the Plimsouls' small but great body of work, promoted so well through this movie, led to many Plimsouls reunion tours over the years, albeit with some lineup changes. In the interim, Peter Case has continued producing quality work in his solo career, which often involves him leading songwriting workshops for other musicians. A few years ago, he underwent heart surgery and many legends worked together to record his songs for the tribute album A Case for Case to help him deal with his recovery.

Look for future posts on The Nerves and Peter Case's solo career later on. Thanks for checking this out.

Buy or download The Plimsouls' Everywhere at Once for $6.98 at amazon.com