Men At Work - "Overkill"

(Debuted April 9, 1983, Peaked #3, 16 Weeks on the Chart)

Men At Work's fourth Top 10 hit was something of a departure from their earlier singles. While the others had an upbeat sound, this one seemed more sinister. Yes, "Who Can it Be Now?" seemed to be brought about by paranoia, but it seemed he was fine as long as he didn't answer the door. The mood of "Overkill" has the narrator seemingly descending into his own madness, with that incessant saxophone punctuating the feeling and the guitar solo sufficiently disjointed to match. While it seemed to be weird to me at the time, the song has really grown on me in the time since it first played on my radio.

What's more...I was in the 5th grade when this song came out, and it helped expand my vocabulary. As a guy who now writes for a living, that may be an important milestone. In any case, it was a lot more effective than anything I was learning in school.