"What I Like About You" by Michael Morales

Song#:  3998

Date:  08/12/1989

Debut:  88

Peak:  28

Weeks:  13

Genre:  Pop, Rock

Pop Bits:  Morales got a bit of a break when the first single from his self-titled debut album, "Who Do You Give Your Love To," cracked the Pop Top 20 (#15). It was a good start, but Morales needed something a little better to really kick off sales of his album. This cover tune was selected to be the follow up single, but it wouldn't do as well. It would stop just inside the Pop Top 30, which wasn't a bad result, but the minor hit did little to help the album, which ended up peaking at #113.

ReduxReview:  This may not be the case, but my guess is that the label didn't hear another potential hit within the tracks Morales wrote and recorded for the album and perhaps pushed for a cover tune to help promote the LP. It seems logical since Morales wrote, performed, and produced most everything on the album save for Roy Thomas Baker producing three tracks including this one. In general, Morales stayed fairly true to the original, but replaced The Romantics' garage rock sound for a more slick late 80s production. It was fine, but there was nothing special about it. My hope was that anyone who first heard the song through Morales would go back and discover the superior classic original.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  This is a remake of a song originally recorded by The Romantics in 1979. Written by three of the band members, the song was the first single taken from the band's self-titled debut album. While the song would only reach #49 on the Pop chart in 1980, it would end up becoming a rock radio staple. Morales' version was able to do better than the original on the chart, but it quickly disappeared soon after its run whereas the original continued to get played over the years. Several artists have covered the song including the Aussie band 5 Seconds of Summer and a version by Poison, which was the first single from their 2007 covers LP Poison'd!. However, Morales has been the only other artist beside The Romantics to reach the Pop chart with a version.

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