♫♪  The Springfields - “Wonder”

Setting their sights on the lofty goal of getting their own Wikipedia page to differentiate themselves from that other band of Springfields (the English ones, from the 1960s), Ric Menck and Paul Chastain’s pre-Velvet Crush project The Springfields will be reissuing their whole (small) body of work on a vinyl disc titled Singles 1986-1991, as we recently reported. With their music originally released across several venerable indie pop labels, the new collection brings it all together under the auspices of the also-highly-venerable indie pop label Slumberland, including a couple of tracks that had never been committed to vinyl.

So, it’s not just everything; it’s everything and more, and it’s out November 15. (Sidenote: Slumberland is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year — did I mention what a venerable label this is?)

To get us further in the mood, The Springfields are sharing “Wonder” from the collection, a track that debuted in 1990 as a 7-inch on Sarah Records. Here’s Rick Menck on the song:

“Wonder” is about my friend Aimee Mann. It was written in response to a song she wrote about me called “Put Me On Top.” It was recorded at ’Til Tuesday’s rehearsal space in Boston, just around the corner from Fenway Park. My friend Buddy Judge plays some guitar on the recording. Buddy was in ’Til Tuesday at the time, and he went on to play in the Grays with Jon Brion and Jason Faulkner. The song is supposed to have vague country overtones, but was mainly another one of those jangly pop tunes I was writing at the time. I recently found out there’s is a club in Japan named after the song, which is pretty flattering.

Listen to “Wonder” below, and pre-order Singles 1986-1991 here. If you pre-order vinyl, you get a free Springfields poster (while supplies last). Demand your slice of that supply!

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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