This 1977 album by the band Mink Deville is just solid from start to finish. It's produced by the legendary Jack Nitzsche and not only rocks but lead singer Willy Deville can also evoke the likes of The Drifters or Ben E. King.
Not really a punk band, but they played many, many nights at CBGB over a three year period for fifty bucks a night to appreciative audiences.
This was their first album titled "Cabretta" and it only got as far as 186 on the charts, and records after this didn't fare much better.
How is it possible, well to quote Willy Deville himself from a Wikipedia page,
"I had band problems, manager problems, record company problems. And yeah, I had drug problems."
I think that pretty much explains it, but one thing I know for sure, they could rock as evidenced by this song!
Like you say, Mink's music wasn't really punk or new wave, and yet he was a regular at CBGB's because he worked cheap -- which is similar to my own experience in the early '80s when my band played from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. on Sunday & Wednesday nights at Wichita's best venue, The Coyote Club because those were the two slowest nights of the week. We considered ourselves lucky if there were 20 people in the audience. I tell ya, it's tough being on the bottom of the totem pole.
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