Generally speaking, mainstream pop music favors the lowest common denominator of musical trends. That\u2019s not to say these characteristics are lesser than more abstract concepts. The very nature of pop music requires it to be as universal as possible so that it can become, well, popular, which is what makes this initial songwriting request for the 1983 one-hit wonder \u201cManiac\u201d so odd.<\/p>\n
Before that strange request even came to be, though, the initial seed of the song had to come from somewhere. For lyricist Dennis Matkosky, that turned out to be a harrowing news feature on John Wayne Gacy<\/a>. In the late 1970s, law enforcement officials exhumed the remains of eight men beneath Gacy\u2019s home in a suburb of Chicago. Matkosky was listening to the reporters describe the gruesome scene, doodling on a piece of notebook paper.<\/p>\n When he presented his song idea, \u201cManiac\u201d, to his wife, the lyricist remembered<\/a>, \u201cSo, I go out to the living room and say to my wife, Leslie, \u2018What do you think of this title?\u2019 She goes, \u2018Go get some help. Like, go talk to somebody. I think there are some anger problems there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Sembello had a much different response.<\/p>\n How the 1983 One-Hit Wonder \u201cManiac\u201d Came To Be<\/p>\n Dennis Matkosky might have gotten a less-than-enthusiastic response from his wife, but considering his first lyrical draft, it\u2019s easy to see why. Before \u201cManiac\u201d turned into the 1983 one-hit wonder we know it to be today, Matkosky\u2019s lyrics were much darker. \u201cHe\u2019s a maniac \/ he just moved in next door \/ He\u2019ll kill your cat and nail it to the floor.\u201d To his wife\u2019s credit, we might\u2019ve had the same reaction. Songwriter Michael Sembello, however, saw a diamond in the rough.<\/p>\n Matkosky recalled, \u201cHis eyes get real wide. He goes, \u2018Alright. Hit the weirdest chord you know.\u2019 We thought it was a joke, because we weren\u2019t trying to write a song. We were trying to make our friends laugh. I hit that chord, and Michael started singing what I thought was \u2018Bali Ha\u2019i\u2019<\/a> [from South Pacific]. But it wasn\u2019t talked about. He just came out with this melody.\u201d The B-section, Matkosky added, was inspired by a song called \u201cD.O.A.\u201d, or \u201cDead On Arrival\u201d, which featured the tritone chime of an English ambulance.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we knew it, we were done,\u201d Matkosky said. \u201cThat was really the genesis of it. Now came the work.\u201d And Phil Ramone, who was working as the music supervisor for an upcoming movie called Flashdance. Ramone was interested in \u201cManiac\u201d, but he told the songwriting duo that they would never be able to include it in the movie with its original lyrics. With a few rewrites and lyrical tweaks, the final version of the song came to fruition.<\/p>\n