Billy Idol “Don’t Stop” released 35 years ago on this date, October 24th, 1981. Idol’s first solo release, this EP contains four songs and this great promo poster.

Two of Billy Idol’s best-known songs appear on Don’t Stop: “Mony Mony,” a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells’ hit from 1968, and “Dancing With Myself,” which Idol has previously released with his former band, Generation X. The track was not re-recorded, simply remixed and edited to a shorter length for this EP.  The track “Untouchables” is also a Gen X song that appeared on their album Kiss Me Deadly, though Idol did rerecord it for his EP.

“Mony Mony” holds a particularly dear spot in my heart. It was still quite popular in the mid-to-late 80′s and would inevitably be included on junior high and high school dance mixes where everyone would gleefully sing along, interjecting between lyrical lines the chant “Hey hey you! Get laid, get fucked!” I did a bit of digging and found that of course we were not unique youth developing naughty lyrics, but rather participating in a pre-internet meme. The chant varied slightly by geography: Southern Ontario/New York state/Ohio/Pennsylvania: “Hey, motherfucker!  Get laid, get fucked!” Wisconsin/Colorado/British Columbia:  “Hey, what’s that?  Get laid, get fucked!” Texas:  “Come on, everybody!  Get laid, get fucked!”
Some university campuses:  “Hey, hey, slut! Get laid, get fucked!” Elsewhere:  “Hey, hey what? Get laid, get fucked!”and “Hey, get drunk, get laid, get fucked!” – “get fucked” the great common denominator –  and its origin is unknown (the article linked has several theories, including its origin was back in ‘68 with the original release, a bad (?) lip-reading of an Idol performance, or mid-1980′s English frat boys).