The Nerves “One Way Ticket” 2008. Alive Records. Jangly, garagey, power pop. A collection of tracks recorded for their first EP The Nerves (1976), demos and live recordings. I was exactly today years old when it clicked that The Nerves wrote and first performed “Hanging on the Telephone,” a UK hit for Blondie in 1978. The original is great, as is the rest of the collection. The title track “One Way Ticket” and “Paper Dolls” pretty much set the bar for the power pop sound that continues to evolve 50 years on. “Walking Out on Love” veers hard into a punk pop sound – this song was recorded by The Breakaways, formed by Peter Case and Paul Collins after The Nerves dissolved and before Case left that band and helped found the more well-known The Plimsouls in 1978 (just one Plimsouls song on this comp, “Thing of the Past” recorded live in 1979). The other Nerves member, Jack Lee, also has a track on One Way Ticket: a straightup rocker “It’s Hot Outside.” The live tracks on Side 2 are a bit raw, a lot messy – and quite muddy – but full of snotty energy;  these are from July, 1977 on the Magical Blistering Tour tour with The Ramones, recorded in Schoenberg, Illinois (Chicago-area). The most exciting of these is “Come Back and Stay” which, again, I was today years old when I realized this is an original Nerves song – I have only ever heard Paul Young’s new wave/blue-eyed soul interpretation from 1983 (which I loved then and still do today) which went to #22 in the US and to #4 in the UK. And since there are zero videos of The Nerves that I could find, will include Paul Young in 80’s acid wash jeans here: