Crenshaw Delivers Refreshing, Sparkling Melodic Pop-Rock

Punk rock’s energy and anyone-can-do-it ethic brought welcome contrast to the bloated stuff that typified mainstream rock music in the late ‘70s. But with gain often comes loss, and the sacrifice for the new emotional vitality of punk and its more polished younger sibling, new wave, was tangible melody and harmony.

The model of melodic pop invention set down by the Beatles often seemed lost as the venting of youthful anger, alienation and frustration took precedence over musical creativity.

Fortunately, there remained exceptions, and one of the most delightful arrivals amid the early-’80s sea of spiky-haired punks and skinny-tied new wavers was Detroit pop-rocker Marshall Crenshaw.

With his wire-rimmed glasses, he looked something like a cross between John Lennon (his role in a mid-’70s touring production of “Beatlemania”) and Buddy Holly, whom he went on to portray in the 1987 movie “La Bamba.” Musically, he echoed both without sounding the least bit derivative of either.

The fact that his sparkling debut album, “Marshall Crenshaw,” never got higher than No. 50 is one of pop’s great mysteries. That the album’s first single, “Someday, Someway,” only made it to No. 36 on the Hot 100 chart and that its even catchier follow-up, “There She Goes Again,” never cracked the top 100 just made things that much sadder to lovers of hummable rock ‘n’ roll.

**** “Marshall Crenshaw,” Warner Archives/Rhino. The prospect of a solo album by a former cast member of “Beatlemania” offered little reason for hope and every reason for skepticism, and that’s exactly what “Marshall Crenshaw” represented when it arrived in 1982.

But all doubts melted under the glow of Crenshaw’s musical luminescence.

That debut album, newly reissued with nine bonus tracks, still overflows with catchy hooks and indelible choruses, proving that melodic rock as gorgeous as this never becomes outdated.

It’s a pure-pop masterwork, from the opening track, “There She Goes Again,” surely one of the most giddily romantic breakup tunes ever, through the optimistically jangling “Cynical Girl” to the wistful “Mary Anne.”

Crenshaw wore his influences on his sleeve, to be sure: He borrowed Chuck Berry’s sliding-into-home riff out of “Rock & Roll Music” for his irresistibly bouncy, retro-rockabilly number “The Usual Thing.”

The album’s production by Crenshaw and Richard Gottehrer burst with snappy guitar licks, glistening, multilayered vocal counterpoint and harmonies and infectious hand claps, all sounding unapologetically cheerful.

Yet the sunniness of Crenshaw’s music didn’t preclude emotional complexity. He’s the faithful-if-mystified lover in “Someday, Someway,” the charmed confidant of a no-talent but good-hearted wannabe-rocker in “She Can’t Dance.”

His rejection of the sarcasm and cynicism so prevalent in the pop world around him was, and is, refreshing.

The bonus tracks cover B-sides and some demos of songs that turned up on later albums, such as “You’re My Favorite Waste of Time” plus five live cuts, but they’re just icing on one of the great summertime, cruising-with-the-top-down records ever.

*** “The Best of Marshall Crenshaw: This Is Easy,” Warner Archives/Rhino. In the 18 years since his sparkling debut album, Crenshaw has recorded little that isn’t impressively catchy, but over time his batting average for crafting beginning-to-end irresistible pop confections has dipped.

Of the 22 songs on this career survey, 16 are drawn from his first four Warner Bros. albums of 1982-87, including four from “Field Day,” the strong follow-up to “Marshall Crenshaw.” By contrast, just five songs cover his work from 1989 to the present. There’s nothing from “#447,” his latest album, released last year by the independent Razor & Tie label, even though it has songs that glow with his heartfelt melodiousness.

Overall, however, the later material finds him back from pop Valhalla to the land of mere mortals--a strongly gifted, if not utterly inspired, singer and songwriter.

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* Marshall Crenshaw, with Bruce Henderson, plays Saturday at McCabe’s, 3101 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica. 7:30 and 10 p.m. $17.50. (310) 828-4403.