Song of the Day 1/1: 20/20, “Yellow Pills”

This track, which appeared on the band’s strong debut album, was one of the signature songs of the power pop/new wave boom of the late ’70s. Its title was borrowed by the genre’s top fanzine (how like-minded people stayed in touch pre-internet) as well as a series of discs compiling the early years of power pop.

The duo who formed the core of 20/20 were childhood and college friends from Tulsa, but the band’s name, and some of its earliest songs, came courtesy of a drummer they met after moving to Los Angeles, following in the footsteps of fellow Tulsa power popper Dwight Tilley. The song’s name came from a type of amphetamines. Showing once again the acumen of record executives, it was the B-side to their first single from the album.

This was the A-side.

The drummer left during the recording of the first LP, so the band’s second album didn’t come until two years later — a long gap in those days — and it took a more serious turn that didn’t click with the public. After one more album, they were history.