Chinese Restaurant

The first time I heard Chinese Restaurant, I was hooked by the bassline that weaves over the rhythm, as if the bass and drums were a single instrument. It’s not a conventional groove: there’s a subtle shift in timing that gives it a playful yet precise feel, like someone had set the metronome backward without losing the foundation. The rest of the song follows the same logic: the keyboards don’t sound like accompaniment but rather like characters engaging in dialogue with the main melody, and the vocals—which fluctuate between nasal and intentionally off-key—end up being part of the game instead of the protagonist. It’s one of those pieces that doesn’t sound the same twice in a row, even though the skeleton remains the same.

They recorded it in April of 1985 in Italy, but not as a standard project: Maurizio Bassi and Naimy Hackett pieced together the songs in record time, with Jimmy McShane as the visible face, though the backing vocals—and even some arrangements—suggest more hands were involved in the process. The album, Living in the Background, was released first in the United States and later in Europe, but Chinese Restaurant remained a deep cut, without a single or promotion. That said, it did chart on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to other tracks like Tarzan Boy or Woody Boogie, which did get airplay. Today, however, it’s one of those songs fans rediscover for its quirkiness: it sounds like something that didn’t fit its time but, over the years, carved out its own space.