Nu Shooz's "I Can't Wait" Is Still Such a Jam

Here's a group from Portland, Oregon, that was cool before everybody started moving out there. Sadly, Nu Shooz was pretty much a one-hit-wonder -- make that one-and-a-half, if you count "Point of No Return" -- but their other track -- "I Can't Wait" -- managed to reach #3 on the pop chart in 1986. The group's founders, the husband and wife team of Valerie Day and John Smith, took a convoluted route to success when the song was originally released and ignored; fortunately a remix appeared in the Netherlands and it took off. The video was directed by another Portlandian, Jim Blashfield, who was one of the early '80s MTV music video pioneers and award winners.