It's My Life

Hollis chose Friese-Greene because the records he had produced, Tight Fit, Blue Zoo, Thomas Dolby, sounded nothing alike: he had not imposed a sound on any of them. The band, reduced to Hollis, Harris and Webb, worked with the keyboard player Ian Curnow, the pianist Phil Ramocon, the guitarist Robbie McIntosh and the trumpeter Henry Lowther. Webb played the bass on Such a Shame on his lap with a screwdriver. James Marsh's painted cover, drawing on Millais's The Boyhood of Raleigh, began a long run of covers by him.

It reached two in Switzerland, three in the Netherlands, where it stayed on the chart for sixty-four weeks, and four in Germany, but only thirty-five in Britain. Such a Shame and Dum Dum Girl were singles alongside the title track. PopMatters, reviewing the 2024 reissue, called It's My Life one of the most beloved songs of the new wave.