It’s funny, looking back now, to recall that The Motels were sold as a “New Wave” band. This is the only song I remember – and it’s an epic ballad.

Nevertheless, they were spawned from the same LA new wave scene that produced The Go-Go’s, with whom they used to rehearse, and The Bangles (and The Knack) in the late Seventies.

Total Control was on their self-titled debut, which I still have in my collection; albeit unplayed for decades. Until now – and much of it is indeed punky and new wave-adjacent.

Indeed, Davis wrote Total Control as an angry punk song after a nasty break-up, but was persuaded by guitarist Jeff Jourard (once of a pre-fame Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) to turn it into a plaintive, poignant ballad.

I find now that The Motels had a life before their debut album came out in 1979 – and, in America, another one after that, bringing them two hit singles, Only The Lonely and Suddenly Last Summer.

Davis formed their first incarnation back in 1972 in Berkeley, California, originally as The Warfield Foxes, changing their name – first to Angels Of Mercy, then The Motels – when they relocated to LA three years later, but disbanded them after failing to get a record deal.

Davis then formed a new Motels lineup in 1976 with Jourard and his brother Marty on keyboards and sax – including this glorious solo – with Michael Goodroe on bass and drummer Brian Glascock, and they signed to Capitol Records.

They had another different lineup when their second album spawned those hit singles in 1982, and another two – Remember The Nights and Shame – after that, with Davis disbanding the band again after a cancer scare in 1987.

She re-formed the group a year later, using her own name, and still performs today, most recently in an Eighties nostalgia revue, as Martha Davis and The Motels.