made nearly every critic’s list of best records

(Willy DeVille) created a record that sounded like nothing that had come before … It was clear that Willy had realized his fantasy of a new, completely contemporary Brill Building record. To the symphonic sweetness of the Drifters he added his own Gallic romance and, in his vocal, a measure of punk rock ‘s Bowery grit. Doc (Pomus) was elated when he heard it. Thinking they’d signed a new wave band, Capitol didn’t know what to do with Willy’s rock and roll chanson and shelved it for a year. When it was finally released in 1980, Le Chat Bleu remixed by Joel Dorn , made nearly every critic’s list of the year’s best records.