Sometimes a hit song can just fall into place — and so it was with the Spin Doctors’ breakthrough track Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong.
As the first single from the New York band’s debut LP Pocket Full Of Kryptonite, it reached No.17 on the US chart in late 1992.
The writing credit for Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong is split between the four members of the band at that time — singer Chris Barron, guitarist Eric Schenkman, bassist Mark White and drummer Aaron Comess.
But as Comess and Schenkman tell MusicRadar, the song originated with Barron before the others jumped on it.
Comess recalls: “Chris called me up one morning and said, 'Hey man, I just wrote this cool new song. Can I come over and show you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, come on by!’
"At the time, Eric and I were living on a five-floor walk-up on Elizabeth Street in NYC. It was the home base of the band in those early days.
“So Chris comes over and plays me the song. I remember right away loving it and thinking we may just have something here.
“He’s playing on his acoustic guitar singing it, and Eric gets home and we’re jamming around. I’m on a Wurlitzer piano we had, just messing around playing along. And I threw in that B flat chord to make a bridge.
“Eric says, ‘Let’s do this rhythmical hit,’ and bam, we had our bridge.
"I remember we just showed it to Mark on stage at a gig at The Nightingale, which is a little bar we used to play at all the time on 13th and 2nd Ave.
“We never actually rehearsed the song — just played it. And it went over great from day one.
“But it was not until we were in the studio recording it that Eric came up with that great Chuck Berry hook. That song was recorded in the second session we did with Peter Dennenberg at RPM studio on 12th Street. Good times!”
Schenkman adds: “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong means everything to me as it is the song that gave us our first big break, and it sounds great on the radio!
“Classic Chris Barron melody and killer lyrics. As always, Chris is a terrific melodist and lyricist.
“It also has a great drum intro by my favourite drummer/composer, Aaron Comess!”
