It’s no secret that when the New Wave hit, its repercussions shook some unlikely classic rock scenesters (Exhibit A: Neil Young’s Trans; Exhibit B: Everyone from Mick Jagger to Bob Seger dressing up in dayglo and Exhibit C: SYNTHESIZERS!), but witness the little “Snowbird” herself, Anne Murray, of all people, taking a swerve into an edgy career detour in her 1985 TV special The Sounds of London.

Though she was hardly shaving her head or shoving a safety pin through her tongue (the TV audience is left to do that to themselves), Murray’s confusing London travelogue includes a bizarre extended stage segment set at the massive Hippodrome nightclub. It looks like all the Goths, New Romantics, and other subterranean types in London were issued an all-points bulletin to get their asses down for some camera time, and to do the Dark Dance to the newly-crowned Queen of MOR New Wave. Oddly, her “performance” here is pretty much her singing along to other stars’ music videos (in the case of the Police and Eurythmics, Murray is uncomfortably inserted into the videos themselves). That doesn’t seem to stop Anne’s newfound fans (who were apparently dragged here from the Batcave) from dancing up a storm and even invading the stage to join in. Because who wouldn’t want to stage rush an Anne Murray gig, right?

The one-off special, credited as being written by Alan Thicke, also features guests Miss Piggy, Bananarama, and Dusty Springfield, and is clearly the effort of Anne Murray’s “people” to round her square edges a bit. The AM radio-friendly country-pop chart-topper Murray of course garnered her own fanatical suburban housewife following throughout the 70s, and this totally batshit 80s show seems to be aimed at kickstarting her image for a whole new “alternative” fanbase not quite aware of her, uh, crossover potential. Maybe she pulls it off better than Lady Gaga/Tony Bennett?

Personally, I feel a Die Antwoord collaboration is the logical next step to making Anne Murray “relevant” again.