Martha and the Muffins – Echo Beach

"Echo Beach" was the second single released by Martha and the Muffins, a new wave band formed by students at the Ontario College of Art in 1977, and the first from their major label debut, Metro Music. It became a huge international hit, reaching top 10 in Canada, the UK and Australia, and top 40 on the US Dance charts.

In the early 2000s, Q Magazine included it among the 1001 Best Songs Ever, as the top pop song of the 1980s, CBC Radio placed it at #35 in its list of 50 Tracks: The Canadian Edition and #52 in its list of greatest Canadian songs, Bob Mersereau ranked it 27th in The Top 100 Canadian Singles, Chart magazine placed it #5 in 1996 and #20 in 2000 in its list of top Canadian singles, and Huffington Post placed it at 88.

Circa 2011, Tracy and I attended a festival at "Echo Beach," an outdoor concert venue at Ontario Place, presumably named after this new wave classic.

Click below for:

• the original Martha and the Muffins version
• the 1997 promotional video for Toyah's version
• the Robert Forster cover version

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Personnel

• Martha Johnson – keyboards, vocals
• Martha Ladly – keyboards, trombone, vocals
• Mark Gane – synthesizer, guitar
• Carl Finkle – bass
• Tim Gane – drums
• Andy Haas – saxophone