#23: I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll) by Nick Lowe

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: January 1986
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #77
YouTube: “I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll)”
Lyrics: “I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll)”

Nicholas Drain Lowe was born in 1949 in Surrey, UK. He formed a band in 1968 named Kippington Lodge. The band was renamed Brinsley Schwartz and veered into a fusion of country and blues-rock. In 1974, Lowe wrote “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”. The song was covered by Elvis Costello in 1979. In 1976, Dave Edmunds co-founded a band named Rockpile with Nick Lowe, drummer Terry Williams and guitar player Billy Bremner. But, immediately, Rockpile ran into recording problems since Lowe and Edmunds were signed to different recording labels. Nonetheless, Rockpile went on tour in the UK in 1976. As well, in 1976 Lowe recorded “So It Goes”. The single was voted the fifth-best single of the year according to the New Musical Express critics poll. That year, Lowe produced a single by The Damned titled “New Rose”, along with the album Damned Damned Damned. In 1977, Nick Lowe produced Elvis Costello’s first album, My Aim Is True. In 1978, Lowe produced Elvis Costello’s second album, This Year’s Model, with the outstanding track “Pump It Up”. In 1978, Lowe had a Top Ten hit single in the UK titled “I Love The Sound of Breaking Glass”. A third album by Elvis Costello, Armed Forces, was also produced by Nick Lowe.

In 1978, Lowe’s debut album, Jesus of Cool, was a Top 30 charting disc in both the Netherlands and the UK, which stalled at #31 in Sweden. In 1978, Nick Lowe produced The Pretenders single “Stop Your Sobbing”. In 1979, Lowe’s song, “Milk And Alcohol”, was a Top Ten hit in the UK for Dr. Feelgood. In 1979, Edmunds had the other three members of Rockpile record in the studio with him on his solo releases of “Girls Talk” and “Queen Of Hearts”. Edmunds, Bremner and Williams also were session musicians for the recording of Nick Lowe’s “Cruel To Be Kind”. The hit single was a track from Labour of Lust, an album that reached #20 in Sweden, #21 in Canada and #31 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

In 1982, Nick Lowe released his third album, Nick the Knife. A single titled “Stick It Where The Sun Don’t Shine” climbed to #2 in Ottawa. However, it failed to crack the Billboard Hot 100. Further albums included a shift to roots and blues with Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit in 1984.

In 1977, Dave Edmunds recorded “I Knew The Bride” and the single climbed to #26 in the UK and #32 in Australia. Nick Lowe’s version of the song was a track from the 1985 album The Rose of England. 

“I Knew The Bride” is a song written by Nick Lowe. Dave Edmunds, who had been insecure about his songwriting abilities, had turned to Lowe for help. Lowe then came up with “I Knew the Bride”. Edmunds recalled, “Nick came up with ‘I Knew The Bride’, which was just perfect for me, and we wrote a couple of other things together. I remember ‘I Knew The Bride’ was written really quickly, it seemed like Nick had knocked out this brilliant, fully-formed rock ‘n’ roll song in about half an hour.”

The song is written from the perspective of a guy who was once a close friend (possibly an ex-boyfriend) of a woman he knew when she was a bride 27 years earlier. Now, in the present time, she listens to the songs she likes “with her Walkman on.” A Walkman is a portable audio player first introduced by Sony in 1979. The original was a cassette player.

First marketed in Japan in 1979, the Walkman was pitched to the youth market. Ads emphasized youth, vitality, and fashion, and created a headset culture. In February 1980, he began to sell Walkman to the world, and in November 1980, Sony began to use the non-standard Japanese and English brands globally. The Walkman has sold more than 250 million units worldwide.

The lyrics tell us that the bride wore her mother’s wedding dress at her marriage ceremony. Her father walked her down the aisle.

(Above) A father walking his daughter down the aisle in 1958

In the song, the father pays $150 for a reception at a flashy hotel. Before she got married the bride used to wear blue jeans, put coins in the jukebox and dance the stroll and the pony. The Stroll was a dance made popular by The Diamonds in 1958, along with songs like “C.C. Rider” by Chuck Willis. While The Pony was popularized by Chubby Checker who had a number-one hit in February 1961 with “Pony Time”. who in the early sixties was constantly pumping out new songs about the latest dance craze.

“I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll)” climbed to #1 in Boston, #2 in Ottawa, and Sydney (NS), #4 in Carbondale (IL), and #11 in Des Moines (IA). Internationally, Nick Lowe’s version peaked at #26 in Australia, #77 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, and #130 on the UK pop chart.

His 1988 album, Pinker and Prouder than Previous may have been a nod to gay liberation at the time.

In 2007, the Nick Lowe album At My Age, climbed to #10 on the Swedish Album Chart. And in 2011, Lowe’s album The Old Magic peaked at #9 on the Swedish Album Chart. It also gained attention in the UK and USA album markets, cracking the Top 100 album charts for both countries. In all, Nick Lowe has recorded fourteen studio albums and three live albums. His most recent in 2020 is Live at the Haw River Ballroom (with Los straitjackets). In concert, Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets appeared in Vancouver at the Vogue on December 19, 2015, and at the Imperial Theatre on October 11, 2018.

Over the years Nick Lowe has written songs recorded by Lene Lovitch, Leo Kottke, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Diana Ross, Johnny Cash, Rod Stewart, Linda Ronstadt, Solomon Burke, Fatboy Slim, Mavis Staples, Paul Carrack, George Thorogood, Queen Ida and Her Zydeco Band, and others.

Though Nick Lowe has been around for decades, he told NPR in 2015 he knew he wasn’t going to be famous. “I knew I wasn’t going to be one of those people like Elton John or Cher or Neil Diamond, whose careers just span the decades in pop. I knew I wasn’t one of those people. And I knew the end was coming. … Even so, when it did come, I had very mixed feelings. I was sorry to see it go. You know the public has gotten fed up with you and moved on. On the other hand, it had made me ill. It had made me completely exhausted and washed out. So I was relieved on one hand, so I could lie low.”

Lowe has remained especially popular in Sweden. In 2024 he released his fifteenth studio album Indoor Safari. 

November 5, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Greg Kot, “Nick Lowe Interview: Pop Music for Grown Ups,” Chicago Tribune, December 7, 2011.
“Nick Lowe: The Fresh Air Interview,” NPR, September 15, 2011.
Mark Binelli, “St. Nick: The Long, Strange and Wonderful Career of Nick Lowe,” Rolling Stone, November 29, 2018.
“Nick Lowe – concert dates – Canada,” Setlist.fm.
Meaghan Haire, “The Walkman,” Time, July 1, 2009.
The Diamonds, “The Stroll“, Mercury Records, 1958.
Chuck Willis, “C.C Rider“, Atlantic Records, 1957.
Chubby Checker, “Pony Time“, 1961.

CFRA 580-AM Ottawa Top Ten | January 17, 1986