The Romantics: Detroit Rock, ’80s Style

October 21, 2026

Here’s a challenging query you might hear during our Big 80s Trivia this spring on The 80s Cruise: What was The Romantics’ biggest hit? 

If you answered “What I Like About You,” congratulations. You’re wrong. But it certainly seems like it should be. 

More than four decades after its release, “What I Like About You” has become an anthem of our beloved decade. It’s been in movies and commercials. It blasts out of speakers at sporting events. Wedding bands play it. Your neighbor’s garage band probably played it. 

And somewhere, right now, somebody is shouting “HEY!” along with that opening drumbeat. 

And yet, when The Romantics released the song in 1980, it peaked at a surprisingly modest No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their biggest hit wouldn’t arrive for another three years. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. 

The Romantics came together in Detroit in 1977, with Wally Palmar, Jimmy Marinos, Mike Skill and Rich Cole formally becoming a band on Valentine’s Day. 

Of course they did. They called themselves The Romantics, after all. 

Their name might have suggested candlelight and roses, but the music came from a considerably louder place. 

Growing up around Detroit, the future Romantics had absorbed the sounds of the MC5, the Stooges, Bob Seger, Mitch Ryder and the city’s ferocious garage-rock scene. Add the Beatles, Kinks, Who and other British Invasion bands, mix in the stripped-down energy of punk and power pop, and you begin to understand what The Romantics were after. 

Short songs. Big hooks. Loud guitars.  

They also understood that looking like a band mattered. 

When The Romantics released their self-titled debut album in January 1980, there they were on the cover in matching red leather suits and skinny ties, looking like Valentine’s Day had collided with Detroit rock ‘n’ roll. 

And tucked inside was “What I Like About You.” 

Written by Palmar, Skill and Marinos, the song was driven by Marinos’ pounding drums, a harmonica riff and one of the simplest invitations in rock history: 

“Hey!” 

The song wasn’t an enormous hit at first, but it refused to go away. Radio kept playing it. Movies and television discovered it. Advertisers discovered it. Sports arenas definitely discovered it. 

Over time, “What I Like About You” became something bigger than its original chart position. It became one of those songs everybody seems to know. 

The Romantics followed their debut with National Breakout later in 1980 and Strictly Personal in 1981, but mainstream superstardom remained elusive. 

Then came In Heat in 1983. Suddenly The Romantics sounded a little different. 

The guitars were still there. So were the hooks. But “Talking in Your Sleep” added synthesizers and a darker, slinkier groove that sounded perfectly at home in the MTV era. 

The video didn’t hurt either. There were The Romantics, now dressed mostly in black leather, performing while surrounded by women in sleepwear standing motionless around them. 

(This was, after all, 1983. Subtlety was taking a short hiatus.) 

The song climbed all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984 and also topped the dance chart. The follow-up, “One in a Million,” reached No. 37. 

For a moment, The Romantics were everywhere. At a time when rock was splintering into punk, new wave, arena rock and countless other subgenres, The Romantics helped carry forward the idea that a great rock song didn’t need to be complicated. It just needed to be fun. Give people a riff, a beat, and a chorus they can yell back at you. 

Today’s Romantics are led by founding member and vocalist Wally Palmar and longtime guitarist Coz Canler, carrying that Detroit sound onto stages more than four decades after the band’s MTV heyday. 

So, what will we see and hear when The Romantics take the stage aboard The 80s Cruise?  

Expect guitars. Expect harmonies. Expect sweat. Expect songs designed to get a room moving before you’ve had time to think about whether your knees are still technically capable of doing what they did in 1984. 

Expect “Talking in Your Sleep.” 

And yes, you can definitely expect that other song. 

You know the one. 

The drums will kick in. Somebody will yell “HEY!” And several thousand people who haven’t agreed on much of anything since Live Aid will suddenly know exactly what comes next. 

That’s what we like about The Romantics. 

(Steve Spears is the co-host and creator of the Stuck in the ‘80s podcast. His first book – “Stuck in the ‘80s: 20 Years of Conversations with Pop Culture Icons Who Defined a Decade” – is an Amazon top seller. Steve and Brad Williams host Big 80s Trivia each year on The 80s Cruise.)