Written by Bill Spooner · Album: The Completion Backward Principle · MTV staple
"Talk to Ya Later" is a 1981 track by The Tubes, written by Bill Spooner and released on the band's fifth studio album, The Completion Backward Principle. Produced by Todd Rundgren, the song represents one of the cleanest pivots in The Tubes' history: from the theatrical excess and extended arrangements of their A&M Records era into something tighter, sharper, and built for a new medium — MTV.
The track has the hard-edged momentum of post-punk and the melodic accessibility of new wave: a riff that locks in and doesn't let go, Fee Waybill's vocal riding the surface of something that could easily turn into a full-band eruption. The lyric is classic Spooner territory — dismissal with style, cutting someone off with a grin. The title phrase became one of The Tubes' most quoted lines.
MTV launched on August 1, 1981 — the same year The Completion Backward Principle came out. "Talk to Ya Later" and its video became part of the network's early rotation, helping establish The Tubes as a band whose visual identity translated perfectly to the new format. They'd spent years building a stage show that was essentially a live music video; when music videos became the medium, they were ready.
Todd Rundgren produced The Completion Backward Principle, and his influence is audible throughout. Where earlier Tubes records had been sprawling and confrontational, this one was focused — shorter songs, cleaner arrangements, a sharper attack. Rundgren's production philosophy pushed the band toward precision without stripping the personality.
The album marked The Tubes' debut on Capitol Records after years on A&M, and the label change came with new commercial expectations. "Talk to Ya Later" met them. The record reached number 36 on the Billboard 200 and yielded two charting singles, including "Talk to Ya Later" and the Bill Spooner ballad "Don't Want to Wait Anymore."
Bill Spooner has described the early 1980s as a period of deliberate evolution — writing songs that could live on radio and TV without losing the intelligence and wit that had defined the band since "White Punks on Dope" in 1975. "Talk to Ya Later" is arguably the purest expression of that balance: a song that works as a pop hit and as a piece of genuine songwriting craft. The hook is deceptively simple; the execution is not.