The primary members were brothers John and Jeff Murphy, Gary Klebe and Skip Meyer.

The Murphy brothers and Klebe were high school friends and decided to form a band following graduation.

A formalist's delight—the three principals pursue their theme of Sad Love as obsessively as a cavalier writing sonnets to his lady.

And when for a change of pace one of them sounds bitter the effect is as startling as a Johnny Ramone guitar solo.

The same year they also recorded the album Black Vinyl Shoes in the Murphy family living room.

Shoes then entered a professional studio for the first time and released a single "Tomorrow Night" on Bomp!

The following November Black Vinyl Shoes was licensed to PVC Records, which re-issued the album to national distribution in the US.

The group signed to Elektra in April 1979 and released their first major label album, Present Tense, that September.

The label also released a limited edition promotional only 12" live EP titled Shoes on Ice in 1982.

He was eventually replaced by a series of other drummers including Ric Menck, John Richardson and Jeff Hunter.

In Boys Don’t Lie: A History of Shoes by Mary E. Donnelly (New York college professor and managing editor of PurePopPress.com) with Moira McCormick in interviewing John Murphy, the following exchange occurred: Much ink has been spilled debating the meaning of the band's name.