Quiet Riot. This was the first heavy metal song I remember liking. They were cool and they were loud. It’s so funny to look back at this video and think how freaking great I thought they were. The lyrics weren’t great, but they were repetitive. Don’t ask them any questions…because they don’t know why…they don’t know why…anymore. Turn up the mother jumpin volume and get a Quiet Riot going up in this bitch…
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Bryan Adams "Heaven"
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tina Turner "Private Dancer"
This is one of those songs that I’d love to sing at Karaoke night. A 200 and plenty pound dude offering to dance for money. “All the men come in these places…you don't look at their faces and you don't ask their name" "Let me loosen up your collar...do you want to see me shimmy again?"
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Midnight Star "Freak-A-Zoid"
“Freakazoid robots please report to the dance floor”. In sixth grade music class we could bring our own music to listen to on Fridays. A big chunk of our time that year was spent listening to Midnight Star’s “No Parking on the Dance Floor” album. This video is a fairly reasonable approximation of our dancing talent…nerdy white kids trying to get Freak-a-Zontal. They are Midnight Star…they’re gonna show you how to do it, yes they are…
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Rockwell "Somebody's Watching Me"
This song is awesome. It has Michael Jackson singing background vocals for a one hit wonder. Every time I hear this song, I can’t wait for Rockwell to sing, “When I’m in the showAHH, I’m afraid to wash my HAY-UH, cause I might open my eyes and find someone standing there”. In college, I thought it would be funny to wait until my roommate TeaJay was washing his hair and step into the shower with him. I scared the living hell out of him when I tapped him on the “shoulder”. To this day, he and Rockwell wonder who’s watching them now…WHO? the IRS?
Monday, January 26, 2009
Marvin Gaye "Sexual Healing"
Marvin Gaye. I wasn’t allowed to listen to the radio until 1983. I still remember the road we were on when this song came on the radio in my dad’s 1978 Volvo. I was sure that it would be the end of me listening to popular music. And it got worse (at least in my mind) when it was immediately followed by the Rolling Stones “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. I couldn’t understand what Mick Jagger was saying, but it sounded to me like “I can’t get no sex with side show”, which is so true. Wait, what? That, of course, made no sense, but, wasn’t that the 80s? Sense is overrated. Let’s just enjoy some M. Gaye and call it a day. “I can’t hold it much longer…It’s getting stronger and stronger”…
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Lita Ford "Kiss Me Deadly"
Lita Ford…slightly prettier than John Bongiovi…slightly manlier than Bret Michaels. Not true. She may have worn John’s pants and had Bret’s hair (or vice versa), but she was all woman. I can’t think of any other blonde hot chicks that really rocked (besides the obvious David Lee Roth). I loved this song the first time I heard it. I still try to fit in the line “went to a party last Saturday night. I didn’t get laid. I got in a fight” into my everyday conversations.
I know you’ll like dancing with Lita…
Saturday, January 24, 2009
John Cougar "Jack and Diane"
Little diddy, bout Jack and Diane. Another song I loved. It had plenty of innuendo (or as my friend the Todd likes to say “in-your-endo”)…hands between knees…hot carls…back seat debutants…sucking on a chili dog…dirty sanchez. Okay I might have added one or more endos, but the song does a great job of capturing the innocence of young love/lust. Before we know it, we grow up…we can’t get that time back…hold on to 16 as long as you can…
Friday, January 23, 2009
Eric Carmen "Hungry Eyes"
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Belinda Carlisle "Heaven is a Place on Earth"
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Timex Social Club "Rumors"
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Bon Jovi "Livin' On a Prayer"
When I was a kid, the two contests that I thought were equal parts ridiculous and awesome were Frosted Flakes win 10,000 balls and MTV’s win John Bon Jovi’s childhood home. In picking my first Bon Jovi song, I really wanted to the ridiculously awesome “Edge of a Broken Heart”, which they did for the Disorderlies soundtrack. Slippery When Wet had just sold 25 million units, yet they did a song for the soundtrack of a Fat Boys' movie? I couldn’t find a good video of EOABH, so I had to settle for this little known record. The boys from Bon Jovi turned the story of a union worker and a Schizophrenic diner waitress (make up your mind...is it "It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not" or "We'll make it I swear") into a monster hit.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Adam Ant "Strip"
Friday, January 16, 2009
Men Without Hats "Pop Goes the World"
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Culture Club "Karma Chameleon"
I don’t think there could have been such a thing as 80s music without Culture Club. Boy George said Karma Chameleon was about being true to who you are without worrying what other people will think of you. That message was lost on the 6th grade me. I remember driving in my friend Bret’s car listening to Karma Chameleon. There were a few of us in the backseat trying to think of names for our basketball teams. Bret’s mom was disappointed that we picked generic names like the 76ers or the Pistons. “Get creative”, she challenged us, “Why not ‘Culture Club?’” The simple answer: we weren’t man enough.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Shalamar "Dancing in the Sheets"
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Midnight Oil "Beds are Burning"
One of the problems I have with music today is that there aren’t nearly enough political songs about aborigines. Thank you Midnight Oil for helping make the 80s great.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Relax (Don't Do It)"
I was going to start this post as follows, “Dear Super Religious Teen Age Girls of the 80s who wore your “Frankie Says Relax” t-shirts thinking you were promoting abstinence, You weren't. Thank you, AJ”. But, in watching this video, I realized I was the one who was wrong…this song IS about abstinence…from heterosexual sex.
Brace yourself…Frankie is about to hit you (hit you) with his laser beam…
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Taco "Puttin on the Ritz"
Taco. In high school I called the evening DJ of Kansas City’s pop music station on a regular basis. I identified myself by saying, “Could you play Puttin on the Ritz by Taco?” Valerie Knight never knew my name, but I’m sure she’d still remember me as the Taco fan. I miss her. I miss Taco. Mmmmm Tacos. What a talent…got to…DANCE!!! If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to…go here…
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Crowded House "Don't Dream It's Over"
Don't let them win...
Friday, January 2, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Duran Duran "Hungry Like the Wolf"
I’ll start with the first song I remember wanting to hear over and over…Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf”. It didn’t really matter what the song was about. I just knew that it was cool. It's formula was can't-miss...It started with a laugh and ended with a woman moaning and in in the middle had plenty of…“Do-do do do do do do do do do do do do do do.”
In the same way that the wolf is hungry, so too am I hungry...