MTV in the 80s Song of the Day

[dbrooks22]

much of this album was written and performed by the members of Toto.

Not true.  Four of the nine songs were written by Jackson himself (including three of the biggest hits), and Human Nature is the only song on the album with a songwriting credit related to someone from Toto.

You're right.  I should have said "Much of the album was recorded by the members of Toto."  That being said, even though HN is the only official songwriting credit, i'm sure they were influential.

[KevShmev]

It's all good.

Toto - Africa

I loved this song when it first hit the scene, and to this day, I still love it.  The music is terrific, the video was entertaining, and who hasn't gone almost hoarse a few times singing along to the chorus? 

[dbrooks22]

Perfect Segue 

I absolutely love this track.  And it's amazing how well it has aged.  Wow - what a song! 

[bosk1]

I still can't decide whether this thread makes me feel good, or just feel old.

[King Postwhore]

Can not say enough about Africa.  My brother and I as kids played this song to the record in our basement. (Me on acoustic and him on bass).

Love singing the low harmonies (David Paich's) and I wish I saw them more than once live.

[lonestar]

Got a good one.  Way back in the day, about twelve years ago, the fellow chefs and I used to drink at a very seedy bar, filled with drunks and drug addicts, hell of a place, my type of bar.  After getting a thorough drunk on, we were just casually shooting pool.  Africa comes on.  Two dudes, hammered, strung out, and tattoo'ed to the hilt, are watching the ant races at the end of the bar(passed out basically).  The song shakes them out of their stupor and the start rocking out to it like they're seeing Zeppelin playing Whole Lotta Love or something.  Now don't get me wrong, it is a great song, but it isn't the type for that caliber rocking out, we couldn't stop laughing, fucking hysterical.

[Big Hath]

Africa is one of my all-time favorite tracks.

When my grandmother bought a new Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera in the early 80's, it came with a demo cassette tape with 4 "programs", kind of like an old 8-track used to have.

Program 1 started with the Oldsmobile Jingle then had modern adult rock and roll stuff with Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Bertie Higgins' "Key Largo" and of course Toto's "Africa".

Program 2 was more country-type songs.  Program 3 had more jazzy stuff and included Weather Report's "Birdland" (awesome!).  And Program 4 had classical (including "Also Sprach Zarathustra").

I wore that tape out constantly playing and rewinding "Africa".

Here is the Oldsmobile Jingle for your listening pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5dEF11QZ7k

[BlobVanDam]

The intro keyboards are a bit cheesy and 80s, which is exactly why I love them. Big chorus that really contrasts with those nice soft verses.
Good album too.

[DebraKadabra]

I still can't decide whether this thread makes me feel good, or just feel old.

No kidding.

One comment about Billie Jean - AWESOME.  Thriller was SO huge, and it was a damn good album too.

Africa, though?  Okay, if you must.    Sorry, that song didn't age well for me.

[KevShmev]

I still can't decide whether this thread makes me feel good, or just feel old.

I think it does both for me.

I mean, I can't believe Thriller is 30 years old now.

[bosk1]

I still can't decide whether this thread makes me feel good, or just feel old.

I think it does both for me.

I mean, I can't believe Thriller is 30 years old now.

No kidding, man.  I remember when the world premier video was released for Thriller (the song), and how groundbreaking it was.  I set the VCR and recorded that sucker. 

I still can't decide whether this thread makes me feel good, or just feel old.

No kidding.

One comment about Billie Jean - AWESOME.  Thriller was SO huge, and it was a damn good album too.

Africa, though?  Okay, if you must.    Sorry, that song didn't age well for me.

I wasn't in love with it at the time, but it has grown on me a lot.  I dunno.  A lot of songs that I didn't love back then are much easier to appreciate now.  I wish they would do a compilation DVD set (like those compilation CD's on those informercials) with the original music videos for a lot of these songs.  I would definitely pay for that.

[KevShmev]

I wish they would, too; I'd buy those in a heartbeat.  But for now, I am content with the occasional youtube viewing of this video or that video and setting my DVR for Classic 80s on VH1 Classic every morning.

Speaking of those compilation CDs, I have like 12 of those Sounds of the Eighties CDs that Time released in the 90s. I remember seeing the commercials for them back then, and it was like $15 a month for a year for them to send you a new CD every month.  Given that easy access to buying single songs on the internet wasn't around yet, those CDs were a gold mine for me at the time.

[bosk1]

We should do an '80s tournament where people nominate their top 10, and then we do a second round where we cull out the top however many and have people rank their top 5 or so from those and then talley the scores.  Do you think it would interfere too much with this thread if I ran that?  I'm thinking maybe doing one for all genres, with the caveat that songs should have a video that was played on MTV in the '80s.  And then maybe do a hard rock/metal round as well.  Thoughts?

[KevShmev]

I think that could be cool, but the problem is that there aren't that many people who are participating in this thread, and you'd likely get people nominating stuff like Rush, Maiden, etc. (since they technically were played on MTV), as opposed to playing videos that were closely associated with MTV and videos, and then it'd become a big cluster you-know-what.   Maybe worth a shot, but perhaps start a new thread for it?  That way, this one can stay on course.

[bosk1]

I shall try.  If it fails, it fails.

[Orbert]

Do or do not.  There is no "try".

[T-ski]

I'll throw an 80's song into the fray, Daryl Hall "Dreamtime."

Hall & Oates is a top 5 80's act if you ask me, and when Daryl Hall decided to do his own thing in 1987, he decided to work with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and the result was the album "Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine"

"Dreamtime" was a big hit and til this day is one of my favorite 80's tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-AMiFuymH8

[King Postwhore]

I'm your huckleberry Kev and bosk1!!

[jingle.boy]

I think that could be cool, but the problem is that there aren't that many people who are participating in this thread, and you'd likely get people nominating stuff like Rush, Maiden, etc. (since they technically were played on MTV), as opposed to playing videos that were closely associated with MTV and videos, and then it'd become a big cluster you-know-what.   Maybe worth a shot, but perhaps start a new thread for it?  That way, this one can stay on course.

I may not comment on every song, but I'm reading and keeping up with this.  There may be more people lurking that don't always comment.

[KevShmev]

Oh, I know!

[bosk1]

I'm your huckleberry Kev and bosk1!!

Well, alrighty then.  https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=32532.0

[KevShmev]

I'll throw an 80's song into the fray, Daryl Hall "Dreamtime."

Hall & Oates is a top 5 80's act if you ask me, and when Daryl Hall decided to do his own thing in 1987, he decided to work with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) and the result was the album "Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine"

"Dreamtime" was a big hit and til this day is one of my favorite 80's tunes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-AMiFuymH8

Pretty good song.  I like the main riff and the chorus is nice.  Was never a favorite, but I liked it.

[KevShmev]

USA for Africa - We Are the World

I am pretty convinced that if someone has never heard the song before, and checked it out now, they would think it is one of the cheesiest things ever, but back then, it was pretty neat seeing all of those stars come together to do a song like that for a good cause.  The Ray Charles vocal parts of this song still give me goosebumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI

[bosk1]

USA for Africa - We Are the World

I am pretty convinced that if someone has never heard the song before, and checked it out now, they would think it is one of the cheesiest things ever, but back then, it was pretty neat seeing all of those stars come together to do a song like that for a good cause.  The Ray Charles vocal parts of this song still give me goosebumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI

Agreed.  And while it probably won't make your list for this thread, I would say the same thing about Stars.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7eqxg92YG0

[jingle.boy]

Great concept; pretty good song.  WATW<Do They Know it's Christmas<Tears Are Not Enough.  And I don't say that just to be patriotic.  All three were good.  Amazing to comprehend that all of these were written, recorded and mixed in a day or so.  Not sure if Geldof spent more time writing Do They Know... but the other two certainly were.

[Orbert]

The song isn't bad, and since there weren't a lot of "world anthems" around at the time, you could say that it was the model for the ones which followed.  Of all of them, I think this one annoys me the least, so I guess that makes it the best.

The fun part of watching the video of course is seeing how many people you recognize before you hear them sing, though recognizing them afterwards still counts for some points.  I tended to suck at that because I don't know a lot of 80's acts by face, though I'd usually get the ones from the 70's and before.  I mean, who doesn't know Ray Charles?

[DebraKadabra]

Do They Know It's Christmas > We Are The World

Although I do admit, the first time I heard WATW it was okay but then it got WAY overplayed.

[KevShmev]

Rod Stewart - Infatuation

Nice rocking tune, featuring some stellar guitar lead work by Jeff Beck.  I am not a big fan of Stewart, but I do like this song a lot.  Memorable video in its time, too, as it was 1984, back when the best videos were the ones that told little stories that may or may not have had something to do with the song.

[Orbert]

Ah, but this one did, and the girl was hot, too.

[DebraKadabra]

Never a HUGE fan of his, but Infatuation is a good song.

[jingle.boy]

I was never a fan much either (including this track), but his Unplugged album is money.

[KevShmev]

Loverboy - Working for the Weekend

I remember when this song and video were out, I was 8, and because of the editing of the video, I thought their drummer was totally awesome.   And of course years later, the song now reminds many of us of the classic SNL Chippendales sketch.  But it's still a good, fun song.

[BlobVanDam]

I love the song, but until 5 minutes ago had never seen the music video, so um..... thanks?
Drummer was definitely the highlight of that video.

[Orbert]

I was in a band in the 80's and we did a number of Loverboy songs, including this one.  I thought it was great.  The synth hook with the descending intervals (inverted fifth, inverted tri-tone, inverted fourth) was awesome and of course the chorus was one of great party anthems of the time.  Great song.

[ZirconBlue]

Loverboy - Working for the Weekend

I remember when this song and video were out, I was 8, and because of the editing of the video, I thought their drummer was totally awesome.   And of course years later, the song now reminds many of us of the classic SNL Chippendales sketch.  But it's still a good, fun song.

The "classic rock" radio station where I lived played this every Friday at 5:00.  After 50-60 weeks that shit starts to get old.