MTV in the 80s Song of the Day

[DebraKadabra]

The lead saxophone melody definitely gives it that 80s cheesy pop 70s porno feel

 

[Jaq]

Just remembered something else about this song; it was playing on the radio the first time I kissed the girl I had my first long term sexual relationship with. In fact we were involved on and off for over 12 years.

Thanks Kev now this thread is making me feel OLD. 

[Orbert]

Yeah but the important question is: Was she hot?

[KevShmev]

Thanks Kev now this thread is making me feel OLD. 

That's the idea!

[KevShmev]

R.E.M. - The One I Love

This is a band I have never really liked that much, and even the songs liked, I never liked a lot, including this one.  Sometimes, bands just don't it for you, and R.E.M. is one of those bands for me.  This song was pretty popular back in '87, though.

[Cool Chris]

I feel the same. I was a huge of Green, but never bothered getting any of their previous releases for whatever reason. When their next album came out, I had lost interest and my tastes had changed.

[DebraKadabra]

Never was a fan of R.E.M.

[WebRaider]

My favorite version of "Careless Whisper" and I really like the song so you know this is great....

https://youtu.be/GaoLU6zKaws

[T-ski]

anyone familiar with the "Hairless Sister" parody from the Dr. Demento Show?

[Jaq]

Yeah but the important question is: Was she hot?

Would you expect me to answer otherwise? 

As for REM; never really was a fan of the band, but I do recall hearing this song and thinking "at least I can understand the singer these days." Another thing about REM was, in their early days, a local DJ was one of their champions, and for their first local gig gave away approximately 300 tickets, or it certainly SEEMED that way based on the number of ticket give aways. She had a good natured semi feud with the DJ who followed her on the air because of her love of REM; he would always say to her "Why should I listen to REM when I can listen to the Byrds do the same thing with better songs?"

Man, you just don't get shit like that today from modern radio.

[Orbert]

I kinda like R.E.M.'s sound, but their lyrics often completely blow.  Very repetitive.

This one goes out to the one I love
This one goes out to the one I left behind
Something else
This one goes out to the one I love

Second verse is actually the same thing over again.
Third verse is the same thing yet again.

Orange Crush, Stand, Driver 8, Fall on Me, the list goes on.  Same verse - heck, mostly the same lines - over and over again.

[King Postwhore]

R.E.M. - The One I Love

This is a band I have never really liked that much, and even the songs liked, I never liked a lot, including this one.  Sometimes, bands just don't it for you, and R.E.M. is one of those bands for me.  This song was pretty popular back in '87, though.

Love this song.  One of the 2 bands I wanted to see and never did.  The other was Queen.

[KevShmev]

Ratt - Round and Round

I didn't realize it until years later, but it is amazing how much Stephen Pearcy tried to sound like Rob Halford.  The voice, the style and even the way he enunciates certain words and phrases are very Halford-esque.  But anyway, Round and Round was their breakthrough hit, and one I liked.  A few of their later 80s songs I was bigger on (Way Cool Jr., in particular), but there is no denying the long-lasting popularity of Round and Round. 

[Big Hath]

Milton Berle!

[WebRaider]

Ratt - Round and Round

I didn't realize it until years later, but it is amazing how much Stephen Pearcy tried to sound like Rob Halford.  The voice, the style and even the way he enunciates certain words and phrases are very Halford-esque.  But anyway, Round and Round was their breakthrough hit, and one I liked.  A few of their later 80s songs I was bigger on (Way Cool Jr., in particular), but there is no denying the long-lasting popularity of Round and Round.

Cool song... fun video. The album the song came off (Out of the Cellar) of is great IMO. Lots of very good songs on there.

[Orbert]

There were hundreds of bands that started coming out of the woodwork in the 80's, playing hard rock or metal or hair metal or whatever you want to call it, but for some reason Ratt seemed to have more than their share of catchy, likeable songs.  I don't know why; I specifically remember thinking that their lyrics were pretty bad.  ("What comes around, goes around. I'll tell you why."  Okay, why?)  But this song was catchy.

[jjrock88]

Very cool song.  A song that just screams 80's hair metal.  Love it.

[Jaq]

There were hundreds of bands that started coming out of the woodwork in the 80's, playing hard rock or metal or hair metal or whatever you want to call it, but for some reason Ratt seemed to have more than their share of catchy, likeable songs.  I don't know why; I specifically remember thinking that their lyrics were pretty bad.  ("What comes around, goes around. I'll tell you why."  Okay, why?)  But this song was catchy.

I remember the follow up to this album by Ratt had a song called You Should Know By Now. And everyone's reaction to it was "what the fuck SHOULD we know?"  Lyrics weren't Ratt's strong suit.

Fun fact: the cover model for Out of the Cellar was Tawny Kitaen, who went on to marry David Coverdale and make every white blooded American male wish they were the hood of a high performance sports car.

[King Postwhore]

Ratt was one of those bands that shot out right through the gate with Round and Round but as each album came out they got worse and worse.

[DebraKadabra]

Ratt - Round and Round

I didn't realize it until years later, but it is amazing how much Stephen Pearcy tried to sound like Rob Halford.  The voice, the style and even the way he enunciates certain words and phrases are very Halford-esque.  But anyway, Round and Round was their breakthrough hit, and one I liked.  A few of their later 80s songs I was bigger on (Way Cool Jr., in particular), but there is no denying the long-lasting popularity of Round and Round.

Cool song... fun video. The album the song came off (Out of the Cellar) of is great IMO. Lots of very good songs on there.

Agreed - Ratt was my favorite of the "hair metal" bands, and I'm not afraid to admit that.

[KevShmev]

The Beach Boys - Kokomo

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate this song, and if you are a Beach Boys fan from back in the day, I can see why, but I have enjoyed it for it being such a hokey and corny song; it's just so darn catchy!  The movie it came from, Cocktail, is almost as ridiculous, but that can also be enjoyable on an almost embarrassing level.

[dbrooks22]

One more comment for Round and Round - the VH1 pop-up video for this song is quite interesting.  Look it up if you have time...

[dbrooks22]

The Beach Boys - Kokomo

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate this song, and if you are a Beach Boys fan from back in the day, I can see why, but I have enjoyed it for it being such a hokey and corny song; it's just so darn catchy!  The movie it came from, Cocktail, is almost as ridiculous, but that can also be enjoyable on an almost embarrassing level.

Gawd - if i never hear this song again i will consider my life a triumph.

[DebraKadabra]

The Beach Boys - Kokomo

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate this song, and if you are a Beach Boys fan from back in the day, I can see why, but I have enjoyed it for it being such a hokey and corny song; it's just so darn catchy!  The movie it came from, Cocktail, is almost as ridiculous, but that can also be enjoyable on an almost embarrassing level.

Gawd - if i never hear this song again i will consider my life a triumph.

Agreed.

[Jaq]

The Beach Boys - Kokomo

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate this song, and if you are a Beach Boys fan from back in the day, I can see why, but I have enjoyed it for it being such a hokey and corny song; it's just so darn catchy!  The movie it came from, Cocktail, is almost as ridiculous, but that can also be enjoyable on an almost embarrassing level.

Gawd - if i never hear this song again i will consider my life a triumph.

Agreed.

Agreed too. Both the song and the movie can stay in the 80s. 

[bradar]

The Beach Boys - Kokomo

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate this song, and if you are a Beach Boys fan from back in the day, I can see why, but I have enjoyed it for it being such a hokey and corny song; it's just so darn catchy!  The movie it came from, Cocktail, is almost as ridiculous, but that can also be enjoyable on an almost embarrassing level.

I get why people hate it, but for me it's just a fun summer song that has actually been getting a lot of play time from me recently (along with a lot of other Beach Boys work too). One of the earlier songs I can remember being played on TV and radio.

[jingle.boy]

The Beach Boys - Kokomo

I know a lot of people who absolutely hate this song, and if you are a Beach Boys fan from back in the day, I can see why, but I have enjoyed it for it being such a hokey and corny song; it's just so darn catchy!  The movie it came from, Cocktail, is almost as ridiculous, but that can also be enjoyable on an almost embarrassing level.

Gawd - if i never hear this song again i will consider my life a triumph.

Agreed.

Me too.

[KevShmev]

Okay then, on to something a little less objectionable...

Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart

The song (and 90125 the album) that pissed off the prog Yes fans everywhere, but this being the first song I ever heard by Yes, I thought it was great, and I still love this song and most of the 90125 album.  And the video for this tune was just dynamite; definitely one of the best of the decade.  Proggers everywhere curse the day Trevor Rabin became a member of Yes, but there is no denying that the guy was a big reason Yes stayed relevant in the 80s, albeit to a very different demographic.

[Jaq]

Oh, this video.

The original version of the video featured the band performing the song for about a verse, before the song stops and then there's this weird segment where the band members transform into the various "animals that turn into the members of Yes in suits" that crop up in the remainder of the video. The video then has the song resume to the video that most people probably know today, with the decidedly weird story of a businessman being tortured and beaten up and all kinds of crazy shit; I'm sure it's on Youtube somewhere.

However, that version of the video didn't last long, chiefly because of several disturbing images that flashed into the hapless heroes head, suggesting unusual tortures. The worst, and the one I suspect caused the edits, showed the dude with maggots in his eyes.

You read that right.

After a while, a version of the video which removed the band performance prologue and used shots from it to replace the torture kind of scenes arrived, and became the version of the video I imagine most people recall. But I never forgot the original version because it was so fucking CREEPY.

[Orbert]

The longer one is very cool.  The shorter one seems like it's missing a bit of exposition, but I guess if most people are fine with it, then it's fine.

I'm still a few albums away from 90125 in my Yes Discography thread, but basically Trevor Rabin became a member of Yes the day the suits told him that his new band Cinema would instead be Yes, or they wouldn't promote it.  Trevor and I both wish that he'd stuck to his guns, but I don't blame him for how it went down, and I'm about as big a Yesfan and proghead as they come.

[Cool Chris]

** oops - this was for Kokomo **

Perfect song for the film. It is catchy, in a mall department store sort of way. I know my mom loved it, which says something to me. Mike and Carl's voices work great together, as always.

Hearing it now outside the context of the movie and years later... I can only imagine how cheesy sounds.

** Owner of a Lonely Heart **

Good song. Don't recall the video.

My wife used to play soccer with Alan White's daughter. It came up one day her dad was in Yes, and my wife had no idea who Yes was (naturally). I found Owner of a Lonely heart on youtube, and right away she recognized it, and said it was a good song. I bet my last dollar she wouldn't recognize any other Yes song.

[jjrock88]

Not overly familiar with all of Yes' material. But really enjoy this song and all of 90125

[DebraKadabra]

Okay then, on to something a little less objectionable...

Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart

The song (and 90125 the album) that pissed off the prog Yes fans everywhere, but this being the first song I ever heard by Yes, I thought it was great, and I still love this song and most of the 90125 album.  And the video for this tune was just dynamite; definitely one of the best of the decade.  Proggers everywhere curse the day Trevor Rabin became a member of Yes, but there is no denying that the guy was a big reason Yes stayed relevant in the 80s, albeit to a very different demographic.

I've always dug this song, but I've only ever seen the shorter version of the video.  I think.

[Orbert]

Trivia:  Tony Kaye played keyboards on 90125 but left the band temporarily and was replaced by Eddie Jobson for the upcoming tour.  It was during this time that the video for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was produced, so Eddie is in the video even though he didn't play on the song.  Then Tony came back and Eddie left right before the tour, so Eddie Jobson is unique in that he was an official member of Yes but does not actually play on any album.  He's just in the one video.

For those not up on slightly obscure prog musicians, Eddie Jobson was in U.K. with John Wetton, Alan Holdsworth and Bill Bruford, then later Terry Bozzio.  He was also in Roxy Music and Jethro Tull at various times, and has worked with King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and others.

[Jaq]

Trivia:  Tony Kaye played keyboards on 90125 but left the band temporarily and was replaced by Eddie Jobson for the upcoming tour.  It was during this time that the video for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was produced, so Eddie is in the video even though he didn't play on the song.  Then Tony came back and Eddie left right before the tour, so Eddie Jobson is unique in that he was an official member of Yes but does not actually play on any album.  He's just in the one video.

For those not up on slightly obscure prog musicians, Eddie Jobson was in U.K. with John Wetton, Alan Holdsworth and Bill Bruford, then later Terry Bozzio.  He was also in Roxy Music and Jethro Tull at various times, and has worked with King Crimson, Frank Zappa, and others.

Hey save it for the Yes album thread!

I had forgotten the Eddie Jobson thing until you posted this. I remember seeing him for the first time playing in the live video for Jethro Tull's Aqualung that was recorded on the tour for A and thinking, for the first time "Wow, that's an awesome keyboard player." It would not be the last, but Jobson was the first keyboard player that guitar and drums crazy young Jaq was impressed by.