MTV in the 80s Song of the Day

[masterthes]

Great song. I love me some George Michael

[jingle.boy]

Yeah, this one was one of my favorites too.  Just heard it on the radio on Friday.  Probably the last 'pop' album I ever bought, as I was just in the transition into rock being my genre of choice.

[King Postwhore]

Never a fan of GM but I could never deny his talent and showmanship.

[KevShmev]

Some fun 80s facts, courtesy of wikipedia:

1980s Total No. 1s
9 – Michael Jackson First 1980s No. 1: "Rock With You" (1980)
7 – Phil Collins First 1980s No. 1: "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" (1984)
7 – Whitney Houston First 1980s No. 1: "Saving All My Love For You" (1985)
7 – Madonna First 1980s No. 1: "Like A Virgin" (1984)
5 – Daryl Hall & John Oates First 1980s No. 1: "Kiss on My List" (1981)
5 – George Michael First 1980s No. 1: "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (1987)
5 – Lionel Richie First 1980s No. 1: "Endless Love" (1981)
4 – Bon Jovi First 1980s No. 1: "You Give Love A Bad Name" (1986)
4 – Prince First 1980s No. 1: "When Doves Cry" (1984)
4 – Stevie Wonder First 1980s No. 1: "Ebony and Ivory" (1982)

I gotta say, I would not have guessed that Phil Collins would be 2nd to only MJ on that list.

[Jaq]

I have mentioned a friend who was of the opinion that the way to success with a lady was to own Whitney Houston's debut album. I had another friend who believed the same path to success lay in owning George Michael's faith.

It worked even WORSE for him, since a large amount of Michael's audience back then was teenaged girls, which made for problems with my 20 year old friend.

I have no idea how any of us in my circle of friends ever got laid. Including me. 

[Orbert]

I gotta say, I would not have guessed that Phil Collins would be 2nd to only MJ on that list.

What?  Were you even around during the 80's?  I know MJ was huge, but I'm not surprised at all the Phil is second.  He too was everywhere, all the time.

[masterthes]

I thought Off the Wall was considered 79

[Big Hath]

I thought Off the Wall was considered 79

it was, but Rock With You  was released as a single late in 1979 and was number one in Jan/Feb of 1980.

[KevShmev]

I have mentioned a friend who was of the opinion that the way to success with a lady was to own Whitney Houston's debut album. I had another friend who believed the same path to success lay in owning George Michael's faith.

It worked even WORSE for him, since a large amount of Michael's audience back then was teenaged girls, which made for problems with my 20 year old friend.

I have no idea how any of us in my circle of friends ever got laid. Including me. 

  as always...

I gotta say, I would not have guessed that Phil Collins would be 2nd to only MJ on that list.

What?  Were you even around during the 80's?  I know MJ was huge, but I'm not surprised at all the Phil is second.  He too was everywhere, all the time.

Haha, I know.  It just looks weird.  I knew he had a ton of hits, but I guess I didn't realize that so many of them went to number 1, One More Night being one of them. *vomits*

[Cedar redaC]

George Michael is a name that immediately makes me think of this.

[Orbert]

George Michael pisses me off.  He had that song "Father Figure", I will be your father figure, put your tiny hand in mine, you know the song.  My girlfriend's father had recently died from a heart attack.  They were really close and it was sudden, so it hit her hard.

George is dragging out the lyrics, and eventually he doesn't even say that last word.  He just says "I will be your father..."  I look over at my girlfriend, and she's crying.  She's thinking about her dad.  Fuck you, George Michael.  Fucking with a girl's emotions like that.  "I will be your father".  Get the fuck out of here with that shit.

[KevShmev]

I honestly don't know what to make of that post.

[Orbert]

I don't know, either.  The "MTV in the 80s" thread and the "Classic Rock song of the Day" threads both stir up a lot of memories, many of which I'd forgotten.  But I remember listening to George Michael singing "I will be your father" while my girlfriend cried.

Songs about how you'll love someone forever or always be there for her or would jump on a grenade for her or blow yourself up for her, apparently girls like to hear that kind of thing.  But in that moment, promising to be someone's father, that just seemed really cheap and cheesy.  So it pissed me off.

"Father Figure" was the second song from the album Faith.  That's why I thought of it.  I mean, you followed me that far, right?

[wolfking]

George Michael pisses me off.  He had that song "Father Figure", I will be your father figure, put your tiny hand in mine, you know the song.  My girlfriend's father had recently died from a heart attack.  They were really close and it was sudden, so it hit her hard.

George is dragging out the lyrics, and eventually he doesn't even say that last word.  He just says "I will be your father..."  I look over at my girlfriend, and she's crying.  She's thinking about her dad.  Fuck you, George Michael.  Fucking with a girl's emotions like that.  "I will be your father".  Get the fuck out of here with that shit.

[KevShmev]

I wasn't sure if you were being serious or quoting a parody or something, Orbert.  But it's all good.

Stories like that - well, maybe not just like that hehe- are what make this thread great, IMO.  For those of us who grew up in the 80s and have strong nostalgia and memories of a lot of these songs, posters' stories behind them are the meat of this thread, so I welcome any and all stories.

[Orbert]

No, it was 100% serious.  I already thought "I will be your father figure" was a kinda stupid concept for a song, but when I saw what it did to a girl who'd just lost her father, I felt nothing but contempt for the guy who would write such a song.  It just struck me as a such a cheap thing to do.  Obviously that's not what he had in mind when he wrote the song, and he wasn't intentionally playing with her emotions, but hey, I was young.  I still hate George Michael, though.

[wolfking]

No, it was 100% serious.  I already thought "I will be your father figure" was a kinda stupid concept for a song, but when I saw what it did to a girl who'd just lost her father, I felt nothing but contempt for the guy who would write such a song.  It just struck me as a such a cheap thing to do.  Obviously that's not what he had in mind when he wrote the song, and he wasn't intentionally playing with her emotions, but hey, I was young.  I still hate George Michael, though.

I'm a little confused.  Your hating on George Michael for writing the song because it affected your girlfriend who lost her father in a negative way?  Your treating him like he wrote the song specifically for her to fuck with her emotions.  When in fact the concept might be totally different and he obviously doesn't know you or your girlfriend, yet because of this, he's an asshole for writing the song.  That's just lunacy.

[Orbert]

That's just how I roll.

[wolfking]

That's just how I roll.

That's not very fair on George Michael.

[Orbert]

I'm okay with that.  He's just another pop diva, as far as I can tell.  Talented, sure, but nothing special.

[KevShmev]

Stryper - Always There for You

This was a much bigger MTV hit than Billboard hit. It didn't break the top 40 charts, but the video was played non-stop on MTV for months and did well on their top 20 video countdown, IIRC.  Those of us with good memories remember that MTV had a major hard-on for Stryper in 1987 and 1988.  All five of their videos got played a ton, and this was probably my favorite of the five at the time; I loved this song, cheese and all.   Now, it is still an enjoyable song, but it hasn't stayed with me like so many other 80s songs have. Guess the nostalgia just doesn't kick in on this one. 

[bosk1]

Yeah, I really like these guys, but this song didn't really do much for me then or now, the video and constant MTV play notwithstanding.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

[bosk1]

[jingle.boy]

Coz just won the whole internet.  Well played.

[Orbert]

I'm touched, deeply.





(No, not like that!  Get your mind out of the gutter!)

[King Postwhore]

Holy LOL!!


I'm with bosk1 on the Stryper song.

[bosk1]

I'm touched, deeply.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Always There For You is excellent.

[KevShmev]

Coz just won the whole internet.  Well played.

This. 

[Jaq]

I actually liked Stryper for a while, and would confuse the fuck out of metal head friends by playing Slayer's Hell Awaits and then Stryper's Soliders Under Command back to back. (I had the latter on vinyl. WHITE vinyl! Thing looked fucking amazing.) but by the time of this song, the band was leaning far too towards the commercial, more hard rock, power ballad side for me. Which was a shame, because they actually played melodic, catchy metal better than a LOT of bands that did it. Back then Stryper looked silly, but in all honesty, looking back now, they looked no less silly than Poison did.

[wolfking]

 

Poor George, he didn't even do anything wrong.

[Orbert]

He made my girlfriend cry.  We hates him!  We hates him forever, my precious!   

[KevShmev]

Huey Lewis & the News - Do You Believe in Love

Their first big hit, and the first song I knew by them, I always liked this song; very catchy! And it is still one of the four or five Huey Lewis & the News songs that I will put on my 80s mp3 CDs.

[Jaq]

Trivia bit about this song: it was written by Mutt Lange, who at that time was largely known as being AC/DC's producer, since Def Leppard hadn't blown up yet. Which meant a few young hard rock fans who found this out were thinking "wait, what?"  In hindsight it makes sense, but back then we didn't really know about the wider careers of producers, we just knew when they produced something we owned. Catchy song, though. I can't help but think the music video, which had Huey and the band following the girl around her house belting out the song, would be received very differently today. SOMEONE would say that Huey was stalking her these days.