MTV in the 80s Song of the Day

[King Postwhore]

That album was jarring to me when it first came out but over time I came to love it.  Like Bob said, I appreciate the content and the sad, melody. It's a good song but there are better songs on the album.

[dparrott]

Stars on 45: Stars on 45 (Medley)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skQvj-aBV8

An abomination by rock standards, but I LOVE IT!  One of the few songs I remember from when I was a child.  I can't help but groove to this when I hear it. 

[DebraKadabra]

Not to be a bitch or anything, dparrott, but KevShmev is the one who picks the songs for the thread.

[KevShmev]

Haha, true, and that song was already featured. 

But honestly, I have ran the gauntlet to the point where there aren't a ton of really worthy songs left to feature, so I am almost to the point, especially given that I don't do songs in this thread very often anymore, where I am ready to say that anyone who wants to feature an 80s song, even if it is one I already did, have at it.  Just make sure you bold it and try to keep it to 80s songs that were MTV mainstays at some point.

[Jaq]

I'm pretty well out of stories anyway. Well, the ones that end with "and Jaq got laid." I got tons that end with "and Jaq woke up, hungover and uncertain of where he'd been the night before"

Which if you made a Venn diagram of the two types WOULD have some overlap, to be fair. 

[bosk1]

Kev, I don't remember:  Have any Cory Hart songs been featured?

[KevShmev]

I don't think so.  Sunglasses at Night is probably the only Corey Hart song I remember, and I don't think I ever featured it.

[bosk1]

Well, you should.  And I woudl add Never Surrender as well.  I mean, you know, if it were my thread.

[King Postwhore]

Big Country *Cough*

[Cool Chris]

If Kev is running out, I think we should all take turns posting, say, 5 songs of our own.

[jeebustrain]

Well, you should.  And I woudl add Never Surrender as well.  I mean, you know, if it were my thread.

I love this song. I have very fond memories as a kid linked to it and enjoy everytime I hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4pg6Jh94Lo

[KevShmev]

Well, while you all fight over who is gonna post what song when, I'll throw another out there:

Bruce Hornsby & the Range - Mandolin Rain

Another one of the hits from their debut album, I have always liked this song a lot.  It has catchy, memorable melodies all over the place, and Hornsby's distinctive piano playing is great as always.

[Orbert]

Yep, another winner from Bruce and Company.

[jingle.boy]

One of the few piano-men that made hay with a purely piano-led melody.  Loved both their radio hits.

[KevShmev]

U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

This song was a grower for me.  I liked it when I first heard it, but I didn't love it.  However, the more MTV played it, the more I liked it, and before I knew it, I was loving it to death.  And I still do.  I do still chuckle at Edge strumming an acoustic guitar the whole video, when his electric guitar lead is such an important part of the song.  But given the nature of the video, them wandering around the streets of Vegas, having him strum an acoustic, rather than playing his electric lead, goes along with the laid back feel of the video.

[masterthes]

One of my favorites from them

[DebraKadabra]

Bruce Hornsby & the Range - Mandolin Rain

Good song is VERY good.

U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I didn't like this one at first either - but it grew and now I dig it.

[KevShmev]

White Lion - When the Children Cry

This song fitted in perfectly with much of the other music that was so popular on MTV in the late 80s, but I never liked it.  Even though I liked a fair amount of hair metal at the time, the monster ballads by such bands were usually more miss than hit for me, and this one was definitely a major miss.  I don't remember this band ever having a hard rocking popular tune, so it's almost like they went straight to the monster ballad to get fans, instead of having the few rockers and then busting the ballad out.

[wkiml]

White Lion - When the Children Cry

This song fitted in perfectly with much of the other music that was so popular on MTV in the late 80s, but I never liked it.  Even though I liked a fair amount of hair metal at the time, the monster ballads by such bands were usually more miss than hit for me, and this one was definitely a major miss.  I don't remember this band ever having a hard rocking popular tune, so it's almost like they went straight to the monster ballad to get fans, instead of having the few rockers and then busting the ballad out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXayy0ncwRE   not sure if this came before or after

Edit  Wait was the first single from the album...When the Children Cry was the 3rd

[King Postwhore]

I'm in the other camp. I loved this song.  Vito Bratta was a unique guitarist is a cloned guitarist time.

[jingle.boy]

I'm in the other camp. I loved this song.  Vito Bratta was a unique guitarist is a cloned guitarist time.

This so much.  Loved the band.  Bratta was so under-rated.  I loved power ballads (still do), and this was completely unique, with such a killer solo, but no 'power'.  Loved the tune, loved the message.  One of my favorites.

[Jaq]

The interesting thing about White Lion was that, yes, they had the inevitable ballad as most commercial metal bands did in the 80s-you really couldn't call White Lion glam, they were more a melodic metal band than a flat out LA glam ban-but after that they spent the rest of their career getting heavier and heavier, and generally to the detriment of their success. Go dig up their fourth album Mane Attraction sometime, and listen in particular to Lights and Thunder. It barely sounds like the same band.

Another interesting note is that, despite the common belief at the time, Pride was not their debut. They actually signed with Elektra in 1984, recorded their debut album, which Elektra promptly refused to release. The line up that recorded it fell apart, where the line up we came to know re-recorded it, released it in Japan, and then on a small US label before they got their big break when they got picked up by Atlantic and put out Pride. It also amuses me that among the bands White Lion opened for included AC/DC. These days, bands tour together on largely like minded bills. Back then the pop-metal bands toured with the gritty hard rockers and no one but the idiots who called bands they didn't like posers gave a fuck.

Never really liked this SONG, mind you, but there's some good shit on Pride. All You Need Is Rock and Roll is pretty much the title line sang a few times and Vito Bratta soloing like a boss for the rest of the song. Good shit. 

[BlobVanDam]

Never really liked this SONG, mind you, but there's some good shit on Pride. All You Need Is Rock and Roll is pretty much the title line sang a few times and Vito Bratta soloing like a boss for the rest of the song. Good shit. 

That. Not really a fan of this song. White Lion were soft enough on that album without needing to do a ballad. It's otherwise a solid album though.

[DebraKadabra]

Eh.  Never was a fan of White Lion.  Sorry.

[jingle.boy]

For that, you are a horrible horrible person!

Tastes... why doesn't everyone just have mine?   

[NunoTenniscourt]

I'm in the other camp. I loved this song.  Vito Bratta was a unique guitarist is a cloned guitarist time.

I liked Vito, too, and the solo for "Wait" is outstanding, but I don't believe I would say he was unique. His Eddie Van Halen influence was about as subtle as a kick in the balls, as it was with many other players at the time.

[King Postwhore]

That's true but what makes JP different from all the technical guitarists?  Same goes for Vito during the 80's.

[KevShmev]

Kim Wilde - Kids in America

I remember MTV playing the living crap out of this video in their very early days.  If you watched MTV, you knew this song, bottom line.  And yet it never broke the top 20 in America, becoming another one of those songs that was way more of a MTV darling than a radio one.  Personally, I think it is an okay song, but I have never gone out of my way to listen to it, and on my iTunes 80s playlist, which is around 600 songs, it ain't on it.

[Orbert]

another one of those songs that was way more of a MTV darling than a radio one. 

Yep.  It's not horrible, even kinda catchy, but nothing special.  Kim was kinda cute when she was younger, I guess, and that helped.

[KevShmev]

That helped, for sure, but the song kind of had one of those anthemic choruses, which had to have helped immensely as well.

[KevShmev]

Rush - Subdivisions

I actually remember this video getting heavy airplay on MTV back in 1982, and it plays all of the time on Totally 80s, so it fits in this thread, right?  Oddly, the audio in the video is slightly off, almost like the settings are slightly tweaked the wrong way or something, like it is not as clear as it should be (this is not referencing the original Signals mix either); very strange.  But the video is actually pretty cool, probably the best Rush has ever done (given the time period), and the song is an obvious classic, for obvious reasons, too.

[Orbert]

I wasn't a huge fan of 80's Rush, but I'm slowly coming around, and this was always a good one.  And yeah, pretty good video, for Rush.

[Jaq]

I don't remember the video much-pretty sure if I watched it I'd go "oh yeah"-but I'll just take the time here to ask a question about the song itself.

Show of hands, when you see the title of the song, do you hear "SUBDIVISIONS" as it is in the song?

Because I sure do.   

[King Postwhore]

Jaq, you're kidding me right?!   MTV played that video all the time man!

[Jaq]

If you've read my adventures in this thread, you can probably understand why some things-including videos by one of my favorite bands-might have slipped my memory over the years.