The worst pop song of the 80s

[KevShmev]

Come On Eileen is one of my all time favorite 80's Pop songs.

 

Fun little pop tune. I love it. 

[TAC]

Corey Hart's lame-o "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night" ("So I can... So I can..."  Mofo, please.)

I boycott!

That song is badass.   

Kade, WTF??
That was literally the gayest song of the 80's until Winger came out.

[KevShmev]

Corey Hart's lame-o "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night" ("So I can... So I can..."  Mofo, please.)

I boycott!

That song is badass.   

Kade, WTF??
That was literally the gayest song of the 80's until Winger came out.

*ahem*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgZ7gMze7A

[TAC]

Yeah, but that was gay on purpose!

[wolfking]

Corey Hart's lame-o "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night" ("So I can... So I can..."  Mofo, please.)

I boycott!

That song is badass.   

Kade, WTF??
That was literally the gayest song of the 80's until Winger came out.

I know it's not the greatest song in the world, and is an ultimate cheesefest, but I can see why it was popular.  Maybe badass is a stretch, but I'll admit, I don't mind it.

[KevShmev]

Yeah, but that was gay on purpose!

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

[TAC]

Kev, you got something you want to tell us?

[KevShmev]

Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing?

[TAC]

[Dublagent66]

Warrant - Cherry Pie...because everything else is mostly forgivable. 

[rumborak]

Yeah, but that was gay on purpose!

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

Early 90s, but hey, if you remember this tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_UXvcr22rM

[Stadler]

Corey Hart's lame-o "I Wear My Sunglasses At Night" ("So I can... So I can..."  Mofo, please.)

I boycott!

That song is badass.   

Kade, WTF??
That was literally the gayest song of the 80's until Winger came out.

*ahem*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgZ7gMze7A

Dudes, come on.  You guys are better than that.  I expected much more.  So much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvl2aqIyNg

[masterthes]

I always thought the title of that song should be "Come On, Eileen".  It's a request.

"Come On Eileen" sounds like something one might do, under certain circumstances.

That's because it's exactly what the goal of the song was. It's supposed to be a double entendre

[Orbert]

Ah.  In that case, well done!

[TAC]

Dudes, come on.  You guys are better than that.  I expected much more.  So much more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvl2aqIyNg

That video was horrendous then. It's worse now.

[KevShmev]

But the song is really good! I know some can't past the video, but I can. Rock Me Tonite is a helluva good song!!

[Orbert]

It's actually a sad but true story.  The song Rock Me Tonight was already a hit, Billy Squier was hot as hell, this was the first single from his new album.  MTV promoted the World Premiere of the video for it, promoted the hell out of it actually, before the video had even been made.  Billy fired the first two directors, who both had shiity ideas, and this is what the third one came up with.  With pressure on to just make the damned video, and people saying "Come on, man, it doesn't matter; the song is great!" he caved and okayed the video.  Then it debuted, people reacted badly, and the video really did kill the radio star.

Lonely is the Night, The Stroke, Everybody Wants You... I'm sure I'm forgetting a few... then this video dropped, and his career never recovered.

[KevShmev]

I think we've discussed this before, but I think his career would have recovered had he written more good songs.  Sure, it was the 80s where a bad video could crush you, but the purist in me thinks that good music would have made a difference.

[Orbert]

Yeah, it's probably come up before, multiple times even.  Maybe it was the end of his run anyway.  The world will never know.

[dparrott]

I love 80's music. Most of those on the list are pretty decent and have something to like about them I think. 

One I hate is Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy.  The singing in that chorus...ugh.  And of course NKOTB.

[Stadler]

It's actually a sad but true story.  The song Rock Me Tonight was already a hit, Billy Squier was hot as hell, this was the first single from his new album.  MTV promoted the World Premiere of the video for it, promoted the hell out of it actually, before the video had even been made.  Billy fired the first two directors, who both had shiity ideas, and this is what the third one came up with.  With pressure on to just make the damned video, and people saying "Come on, man, it doesn't matter; the song is great!" he caved and okayed the video.  Then it debuted, people reacted badly, and the video really did kill the radio star.

Lonely is the Night, The Stroke, Everybody Wants You... I'm sure I'm forgetting a few... then this video dropped, and his career never recovered.

"The third one":  Kenny Ortega, who some of you dads might know as the genius behind High School Musical (all three).  This is from his wiki page:  "  Ortega directed Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite" video, which is often cited as the worst music promo clip ever made and has been blamed by Squier for killing his career."   Haha, that's certainly a sort of notoriety!

By the way, Billy did an awesome, career spanning interview with Eddie Trunk a couple years ago, and was pretty candid and open about that.  He didn't blame Ortega entirely, and while he did put the creative decisions on Ortega, he was man enough to say "It's still my name, and I let it out the door".  I was pretty impressed. 

[Stadler]

I think we've discussed this before, but I think his career would have recovered had he written more good songs.  Sure, it was the 80s where a bad video could crush you, but the purist in me thinks that good music would have made a difference.

Well, "Don't Say No" was a good album, and tough to live up to, but while the album after Signs of Life (the one with "Rock Me Tonite" on it) wasn't his best (that was "Enough is Enough") the next three - Hear and Now, Creatures of Habit, and To Tell The Truth - are pretty dang solid.   I think, though, that that video exposed his weakness.   He was a good, solid, singer/guitar player/songwriter - ala Bryan Adams - but he was trying to play in a more rock world.   Yeah, it's a cringe-y video, but both Bryan Adams and Michael Bolton (to name two) had things just as cringe-y and survived, and even thrived.

I can remember seeing him in '83, on the Emotions in Motion tour, and he was the headliner, with Def Leppard - Pyromania hadn't quite broke big yet - as the opener.   He played for about an hour and a half - bare minimum if you ask me - and while it was really good, it wasn't a show-stopper like Leppard.  And at the end, during "Rip This Joint" (the Stones song he closed with often) Bobby Chounard, his drummer, came up to the front and Billy was walking behind him like in a conga-line but with his hands on Bobby's hips and sort of miming, well, you know.   Squier isn't gay (I'm pretty sure he's been married for almost 20 years) but it just felt... odd.   I don't mean this in any way as homophobic - Freddie Mercury (who Billy worked with at least twice, and used Queen's producer, Mack) was one of the biggest rock stars in the world at that time - but the vibe was weird.     

[TAC]

Bobby Chouinard was a cool drummer. So tragic.