The place for great and not-so-great nearly forgotten videos from the decade of Miami Vice, mullets, and acid wash jeans. All praise to the bands, YouTube, and the original posters of these videos.
The Pretenders video was the 50th Video we have put up at ERV, and we thought that it would be cool to show something different. Think of this as a musical sorbet, to cleanse the palate prior to the next bunch of tasty videos.
This video was shown during MTV's 10th Anniversary Special, a one-hour special that aired on the channel in 1991. As a result, there might be some 90s videos on it, (heavens to Murgatroyd!!) but the clip is dominated by 80s acts. While most of the video clips shown are not rare, a few from this site do slip in.
It took Chrissie Hynde years to find the right fit in a band, but once she did, the results were impressive. Hynde was originally from Ohio, but moved to London in the early 1970s in order to pursue a career in music. After several failed attempts (including early versions of both The Clash and The Damned), Hynde found her band in the Pretenders.
The band was named after The Platters song "The Great Pretender," and found almost immediate success -- their first album hit #9 in the U.S. and was a #1 album in the UK in 1980. Pretenders II followed in late 1981 and hit #10 on the U.S. charts.
"Day After Day" is a rare Pretenders song not written entirely by Hynde (guitarist James Honeyman-Scott co-wrote it). The song was never released as a single, but the band did release a video (of course), which went into heavy rotation on my favorite video music channel. The song is classic Pretenders, mixing pop, new wave and punk into something greater than the sum of its parts. This is a band at the top of their game.
Unfortunately, drugs would soon destroy the first incarnation of the band. Bassist Pete Frandon was kicked out of the Pretenders in June 1982 due to drug use, and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died days later of cocaine intolerance. Farndon subsequently drowned in 1983, after taking heroin in a bathtub and passing out. Hynde soldiered on, but to our ears was never quite able to fully re-capture the magic of the first version of the band.
Note that "2000 Miles" was posted at ERV in December, 2012.
By 1984, the relationship between Steve Perry and the rest of the Journey had become strained, so Perry did what all 80s lead singers did under similar circumstances: he released a solo album. Street Talk went on to become an enormous success, selling more than two million units and peaking at #12 on the charts. Four songs broke the top 40, including "Oh Sherrie," which hit #3.
"Strung Out" was the fourth single from Street Talk, and it charted (at #40), before fading into relative obscurity (until now, that is). The video was shot after "Oh Sherrie," but plays like a slightly amusing prequel (for those who are not familiar with "Oh Sherrie," just watch them back-to-back).
While "Strung Out" is admittedly pretty basic (i.e., commercial), we have always had a soft spot for it (call it a guilty pleasure). It is, we think, a catchy, well crafted song.
After Street Talk, Perry waivered over whether to leave Journey, and actually started work on a follow up album, tentatively called Against the Wall. Eventually, Perry returned to Journey and sang on 1987's Raised on Radio, before leaving the band (Perry actually left the industry as well, for seven years). Against the Wall was never finished, but a few of the songs made it on to Perry's 1994 solo album For the Love of Strange Medicine.
Chilliwack's history dates all the way back to 1964. Originally called The Classics, and then The Collectors, the band became Chilliwack in 1970 (!). The band named itself after a town near Vancouver (which in turn is named after a Salishan phrase meaning "going back up").
While the band had no less than 10 songs that charted in the U.S. between 1973 - 1983, they are best known for their 1981 album, Wanna Be a Star, and "My Girl," their biggest single, which peaked at #22 in the U.S. (and was a #1 hit in Canada). While the song may sound like there is a story behind it, Bill Henderson (who wrote it) states that it was a total figment of his imagination.
The band released two albums after Wanna Be a Star, but was unable to generated much momentum, and broke up in 1984.
Special shout out to Steve and Karen, who posted this on their fb pages and spurred us to action. It is great to have old friends who like 80s music.
Cool trivia fact: The second single from Wanna Be a Star, called "I Believe" hit #33 on the U.S. charts, so technically Chilliwack is not a one hit wonder. No, we don't recall ever hearing "I Believe" either.
Here at ERV, we like a good salacious story as much as the next rarely-read blog, especially if it involves music videos from the 1980s that are ... well, rare. So without further ado ...
Feargal Sharkey got his start in the Northern Irish punk band, The Undertones. Best-known for "Teenage Kicks" (a John Peel favorite), the band kicked around during the late 1970s and early 1980s before breaking up in 1983. As an aside, Feargal Sharkey goes on our list of "best rock names ever" with Digney Fignus, Fee Waybill, and Benmont Tench (more on him later).
In 1985, Sharkey released his first solo album, called Feargal Sharkey (ok, so he wasn't the most original chap). He also transitioned from a new wave singer to a pop crooner (and we mean that in the nicest way possible). His first single, "A Good Heart" was a #1 hit in his native UK, and charted in the US (#74).
His second single, "You Little Thief" did not do as well, but it hit #5 in the UK.
Now stay with us, because here is where it gets interesting. Remember Lone Justice (the band just before this posting)? The band that was helped out by Tom Petty? Well, it turns out that Maria McKee (the lead singer of Lone Justice) and Benmont Tench (the guy with the cool name, as promised, who was Tom Petty's keyboard player) ... well, Maria and Benmont were an item for a while. And when they broke up, Maria wrote, "A Good Heart" about it. Perhaps in response to this, Benmont wrote "You Little Thief" about the same breakup. So Feargal Sharkey's first two single were written by ex-lovers about each other. Interesting, no?
Cool trivia fact: the Feargal Sharkey (still love that name) album was produced by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, who was seemingly everywhere in the early to mid 1980s.
LA-based Lone Justice showed up on the music scene in 1985 with their self-titled debut, and were another in a long line of bands briefly viewed as The Next Big Thing.
The band came out the the early 1980s cowpunk scene (yes, there really was a country/punk scene in LA in the early 1980s). With supporters such as Linda Ronstadt and Tom Petty (who wrote "Ways to be Wicked" for the debut album) they were able to land a recording contract with Geffen. The Lone Justice LP received rave reviews and ... basically didn't sell very well. For whatever reason, country rock seemed like a hard sell in the eighties, even though it did well in the 1970s and the 1990s (to this day, in fact). Go figure.
At any rate, most of the band left after the first album, but singer Maria McKee put out a more pop oriented second album the following year (Shelter), which did not do any better. Lone Justice officially broke up soon afterwards.
"Sweet, Sweet Baby" was the second single from the Lone Justice album, and really shows off the radio-friendly country rock sound that by all rights should have been more successful than it was.
"Like Dreamers Do" is a rare, catchy and slightly eccentric pop song that unfairly received only a modicum of airplay. It is by by the Radiators, a hard-working New Orleans band that was the spiritual successor to Little Feat.
The song was from the 1987 album Law of the Fish, which was the band's third album (although the first for major label Epic). Law of the Fish rose to #139 on the Billboard charts, and ushered in the Radiators' brief period as a modestly successful commercial act (the band released two other albums on the Epic label before being dropped in 1990).
In the aftermath of leaving Epic, the band continued to tour and play, and developed a core following of fishheads. The Radiators wrote and performed more than 300 original songs (many never recorded for an album) and also performed over 1,000 covers. Their shows, which included long jam sessions, often ran over three hours. In short, the Radiators became the New Orleans party band of choice. Cool trivia fact: the Radiators' members did not change through the years; the original 1978 lineup remained intact until the band called in quits, in June of 2011.
Although they were only around for a few years, the Pixies had a disproportionate impact on rock and roll. Their sound was a conglomeration of alternative college rock, punk and California surf rock, put together in way that was greater than the sum of the parts. As a result, they laid the groundwork for the grunge/alternative surge of the early 1990s. Bands as varied as Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer, and U2 have all stated that the Pixies had a huge influence on their sound. Kurt Cobain, in fact, stated that "Smells Like Team Spirit" was his attempt to write a Pixies-esque song.
The Pixies formed in Boston in 1986, though "Here Comes Your Man" was from their 1989 Doolittle album (and was never released as a single). Interestingly, this song was written by frontman Black Francis years earlier (when he was 14 or 15), but the band was reluctant to record it, as they viewed the sound as too commercial. Critics have since come to view "Here Comes Your Man" as one of the most melodic and accessible alternative songs ever written.
Unfortunately, the Pixes were not able to hold it together past early 1993, as the tension between Francis and bassist Kim Deal (who would go on to form The Breeders with her sister), tore the band apart.
Cool trivia fact: Rolling Stone ranked Doolittle at #141 on their list of the greatest 500 albums ever.
In the aftermath of The Flirts, please consider Cheap Trick as our apology to you, the (few) readers of this blog. OK, we're just kidding (or are we?)
At any rate, Cheap Trick's "She's Tight" from 1982's One on One album highlights the diversity of eighties music and MTV, as this song came out the same year as "Jukebox" (below) and they may have even been played back to back at some point.
"She's Tight" is your basic sleazy, straight up rock song, complete with semi-ridiculous lyrics and the typical 5-neck guitar in the video. As an aside, this song has some truly great moments, our favorite being Robin Zander singing:
"She spoke ...
I'm on my own, home all alone So I got off the phone"
If that isn't rock and roll, then we don't know what is.
The song peaked at #65, while the album broke the top 40 and went gold. For folks who aren't that familiar with Cheap Trick, they are really worth checking out. Their music is an interesting combination of 60s pop and 70s rock, and they have just a ton of great songs. Their greatest hits are a good place to start, but they have a fair amount of solid, lesser-known songs, some of which may even appear on ERV at a later date.
While there was some great music played on MTV in the early days, the station also played some ... well, not-so-great (or WTF??) music too. High on any list of "what were they thinking" would be The Flirts.
To be fair, The Flirts weren't even really a band -- they were a creation of Bobby Orlando, a New York City based record producer. As a result, the members changed regularly (like every album). Think Menudo, but with pretty young women (for our younger readers, please replace "Menudo" with "Backstreet Boys" above.) Amazingly, they had a minor hit with "Jukebox," off the 1982 album 10 Cents a Dance. The video was played around every ten minutes on MTV for a while, for no apparent reason and no, we are not bitter about that at all.
At any rate, Bobby Orlando then put out a new Flirts album ever 2 weeks or so for most of the eighties, but sadly (yes, that is sarcasm) did not hit it big again.
