The Gap Band - Party Train

Originally called the Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band, after their neighborhood in Tulsa, the Gap Band produced some of the catchiest funk this side of Rick James.  The band was centered around three brothers -- Charlie, Ronnie and Robert Wilson, who started playing music in the late 1960s.  They eventually moved to LA, and released their first album in 1974.  However, it wasn't until the early 1980s that the band really took off.

"Party Train" is from 1983's Gap Band 5: Jammin', the last of 4 straight gold or platinum albums for the band. While the song peaked at #3 on the R&B charts, it surprisingly did not break the top 100 on the Billboard pop charts.  The album peaked at #28, although it did hit #2 on the R&B album charts.

The video is classic Gap Band -- flashy, exuberant and fun.  Yes, the Wilsons loved their cowboy hats and boots (they were, after all, from Tulsa).  However, the video is just a crazy, funky California beach scene.  With the exception of Charlie Wilson's ill-advised (really small) bathing suit, this clip is a winner.  And there is even dancing with roller skates (briefly, around 4:37).

Although the Gap Band's popularity declined after the 1980s, they continued to perform until Robert Wilson's untimely death from a heart attack in 2010.

A rarer Gap Band classic, "Burn Rubber on Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me)" was posted on ERV in January 2014.

Joan Armatrading - Drop the Pilot

Joan Armatrading is yet another artist who should have had more American success, but never quite found her audience.  In some ways this is understandable, as her music is eclectic and a bit hard to categorize.  However, she is a really solid singer/songwriter and well worth a listen.

Armatrading was born in Saint Kitts, but her family moved to Birmingham (UK) when she was young.  John Peel (the famous UK disc jockey) became a fan early on, and was a supporter of hers throughout her career.  While Armatrading is a bit of a cult figure in the U.S., she had a successful career in Britain, with 14 charting singles between 1976 and 1992.

"Drop the Pilot" from 1983's The Key was her biggest U.S. hit, peaking at #78, while the LP hit #32.  The video is a wonderful combination of a performance and an old movie, with the old Purple Rose of Cairo trick thrown in.  (Yes, we know that Purple Rose of Cairo came out 2 years after this video.)  Additionally, "Drop the Pilot" is representative of Armatrading's work in that it contains elements from multiple musical styles.

For readers who are interested in checking out other songs, we recommend "I Love It When You Call Me Names," "Love and Affection," and "Me Myself I."

Hyts - Backstabber

Here at ERV, we realize that there is a wide range of videos that could be considered rare, and we try to run the gamut.  In fact we even put some not-so-rare stuff up occasionally (the cover songs, for instance).  However, there can be little doubt that "Backstabber" is rare by any definition, and we suspect that most of our readers have never heard of the band or the song.

Hyts were a foursome out of California who signed to Gold Mountain Records in the early 1980s.  The band was made up of Pat Little (lead vocals, guitars), Stan Miller (bass), Tommy Thompson (keyboard, guitar) and Roy Garcia (drums).  Their self-titled debut album was released in 1983, and had a minor hit, "Backstabber" that reached #48 on the rock charts (it did not chart in the Hot 100).

The video is something else.  A "Psycho" inspired schlockfest, complete with a lead singer singing in the shower, dancing skeletons, and dancers who transform into mother (complete with knives) ... it really has to be seen to be believed.  Oh, and did we mention that the guitarist and bass player have matching outfits?  [We also love the video clip that it comes from, as it starts with a promo for a Duran Duran concert ... cool, old MTV].

At any rate, Hyts went on tour to support the record, but had to stop when drummer Roy Garcia was injured (he fell off the stage).  The follow up record (Looking From The Outside) was delayed by the label, and when it was finally released in 1986, it did not sell well.  The band was subsequently dropped by the label and faded from view ... until now.

The Romantics - One in a Million

The Romantics (named because the band formed on Valentine's Day 1977) were a Detroit-based power pop band with clear British Invasion influences.  Although they are best known for their 1980 hit "What I Like About You," it was not their biggest hit.  Instead, 1983's "Talking in Your Sleep" from the In Heat album takes that honor, as it reached #3 on the Billboard charts.

The third single from In Heat is "One in a Million," a solid song with a wonderfully campy video.  Set it some strange alternate 1950's sexy universe, the video does highlight the Romantics sense of style.  Although somewhat hard to describe, we would characterize the band's style as 1950s meets Road Warrior, with extra leather thrown in, to boot.

As is all too common a refrain on this blog, the band was unable to hold it together after In Heat, and drummer Jimmy Marinos left prior to 1985's Rhythm Romance.  While the band continued to work, they did not release another album until the web-released 61/49 in 2003.

Cool trivia fact:  Clem Burke (of Blondie fame) was The Romantics official drummer for most of the 1990s.

Huey Lewis and the News - Heart and Soul

The second of our "songs that remind us of Halloween in a subtle, non-"Thriller" sort of way."  "Heart and Soul" was Huey Lewis and the News' big breakout; it reached #8 on the charts and launched their career.  It was the first single from 1983's Sports, which became a #1 album, and the second biggest album of 1984, only trailing a little album that you might have heard of called Thriller.

The video is basically Huey and the band at a cool Halloween party in San Francisco, in 1983.  We're not really sure what the video has to do with the song, but hey, MTV liked it and put it in heavy rotation, and the rest is history.  Cool trivia fact:  the actress in the video is Signy Coleman, who would go on to become a regular on The Young and the Restless, and is also the lead in the "I Want a New Drug" video.

Now for some extra coolness -- this song is a cover.  This will relaunch the "songs that you didn't know were covers" section of the blog -- note that the second post ever (Pat Benatar's "You Better Run") also fits in that category.  Expect some more in due course.  At any rate, the original version was done by Exile (of "Kiss You All Over" fame) in 1981, and it actually charted (#102).  For those who are interested, a link to the song is below:

Note that "Workin' For A Livin'," "Some of My Lies Are True" and "Doing It All For My Baby" have also been posted to ERV.

The Plimsouls - A Million Miles Away

Formed in 1978 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Case, the LA-based Plimsouls had developed a strong local following by the early 1980s.  Their sound was a striking blend of new wave and pop, with some punk influences thrown in, and had caught the attention of folks at KROQ (the big LA rock station).

The Plimsoul's big break came when their song "A Million Miles Away" was used in the movie Valley Girl.  In fact, the band actually performs in a scene in the movie.  Surprisingly, Valley Girl became a modest hit, and interest in the band soared.  This coincided with the recording of their second album, 1983's Everywhere at Once, which should have been great, but ... the recording sessions went quite badly, and Case broke The Plimsouls up in order to go solo.  Although Case has generated some amount of critical acclaim through the years, he never quite found his audience, leaving him (and The Plimsouls) as a one hit wonder.

Cool trivia fact:  Peter Case's previous band, The Nerves, wrote and recorded the original version of "Hanging on the Telephone" in 1976, which was covered by Blondie (and became a hit for them in 1978).

Martin Briley - The Salt in My Tears

Just a perfect video for ERV -- a rare video of a rare, good song.  From Briley's second solo album, 1983's One Night With a Stranger.  "The Salt in My Tears" is also Briley's only charting single (it hit #36 on Billboard in the summer of 1983), making him an official one hit wonder.

Although relatively simple, the video is fun and does seem to reflect the song reasonably well.  While Briley's solo career was somewhat brief (1981 - 1985) he found success as a studio and touring musician  and songwriter.  Briley worked with Ian Hunter, Céline Dion and Julian Lennon, and wrote songs that were recorded by Céline Dion,  Kenny Loggins, Pat Benatar, Jeff Healey, and Night Ranger among others.

Cool trivia fact:  Briley was recovering from food poisoning at the time of the shoot, explaining why he doesn't really move around much in the video.  However, we have no idea what is up with the hat -- he also wears it on the second video from the album, so maybe is was his idea of a fashion statement.

Cool trivia fact #2:  Briley also contributed a song to the soundtrack of the 1984 classic movie, Body Rock.

R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe

Yesterday (September 21, 2011), R.E.M. decided to call it quits as a band.  Although the band had some great successes in the 1990s, we think of them as the prototypical 1980s college rock band.  In fact, they were hugely influential in defining the category.  With their final act now written, it seemed like a good time to put them on the blog.

Loved by critics, it took the band a while to find its audience.  Though the first four albums all went gold, none broke the top 20, and it took until 1987's Document for R.E.M. to have a platinum album.  Similarly, while their videos were shown on MTV, their sound was too alternative, and the videos too strange to go into heavy rotation for most of the 80s.

We chose their first single, "Radio Free Europe" as their representative here.  Originally recorded in 1981, the video uses the 1983 I.R.S. version of the song.  Many critics, including your humble author, prefer the original version, which is faster, less polished, and just sounds more R.E.M.-ish.  In fact, on their 1988 compilation album, Eponymous, they went back to the original version, with the comment, "Mike [Mills, bass player] and Jefferson [Holt, the band's manager] think this one crushes the other one like a grape."

While Michael Stipe's lyrics can be challenging to understand under the best of circumstances, he intentionally garbled "Radio Free Europe," going more for a cool sound that any meaning.  In a later interview, Stipe confirmed that the lyrics are "complete babbling."

Godspeed, gentlemen, and thanks for the great music.

Also note that "Fall on Me" was posted on ERV in September 2014.

Cool trivia fact: Rolling Stone views Murmur as the 8th greatest album of the 1980s (and at #165 on their list of the greatest albums of all time).

Re-Flex - The Politics of Dancing

Wonderful synth-dance song, and a great video to boot from the one hit wonder Re-Flex.  "The Politics of Dancing" was the lead single from the 1983 album of the same name and hit #24 on the charts, with some help from a ton of airplay on MTV.  Cool trivia fact:  the 12" version of this song was the first extended version of a song by a British band to top the U.S. dance charts.

The band recorded their follow up album, Humanication, in 1984 as a planned 1985 release.  The first single was "How Much Longer," which had an environmentalist message and featured Sting on backing vocals.  The song was released in Germany, but the record label did not like the political nature of the song/album and killed the project.  To this day, the album has never been released, although there are apparently bootleg copies in existence.  Re-Flex released two songs for the Superman IV soundtrack in 1987, but did not release another album (in the 1980s, at least).

Cool trivia fact #2: An early version of Re-Flex featured Phil Gould and Mark King who would go on to form ... Level 42.  Gould, by the way, also played with M ("Pop Muzik").

Update [May 2021], it turns out that Re-Flex made a prior (and rarer) video for "The Politics of Dancing," so we've added it (below):