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.
"Raised on the Radio" is a superb fit for ERV, and is by the Ravyns, a Baltimore-based rock band. The song was originally on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, which led to a recording contract with MCA and a 1984 LP (which also contained the song).
The band then released three videos (including "Raised on the Radio," below) and won the 1985 MTV basement tapes competition with a video for their song "Rhythm of the Heart." Unfortunately, neither the songs nor the album did that well, and MCA dropped the band.
The band broke up in 1985, but continues to sporadically play to the present day.
By the by, the song starts around the 2:00 mark in the video below, for readers who want to skip over the dramatic intro.
Greg Kihn followed up the success of 1983's "Jeopardy" (featured on ERV during our 2013 All Hallows Even extravaganza) with another catchy pop/rock song, "Reunited." Unfortunately, the song and video did not gain traction on our favorite music video channel. In fact, "Reunited" did not break the top 100, while the Kihntagious album stalled at #121.
In retrospect, this is less surprising, as MTV was continuing to look for the next new thing, and Kihn's brand of straight up rock and roll may have seemed too basic. However, "Reunited" is a totally solid song, and the video was an entertaining remake of The Wizard of Oz.
Without MTV's support, Kihn's success waned, although his 1985 LP, Citizen Kihn did reach #51 (led by the #30 single "Lucky"). However, that was his last charting alum. Kihn continued to release albums on a regular basis through the 1990s (releases have been less regular since then), and became a DJ on San Jose's KFOX radio station for 12 years, ending in 2012.
As an extra bonus, we found a short feature on the making of "Reunited"
Cool trivia fact: Joe Satriani was briefly a member of the Greg Kihn Band (in 1986) before he left to embark on a solo career.
"New Girl Now" is another forgotten gem, and the full video contains one of the coolest, eighties-ish intros ever put on tape. The first 38 seconds starts with some guys doing graffiti, when a Delorean pulls up (presumably without the flux capacitor). A blown kiss that turns into candy hearts follows (I just loved that bit), and we cut to the band on stage.
Honeymoon Suite formed in Niagara Falls, Canada in 1981, and went through several lineup changes in the early years, before settling on Johnnie Dee (vocals), Derry Grehan (guitar), Gary Lalonde (bass), Ray Coburn (keyboards) and Dave Betts (drums).
As we mentioned in the "Feel It Again" video (posted last May), "New Girl Now" launched the group's career when they won a battle of the bands on Toronto's Q107 radio station. The self-titled debut album followed in 1984, and "New Girl Now" picked up some airplay. The song eventually reached #57 on the charts, while the album climbed to #62.
Although the band never really broke through in the U.S., they had four charting singles, and one top 40 hit (the previously mentioned "Feel It Again.") They had more success in their native Canada, and were a successful live act; they were the opening band on several big 1980s tours including Billy Idol, Heart and Journey.
The band remains active (with some personnel changes) as of this writing.
A special shout out to Sam on this one. (I hope that you have not seen the full intro with the Delorean).
"Tenderness" started as an English Beat song; when that group broke up in 1983, singers Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger took the tune with them to their new band, General Public. They added Mickey Billingham (keyboards) and Stoker (drums) from Dexys Midnight Runners and Horace Panter (bass) from The Specials to create the first version of General Public. Guitarist Mick Jones, who had recently left The Clash, also worked with the band on their first LP, but left during the recording sessions and would go on to form Big Audio Dynamite (although his guitar tracks were used on "Tenderness.")
General Public's first album, All the Rage was released in 1984 and became a hit, reaching #26 on the charts. "Tenderness" would peak at #27, one of two top 40 hits for the band (more on that in a moment). Sadly, the band's second LP, 1986's Hand to Mouth did not do well (#151) and the lack of success and disagreements over the music direction of the band led to its dissolution.
In 1994, Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger were asked to contribute a song to the Threesome movie soundtrack and decided to re-form General Public (though without any of the other original members). They recorded a cover of The Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There," which became General Public's second top 40 hit (#22) and led to the 1995 Rub It Better album, which did not chart. The group broke up a second time soon afterwards, though Wakeling and Ranking Roger have continued to perform in various projects since then.
As a cool factoid, it turns out that there were two "Tenderness" videos and we have included both of them (of course). The first version (below) is the one that we recall seeing on MTV back in the day.
And below is the rarer version, which includes Dave Wakeling's poor taste in (small) bathing suits (consider yourselves warned):
Van Stephenson had an interesting career as a singer/songwriter, spanning the treacherous waters between country and rock in the 1980s and 1990s. He began his career as a country songwriter, and wrote songs for Crystal Gayle and Kenny Rogers, among others. He also released a solo album in 1981 called China Girl, which did not chart.
In 1984 he released the Righteous Anger LP, a more straightforward pop/rock album, which included his one top 40 hit, "Modern Day Delilah," (#22). The album reached #54 and a second single, "What the Big Girls Do" nearly broke the top 40 at #45. Unfortunately, Stephenson's next album, 1986's Suspicious Heart, did not chart.
As his solo career waned, Stephenson continued his songwriting (often for the country group Restless Heart) before forming the country act Blackhawk with Henry Paul and Dave Robbins in 1992. Blackhawk would go on to have significant success, with four top 25 Country records and 14 top 40 Country singles.
Tragically, Stephenson was diagnosed with cancer in 1999 and passed away in 2001 from the disease. He was 47.
Some bands are just better live. Case in point: Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. While their live shows were the stuff of legend, this never seemed to translate to vinyl. As a result, they were local heroes at the Jersey Shore, but never became household names.
Southside Johnny (John Lyon) began playing in bars in the early 1970s, and was part of the dynamic Asbury Park, NJ music scene, which also included Bruce Springsteen and musicians who eventually became the E Street Band. By 1975, the Jukes lineup had more or less solidified, and included Steven Van Zandt. A recording contract followed, as did a bunch of records, but Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes were never able to really establish themselves, hurt by the long shadow of Springsteen and a lack of standout original material. In fact, many of the group's best-known songs were covers, which bring us to ...
"New Romeo" which was a modest hit for the band in 1984. The song was off their In the Heat album and did generate a bit of radio play at the time, but was not a major success. The album reached #164 on the charts, while the song peaked at #103.
It turns out that "New Romeo" was a cover of an Alex Call song. Who is Alex Call? (glad that you asked). Call was a founding member of the California country rock band Clover, who are best known as the backing band for Elvis Costello's spectacular debut album, My Aim is True. Huey Lewis was also a member of the band for a time. But Call is probably best known for co-writing "867-5309/Jenny" for Tommy Tutone, which was featured on ERV back in June.
The Southside Johnny video is not half bad, and features early appearances by actors Willem Dafoe and Vince Spano:
One of the few rock acts to emerge from Switzerland, Krokus built a successful career with their straight-up version of hard rock. The band formed in Solothurn in the mid-1970s and gradually developed a local following. An AC/DC concert in the late 1970s apparently made a huge impression on the band, and Krokus' music steadily became more anthemic in the 1980s -- a move which coincidentally led to greater international success.
The band's big breakthrough in the U.S. was their 1983 Headhunter LP, which featured "Screaming in the Night." The Road Warrior influenced video went into heavy rotation on MTV, helping the album rise to #25 on the charts. Krokus would go on to release several more moderately successful albums in the mid-1980s before their popularity waned at the end of the decade.
For the blog, we went with "Midnite Maniac" from the band's 1984 album The Blitz. The song is a pop metal gem, while the video contrasts the band's unique style on stage with a retro story line. By the way, is it me, or does the video seems to be heavily influenced by Def Leppard's "Photograph"? You be the judge of that.
"Midnite Maniac" would become the band's first charting single in the U.S. (#71), although a 1986 cover of Alice Cooper's "School's Out" would become Krokus' highest charting single at #67.
Cool trivia fact: Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance co-wrote "Boys Night Out" for The Blitz album (with lead singer Marc Storace and guitarist Fernando von Arb). The Adams/Vallance connection to Krokus was Bruce Fairbairn, who produced The Blitz. Eagle-eyed readers may also recall that Fairbairn got his start with Prism who were featured on ERV in May 2012.
There was always tension in Styx between the theatrical vision of Dennis DeYoung and the rock approach favored by Tommy Shaw, and these differences finally tore the band apart in 1983. After the Kilroy Was Here tour, Shaw left the band and set out on a solo career. Styx released a live LP, and then disbanded for the rest of the 1980s. [We considered including a "Mr. Roboto" joke here, but thought better of it.]
Shaw immediately began work on his first solo album, and Girls With Guns was released in 1984. The title cut reached #33 on the charts, while the album peaked at #50. Unfortunately, Shaw's other albums did not fare as well, with only 1985's What If breaking the Billboard 200 album charts. However, the formation of Damn Yankees (with Night Ranger's Jack Blades, Ted Nugent and drummer Michael Cartellone) led to two top 25 LPs and 2 top 40 singles in the early 1990s.
The video for "Girls With Guns" is a great example of a one shot video -- the entire clip was shot in one continuous take, with no edits.
As a special treat, it turns out that the above video for "Girls With Guns" was not the original. As Shaw explains in the clip below, a more standard video was shot, but discarded. Even better, a short clip of the original video is included in the video below (this starts at 0:22)
Cool trivia fact: While Shaw is an official one hit wonder as a solo artist, he wrote or co-wrote 7 top 40 songs with Styx and Damn Yankees.
Eurogliders were an Australian band that had one minor international hit, although they had much greater success in their homeland. The group formed in Perth in 1980 and were originally called Living Single. By 1981 they had changed their name and secured a recording contract. It is unclear why they chose the name Eurogliders as they were neither (to be fair, lead singer Grace Knight was born in the U.K., but had relocated to Australia by 1977).
The band's big hit was their 1984 single "Heaven (Must Be There)," off their second LP, This Island. I'm not sure how much airplay the song had on radio, but the video was in rotation on MTV for a time. In any event, "Heaven" peaked at #65 in the U.S., while the album stalled at #140. In contrast, our Australian reader(s) may recall that the song reached #2 on the charts there (the album hit #4), one of seven top 40 hits in their homeland.
Eurogliders broke up in 1989. Lead singer Grace Knight went on to have a successful career as a jazz singer and several of the other members remained in the music industry. The band has sporadically re-formed since 2005.
As many readers will know, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook were the main creative force behind the underrated new wave/pop band Squeeze. (By the by, Squeeze was featured on ERV last January with "Another Nail in My Heart.") Squeeze released five solid LPs between 1978 and 1982, broke up, re-formed in 1985 and stayed together until 1999, broke up again, and re-formed again in 2007.
Interestingly, Difford and Tilbrook continued to work together after the first Squeeze break up and actually released an album in 1984, which they creatively called Difford & Tilbrook. The album did not do that well, only reaching #55 on the Billboard charts, which perhaps explains why there wasn't a second Difford and Tilbrook album. Additionally, we do not believe that the "Love's Crashing Waves" single even charted in the U.S. (it did reach #57 in the U.K.).
While the material is still strong, the album's production is definitely blue-eyed soul, influenced by Hall & Oates (as several critics have pointed out). Along the same lines, the duo changed their clothes and Glenn Tilbrook even grew his hair (in retrospect, probably not the best idea; you can judge for yourself in the video below). The new image and sound did not resonate with listeners, and after a successful reunion show in 1985 Squeeze re-formed and stayed together (with some personnel changes) for the next 14 years.
David Paich, Steve Lukather and the Porcaro brothers (Jeff, Steve and Mike) were session musicians whose credits included Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Michael Jackson, Cheap Trick, Peter Frampton and The BeeGees. In 1977, Paich and Jeff Porcaro started to talk about forming their own band, and in short order they put a group together. Supposedly, they wrote Toto on their initial recordings to differentiate themselves from the other bands in the studio and the name eventually stuck.
While Toto's first album was successful, the next two LPs were commercial disappointments. The band's fluid style migrated between pop and arena rock due to the competence and diverse styles of the members, but this was not a recipe for broad commercial success. Toto responded with Toto IV, a crafted pop album that reached #4 and went triple platinum in 1982.
Unfortunately, the band's next album, 1984's Isolation, returned to the arena rock style and did not resonate with their audience (who were expecting more songs like "Rosanna" and "Africa"). Part of the change may have been influenced by a change in vocals, as lead singer Bobby Kimball left the band and was replaced by Dennis "Fergie" Frederiksen.
Ironically, the one hit off Isolation was a song that could have fit in on Toto IV -- "Stranger in Town." This is underscored by David Paich's vocals (he also sang lead on "Africa.") The song was inspired by the 1961 British film Whistle Down the Wind, about a group of schoolchildren who discover an escaped convict and mistake him for ... well, watch the video; you'll see. Helped by some airplay on MTV, the song reached #30 on the charts (one of 9 top 40 hits for the band).
Although the band's popularity faded after the late 1980s, they have more or less remained together to the present day, with some personnel changes (sadly, Jeff Porcaro died in 1992).
Cool trivia fact: "Stranger in Town" was directed by Steve Barron, who also directed Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean, A-Ha's "Take on Me" and Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" and many, many other 1980s videos.
"Going Down to Liverpool" is a rare video and a cover, so it fits onto ERV in two ways. Loyal reader Krista suggested this one a while back, and it seemed like a great fit for the blog.
The Bangles were an all-female pop band from California, and the first version of the band formed in 1980. Several name changes took the band from the Colours to the Supersonic Bangs to just the Bangs. A legal issue forced the final name change, to the Bangles, when their independent label EP was released in 1983.
"Going Down to Liverpool" was off the band's debut LP, 1984's All Over the Place. While the song did receive some radio play, it did not chart -- in fact, the band's first charting single was 1986's "Manic Monday," which hit #2. Interestingly, the original version of "Going Down to Liverpool" was written by Kimberley Rew and recorded by his band, Katrina and the Waves (of "Walking on Sunshine" fame). The song appeared several times on early recordings of theirs and caught the attention of Vicki Peterson and Michael Steele of the Bangles, who decided to put it on their record.
The video features Leonard Nimoy, whose son was a friend of Susanna Hoffs (hence his connection to the band). Hoffs also enlisted her mom, indie film director Tamar Simon Hoffs to direct the video. While the video did not launch the band to stardom (that would come later), it was a solid effort. Of course, the band would have some major success in the mid to late 1980s before breaking up.
We're pretty big fans of the original as well:
Cool trivia fact: Drummer Debbi Peterson sings lead on the Bangles' version, one of only two times that she sang lead for the band (the other time was on "Be With You.")
Note that The Bangles excellent cover of "If She Knew What She Wants" was posted on ERV in December 2014.
In addition, we posted Katrina and the Waves' "Do You Want Crying?" in July 2015.
"Go Insane" came out during a difficult time in Lindsey Buckingham's life. He has recently broken up with his long time girlfriend Carol Ann Harris and his band (Fleetwood Mac) was in the middle of a 5 year break. Perhaps as a result, the album was viewed as somewhat inconsistent by critics, but the better material on it is still quite good, bolstered by Buckingham's studio prowess.
Buckingham's career began in the early 1970s with his folk duo Buckingham Nicks (with then girlfriend Stevie Nicks), but he rose to fame as the guitarist and in-band producer for Fleetwood Mac. While his first LP with Fleetwood Mac was a resounding success, the second one (Rumours) was a blockbuster. Rumours remains the sixth best selling album in the U.S. ever -- it was a epic commercial and critical success.
Unfortunately, the commercial success of Fleetwood Mac did not alleviate the band's problems. In fact, it may have added to the issues. In addition to rampant drug use and breakups, Buckingham felt creatively constrained by the standard pop format, and started exploring more interesting sounds. For Fleetwood Mac, this led to the Tusk LP, and it meant that Buckingham's solo work in the early 1980s was creative and interesting. As is often the case, though, this also led to less commercial success. The Go Insane album peaked at #45, while the single of the same name reached #23.
Buckingham would return to Fleetwood Mac for their 1987 album, Tango in the Night, before leaving the band. He then returned in 1997 and has been with the band since then.
Cool trivia fact: One of the guitarists who replaced Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac was Billy Burnette, whose song "In Just a Heartbeat" was featured on ERV in February 2012.
"Romancing the Stone" wasn't Eddy Grant's biggest U.S. hit, but we love to feature rare videos at ERV, and there is a method to our madness. Anyhow, that's out story and we're sticking to it. Grant, who was born in Guyana (perhaps the only artist on ERV from that country) has had a long and interesting career performing music that combined traditional Caribbean music (calypso, reggae and soca, in particular) with R&B, funk and rock. The result eventually became called ringbang and is closely associated with Grant.
Of course, in addition to his diverse music, Eddy Grant also floated in and out of the charts, particularly in Britain (his family moved to London when he was a child). He had 7 top 40 hits in the U.K. as a solo artist, plus 6 more as the main songwriter of The Equals, who were successful in the U.K. in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Grant is also known for his political lyrics, especially on the topic of apartheid.
American audiences will mostly know Grant for his 1982 hit "Electric Avenue," which went to #2 on the charts. "Romancing the Stone" (written for the movie of the same title) was also a top 40 hit in the U.S., as it reached #26 in 1984. Unfortunately, there seems to have been a dispute with the movie's producers, as the song was not included in the movie (except for the guitar solo) and did not appear on the soundtrack.
As an interesting aside, we would recommend Romancing the Stone (the movie). It is a funny action adventure movie that does not take itself too seriously, and is well cast (Kathleen Turner in her prime, for instance). The backstory to the movie is quite sad, as screenwriter Diane Thomas worked as a waitress for years while developing the script. Her big break came when she pitched the story to a customer (Michael Douglas), which led to major success. Sadly, she was killed in a car accident the following year, and never wrote another screenplay.
Eddy Grant made two videos for the song, as a result of the dispute with the producers. The first video features clips from the movie (and supernatural guitars, as Grant's guitar can apparently transform from a machete and change the weather if a suitcase is thrown at him):
The second video is just Eddy and a corpse (I think). Not sure where this idea came from, but probably not the best.
Face to Face (no relation to the 1990s punk band) was a Boston-based new wave band fronted by lead singer Laurie Sargent. In their heyday, they were often compared to 'Til Tuesday for obvious reasons (Both were Boston-based new wave bands with a female lead singer).
Face to Face's big break came in 1984, and for a brief period it looked like they were on their way to stardom. Their self-titled first album broke into the charts, as did the single "10-9-8." The band's music was also featured in the movie Streets of Fire, which was heavily marketed over the summer of 1984. However, sales of their single and album stalled, and Street of Fire bombed at the box office. Face to Face soldiered on for a few more years, but eventually broke up in 1988.
"10-9-8" peaked at #38, while Face to Face's debut LP reached #127. For those keeping score at home, that does make Face to Face an official one hit wonder. By the way, the video for "10-9-8" is not half bad -- it is something of an artistic performance piece. And for our younger readers, that thing shown around 1:20 is called a payphone, and was used in days of yore (before cell phones).
After the band broke up, Laurie Sargent remained active in the industry, while guitarist Angelo Petraglia became a successful songwriter (mostly roots and country rock).
So what is it like to be the first son of a rock legend? Well ... for Julian Lennon (son of John), it means that a drawing you did as a child became the inspiration for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." And when you were sad during your parents divorce, a band mate of your dad's wrote "Hey Jude" for you. Pretty heady stuff.
It also means that when you decide to become a musician, everything you do will be compared to your dad. Especially when your voice sounds like his and when your first album comes out a few short years after his death.
Welcome to the life of Julian Lennon.
In spite of this, Julian Lennon's first album, Valotte (named after the French château when Lennon had stayed) is a solid effort. It also sold well -- the album reached #17 on the charts and went platinum, spawning 3 top 40 hits -- the title cut (#9), "Too Late for Goodbyes" (#5) and "Say You're Wrong (#21).
Unfortunately, Lennon was not able to duplicate this success. He released three additional albums through 1991, with each LP performing worse than the previous one. Lennon then left the industry for seven years, before releasing Photograph Smile in 1998. When it did not sell particularly well, he again left the industry, and became involved in photography, several internet businesses and charitable work. He has had a somewhat higher profile lately, and released another album in 2011, but has had little commercial success of late.
Cool trivia facts: the videos for "Too Late for Goodbyes" and "Valotte" were directed by Sam Peckinpah, best-known for the 1969 western The Wild Bunch.
Special shout out to eagle-eyed viewer Corky, who pointed out that Martin Briley (featured on ERV in October 2011 for "Salt of My Tears") can be seen on the video at 0:08. Briley was a successful studio musician and played guitar on the studio version of "Too Late for Goodbyes."
Most readers will be familiar with the Go-Go's, the all-female new wave band from California. Best known for being one of the first successful female bands that controlled their music (i.e., wrote their own songs and played their instruments), they emerged on the scene with a hugely successful debut album, 1981's Beauty and the Beat. That LP went double platinum and was the #1 record in the U.S. for six weeks, making it one of the most successful debut albums of all time. Unfortunately, the band only released two other albums in the 1980s before breaking up due to drug use and creative differences.
"Turn to You" was the last of the band's five top 40 hits, reaching #32 on the charts and coming off the Go-Go's final studio album of the decade, 1984's Talk Show. Talk Show is an interesting album -- it received generally positive reviews, and was seen as a return to form after the somewhat disappointing Vacation LP. However, it did not do well from a sales perspective, peaking at #18 and failing to even go gold. In recent years the band has generally avoided playing material from this album in concert, leading some to speculate that the songs are associated with the difficult time around the Go-Go's breakup.
The video is something else, involving lots of early 1960s period details, a young Rob Lowe, the band members dressed as men, and the like. It was the band's first story video and I think they did a solid job with it.
Cool trivia fact: "Turn to You" was written by Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin and was inspired by Caffey's boyfriend at the time, baseball player Bob Welch.
Cool trivia fact #2: The video was directed by Mary Lambert, who directed a ton of 1980s videos, including Janet Jackson's "Nasty" and "Control" and Madonna's "Borderline," "Like a Virgin," "Material Girl," and "Like a Prayer." Lambert then transitioned to feature films; she mainly directs horror movies, including Pet Sematary and Pet Sematary II and most recently, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid.
As a cool added bonus, we found some footage on the making of "Turn to You," which is presented below, for those who are interested.
One of the amazing things about music in the eighties was how diverse it was, something that we try to reflect at ERV. In fact, along with all of the the new bands that came onto the scene, there were quite a few older bands that were still writing good songs -- Queen, Cheap Trick, Nazareth and Roxy Music are already up on the blog, for instance. [Interestingly, it seems to us that many of these "classic rock" bands ran out of steam in the mid-1980s.]
"Do It Again," from the Kinks 1984 LP Word of Mouth was arguably the bands' last great song. It was unarguably the last Kinks song to chart on the Billboard 100, peaking at #41. This made it the 23rd top 100 U.S. single from the band, highlighting a career that spanned 20+ years. While it would be hard to put the Kinks in the same category as the Beatles or the Stones, they have always seemed to be somewhat underrated to me. The band has an extremely strong catalog of songs that should put them in the top tier of rock bands ever ... but somehow they seem to fly a bit under the radar.
At any rate, "Do It Again" is obviously autobiographical and both the song and video come off as nostalgic and perhaps a little bit weary. Given the bands' long history and many ups and downs, it is easy to see where this comes from. Even so, this does not take away from the song, and it remains a solid way to remember the band.
Cool trivia fact: "Do It Again" is also the name of a wonderful documentary, about a newspaper reporter who decided to embark on a quest to convince the Kinks to reunite. The doc gets ERV's highest review -- see it if you get the chance.
Along with Joan Jett, Lita Ford built a successful solo career after the collapse of The Runaways. However, Ford's style was more pop/metal (as contrasted with the punk sensibilities of Jett) and in fact, it was this musical divergence that was the main cause of The Runaways breakup.
In the aftermath of the breakup, Ford took vocal lessons and worked a variety of odd jobs, including gas station attendant, perfume salesperson, fitness instructor and hairdresser (!) before she landed a recording contract. While her first solo LP, Out for Blood (1983), did not chart, her second album, 1984's Dancin' on the Edge, hit #66. We remember seeing "Gotta Let Go" on MTV at the time, but it did not chart in the U.S. (it did break the top 100 in the UK, though).
Of course, Ford is best-known for her 1988 LP, Lita, which yielded two top 20 hits ("Kiss Me Deadly" and "Close My Eyes Forever.") That album broke the top 30 and went platinum in the U.S. While Ford has only had modest success since then, she remains musically active; her last album as of this writing (Living Like a Runaway) was released in May 2012.
"Gotta Let Go" is a fun video that features Ford as a suburban housewife who can magically transform into a leather-clad heavy metal super-heroine with her trusty guitar. Unfortunately, aside from hitting and choking bad guys (who look a lot like The Stray Cats), the guitar has limited special abilities -- no shattering glass or laser beams here. Still, the video gets a solid from us -- good song, fun story and reasonably rare.
The Psychedelic Furs are another in a growing list of under-appreciated bands on ERV; highlighting videos like "The Ghost in You" is one of the reasons why we started the blog. In the Furs case, we think the combination of a relatively short period when they were at the top of their game and a somewhat evolving sound combined to limit their success. However, at their peak (say from 1981-84), they made some of the strongest music of the decade.
The band started in England in 1977 and was formed around the Butler brothers (Richard sang and Tim played bass). Their name was an allusion to a Velvet Underground song "Venus in Furs." Some readers may be surprised at how little commercial success the band had in the U.S., where they are an official one hit wonder. Yes, the Furs only had one top 40 hit ("Heartbreak Beat"), although they did have three other charting singles in the top 60, including "The Ghost in You," which hit #59.
"The Ghost in You" was written by Richard and Tim Butler, and was the second single off the 1984 album Mirror Moves. It is a lush, atmospheric song, with interesting, ambiguous lyrics. The mostly monochromatic video tries to capture the atmosphere, with some success.
Although their 1987 LP, Midnight to Midnight was a commercial success, the band seemed to have lost their way musically -- something that Richard Butler has admitted in recent interviews. The Furs released two additional albums that did not do as well, before breaking up in 1991. Richard and Tim Butler would go on to form Love Spit Love before reforming the Psychedelic Furs in 2001.
