Divinyls - Pleasure and Pain

"Pleasure and Pain" is the second Divinyls video to show up on ERV; "Boys in Town" was posted back in July 2012, shortly before the untimely death of lead singer Chrissy Amphlett.  We view Divinyls as a unique and underrated band who were likely hurt by their hard to categorize sound that managed to combine rock, new wave, and pop elements all at once.

Interestingly, "Pleasure and Pain" was not the lead single off their 1985 What a Life! LP.  It was actually the fourth single released - perhaps because it was not written by the band.  The song was actually co-written by producer Mike Chapman and 1980s songwriter extraordinaire Holly Knight.  (Knight has shown up on the blog before; click on her name in the labels section for more info.)

I remember "Pleasure and Pain" picking up a fair bit of airplay on Boston rock radio when it came out, but the song only reached #76 on the charts, while the What a Life! album peaked at #91.  To be fair, the band did become stars in their native Australia, but it did seem like they never really broke through in the U.S. in the 1980s. (Although "I Touch Myself" did become a big hit in 1991.)

The energetic video featuring Chrissy Amphlett was filmed in the closed Balmain power plant in Sydney, Australia.  In our view it suits the song pretty well:

In addition to the vid, we also found a cool making of video, showing the somewhat boring hard work that went in to making music videos during MTV's heyday.

Animotion - Obsession

We continue our series of songs that you didn't know were covers with Animotion's 1985 hit, "Obsession."  This song was originally written by Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight (more on them in a moment).

Animotion was a San Francisco-based band that was mainly comprised of former members of the Sci-Fi rock band Red Zone.  The six member band was also notable for having co-lead singers -- Astrid Plane and Bill Wadhams.  Their 1985 self-titled debut LP reached #28 on the charts, led by "Obsession," which would go on to become a #6 hit for them.  Unfortunately, lineup changes and weaker material would hurt the band, though they did release three major label albums before their 1989 break up.

The video for "Obsession" is a nice set up for our forthcoming All Hallows Even celebration; it looks like a cool mid-1980s costume party in California.  MTV loved the vid and it went into heavy rotation for quite some time in 1985, which no doubt helped the song.

As previously mentioned, the original version was written and performed by Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight and was featured in the 1983 movie A Night in Heaven.  By the by, Holly Knight has been previously mentioned on ERV (we now have a tag for her) as a big time songwriter.  There is more on her on the posts for John Waite's "Change" and  Lou Gramm's "Just Between You and Me" ... and yes, she wrote both of those songs too.

Cool trivia fact:  Animotion is not a one hit wonder, as 1985's "Let Him Go" (#39) and 1989's "Room to Move" (#9) both broke the top 40.

Lou Gramm - Just Between You and Me

Lou Gramm (born Lou Grammatico) became famous as the voice behind Foreigner, who were massively successful during the late 1970s and early 1980s.  However, the creative tension between Gramm (who wanted the band to continue with the straight-ahead rock sound that made them stars) and guitarist Mick Jones (who was pushing for more ballets and new wave inspired keyboards) began to tear the band apart in the mid-1980s.

As a result (stop us if this sounds familiar), Gramm released a solo album in 1987 (Ready or Not).  The LP peaked at #27 and the single "Midnight Blue" broke the top 10. While Gramm returned to Foreigner to work on their next album (Inside Information), the writing was on the wall, and Gramm left Foreigner after his second solo album came out, 1989's Long Hard Look.  (To be fair, Gramm did rejoin the band in the 1990s, but the second iteration did not have much success).

Long Hard Look yielded two top 40 hits, "True Blue Love" (which peaked at #40) and "Just Between You and Me," which hit #6.  "Just Between You and Me" was co-written by the superb hired-gun songwriter Holly Knight (there is more on her on the post for John Waite's "Change," which she also co-wrote.)  The nicely done black and white video intersperses Gramm with a nice young couple who seem to be acting out the song's lyrics.

Gramm would go on to have a major health scare (a benign brain tumor) in 1997; while he survived, the resulting treatment impacted his weight and voice.  However, he seems to be doing well, and continues to perform.

By the way, "Midnight Blue" was posted on ERV in May 2014.

John Waite - Change

In 1982, John Waite released Ignition, his first solo album after he left The Babys (who did some really solid work in the mid to late 70s).  Produced by Neil Giraldo, Pat Benatar's guitarist/husband, the album peaked at #68 in the US charts.  It also yielded one great video -- "Change," an early story video, and a good one at that.

Waite would go on to have huge success with his next album, 1984's No Brakes, which would include the #1 hit "Missing You" and the solid but underrated "Restless Heart."  Cool trivia fact:  In the music video for "Missing You," there is a scene where a group of people are pointing to a building (around 1:17), a clear reference to the "Change" video.

"Change" was written by star songwriter Holly Knight.  Never heard of her?  She wrote:  Aerosmith's "Rag Doll," Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield," Lou Gramm's "Just Between You and Me" (love that song), Scandal's "The Warrior," Animotion's "Obsession," and Tina Turner's "Better Be Good to Me," among others.  Impressive, yo.

Cool trivia fact #2: The song "Change" charted, but not in 1982.  In spite of a bunch of airplay on MTV, the song did not break the top 200.  However, it was included on the soundtrack of Vision Quest in 1985, re-released as a single, and peaked at #50.

Cool trivia fact #3:  Tina Gullickson is the actress featured in "Change."  Although she never became a huge star, she has had a successful career as a model/actress/singer.  She is currently a singer in the Coral Reefer Band (Jimmy Buffet's backup band).

[March 2015 update].  So it turns out that Holly Knight wrote this song for her band, Spider and it came out on their 1981 LP, Between the Lines.  For those keeping score at home, that makes "Change" a cover, and of course we tracked down the original (below).