Sheena Easton - Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)

Nine years ago (!), we started an ERV tradition - the posting of the All Hallows Even videos.  We are justifiably proud of the 22 (and counting) clips that we have presented since then, which can be found using the All Hallows Even label to the right and down a bit.

Kicking off 2020 - on October 13th, no less, we'll start with Sheena Easton. Easton grew up in Scotland, and got her big break on the BBC reality show The Big Time, were amateurs showed off their skills (dressmakers, cooks, comedians, etc.) Easton appeared in 1980, as a singer, which eventually led to a recording contract - even though the talent manager on the show (Marion Massey) was quite lukewarm on her.

Easton would go on to become a genuine pop star, with 15 top 40 hits in the U.S. - all but 1 of which were in the 1980s. "Telefone" came out during Eason's early period of success, and went on to hit #9 on the charts, while the Best Kept Secret album reached #33 and went gold.

The video is a campy black and white classic.  While the single was released in August, the LP came out in October, so perhaps that's why they went with a movie monster theme.  Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, Quasimodo, King Kong, and a disembodied hand all make an appearance - making this a great way to kick off our All Hallows Even celebration.

Sheena Easton had continued success throughout the decade, and famously worked with Prince for a time.  She remains active in the industry to the present day.

As an added bonus, we found some behind the scenes footage shot when the video was being made.

Red Rockers - China

Red Rockers was a fascinating band who never quite found their audience.  To be fair, this was at least partly due to their evolving musical style, which seemed to shift almost on a song-by-song basis.

The band formed in New Orleans in 1979 as a punk act, influenced by groups such as The Clash and The Dils.  In fact, Red Rockers (the band) is named after "Red Rockers" (the 1979 Dils' song).   However, after  their first LP (1981's Guns of Revolution), they swung wildly from punk to pop/new wave on 1983's Good as Gold album.  This resulted in a MTV hit with "China," and set off a series of internal conflicts within the band (not to mention alienating their early punk fans).

In spite of some serious MTV airplay, "China" peaked at #53, leaving Red Rockers one hit short of being a one hit wonder.  Internal conflicts and some personnel changes continued through 1985's Schizophrenic Circus, and the band broke up later that year.

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.

Rod Stewart - Infatuation

Unlike most established rock stars, Rod Stewart embraced music videos, and he made several great ones during the 1980s.  Unfortunately, his music was not the strongest during this time (something that even he has admitted in recent years).  Even so, there are a few clips that stand out, and "Infatuation" is foremost among them.

The song comes off Stewart's 1984 Camouflage album.  The LP peaked at #18 in the U.S., while "Infatuation" hit #6.  It is not a terrible song, and is typical of the lightweight, somewhat commercial pop material that Stewart was recording in the 1980s.  However, the video is something else.

The music video was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, who is probably best-known for his 1988 film, The Accused.  Mostly taking place in an apartment complex (as a homage to Hitchcock's Rear Window), the vid features Stewart as a voyeur infatuated with a mobster's girlfriend (played by Kay Lenz).  Character actor Mike Mazurki rounds out the cast as the mobster's enforcer or bodyguard.

Shot primarily in black and white, the storytelling, camera shots, and connection to the song's lyrics made this a truly exceptional video, in your author's opinion.  Several scenes really jump out, including the intro in the pool, the goldfish feeding, and the scenes where Stewart dances in front of the oversized picture of the object of his affection.  And it has Jeff Beck, who brings his sizzling guitar with him.

Stewart would go on to have a long and successful career in the music business, though he did transition to something of a crooner in the 1990s.

Cool trivia fact:  There were two version of the video made.  In the one above, the mobster rides off with the girl.  In the second version, below, Stewart gets the girl (or maybe it is just in his head).

Cool trivia fact #2:  There is a solid interview with actress Kay Lenz at Noblemania.

Lastly, we found a cool making of video with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck, so of course we had to include that too:

Greg Kihn Band - Reunited

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.

Britny Fox - Girlschool

By 1988, as pop metal was reaching its zenith, Britny Fox emerged out of the Philadelphia music scene.  Led by lead singer "Dizzy" Dean Davidson, the band came off almost as Cinderella lite, but truth be told, their first album is not half bad.  However, the Cinderella comparisons are not totally off base; several Britny Fox members had played in earlier versions of Cinderella, and the band took both musical and style cues from their more established compatriots.

Britny Fox' self titled debut became one of the best selling first albums of the year, peaking at #39 and going gold.  The first two singles, "Long Way to Love" and "Girlschool" both broke the top 100.  Unfortunately, weaker material, changing tastes and tensions within the band caused Britny Fox to fade from view almost as quickly as they had appeared.  While the members remained in the music industry (to this day, in fact), they have not been able to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

For the blog, we went with the second single, "Girlschool."  This song was the band's biggest hit, reaching #81 in the U.S. and #67 in the U.K.  The video is classic hair metal goodness, with the band ... and lots of girls.  By the way, the lead actress is Kim Anderson, who did a bunch of rock videos in the 1980s.

Amazingly, we also found some behind the scenes footage (this seems to be a recurring theme), which we have included for those who are interested.  We have to say, we were struck by how professional the shoot seems ... I'm not sure what we were expecting, but probably not that.

Adam and the Ants - Stand and Deliver

One of the more theatrical bands to come out of the late 1970s punk / new wave movement in the U.K. was Adam and the Ants.  The band started as an art / punk band, evolved more towards glam / new wave, and put out several solid singles (and a bunch of great videos at a time when this was rare).  The band was known for their striking look and soon emerged as one of the leaders of the new romantic movement in Britain.

Interestingly, while Adam and the Ants never charted in the U.S top 100, they had 7 top 10 hits in their native U.K., including two #1s (and yes, "Stand and Deliver" is one of them; "Prince Charming" was the other).  "Stand and Deliver" was the lead single from the third (and final) Adam and the Ants album, Prince Charming, which was released in 1981.

The following year Adam broke up the band, although he continued to work with guitarist Marco Pirroni, and began recording under the name Adam Ant.  [As an aside, this has led to some confusion over whether a song is Adam Ant and or Adam and the Ants, not that it makes a ton of difference.]  Ant continued to have success in the U.K., and even had some U.S. chart successes, helped by MTV.  However, Ant decided to focus on acting after his 1985 album, Vive Le Rock and he effectively left the music industry for the rest of the 1980s.  Subsequently, he continues to sporadically record music (and tour).  Amazingly, we believe that his  more recent efforts (albums in 1990, 1995 and perhaps 2012) are surprisingly good, and worth a listen.

So without further ado, here is the dandy highwayman himself.

More coolness:  a brief making of video for "Stand and Deliver."  Note that we have added a Making of label to the right, for those who are interested.

The Go-Go's - Turn to You

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.

The Call - Let the Day Begin

The Call are another in a long list of bands who were critically acclaimed, but never quite found their audience.  Other artists that would we would place in this category include Marshall Crenshaw and XTC.  Note that the Underrated label to the right captures a bunch of additional bands (or songs) that by all rights should have been bigger than they were.

The Call was led by singer-guitarist Michael Been, and formed in California in the early 1980s.  Critics liked their roots rock sound and sophisticated lyrics, with some referring to The Call as a kind of updated version of The Band.  These comparisons were likely helped by Robbie Robertson appearing on their 1985 album, Reconciled.  Peter Gabriel was also a fan, and guested on the same album.

"Let the Day Begin" from the 1989 LP of the same name was The Call's biggest hit -- it reached #51 on the charts, while the album peaked at #64.  Unfortunately, the band broke up in 1990, when Been left to pursue a solo career.  The Call then re-formed in 1997 but broke up for good in 2000.

Sadly, Michael Been died of a heart attack in 2010, while working as a sound tech for his son's band (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club).

Note that The Call's "When the Walls Came Down" was posted on ERV in June 2014.

Update [July 2021]: We found a cool behind the scenes video for the making of "Let the Day Begin," and have added it to the post.