The Outfield - My Paradise

The 1980s musical equivalent of a sunny summer day, The Outfield recorded a bunch of bright power pop gems, but somehow never became big stars.  While their first LP broke the top 10, they quickly fell out of favor, something that baffled us at the time (and ever since).  We suppose that there is no small amount of luck involved in success, and the group was not the flashiest, but they truly deserved a better fate.

Long time readers may recall that we featured the group's "Say It Isn't So" on ERV back in 2014.  That song was one of four singles off the Play Deep LP that did receive some airplay during the band's all-too-brief period of major success (primarily 1986).

For the blog we had several good options, and finally decided on 1989's "My Paradise." This song was the second single off the Voices of Babylon album (after the title track).  We don't recall seeing the video back in the day, and the single stalled at #72 on the charts.  To our ear though, this is a power pop gem. 

The Outfield continued recording through the early 1990s, but were absent from the industry from most of the rest of that decade.  They became more visible in the 2000s, but officially broke up when guitarist (and primary song writer) John Spinks died in 2014.  Sadly, lead singer/bassist Tony Lewis has also died (in 2020). 

Icehouse - Crazy

"Man of Colours" was Icehouse's fifth album; the band dates back to 1977, and began as a pub rock group from Sydney, Australia.  The group was originally called Flowers, but changed their name in 1981 (after signing with Chrysalis) to avoid legal issues, as there was a signed Scottish band with the same name.  Icehouse was chosen as it was the name of Flower's debut album in Australia, which in turn was named after a song, inspired by frontman Iva Davies' flat (apparently the building was cold and in a dodgy part of town).

Speaking of Iva Davies, it is worth pointing out that Icehouse really was his band, as he was the lead singer and songwriter for Icehouse.  (He also played keyboards and guitars on their studio recordings).  The other members of the band tended to turn over every few years (with a few exceptions).  [This explains why both videos below feature Iva so much.]

As with many Australian bands, they were much bigger in their home market than they were abroad.  Icehouse had 18 top 40 hits in their homeland between 1980 and 1990; in contrast they had 2 in the U.S. -- "Crazy" (which hit #14) and "Electric Blue" (Co-written by John Oats of Hall & Oats, which peaked at #7).  By the way, "Electric Blue" was their only #1 in Australia, although "Crazy" did hit #3.  While the band's success diminished after 1990, they have remained active to this date.

Lastly, it is worth noting that the band shot two videos for the song -- the first version was the Australian music video, directed by Mark Joffe:

The second version is the U.S./International version directed by John Jopson.  If that name is familiar, it is because Jopson directed a ton of videos in the 1980s, including songs by the Hooters, Poison, Choirboys, the Outfield and John Waite:

Henry Lee Summer - I Wish I Had a Girl

Indiana born Henry Lee Summer (born Henry Lee Swartz) was not an overnight success story.  Self-taught on guitar, piano and drums, he was a working musician from the late 1970s on, and released a few demo singles, and even two full albums before being signed by Epic records in 1988.  Summer then had a brief period of real success, with 5 songs that charted between 1988 - 91, including 2 top 40 hits.

"I Wish I Had a Girl" was his first hit, and rose to #20 on the Billboard charts (and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Charts).  The song was actually written and recorded in 1985, but was re-recorded for his major label debut.

As for the video ... well, it is chock full of mullety (is that a word?), acid wash late 1980s goodness.  Henry Lee seems to be harassing every young woman who walks down the street.  My favorite is the bicycle singing harassment, which cannot be an easy thing to do.

As his success waned, Summer wrote songs for a few soundtracks (Sniper and Striking Distance) before fading from view.  He was back in the news a few times between 2005 - 10 for drug-related issues, but seems to have cleaned up as of this writing.