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.
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).
The Cleveland-based Michael Stanley Band is yet another group that made some great music, but never quite broke out at the national level. They did, however, achieve no small measure of success in the Midwest during the 1970s and early 80s, due to their solid, if somewhat mainstream rock sound.
Ironically, 1980 found the band at an ebb in their career, as their label (Arista) dropped them. With no other label showing any interest in them, the MSB recorded their own album, 1980's Heartland, without any outside interference. Eventually, EMI heard the record, and signed the band to a four record contract.
"He Can't Love You" was the first single off Heartland and broke the top 40 (peaking at #33). The band was no doubt helped by MTV, which played the song on their first day (the 45th video ever played on the fledgling channel). Unfortunately, success proved elusive for the band, and they finally called it quits in 1986, after a series of farewell concerts in Ohio.
Cool trivia fact: The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, played the sax on the studio recording (sadly, he does not appear in the video).
Note that the MSB's last top 40 single, "My Town," was posted on ERV in November 2014.
The poor man's Honeymoon Suite (or is it the other way around), Helix showed up on the music scene in the early 1980s, and had a few minor hits here and there during the decade. This hard-working Canadian band was formed in 1974, but it took years to secure a coveted record contract. And although their period of modest commercial success was all too brief (roughly 1983-87), the band has continued to work, more or less continuously, to this day.
"Deep Cuts the Knife" was the lead single off their 1985 album, Long Way to Heaven, and peaked at #20 on the Mainstream Rock charts, while the album did not break the Billboard top 100. The song is a surprisingly strong rock ballad that was combined with a polished video, but somehow it did not really connect with its intended audience. Given the popularity of hard rock during this time, it is surprising that Helix did not enjoy more success, but such are the whims of fate.
Cool trivia fact: Helix opened the tour to support this album in Sweden, where they were the first Canadian band to extensively tour the country.
Hard to believe that there is a video on here for a song that hit #5 on the Billboard charts, and from an artist who has written or co-written 11 (!) Billboard #1s, but there you have it. "Dreamtime" is a very solid pop/rock song from half of Hall & Oats (Hall is the blonde guy who sang, if you have to ask). And yes, we think it has been somewhat forgotten in the sands of time.
The song was the first single from Daryl Hall's 1986 solo album, Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine. Unlike Hall & Oats, there is no poppy, blue-eyes soul to be found; if anything, the song has a slightly psychedelic new wave vibe, not unlike Prince's "Raspberry Beret," which came out the previous year.
The video, although slightly pretentious, does compliment the song quite well, with lots of swirling graphics, weird sets, and seemingly random scene fades. Ok, maybe there is just a bit too much Daryl Hall in the video, but it is his (second) solo album, you can't really blame the guy too much for that.
Cool trivia fact; Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics) plays guitar on the song.
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.
In the aftermath of License to Ill, many fans and critics thought that the Beastie Boys would turn out to be a one album wonder. After all, the rock/rap album was the first hip hop LP to hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and it went on to sell 9 million units. Furthermore, the band had a contentious falling out with Def Jam Records and Rick Rubin, their co-songwriter/producer.
After relocating to California, the Beasties decided to work with the Dust Brothers production team, and released Paul's Boutique in 1989. Although critically acclaimed, the album landed with a decided thud. Hip hop fans had never heard anything like it and had no idea what to make of it. Sales were disappointing, the label stopped promoting it and MTV did not aggressively show the videos.
But gradually, fans saw the genius in the record. Rarely is a record way ahead of its time, but Paul's Boutique could easily be considered such an album. It is now widely viewed as one of the greatest hip hop albums ever and one of the strongest albums (of any genre) of the 1980s. Rolling Stone ranks it as the 125th greatest album ever.
The album is so textured and varied that no one song can really do it justice, but "Shadrach" comes close -- partly because the video seems to capture the vibe of the album. (Several critics have observed that Paul's Boutique sounds almost painted with samples.) The song's title comes from a story in the Book of Daniel, but is also used in an old Sly Stone song, "Loose Booty," which is sampled (along with 8 other old funk and rock songs, most of them sampled so cleverly that they are hard to pick up at first.)
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.
Another band that had a terrible time with the business end of the music business was The Monroes. The band was founded in San Diego in the early 1980s, and signed to Alfa, a small Japanese label. The first single off their self-titled EP was the catchy new wave/pop song, "What Do All the People Know."
In 1982, the song moved up the charts, eventually peaking at #59. The band had a hit single, was touring and working to promote it with an album surely to follow when ... Alfa exited the U.S. market. The loss of their label was catastrophic for the band, as it meant no support for the EP and no money for an album. Although The Monroes soldiered on for a few years, they did not get another break, and ended up as an unfortunate one hit wonder.
Cool follow up: This clip is from The Monroes appearance on the Merv Griffin Show in 1982. We heard from Tony Ortiz (the lead singer of the band), who informed us that the earlier video is not The Monroes at all (go figure -- something not accurate on the internet!) We believe that the band had problems producing a video for the song, what with the record label shutting down and all. Anyhow, Tony asked us to put up a real clip of the band (and when Tony Monroe asks you to do something, you do it!)
So this one goes out to Tony, with my thanks for the great song.
Haircut One Hundred. Just the name brings us back to early 1982 MTV, when the station was new and fresh and they played a bunch of cool, slightly off-the-beaten-trail bands.
Technically a one-hit wonder (their first single, "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)" did not chart in spite of heavy airplay on the aforementioned channel), the band nevertheless emerged as one of the biggest pop/new wave stars of 1982. This was during the "nonthreatening English pop/new wave era" that included ABC, A Flock of Seagulls, Thomas Dolby, and Thompson Twins, among many others.
Interestingly, Haircut's first album, 1982's Pelican West did not chart in the U.S., but peaked at #2 in the U.K. (where it went platinum). However, "Love Plus One" managed to break into the American top 40 at #37. Ultra light and breezy, the singles (and videos) are still remarkably catchy, in a "Walking on Sunshine" kind of way.
With their new found success, the band fell apart almost immediately, as Nick Heyward (the songwriter, singer and guitarist for Haircut One Hundred) left to start a solo career. While he did have a few minor hits in the U.K., he was basically never heard from again on this side of the Atlantic, and Haircut One Hundred slowly faded away ... until now.
I know, I know. Prince on a rare 80s video blog? I mean the dude dominated the 1980s (along with Madonna and Michael Jackson). But wait; hear me out.
While Prince did indeed become a massive star, starting with 1982's 1999, he was no overnight success. In fact, 1999 was his fifth studio album; two of which were released in the late 1970s!! And as would be expected from a prolific, slightly insane musician who later became an unpronounceable symbol, there is some really good stuff on his early albums that did not receive the airplay that it deserved. Although it took us a while to warm up to Prince, we have to say that he produced one of the broadest and most interesting bodies of work of any artist of the past few decades. In particular, his ability to fuse rock, pop, R&B and funk was unparalleled.
"Controversy," the title cut from his 1981 album is a great case in point. This is the album that immediately preceded 1999, and it shows an artist at the top of his game. The song itself is a catchy new wave funk song that was ahead of its time. One interesting point: the video is the edited single version of the song. The album version is almost twice as long, and contains the Lord's Prayer (in full), which went over with religious conservatives about as well as you would think. To be fair, Prince and his band also went over with religious conservatives ... well, you get the idea.
Ladies and gentlemen, for your audio and video pleasure ... His Purpleness.
Note that Prince's "Dirty Mind" was also featured on ERV, in March 2012, and "Uptown" was posted on ERV in January, 2015.
