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.
Chilliwack's history dates all the way back to 1964. Originally called The Classics, and then The Collectors, the band became Chilliwack in 1970 (!). The band named itself after a town near Vancouver (which in turn is named after a Salishan phrase meaning "going back up").
While the band had no less than 10 songs that charted in the U.S. between 1973 - 1983, they are best known for their 1981 album, Wanna Be a Star, and "My Girl," their biggest single, which peaked at #22 in the U.S. (and was a #1 hit in Canada). While the song may sound like there is a story behind it, Bill Henderson (who wrote it) states that it was a total figment of his imagination.
The band released two albums after Wanna Be a Star, but was unable to generated much momentum, and broke up in 1984.
Special shout out to Steve and Karen, who posted this on their fb pages and spurred us to action. It is great to have old friends who like 80s music.
Cool trivia fact: The second single from Wanna Be a Star, called "I Believe" hit #33 on the U.S. charts, so technically Chilliwack is not a one hit wonder. No, we don't recall ever hearing "I Believe" either.
Here at ERV, we like a good salacious story as much as the next rarely-read blog, especially if it involves music videos from the 1980s that are ... well, rare. So without further ado ...
Feargal Sharkey got his start in the Northern Irish punk band, The Undertones. Best-known for "Teenage Kicks" (a John Peel favorite), the band kicked around during the late 1970s and early 1980s before breaking up in 1983. As an aside, Feargal Sharkey goes on our list of "best rock names ever" with Digney Fignus, Fee Waybill, and Benmont Tench (more on him later).
In 1985, Sharkey released his first solo album, called Feargal Sharkey (ok, so he wasn't the most original chap). He also transitioned from a new wave singer to a pop crooner (and we mean that in the nicest way possible). His first single, "A Good Heart" was a #1 hit in his native UK, and charted in the US (#74).
His second single, "You Little Thief" did not do as well, but it hit #5 in the UK.
Now stay with us, because here is where it gets interesting. Remember Lone Justice (the band just before this posting)? The band that was helped out by Tom Petty? Well, it turns out that Maria McKee (the lead singer of Lone Justice) and Benmont Tench (the guy with the cool name, as promised, who was Tom Petty's keyboard player) ... well, Maria and Benmont were an item for a while. And when they broke up, Maria wrote, "A Good Heart" about it. Perhaps in response to this, Benmont wrote "You Little Thief" about the same breakup. So Feargal Sharkey's first two single were written by ex-lovers about each other. Interesting, no?
Cool trivia fact: the Feargal Sharkey (still love that name) album was produced by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, who was seemingly everywhere in the early to mid 1980s.
LA-based Lone Justice showed up on the music scene in 1985 with their self-titled debut, and were another in a long line of bands briefly viewed as The Next Big Thing.
The band came out the the early 1980s cowpunk scene (yes, there really was a country/punk scene in LA in the early 1980s). With supporters such as Linda Ronstadt and Tom Petty (who wrote "Ways to be Wicked" for the debut album) they were able to land a recording contract with Geffen. The Lone Justice LP received rave reviews and ... basically didn't sell very well. For whatever reason, country rock seemed like a hard sell in the eighties, even though it did well in the 1970s and the 1990s (to this day, in fact). Go figure.
At any rate, most of the band left after the first album, but singer Maria McKee put out a more pop oriented second album the following year (Shelter), which did not do any better. Lone Justice officially broke up soon afterwards.
"Sweet, Sweet Baby" was the second single from the Lone Justice album, and really shows off the radio-friendly country rock sound that by all rights should have been more successful than it was.
"Like Dreamers Do" is a rare, catchy and slightly eccentric pop song that unfairly received only a modicum of airplay. It is by by the Radiators, a hard-working New Orleans band that was the spiritual successor to Little Feat.
The song was from the 1987 album Law of the Fish, which was the band's third album (although the first for major label Epic). Law of the Fish rose to #139 on the Billboard charts, and ushered in the Radiators' brief period as a modestly successful commercial act (the band released two other albums on the Epic label before being dropped in 1990).
In the aftermath of leaving Epic, the band continued to tour and play, and developed a core following of fishheads. The Radiators wrote and performed more than 300 original songs (many never recorded for an album) and also performed over 1,000 covers. Their shows, which included long jam sessions, often ran over three hours. In short, the Radiators became the New Orleans party band of choice. Cool trivia fact: the Radiators' members did not change through the years; the original 1978 lineup remained intact until the band called in quits, in June of 2011.
Although they were only around for a few years, the Pixies had a disproportionate impact on rock and roll. Their sound was a conglomeration of alternative college rock, punk and California surf rock, put together in way that was greater than the sum of the parts. As a result, they laid the groundwork for the grunge/alternative surge of the early 1990s. Bands as varied as Nirvana, Radiohead, Weezer, and U2 have all stated that the Pixies had a huge influence on their sound. Kurt Cobain, in fact, stated that "Smells Like Team Spirit" was his attempt to write a Pixies-esque song.
The Pixies formed in Boston in 1986, though "Here Comes Your Man" was from their 1989 Doolittle album (and was never released as a single). Interestingly, this song was written by frontman Black Francis years earlier (when he was 14 or 15), but the band was reluctant to record it, as they viewed the sound as too commercial. Critics have since come to view "Here Comes Your Man" as one of the most melodic and accessible alternative songs ever written.
Unfortunately, the Pixes were not able to hold it together past early 1993, as the tension between Francis and bassist Kim Deal (who would go on to form The Breeders with her sister), tore the band apart.
Cool trivia fact: Rolling Stone ranked Doolittle at #141 on their list of the greatest 500 albums ever.
In the aftermath of The Flirts, please consider Cheap Trick as our apology to you, the (few) readers of this blog. OK, we're just kidding (or are we?)
At any rate, Cheap Trick's "She's Tight" from 1982's One on One album highlights the diversity of eighties music and MTV, as this song came out the same year as "Jukebox" (below) and they may have even been played back to back at some point.
"She's Tight" is your basic sleazy, straight up rock song, complete with semi-ridiculous lyrics and the typical 5-neck guitar in the video. As an aside, this song has some truly great moments, our favorite being Robin Zander singing:
"She spoke ...
I'm on my own, home all alone So I got off the phone"
If that isn't rock and roll, then we don't know what is.
The song peaked at #65, while the album broke the top 40 and went gold. For folks who aren't that familiar with Cheap Trick, they are really worth checking out. Their music is an interesting combination of 60s pop and 70s rock, and they have just a ton of great songs. Their greatest hits are a good place to start, but they have a fair amount of solid, lesser-known songs, some of which may even appear on ERV at a later date.
While there was some great music played on MTV in the early days, the station also played some ... well, not-so-great (or WTF??) music too. High on any list of "what were they thinking" would be The Flirts.
To be fair, The Flirts weren't even really a band -- they were a creation of Bobby Orlando, a New York City based record producer. As a result, the members changed regularly (like every album). Think Menudo, but with pretty young women (for our younger readers, please replace "Menudo" with "Backstreet Boys" above.) Amazingly, they had a minor hit with "Jukebox," off the 1982 album 10 Cents a Dance. The video was played around every ten minutes on MTV for a while, for no apparent reason and no, we are not bitter about that at all.
At any rate, Bobby Orlando then put out a new Flirts album ever 2 weeks or so for most of the eighties, but sadly (yes, that is sarcasm) did not hit it big again.
What is more Halloweeny (yes, we just made up that word) than some good old-fashioned metal? How about some metal with horror clips and a demonic-sounding title?
Iron Maiden's 1982 album, The Number of the Beast, is on a short list of the greatest heavy metals albums ever. Dark, loud and surprisingly melodic, it is the prototypical Iron Maiden record, and the first one with lead singer Bruce "Air Raid Siren" Dickinson. The album also proved to be a tremendous commercial success, and has sold some 14 million units worldwide. It reached #33 on the US charts, but hit #1 in the UK, where both "The Number of the Beast" and "Run to the Hills" broke the top 20 on the singles chart!
While religious conservatives were concerned with the "satanic message," the title song from the album was actually inspired by bass player Steve Harris' nightmare after watching Damien: Omen II. To be fair, though, the band did play up the supernatural angle in interviews, which (of course) seemed to help sales.
Cool trivia fact: the band originally wanted Vincent Price to read the intro (foreshadowing "Thriller") but he proved to be too expensive for their budget. As a result, an actor named Barry Clayton was hired to do it.
The second of our "songs that remind us of Halloween in a subtle, non-"Thriller" sort of way." "Heart and Soul" was Huey Lewis and the News' big breakout; it reached #8 on the charts and launched their career. It was the first single from 1983's Sports, which became a #1 album, and the second biggest album of 1984, only trailing a little album that you might have heard of called Thriller.
The video is basically Huey and the band at a cool Halloween party in San Francisco, in 1983. We're not really sure what the video has to do with the song, but hey, MTV liked it and put it in heavy rotation, and the rest is history. Cool trivia fact: the actress in the video is Signy Coleman, who would go on to become a regular on The Young and the Restless, and is also the lead in the "I Want a New Drug" video.
Now for some extra coolness -- this song is a cover. This will relaunch the "songs that you didn't know were covers" section of the blog -- note that the second post ever (Pat Benatar's "You Better Run") also fits in that category. Expect some more in due course. At any rate, the original version was done by Exile (of "Kiss You All Over" fame) in 1981, and it actually charted (#102). For those who are interested, a link to the song is below:
The first of three songs in honor of the upcoming All Hallows Even. However, we did not want to be lazy about the holiday and go with "Thriller" and the like; instead we have chosen songs that have a Halloween vibe (to us, at least).
The English Beat (The Beat to all non-Americans) were a 2 Tone ska/pop band founded in England in the late 1970s. The group's sound evolved over time and by 1982's Special Beat Service, it was clear that they were venturing away from their ska roots and into something different ... more like a ska influenced new wave pop sound.
Although it was actually an old song (written before the band formed, in fact), "Save it for Later" fit in quite nicely with this post-ska aesthetic. It is a wonderfully odd sounding song, driven by an unusual open D guitar tuning (DADAAD, if you must ask). Lyrically, it is about a teen's transition into a twenty-something, with a dirty joke thrown it, to boot ("for later" ... fe'llator ...)
But it is the video that places the song here, in late October. The strangle club, the skeletons, the unusual clientele -- it all reminds us of a Halloween party (a really cool one, in England circa 1982).
Sadly, The English Beat broke up soon after Special Beat Services was released, but returned (in a way) as former members became General Public and Fine Young Cannibals.
