Van Halen - (Oh) Pretty Woman

In honor of the boys (mostly; we miss Michael Anthony) getting the band back together, we'd like to present Van Halen's first real video.  While Warner Bros. did release videos for earlier songs, they used concert footage for the videos.  (As an aside, it seems that most hard rock bands frowned on doing 'real' videos in the late 1970s and early 1980s.)

At any rate, by 1982 Van Halen were one of the biggest rock acts in the world, but they had also been touring and recording more or less constantly since 1977.  Supposedly, the band wanted to do Diver Down as quickly as possible in order to go on some well deserved vacations.  As a result, the album clocks in at 31 minutes and includes 5 covers.  The result is surprisingly good, highlighting the strength of VH's original lineup

"(Oh) Pretty Woman" is, of course, a cover of a 1964 Roy Orbison song that had spent three weeks at #1.  However, by the early 1980s, Orbison was mostly forgotten; he often credited the Van Halen cover with restarting his career.  The Van Halen version peaked at #12, while Diver Down rose to the #3 spot on the album charts.

In typical semi-self destructive Van Halen style, the video was banned on MTV due to its sexual content (the folks at MTV were apparently not amused by midgets fondling tied-up transvestites).  We remember seeing the video on USA's Night Flight, but it was not widely viewed (= rare!).

Cool trivia facts:  Van Halen's frontman, David Lee Roth directed the video, and claims that he wrote the "Intruder" synthesizer intro to fill enough time for the video.  (Yes, "Intruder" also appears on Diver Down, as the band needed every second that they could find).

In the interest of completeness, here is the Roy Orbison original.  We chose a 1964 Top of the Pops video, as it is the most like a 'real' music video.

Note that David Lee Roth's "Going' Crazy!" video (with the full intro) was posted on ERV in January 2015.

Baltimora - Tarzan Boy

A classic one hit wonder, Baltimora came onto the music scene in 1985 with the catchy dance song "Tarzan Boy."  The band was a strange Northern Irish - Italian collaboration, with an Italian producer and writer (Maurizio Bassi) and a Northern Irish lead singer (Jimmy McShane).

Bassi and McShane apparently met in Ireland in 1984, where McShane worked as an EMT.  The two quickly formed a band, with McShane as the frontman, due to his flamboyant style.  There seems to be some dispute over who actually sung the lead vocals on Tarzan Boy, with several sources claiming that Bassi did the honors.

At any rate, the song became a huge success, hitting #13 in the U.S. (although it did even better in most of Europe).  Unfortunately, the other songs from the Living in the Background album did not do as well, and a second album (1987's Survivor in Love) did not chart at all.  Baltimora disbanded soon afterwards, and neither Bassi nor McShane had much success with their future musical projects.  McShane died of AIDS in 1995.  He was 37.

Cool trivia fact:  A remix of Tarzan Boy charted, and nearly broke the top 40 in 1993 (it peaked at #51), after the song was used in a Cool Mint Listerine commercial.  Here is your special bonus, from your friends at ERV:

The Romantics - One in a Million

The Romantics (named because the band formed on Valentine's Day 1977) were a Detroit-based power pop band with clear British Invasion influences.  Although they are best known for their 1980 hit "What I Like About You," it was not their biggest hit.  Instead, 1983's "Talking in Your Sleep" from the In Heat album takes that honor, as it reached #3 on the Billboard charts.

The third single from In Heat is "One in a Million," a solid song with a wonderfully campy video.  Set it some strange alternate 1950's sexy universe, the video does highlight the Romantics sense of style.  Although somewhat hard to describe, we would characterize the band's style as 1950s meets Road Warrior, with extra leather thrown in, to boot.

As is all too common a refrain on this blog, the band was unable to hold it together after In Heat, and drummer Jimmy Marinos left prior to 1985's Rhythm Romance.  While the band continued to work, they did not release another album until the web-released 61/49 in 2003.

Cool trivia fact:  Clem Burke (of Blondie fame) was The Romantics official drummer for most of the 1990s.

Rick Springfield - I've Done Everything for You

After working as a musician and actor for years, Rick Springfield finally got his big break in 1981, with the Working Class Dog album.  The album peaked at #7, driven by "Jessie's Girl," a #1 hit with a corresponding video that showed the emerging power of a young MTV.

However, it is the second (charting) single that is more interesting (to me, at least).  "I've Done Everything for You" was another top 10 hit for Springfield, but is actually a cover of a Sammy Hagar song.  The song was originally released on Hagar's 1978 live album, All Night Long, and apparently Hagar had been performing it since 1977.  A Sammy Hagar studio version was released in 1982 (on the Rematch album), in order to attempt to generate momentum in the aftermath of "I've Done Everything" becoming a big hit.

While Rematch was not a big hit, Sammy Hagar's career did take off in 1981, perhaps partly due to the Springfield cover.  Of course, Rick Springfield would go on to have tremendous success in the 1980s, with 4 consecutive top 20 records.

As an aside, we think Springfield does a fine job on the cover, which sounds more polished than the original.

Note that the Sammy Hagar version is louder (!) so you might want to turn down the volume a bit ...

Cool trivia fact:  Rick Springfield played a sex and drug addicted version of himself on the cable TV show Californication, which gets ERV's highest recommendation.

Springfield's odd but fun sci-fi video for "Human Touch" was featured on ERV's All Hallows Even celebration in 2022.

Dwight Twilley - Girls

Mixing rockabilly, country and British Invasion pop, Tulsa-born Dwight Twilley does not fit neatly into one music segment.  Combine this with nearly unbelievable bad luck throughout his career (including plane crashes, bribery scandals, and O.J. Simpson) and his lack of real success is understandable.

In spite of these issues, Twilley had two top 40 hits -- 1975's "I'm on Fire" (as the Dwight Twilley Band) and 1984's "Girls," from Twilley's solo album called Jungle.  Coincidentally, both singles peaked at #17 on the charts.

The "Girls" video is a Porkies tribute, and there even is an R-rated version with nudity (FYI, the version here is PGish).  The video shoot was co-funded by The Playboy Channel, and featured Bunnies.  We believe that at the time Playboy was looking to create R-rated videos for its own music video show.  As an aside, we originally saw this video on the old USA Network show Nightflight, a truly great TV show that mixed videos, interviews, concert footage and indy films.

The video is great, cheesy fun, complete with male and female shower scenes, and features the coolest full uniform football player pretending to play guitar solo scene ever.  (Yes, really).

Cool trivia fact:  Tom Petty sings backup vocals on "Girls" -- he and Twilley were on the same label and became friends in the late 1970s.

INXS - Don't Change

It is easy to downplay INXS; they sounded like a new wave bar band, and were not the most innovative or creative group of their time.  What INXS did, however, was churn out a ton of really good rock songs; they had ten top 40 hits in the U.S. and have sold more than 30 million units worldwide, mostly in the 80s and early 90s.

"Don't Change" was the last song on 1982's Shabooh Shoobah and the second single from the album (after "The One Thing.")  It reached #80 on the U.S. charts, so it was not a big hit at the time, but is widely regarded as on of the band's best songs.  Sound-wise, "Don't Change" comes off almost as a rocked up version of Roxy Music, with big, atmospheric keyboards and a great chorus.

Of course, the band followed up Shabooh Soobah with four consecutive platinum albums, including 1987's Kick (which sold 6 million units in the U.S. alone.)  The nineties were tougher on INXS, and the original lineup ended with the tragic death of lead singer Michael Hutchence in 1997.  We suppose that the stories of virtually all rock bands are tragic in the end.  Still, it is cool to go back in time, so to speak, and see them as a young Australian band doing a simple video of a great song.

Note:  The INXS/Jimmy Barnes song "Good Times" was posted on ERV in September 2013. 

Cinderella - Shake Me

While Cinderella's image was hair-metal, their sound was more bluesy, hard rock.  "Shake Me" fits right in with this, and is a spiritual successor to "You Shook Me" (covered by Led Zeppelin) or "You Shook Me All Night Long" (AC/DC).  Now that we think of it, there should be more hard rock songs using the verb 'to shake' -- we propose the ultimate song could just be called "Shake" or "Shaken" or "Shaky."

Moving right along, "Shake Me" was the first song from Cinderella's first album, 1986's Night Songs.  The video does feature another fine example of a supernatural guitar -- it falls from the poster and then magically teleports the attractive young woman right on to the stage at the local Cinderella concert.  Though this is not as impressive as laser beams (or ill-tempered bass, for that matter), it still is pretty cool.  And no, apparently not all Les Pauls can magically teleport young women.

"Shake Me" did not chart, but Night Songs hit #3 on the charts in early 1987, spawned two other singles that did chart, and sold three million units.  The band went on to sell more than twenty million units in the 80s and early 90s, before the shift to grunge (and problems with lead singer Tom Keifer's vocal chords) ended the bands' run of platinum records.

Cool trivia fact:  Cinderella was discovered by Jon Bon Jovi, who saw them in 1985 at the old Empire Rock Club in Philly. He told his A&R rep about them and soon after they were signed to Mercury/Polygram.

Cinderella's "Gypsy Road" was posted on ERV in June, 2015.

MTV's 10th Anniversary Video

The Pretenders video was the 50th Video we have put up at ERV, and we thought that it would be cool to show something different.  Think of this as a musical sorbet, to cleanse the palate prior to the next bunch of tasty videos.

This video was shown during MTV's 10th Anniversary Special, a one-hour special that aired on the channel in 1991.  As a result, there might be some 90s videos on it, (heavens to Murgatroyd!!) but the clip is dominated by 80s acts.  While most of the video clips shown are not rare, a few from this site do slip in.

Can you recall ...

Pretenders - Day After Day

It took Chrissie Hynde years to find the right fit in a band, but once she did, the results were impressive.  Hynde was originally from Ohio, but moved to London in the early 1970s in order to pursue a career in music.  After several failed attempts (including early versions of both The Clash and The Damned), Hynde found her band in the Pretenders.

The band was named after The Platters song "The Great Pretender," and found almost immediate success -- their first album hit #9 in the U.S. and was a #1 album in the UK in 1980.  Pretenders II followed in late 1981 and hit #10 on the U.S. charts.

"Day After Day" is a rare Pretenders song not written entirely by Hynde (guitarist James Honeyman-Scott co-wrote it).  The song was never released as a single, but the band did release a video (of course), which went into heavy rotation on my favorite video music channel.  The song is classic Pretenders, mixing pop, new wave and punk into something greater than the sum of its parts.  This is a band at the top of their game.

Unfortunately, drugs would soon destroy the first incarnation of the band.  Bassist Pete Frandon was kicked out of the Pretenders in June 1982 due to drug use, and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died days later of cocaine intolerance.  Farndon subsequently drowned in 1983, after taking heroin in a bathtub and passing out.  Hynde soldiered on, but to our ears was never quite able to fully re-capture the magic of the first version of the band.

Note that "2000 Miles" was posted at ERV in December, 2012.

Steve Perry - Strung Out

By 1984, the relationship between Steve Perry and the rest of the Journey had become strained, so Perry did what all 80s lead singers did under similar circumstances:  he released a solo album.  Street Talk went on to become an enormous success, selling more than two million units and peaking at #12 on the charts.  Four songs broke the top 40, including "Oh Sherrie," which hit #3.

"Strung Out" was the fourth single from Street Talk, and it charted (at #40), before fading into relative obscurity (until now, that is).  The video was shot after "Oh Sherrie," but plays like a slightly amusing prequel (for those who are not familiar with "Oh Sherrie," just watch them back-to-back).

While "Strung Out" is admittedly pretty basic (i.e., commercial), we have always had a soft spot for it (call it a guilty pleasure).  It is, we think, a catchy, well crafted song.

After Street Talk, Perry waivered over whether to leave Journey, and actually started work on a follow up album, tentatively called Against the Wall.  Eventually, Perry returned to Journey and sang on 1987's Raised on Radio, before leaving the band (Perry actually left the industry as well, for seven years).  Against the Wall was never finished, but a few of the songs made it on to Perry's 1994 solo album For the Love of Strange Medicine.