Category: 1984

Songs published in 1984

Seasonal Earworm

On 23 December 2022

In 1984, 80ies

As is well established this blog was founded in order to give some educational insight into those of yesteryear’s songs that one absolutely has to know about, after realising that some of my dear colleagues were not yet aware of some classics. But if you should somehow happen not to know about the song we’re talking about today then you must have spent your life under a very well hidden rock indeed.

Despite being constantly on air around the festive year-end season for the last 38 years “Last Christmas” by Wham! only made it to the #1 spot in the UK’s single charts in 2021, as although it was a huge success back in 1984 already it was topped then by Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas”, in which George Michael sings as well. As such, it long held the title for best-selling song never to reach top spot. Incidentally, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, the original inspiration for our blog, only made it to number 1 after 37 years, one-upping Wham! by a year.

Despite the title and it’s yearly revival the song actually has very little to do with Christmas, but is about a failed relationship. It was written on a lazy Sunday, when George Michael and Andrew Ridgely were visiting Michael’s parents.

The video was shot in Saas-Fee and would be the last time George Michael was filmed without a beard.

George Michael died of dilated cardiomyopathy on Christmas Day 2016.

Threatening Territory

By vanElden

On 21 October 2022

In 1984, 80ies, Must-See-Video

While today’s on-line discussions about the countless micro-issues concerning the general theme of people’s gender, sexuality and “wokeness” might often be loud, aggressive and sometimes outright hideous at least in our western parts of the world (maybe excluding Trump’s America) for most people it’s not that big an issue anymore to come out as gay. But that is a relatively new achievement. While there were some gay couples in movies, for example, something always tended to go awry in these stories up until at least the noughties and if we go back even a little bit more coming out of the closet was often outright dangerous, especially outside of the big cities.

So while there was some representation in music, Jimmy Sommerville and his flatmates in London were quite unhappy with the inoffensive nature it tended to have as opposed to what they, being openly gay, experienced in everyday life and it was important for them that their band, Bronski Beat, addressed homosexual issues in a political context.

Their breakthrough song, Smalltown Boy, describes the struggles of a queer lad from the country, being attacked by a homophobic gang, outed to his parents by the police and consequently forced to leave the village where he grew up.

The commercial success was proof that the general public had long moved further than the loud bigoted minority.

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Mellifluous Con-Man

By vanElden

On 27 September 2022

In 1984, 80ies, Girl Power Tuesday, Must-See-Video

Helen Folasade Adu – better known by her stage name Sade – was a background singer with the Latin Soul band Pride when she started performing her song “Smooth Operator”, co-written with Pride’s guitarist Ray St. John as a solo-performance during concerts. The renditions got such good feedback that she decided to split and form her own band, taking along half of the personnel of Pride. It was a wise move: When they played their first concert at the Heaven nightclub in London they already attracted so many aspiring audience members that about a thousand of them had to be turned away at the door.

Despite the honey-sweet melody the song is about a quite evil actor in high society, a playboy who’s breaking hearts left and right while taking on all sorts of facets of a criminal’s job-description: con-man, gun-fencing, pimping, you name it.

The song was a huge international hit and the stepping stone for Sade’s career as one of the most successful British women in history.

In the extended version of the video the perpetrator is chased over rooftops by the police and falls to his doom.

Political Appropriation

By vanElden

On 20 September 2022

In 1984, 80ies, Guitar Gods

When Bruce Springstreen, aka The Boss, wrote “Born In The U.S.A.” as a title track for a film about the Vietnam war – the first war America ever lost – and the stark difference in how it’s veterans were treated to those coming home as winners, he did not anticipate how totally misunderstood the song would be for generations to come.

Springsteen had never shied away from expressing his strong political convictions, standing especially for working-class people but also gender equality, immigrant and LGBTQ rights and environmental issues. So it was a rather strange notion when Ronald Reagan, whose presidency started the downfall of the American middle classes and whose policies The Boss explicitly rejected, used the song to rally his followers, misunderstanding the song for a patriotic anthem instead of the bitter critique it really is. But people would still not get it 35 years later, when the song was heard outside the hospital where then president Trump was treated for Covid-19. While Springsteen considers the song one of his best, it does bother him that it’s so widely misunderstood.

True to his convictions he also turned down an offering of 12 million US$ to let Chrysler use the song in one of their campaigns. Springsteen never allowed any of his songs to be used to sell a product.

As he did not want the video to be lip-synched, he opted instead to use shots from some concerts, and for the sake of synchronity had to wear the same outfit for a number of consecutive shows. Interspersed with pictures from a Vietnamese neighbourhood in Los Angeles and factory workers, it was an effort to claim the song back from Reagan.

Incidentally, the Album was the first CD to be pressed on American soil.

Crown Jewels Required

By vanElden

On 16 August 2022

In 1984, 80ies, Girl Power Tuesday, Must-See-Video

There are not many artists who may boast of being the suspect of academic disciplines, but as the official “Queen of Pop” (or at least the artist most commonly referred to by that moniker), Madonna can. She certainly is a polymath: Originally planning to pursue a career in modern dance she instead became a drummer before starting her solo career. Later she would also work as an actress, business woman, writer and director.

She was not always known as “Queen of Pop” though. When “Material Girl” was released as a single from her second studio album “Like A Virgin” it became a huge hit and as many misinterpreted the video (which is a retelling of Marilyn Monroe’s 1953 film “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” and is supposed to explicitly show the “Material Girl” side to only be an act, while the actress really doesn’t care about worldly riches) the name stuck. It would take her many years to rewrite that image.

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I only found out after scheduling this post that she turns 64 today. Happy Birthday!

I found out even later that it’s the 45th anniversary of Elvis’ death as well.

Intermission: Service Advertisement

By vanElden

On 8 July 2022

In 1984, 80ies, Must-See-Video

While automobiles are likely the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of “Motor City” Detroit MI, the city plays an important role in the history of popular music as well. Long before becoming the birthplace of Techno it was home to musicians from John Lee Hooker to Suzi Quatro, from Bessie Smith to Madonna, from Marvin Gaye to The White Stripes. Not least of whom is Ray Parker Jr.

To call him a One-Hit-Wonder would not do his oeuvre justice, particularly not the many songs he wrote or played guitar on for other famous musicians. Nevertheless “Ghostbusters”, the title song for the 1984 movie of the same name, became his most famous piece of art by a similarly large margin. Quite an achievement considering he was only given a few days to come up with a theme song for the film and the fact that there aren’t exactly many words rhyming with the eponymous profession.

And so we’re going to cut him some slack that the bass-line borrowed heavily from Huey Lewis’ “I Want a New Drug”, which just so happened to be the temporary background music to many scenes in the pre-cut of the film that Parker had received as reference – after all that case was settled out of court.

The video might not be known quite as well as the film these days, but it features cameos by a great number of well-known actors and musicians of the time, none of whom were payed, but doing a favour to director Ivan Reitman, who also directed the movie proper.

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Chevy Chase, having featured heavily in the video of a recent episode and popping up in a cameo here might quite possibly now be officially the most featured artist of the blog.