Ryan Seacrest Relives An 80’s Moment Lip Syncing Bon Jovi
For some it doesn’t get much more 80’s than Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet album. If you’re one of those individuals then you and Ryan Seacrest have something in common. During his visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Seacrest relived a moment he had rocking out to the album in his room at the age of 9 or 10. Fallon began to ask Seacrest about a story he had told the last time they were together and...
Spotify’s #ThrowbackThursday Playlist Brings Back 50 Late 80s Hits
Every Thursday, commercial music, streaming, podcast and video service Spotify releases a playlist of throwback hits from different years via #ThrowbackThursday. The late 80s was a great time for music. The later part of the decade is responsible for still-relevant hits like the now-classic Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give you Up,” Patrick Swayze’s beautiful and haunting “She’s Like the Wind,” and the feel-good Beach Boys’ song...
Which Records Won Best Album at the Grammy Awards in the 80s?
With the 2016 Grammy Award being hosted by 80s icon L.L. Cool J, we decided to take a look back at which performers took home the biggest prizes at the show in the 80s. Some of the winners are obvious — iconic songs which we still love today. Others are more than a little bit perplexing. 1980: Album of the Year CHRISTOPHER CROSS, Christopher Cross Record of the Year CHRISTOPHER CROSS, “Sailing” Song of...
Dancing in the Street by Bowie and Jagger
‘Dancing in the Street’ by David Bowie & Mick Jagger This cover version of the song originally by Martha and the Vandellas hit #7 on the US Hot 100 chart in 1985 and was produced to raise money for the Live Aid famine relief cause. Information on...
“Party All the Time”: A 30-Year Retrospective
Music-wise, the year 1985 had that “best of times, worst of times” thing going on. Unquestionably, some of the most memorable songs of the decade — Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me,” Madonna’s “Material Girl,” to name but a few — came out in 1985. But *80s Haters (and they’re out there) need look no further than December 1985 when preparing their “80s = Lame” arguments. Klymaxx’s “I...
15 on 45: Fifteen Questions about My Forgotten 45 Collection
My brother Matt recently sent me a text: “Found the old records!” And accompanying this joyous announcement was a picture of my old 45 record of Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight.” A little context: Matt had purchased a record player, but he had no actual records to play on it. So he Indiana-Jones-ed our parents’ basement, looking for the collection of 45s I had back in high school. The search seemed fruitless, until my dad...
Q&A with Dave Kinzer, Author of “The 80s Music Compendium”
I just had the pleasure of reading the new book by Dave Kinzer, “The 80s Music Compendium” that released in paperback this week (Sept 13). Dave Kinzer, a music teacher, sought to find new ways to teach music structure and theory to students in a way that would hold their interest longer than say Bach. As an avid fan of 80s music, he turned to the treasure trove that is the catalog of Hot 100 hit songs from the 80s. He...
Vocab from 80s Songs!
With the school-year fast approaching, perhaps we should use this time to reflect on the educational value of 80s pop songs. Consider: Men at Work taught us about Australian cuisine (the Vegemite sandwich of “Down Under”); Styx taught us Japanese pleasantries (“Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto”); and Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” taught us… well, everything. Moreover, the lyrics to 80s songs provided us with some truly S.A.T.-worthy...
Musical What-Ifs, Back to the Future Style
Before there was the Butterfly Effect, there was the McFly Effect. The Back to the Future trilogy is essentially a dissertation on chaos theory, on the ways that tinkering with the past can affect the future. Plow into one of Mr. Peabody’s trees in 1955? The Twin Pines Mall becomes the Lone Pine Mall in 1985. Interfere with your parents initial meeting? You could be erased from existence. Now, let’s get meta for a moment and consider...
Obscur-Eighties, Vol. 1
It’s simple math. A decade is made up of 520 weeks, right? And for every one of those weeks, Billboard puts out a “Hot 100” list, detailing the top one hundred songs of those seven days. Now, granted, a hundred new songs don’t appear every week. (Just last year, Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive,” for example, ended a record-breaking eighty-seven weeks on the Hot 100.) Still, if I can get technical here, a LOT of songs cycle through those...
80s Songs in Non-80s TV Shows
Last month, the FOX series Glee ended its six-year run. To coincide with the series finale, I envisioned writing a piece about all the 80s songs that appeared on the show. Examples: Artie getting out of his wheelchair for a dream-sequence “Safety Dance”; Finn the Quarterback singing a slowed-down “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”; and the New Directions performing “Don’t Stop Believin’”— along with just about every other Journey...
30 Facts About Don’t You (Forget About Me)
Thirty years ago, a Scottish band– relatively unknown in the U.S.–made a request to the world. And thirty years later, the world is still honoring it. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”– that’s all Simple Minds asked of us in February 1985, when their signature song from the film The Breakfast Club first debuted. And so far, we haven’t forgotten: the song and the film have been permanently etched into our pop-culture...
Sam Draws the 80s and It’s Totally Awesome
You may have seen Sam’s drawings online; he’s developed quite a following. In fact, he’s been featured in the Huffington Post, Good Morning America and has received praise from the likes of George Takei, Martha Quinn, and the guys from Wang Chung. If you are new to Sam’s work, he is a 6 year old artist in Portland, Oregon. After hearing a steady stream of 80s music (thanks to his 80s-loving mom), he was moved...
80s Power Ballads: A Rating System
AUTHOR’S NOTE: “How did I forget ‘Home Sweet Home’?” That’s what I’ve been asking myself ever since I read the feedback to my last post, the one about the greatest songs from 1985. Sure, I couldn’t mention every big song. But, next to Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round,” Motley Crue’s signature love song was probably the most glaring omission. Of all the songs to overlook, how did I miss THAT one? (Actually, I think I know how:...
1985: Thirty Year Retrospective (Music Edition)
Bowling for Soup sure picked the right year to celebrate in its song “1985.” Now, I know that I once proclaimed, on this very site, that 1983 was the best year in music ever. And last fall, Rolling Stone magazine called 1984 “pop’s greatest year.” But 1985’s got some game as well. So why, thirty years on, are we still preoccupied with 1985? Well, 1985 was the year of… Defining the Decade: Quintessential 80s tracks were released...
