Bradley's Buzz

New To You

First and foremost - THERE ARE ONLY 20 DAYS UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY!!!

okay now that my announcement is out of the way, let's look at a few Bubbatunes I put out a few weeks ago but forgot to talk about...

so let's take a look at a bit of 80's pop/rock new wave and reminisce as we all get ready for my birthday... today we look at some gems by Martha Davis, Toni Basil and Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo, so let's hop to it.

bub81 Martha Davis - Policy (March 27, 2007; 1987)
Nearly 20 years after its initial release, I took my vinyl copy of the Motels' lead singer Martha Davis' solo album. As it is, Policy actually started as a Motels album but midway through it, Martha took each boy of the band to the bar, bought them a drink and told them the Motels were over. No one seemed all that horrified as it turned out and Martha just went back to the studio with Richie Zito and continued on. For some reason, the album didn't catch fire at all reaching #127 on the Billboard album charts in November of 87 while the first single "Don't Tell Me The Time" another of Martha's clever little love done gone wrong lyrics hit #80 in the US. The music is all 80's rock though not as obvious as the Motels' Shock album from 1985. In fact, a renewed fire seems to be in Martha's gullet after the demise of the Motels but even the catchy opening tune "Tell It To The Moon" (written by wonder hits writer Dianne Warren) didn't score on radio or in the public. But I get more and more into the album each time I hear it, the jazzy reggae-ishness of "Don't Ask Out Loud", the sassy and jumpy "What Money Might Buy" and "Lust" (another new Martha fav of mine) and my ultimate, the revenge tale found in "Rebecca" where the title character is there describing the dead man on the floor as if she didn't know him or anything about him while under breath she sighs, "I'm free/ he'll never do this to me again." It's awesome.

Policy was put out on CD when it initially came out and a quick double check at Amazon just found some used copies going for $35 which is a little less than the $80 I found Little Robbers going for, but still, come on. The big credit to the original CD is it has a bonus cut called "Bridge Of Sighs" - a song I never heard and still don't have in my collection, so for our bonus cuts it appears we are one short. But that doesn't mean Bubbatunes didn't put some great ones on here. Included as bonus cuts is Martha's demo version of "Take My Breath Away" which ended up being recorded and released by Berlin, "Nightmares" a rocky little song she recorded for her friends film Night Of The Creeps (1986), "Next In Line" a 1986 demo, a duet with Sly Stone on Joan Armatrading's "Love & Affection" from the film Soul Man, a little ballad ditty of "I Can't Believe" from the film Miracle Beach, and a duet with Ivan Neville called "You Got What It Takes" which ends with a bonus in a bonus as there is a hidden track called "Mary & Billy", and one of the coolest finds, a version of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" that Martha recorded with her friend Bobby Woods in her garage, made just because he wanted to hear her do it.
Martha Davis - Policy bub81 Track list: 01. Tell It To The Moon 02. Just Like You 03. Heaven Outside My Door 04. Don't Tell Me The Time 05. Rebecca 06. What Money Might Buy 07. Don't Ask Out Loud 08. Hardest Part Of A Broken Heart 09. Lust 10. My Promise - bonus tracks - 11. Take My Breath Away (demo) 12. Nightmares 13. Next In Line 14. Love & Affection 15. Crazy 16. I Can't Believe 17. You Got What It Takes

bub82 Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo - Good Clean Fun (March 27, 2007; 1982)
One of the more overlooked gems of the early 80's new wave movement, Bonnie Hayes still makes albums every now and then but they aren't of the same type of music as this. Opening with the one two bang of "Girls Like Me" and "Shelly's Boyfriend" which though neither hit on any chart I'm aware of, became synonymous with the film Valley Girl which featured them, particularly "Girls Like Me" which not only opened the film but was also the girls anthem at their slumber party (though if you look at the record on the turntable you'll see it isn't Bonnie Hayes - oh those crazy film people.) Besides the ultimate thrill of those two cuts, the rest of the album continues a similar vein, due I'm sure to the fact that every song is written or co-written by Bonnie Hayes. The female empowerment of the opening tracks is also found on other little gems and the fast paced hiccupy delivery of Bonnie Hayes keeps all of Good Clean Fun rallying through a genre that brings back so many memories. After one listen I have to go back and play it again, then listen to Josie Cotton and finally end up watching Valley Girl, it's a very tiring process.
Bonnie Hayes & The Wild Combo - Good Clean Fun bub82 Track List: 01. Girls Like Me 02. Shelly's Boyfriend 03. Separating 04. Dum Fun 05. Coverage 06. Inside Doubt 07. Joyride 08. Loverboy 09. Raylene 10. The Last Word

bub83 Toni Basil - Toni Basil (April 3, 2007; 1983)
Toni Basil's Word Of Mouth from 1982 launched the phenomenon that was "Mickey" but that album was so much more than just that single, using members of Devo and new wave producers, Word Of Mouth is a great little gem of early 80's new wave pop and one of the most overlooked of all time, and though Toni Basil, a choreographer and dancer by day, made that album just so she had some videos to dance to it was inevitable that Chrysalis would have her put out another album. Her self titled follow up came out a year after the huge success of "Mickey" and I'm sure it's no surprise to learn nothing off of Toni Basil scored quite as big. There may be several reasons for that. The main one perhaps is that "Mickey" was just too damn catchy for its own good, it overshadowed anything on that first album so there wasn't really a way to redo that same thing on another song and album, and the main thing is Word Of Mouth is really a new wavey album where Toni moved into dance synth pop for her followup. It makes sense as she is the dancer girl and if you want to dance why bother making a rock album right? But the album itself is good, no matter what others may have said in the past, the opening single "Over My Head" is catchy while "Suspense" is a riot, combining the dance synth pop with total 80's new wave lyrics about espionage, I love it. "Space Walkin' The Dog" tries to recreate some of the more silly elements of Word Of Mouth and doesn't completely fail but doesn't actually succeed either. "Street Beat" puts out the cheerleading stomps of "Mickey" with mixed results only if you compare it to the hit single, on its own it's catchy as all hell. Regardless, Toni Basil is a nice look at the early 80's dance pop that was taking off and would be utilized in another album that came out that year, the self titled Madonna. The bonus cuts include the dance 12" remixes of the singles "Over My Head" and "Suspense" plus the edited single version of "Street Beat" and the ultimate for any Toni Basil fan, her performance of the song "The Night" from the film Rockula, though I must admit my version isn't all that prestine. I had to tape it off a You Tube version of the song and the sound, though I fixed it up is still relatively poor. So if there's anyone willing to part with an mp3 version of "The Night" I'd gladly send you a copy of this entertaining Toni Basil album. And for those of you, not familiar with the hotness that is "The Night" and Toni Basil, check this out at You Tube.
Toni Basil - Toni Basil bub83 track list:
01. Over My Head 02. I Don't Hear You 03. Easy For You To Say 04. Suspense 05. Go For The Burn 06. Space Walkin' The Dog 07. Street Beat 08. Do You Wanna Dance 09. Best Performance bonus tracks - 10. The Night
next week we have a few more Bubbatunes on the way... for now, we return you to shopping for my birthday!

Labels: Bonnie Hayes, Bubbatunes Brad's Birthday, Girls Like Me, Martha Davis, Policy, Rockula, Shelly's Boyfriend, Toni Basil, Valley Girl

posted by swivek @ 8:55 AM 0 comments

Shocking Little Robbers

and here we have our two final Bubbatunes reissues of the Motels great back catalog. Today we venture into the years 1983 and the hit album Little Robbers and the blown up extravagance of the Motels final album 1985's Shock. So let's take a look shall we?

Labels: Bubbatunes, Little Robbers, Martha Davis, Remember The Nights, Shame, Shock, Suddenly Last Summer, The Motels

posted by swivek @ 8:52 AM 1 comments

All Four One and One Four All

Today we continue with our look back at the Motels catalog - a collection of albums that I decided need to be re-released and once I tell you all about them, I'm sure you'll agree. Luckily, cause I have so much time on my hands, I added all 5 of the Motels plus Martha Davis' solo album to our Bubbatunes catalog, and today we are going to talk about bub78, All Four One, the Motels' third or really fourth album. In fact, let's start right now shall we?

bub78 – The Motels – All Four One (March 27, 2007)

All Four One, is the most popular and successful album that was released by The Motels, and likely so since the band actually had two shots at making it. In the fall of 1981, Capitol Records set up the Motels with producer Val Garay, who had just come off the highly successful Kim Carnes Mistaken Identity album (“Bette Davis Eyes”) and with some inner turmoil in the band, Martha hired a few new guys and the producer set up a few session men to help fill out the sound for what would be the Motels’ third album Apocalypso. As it turned out, that third album didn’t really get the release it was supposed to and everyone had to go back and re-record in order to come up with an album Capitol Records would release. But why take it from me, when you could hear it first hand from Martha herself?

From the liner notes of All Four One (Expanded Edition):
OK…I’m sitting down to write about perhaps one of the most confusing times of my life and certainly a critical time for The Motels. The first thing I realize is I’m still confused. Where do I begin…?? How do I describe…?? What the hell happened anyway…???!!

The Motels were a “lucky band.” We were lucky to be around during the 1979 signing frenzy. We were lucky to be signed (and not dropped 6 months later) and we were lucky to get signed by Capitol Records, a label that was about the music and the commitment it had made to its artists – the proof of this being that we had already released two albums that had basically done nothing in America.

So maybe it was time to rethink the situation. “A new producer.” Exit John Carter AKA ‘Carter’ (a friend to this day)…enter Val Garay. Let’s have a flashback, shall we? (I love flashbacks.) Between the first and second albums it became evident that Jeff Jourard and myself were incapable of working together – this is where the phrase “personal differences” comes in so handy. Exit Jeff, enter my then-boyfriend Tim McGovern. He was one of the greatest musicians I’d seen – he played everything – drums , bass, guitar…he was like a psycho Hendrix. Unfortunetly, the psycho didn’t always stay onstage, and our relationship was stormy to say the least. As for myself, I was pretty much a stark raving lunatic…

Now we’ve circled around and are back at Val Garay, who was just experiencing huge success with Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes, and guess what? He was also a lunatic. At this point I want to impress upon you the fact that there were three other Motels – Michael, Marty and Brian – who were wading through all this shit as well. But their lunacy paled in comparison to the aforementioned group.

The shit we were all wading through was the making of the third album, Apocalypso. We knew that we had to start achieving some sort of commercial success, and the pressure was on. I cannont describe the energies, egos & power plays at work here. It was kind of like Harryhuasen Clash Of The Titans – Tim obsessing because he was finally able to flex his musical muscle; Val obsessing on visions of his production and management empire; me writing, depressing and obsessing…

When we finished one year later, Apocalypso was born…stillborn, that is. You see, Val had never let the record company hear the work in progress. When they finally did hear it, I still remember Rupert Perry (one of the great ones) looking at me, saying, “we’ll release it, if you insist…but the promotion guys will probably not work it.” In other words, it was already dead.

I found myself muttering, “I can’t go on”…and then proceeded as though on automatic pilot (actually, more like “Night of the Living Dead”) to pick up and fire Tim (from both home and studio), write new songs, get a new guitar player and start recording again. It hit me and it didn’t feel like a kiss… We recorded the new record – I think it took another year. By the time we were finished, we were tired, hurt, a little broken and on the verge of being a success (overnight).

The album was entitled All Four One because it was the fourth album and it was the four of us that weathered the storm.

Apocalypso was an album that was maybe too kooky for its day…nonetheless, it has always been one of my favorites. And now, for the first time, some of those tracks get to come out and play. I hope you like these recordings and know that no matter how crazy it gets, there’s always joy in creating and performing music. Thank you for making that possible. – Martha Davis, 1999.

All Four One would be released in April in 1982 and end up reaching #16 on the pop charts, helped along by the hit single “Only The Lonely” – the definitive in Martha’s spooky ethereal divaness. The album also launched two more singles, “Take The L”, with its so simple it’s utterly fabulous finding that if you take the l out of lover it’s over, and the boppy pop of “Forever Mine”. Both singles scored on the top 100 and probably received more airplay than sales since the album was being bought up left and right.

The rest of the tracks on All Four One, are the ones that really blow my mind. I’ve had about five versions of this album in my catalog over the years. One Way Recording released it on CD around 1995 and then an Expanded Edition came out in 1999 that included 4 of the Apocalypso session songs. As the years go by, I find myself going back to this album over and over. Though I have to admit it wasn’t until I made the Bubbatunes version that I really got into it. Where I used to think Careful was a profound stop on the Motels tour, I now believe All Four One is their very best album.

The darkness and allure that would’ve been found on Apocalypso isn’t completely gone from All Four One. The moodiness of the hit single is just one instance of this, but add in the surf scare sounds of “Tragic Surf” and a cover of the Crystals strangely alluring “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)” and you get the Shangri-La’s going new wave. It’s hard not to feel the venom of Martha’s sting when she’s singing such ‘carefree’ songs of death and domestic violence. “Art Fails” is another crowning achievement in the Motels repatoire, with its new wave jaunty back beat and Martha pleading, “I don’t want you to see me this way.” There’s also the title track of that misbegotten album with the jungle rhythms, off kilterness of “Apocalypso” – “they dance all night at Love Café/ Gina finds it very good that way/ no day/ no tomorrow/ all the children making love out of sorrow…” Martha is a supreme lyricist and her takes on foreboding love and city life attach themselves right into my psyche.

Of course nowhere is she more evident about singing the city life than in “So L.A.” another moody track that tells the tragic story of LA life – “Jimmy cracked when he came out here/ his precious dream was never clear/ though he practiced it a thousand times/ the city should’ve been his that night/ but the man on the corner got something new/ and something new is good for you tonight!” It’s always been one of my favorite Motels songs.

There’s even moody jazz thrown in, with the ballady “Change My Mind” and the opener of the album is a song that inspired me to write Swivek’s “Mouth” – the straight up new wave rock of “Mission Of Mercy” – “He didn’t say where he was goin’ but he left in such a hurry/ saying something about a mission of mercy/ mama hasn’t been sleeping well at all/ as she lays stretched out in the hall/ waiting for him to call…”

Though Capitol released All Four One as an expanded edition including some of the Apocalypso tracks, the CD is way out of print and they didn’t include a number of songs they could have. So when I decided to put Careful (1980) and Shock (1985) two Motels albums that saw the light of a CD release very briefly in the 90’s, on the Bubbatunes reissue list, I decided with all the rare Martha Davis and Motels I had, I would just re-release their entire catalog. And though I didn’t go the full way and actually release Apocalypso as a single disc, I did add all the tracks I could find as bonus cuts – including the groovy dreaminess of the original piano driven “Only The Lonely”, the first versions of “Mission Of Mercy” and “So L.A.” and three super cool tracks that would’ve been on the third album – “Lost But Not Forgotten”, “Schneekin’” and “Who Could Resist That Face?” and for a special added bonus there’s a bonus cut from the All Four One sessions called “Surrender” which is so frickin’ cool I can’t believe it didn’t make the final cut. But once again Martha’s words are probably more interesting than mine so here are her rundowns on a few of the tracks.

MARTHA’S RAP SHEET All Four One (1982) Apocalypso (1981)
What Martha Davis has to say for herself:

bub78 The Motels – All Four One (2007, 1982)
Track List:
01. Mission Of Mercy – Very few heartbreaks are as tough as parental abandonment, and whatever the reasons for leaving, I doubt that they will ever be understood by the children left behind. (2000 Martha Davis – Anthologyland) Mission Of Mercy is a song of abandonment, initially inspired by a child I knew whose father had disappeared. I now realize that it could very well have been about myself, dealing with the loss of my parents. After all, I did spend a lot of time “stretched out in the hall.” (Martha Davis; November 2001 for Classic Masters – the Motels)
02. Take The L – This classic, brought to you by Marty Jourard and Carter, is about being in the end of a relationship and not feeling too good about it. I remember Marty was going thru a break-up, and he and Carter were having a heart-to-heart. Carter said something to the effect of “Take the L outta lover, and it’s over.” Marty then excused himself, and went immediately to the piano. (Martha Davis; November 2001 for Classic Masters – the Motels)
03. Only The Lonely– Memories of the conception of this song are vague. I don’t remember what time of year it was, what room I was in or my state of mind. I know that in interviews I have said that it was about the paradox of “making it”, of being signed. In one hand you have the applause, the tours, the roses and the champagne; in the other, a feeling of emptiness, insecurity and loneliness. The diversions seemed necessary to fill the void. The one thing I do remember about this song is that it wrote itself. I picked up my old guitar (the one I’ve had since I was 8 years old), and there it was waiting for me. I guess if I could say anything about this song, it would be that it was a gift. (Martha Davis; November 2001 for Classic Masters – the Motels)
04. Art Fails
05. Change My Mind
06. So L.A.
07. Tragic Surf
08. Apocalypso
09. He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)
10. Forever Mine
11. BONUS TRACK Surrender – I kinda like this song…the arrangement needs some work…but who knows, I might take it back to the shop and tinker with it some more, don’t be surprised if you hear it at the next show. (2000 – Martha Davis – Anthologyland)
12. BONUS TRACK Only The Lonely (Alternate/ Early Version) – From the famous album that got away, APOCALYPSO, we bring you the original, Only The Lonely. That was the album that we had to do over, cause there “were no hits on it.” By the way, I apologized personally to Roy Orbison for using the title, he said it was cool. (2000 Martha Davis – Anthologyland)
13. BONUS TRACK – Lost But Not Forgotten – The verse of this song still makes me hot. It does what The Motels did best, “music noir.” With a little work on the chorus, who knows? (2000 Martha Davis – Anthologyland)
14. BONUS TRACK - Schneekin’
15. BONUS TRACK - Who Could Resist That Face?
16. BONUS TRACK - So L.A. – Apacolypso version
17. BONUS TRACK – Mission Of Mercy – Apocalypso version
18. BONUS TRACK – Only The Lonely (Live)

For more fun with the Motels visit the website www.marthadavis.com and www.jourard.com

Labels: All Four One, Apocalypso, Martha Davis, Marty Jourard, Retro music, The Motels

posted by swivek @ 12:38 PM 0 comments

LA Pride '82

Labels: Berlin, Gay Pride, Joan Jett, Josie Cotton Levi Kreis, Martha Davis, Motels, Pride 07, Retro musi, Teri Nunn

posted by swivek @ 11:53 AM 3 comments

Bubbatunes Motels - Rooms 1 & 2

We here at Bubbatunes – you know my bedroom/office – have started our round up of our Motels reissue and let me just say I had forgotten how great these early albums really are. What’s even better than reaching back a few decades to capture 80’s classics is the fact that these albums stand up very well. Martha Davis and her boys had their dark wave ideas down to an art that Miss Davis appropriately calls ‘music noir.’ The dark and seedy underbelly of love and the city are reflected in just about every little ditty they’ve done and though the central themes are there in almost all of their songs, each song has a very big hook that is all its own. So let’s take a look at our first two re-issues in our Motels catalog.


bub 76 – Motels – Motels (1979; March 20, 2007)
The debut album that Martha still states as her favorite since it is the only one she envisioned from start to finish without those pesky record execs on her back. The album launched the debut single “Total Control” – the breathy and brooding pseudo ballad that has some of the best lyrics ever, “I’d sell my soul for total control over you…” The second single launched was the arty “Closets & Bullets” that stands proud with Martha’s interpretation of the word ‘mirage’ – she makes it all her own. But Motels also captures three of the very best songs the band has ever done – the abuse anthem “Celia” with complete imagery of the poor girl – "I heard him talking/I heard him say/he wasn’t gonna kill you/ he was just gonna fuck up your pretty face” which is important as its one of the first songs I remember using the word ‘fuck’ in its lyrics an apparently the record company wanted her to change it to ‘he was just gonna cut up your pretty face’ which she replied, “oh yeah that’s much better” in a very sarcastic tone. "Kix" is a rip roaring fast paced new wave classic with slamming drums and Martha declaring, "they go downtown to find some more kix/ what the hell you do with these kix today? / what the hell you do with these kix today..../ Kix..." It's great and one that righteously ends up on their endless compilations. “Counting” is the final track on the debut album and it’s the perfect Motels formula with its sad lyrics longing and wondering what’s ahead and what’s going on and it also mentions a gal named Sally who shows up repeatedly in Martha’s lyrics, in “Counting” Sally isn’t as much as fun as she used to be as she’s just waiting for someone to tell her why she’s there. “Love Don’t Help” is another highlight with its changing melody and its plain yet interesting lyric, “Love won’t help you win at the track” and it was the B-side to the “Total Control” single. Songs like these are the very reason Capitol has been crazy to not reissue these early classics. Luckily we have Bubbatunes and because I’m such a completist, I’ve added bonus tracks that were hidden until Martha ventured into her vault and released the double disc set Anthologyland in 2000 that was comprised of outtakes, b-sides and live tracks, so with her help we add on two outtakes from the debut album sessions – the frolicking rock of “Boys” and the much better “Amigo” which is a surprise twist of fun I’m surprised didn’t actually make the cut. We also have live versions of “Total Control”, “Celia” and “Counting” all from 1979/1980 concert dates and we end it with a demo of a song called “Every Day Star” that was recorded around 1974/75 when Martha and a few other members were known not as The Motels but as Warfield Foxes.
Motels - Motels (bub76) track list -
01. Anticipating 02. Kix 03. Total Control 04. Love Don't Help 05. Closets & Bullets 06. Atomic Cafe 07. Celia 08. Porn Reggae 09. Dressing Up 10. Counting
Bonus Tracks -
11. Boys 12. Amigo 13. Total Control (live) 14. Celia (live) 15. Counting (live) 16. Every Day Star (demo)

bub 77 – Motels – Careful (1980; March 20, 2007)
For their second album Careful, Martha, Tim, Marty, Michael, Brian brought in a couple more hooks to their avant-garde arty styling and the result is a much better album in my opinion. Not to mention one of the best album covers ever and if you don't believe me pick up a book about the best album covers and I bet you'll see it in there. The music is still moody and brooding but with Tim McGovern, Michael Goodroe and Marty Jourard more involved in writing, the resulting songs they came up with add a new texture to the Motels sound – the first single “Danger” (Davis/McGovern) is still on my favorite songs by the band – “Danger/your love is like a stranger/your so close/ yet so far away…” before the chorus kicks it up a few notches, “Late at night when I want you/ I just close my eyes and I pray/late at night when I need you/ I just stop to me I say…” The song is something Divinyls might have put on their debut album - so enticing and fun, “Envy” is my all time favorite song on the album – it’s a throwback to “Love Don’t Help” which is to say it’s a 2 minute fast fight with Martha cooing some intense and hilarious lyrics and a change in melody as well – “everybody wants my car/ so they can drive like I drive/ everybody wants my car… you better leave it alone…” Of course you know she’s going to head into “everybody wants my baby/ everybody wants my man..” and she tells them “you better leave him alone…” with a wild drumming and soft bass behind her – it’s very threatening and I’m sure that’s exactly how she meant it. The title track is one of their more famous cuts if not for the fact it appears on almost every one of their compilations – it’s a winding synth driven track once again full of foreboding with Martha practically hiccupping through it, “but just don’t leave me/ please don’t leave me/ your way/ careful/ I’m indicating/ my way…” “Bonjour Baby” and “Cry Baby” punch up the hook laden part of the album and they’re two very fun tracks full of new wavey fun, while the single “Days Are OK (But The Nights Were Made Love)” starts with a chunky mellow opening before rock guitar and drums kick in for the chorus and the boys help out by making man “oohs” and “aahs” on the chorus – it should’ve been a huge hit but instead never even makes it onto their hits collections. One of my favorite singles from the band is also from the Careful album, “Whose Problem?” is a mid tempo popper with some of the best lyrics – “You didn’t have to adopt me/ you could have very well left me outside the door" and my favorite - "Anticipating the matter will never be heard/ I know you wanted perfection but I' lost my nerve/ so whose problem am I?/ whose problem am I?/ whose problem am I / if I’m not yours?” The whole Careful album is great from one song to the next, with the whole thing ending on a bittersweet moody confection called “Slow Town” which Martha describes as sounding like heroin haze. To add to the benefit of all, the bonus cuts include early alternate versions of “Danger” and “Careful” though I must admit they aren’t all that different from what ended up on the album, they are just a little more loose and moody – if that’s possible. The Careful reissue ends with a live version of a song that never made it onto any album “The Big Hurt” recorded in New York on June 16, 1980 captures a wilder side of Martha and the gang in their early live show. Though I’m not a huge fan of live recorded performances, the recording is actually really great as it’s a very intense performance.
Motels - Careful (bub77) track list:
01. Danger 02. Envy 03. Careful 04. Bonjour Baby 05. Party Professionals 06. Days Are OK (But The Nights Were Made For Love) 07. Cry Baby 08. Whose Problem? 09. People Places And Things 10. Slow Town
bonus tracks -
11. Careful (alternate take) 12. Danger (alternate take) 13. The Big Hurt (live)

As the weeks progress we’ll get to visit more of the Motels music noir when we unleash the reissues of the band’s popular phase with 1982’s All Four One which includes all of the songs I could find that were supposed to make their third album Apocalypso, then there’s 1983’s Little Robbers and the very hard to get Shock from 1985… until then, I'm sure I'll come up with something else to blog about.

Labels: Bubbatunes, Careful, Danger, Martha Davis, Motels, Music Noir, Total Control

posted by swivek @ 11:43 AM 1 comments

#40 - 36

Just call me Casey Kasem and send me your long distance dedications, cuz I'm about to give you the Top 40 Singles Of The 1980s - According to me of course!

#40 THE KID IS HOT TONITE - Loverboy
(Bernard Aubin/Paul Dean)
Columbia/CBS Single #38-02068
Chart Debut: 06/20/81
Chart Position: #55 US

Once more we go into the boy crushes of my past - Mike Reno with his head band and tight leather pants in every single color really did something to me. Perhaps it was even those yellow or red or black leather pants that turned me gay... I'm not sure but I do know I thought he was one hottie. Plus I really loved the songs. "The Kid Is Hot Tonite" was the second single from their 1980 self titled debut album. From the moment I heard it on the radio I loved it. In fact, I loved it so much I had to request it over and over and over at our local rock station WIFC. I'm not sure if that station still exists but when we were kids that was the only place to hear the new rock of the day. One night while staying up late with my friend Samantha, I called and called and called and ended up talking with the DJ for hours. I have the strangest feeling he thought I was a girl the whole time but being a rather strange and somewhat manipulative child, I never bothered to tell him the truth. I know you're all thinking, "Holy crap!" but at the time it seemed innocent enough, but now I realize the whole scenario could've been the opening montage of Law & Order - Special Victims Unit - but in 1981 it was harmless fun.

As for the song itself, it's pop/rock genius and it has a fairly fine sense of new wave to it. In fact the entire debut album by Loverboy feels more new wave than the hard rock they would come to be known for. Still to this day, "The Kid Is Hot Tonite" is my favorite song they ever put out... "How do you like him so far/ how do you like his style/ how do you like the way he looks and the way he smiiiiles..." Well, if he looks anything like Mike Reno did in '81 then the kid is hot tonite! I couldn't find any video of the song that showed off Reno's hot leather pants so here's the band performing the song recently, not exactly the same image but the song is still really good!

#39. THEY DON'T KNOW - Tracey Ullman (Kirsty MacColl)
MCA/Stiff single #52347 (US) / Stiff single BUY 180 (UK)
Chart Debut: March 17, 1984 (US)/ September 24, 1983 (UK)
Chart Position: #8 US / #2 UK

An almost forgotten little gem from the early 80s this is the Tracey Ullman you think it is. The Tracey Takes On... of the 1990s - the woman with a thousand voices and roles. When she first began she was but a token comedienne starring in a somewhat funny show called Girls On Top, written by and produced by Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders - yes, the girls who gave us Ab Fab. It also starred Ruby Wax, an American comedienne who for whatever reasons has made the UK her home and here Stateside is barely recognized. Anyhoos, the Trace left the show and decided pop songs was the way to go. Lucky for her she chose one of my all time fav gals Kirsty Mac Coll to help her out. Kirsty had made a bit of a splash with her own version of "They Don't Know" in 1979, then made interesting, lovely, exceptional singles sparingly until her untimely death a few years ago.

But in 1983, she helped out with Tracey and the single chosen was this gem, with its girl group production, Tracey's high vocal tones and as is always the case with a Kirsty song - very clever lyrics. Plus the bonus of Tracey's version is after the guitar solo when the voice chimes in, "Baby!" and I turn up the volume every single time. Incidentally, I've read but never have known for sure that it's actually Kristy's voice there taken from her version of the song. Anyhoos, the song of hidden love, "They don't know about us and they've never heard of love..." was Ms. Ullman's one big pop claim in the US but she did it very well, and for crying out loud, Paul McCartney was in her video! Watch it here!

#38. ONLY THE LONELY - The Motels
(Martha Davis)
Capitol Single #5114 (US)/ Capitol single #263 (UK)
Chart Debut: May 29, 1982 US
Chart Position: #9 US

Martha Davis can turn a lyric about a fish fry into the most dramatic reading you have ever heard. Not there are any songs by the Motels about fish fries, I'm just saying drama oozes from her voice no matter what her subject matter is. In most cases, the subject matter is lost love or broken down characters. In their biggest US single "Only The Lonely" we get both. "We walked the loneliest mile/ we smiled without any style/ we kissed all together wrong/ no intentions..." Sophisticated pop is what Martha does best and this little pop ballad clocking in at only 3:15 has more dramatic pauses, solos and haunting lyrics that most artists mutter in their entire careers. If you haven't by now I strongly suggest you find yourself a Motels compilation and listen to it beginning to end, and back again. It really doesn't matter what CD or old album you find because I guarantee you won't be disappointed. As for the rest of their career, the Motels had a few more clever and over looked hits - "Take The L", "Suddenly Last Summer", "Shame," "Shock" - all of which further proved Martha Davis was a drama queen - and for once it's meant as a compliment. Watch the video.

#37. INTO THE GROOVE - Madonna
(Madonna/Stephen Bray)
Sire single #8934 (UK)
Chart Debut: July 27, 1985 (UK)
Chart Position: #1 UK

In June of 1985, my fav Madonna performance hit the screens – Desperately Seeking Susan and along with it a little dance ditty entitled “Into The Groove.” Probably one of her most famous singles ever, the song was actually never released in the US as a single. Instead it was on the 12” single for Angel. The UK however would have none of that and they released the song as a single and it shot all the up to #1. It’s one of those strange occurrences I guess for it is still one of her most popular songs –“Get into the groove boy you’ve got to prove your love for mee….” I can’t hear the song without spouting off lines from the movie, like,
“Maybe she’s having an affair,”
“I think I would know if my wife were having an affair?”
“Why? You didn’t know she was a prostitute.”

and of course the image of Aidan Quinn as Des with his licking lip scenes, his losing his towel at just the right precise moment... well, it all just makes me want to get up on my feet and dance to the beat. I tried to look for a video shot of Aidan and his lovely derriere, but alas it was a no go so instead watch the Madonna video here!




#36. DON'T YOU WANT ME - The Human League
(John Callis/Phillip Oakley/Phillip Wright)
A&M/Virgin single #2397 (US)/ Virgin single #433 (UK)
Chart Debut: April 10, 1982 (US) / December 5, 1981 (UK)
Chart Position: #1 US / #1 UK

One of the rare instances on my list where the song was not only a hit in both countries, but it was also #1 in both countries.. this electro gem from the Human League was actually the very first #1 single for the Virgin record label and I personally believe it helped them fund all those airplanes they have.

A clever little take on fame, using people and bitterness, "Don't You Want Me" has it all. Our vocals take us through both the female and male interpretations of the love affair and we are left wondering who is really telling the truth. Personally I believe in the words "I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar/ that much is true/ but even then I knew I'd find a much better life/ either with or without you..." Sassy fun. Watch the video here!

and though I know you have a much better life than one in which you constantly read blogs all day long, I hope you will join us again, as we count down numbers 35-31 on our way to the #1 Single of the 1980s (according to me!)

Labels: Aidan Quinn, Human League, Loverboy, Madonna, Martha Davis, The Motels, Top 100 Singles Of the 1980s, Tracey Ullman

posted by swivek @ 9:39 PM 0 comments