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
# 65-61
It's got to be a strange twist of fate that brings us ever closer to the top as we count down the TOP 100 SINGLES OF THE 80s! Now let's go on to numbers 65-61!
65. TWIST OF FATE – Olivia Newton-John
(Kipner/Beckett)
MCA single #52284 (US)/ EMI single #5438 (UK)
Chart Debut: November 15, 1984 (US)/ November
Chart Position: #3 US / #50 UK
I don’t care how corny it may sound to some people but Olivia Newton-John is one of my all time favorite singers. I love just about everything she ever does or records. I have loved her when she was country, I loved her when she went Sandy sass, through her endless aerobic workouts, her synth pops and her sultry late 80s look. It’s
Grease that really made me a Livvie lover and I’ve never looked back.
“Twist Of Fate” came out a few years after the huge success of
Grease but it was with John Travolta that Liv was once again connected to when they made the 1983 film
Two Of A Kind, from which this single is taken. Now the movie isn’t nearly as bad as the critics want you to believe. It’s a little tale about divine intervention where the big guy in the sky will only stop the destruction of the world should two unlikely people put aside their dastardly habits and find love in each other (our heroes).
Interestingly enough, one doesn’t have to sit through the movie to get the gist of the storyline for its all right there in the song’s lyrics –
“Do we deserve a second chance/ how did we fall into this circumstance?/ we weren’t so straight and narrow/ this is much more than we deserve/ a higher voice has called the tune/ two hearts that lost their beat will now resume/ the gift of life extension/ by divine intervention…” Oh yes, thumping along over an oh so 1983 synth line Livvie tells us it must be a twist of fate telling us that Heaven can wait.. and if the song wasn't thrilling enough just look at how cool Livvie looks on the record jacket!
Watch the video!
64. I DON’T WANT YOUR LOVE – Duran Duran
(LeBon/Rhodes/Taylor)
Capitol single #44237 (US)/ Parlophone single #YOUR1 (UK)
Chart Debut: October 22, 1988 (US)/ October 1, 1988 (UK)
Chart Position: #4 US / #14 UK
I always liked Duran Duran but never got on the big New Romantic phase that they were such a part of. My friends were all over the boys of Duran and my best pal Melsie swore Nick Rhodes was the hottest piece of Duran meat ever. But other than a few songs here and there after
“Planet Earth” in 1981, I didn’t run out to buy the latest Duran merchandise. That is until
“I Don’t Want Your Love” and its parent album
Big Thing came out in 1988. At the time I was going through my teenage runaway schtick and my gal pal Ryanne would pick me up every night in her yellow and black Omni O24 and take us off to work at the Crack’d Pot Café. This song was one of the oh so many gems we would jam to as we headed through the night. For some reason all of my teenage lust and bitterness was exemplified in this Duran Duran song and the dead on sexual energy of the songs lyrics still make me feel like a teenager and when those background b-girls chime in, come on – it’s pure magic.
Watch the video!
63. MICKEY – Toni Basil
(Mike Chapman/Nicky Chinn)
Chrysalis single #2638/ Radialchoice single #TIC4 (UK)
Chart Debut: October 9, 1982 (US)/ February 6, 1982 (UK)
Position: #1 US / #2 UK
Toni Basil’s album
Word Of Mouth is one of the most overlooked albums in the new wave era of the early 1980s. Working with the Mothersbaugh brothers of
Devo and covering two of their songs, this album has new wave all over it. But alas everyone only remembers
“Mickey”, but that isn’t necessarily a crying shame because
“Mickey” is one of the most fun singles to come out of the era. Since everyone knows the song I won’t go into much detail about but will instead give you some tid bits of trivia you probably will never need to know.
1.
“Mickey” is a cover of a song called
“Kitty” which was sung from the male perspective.
2. Toni Basil only recorded the album because she wanted to make the videos.
Word Of Mouth was released as a video and an album at the same time.
3. The cheerleading stomps were not in the original
“Kitty” song. Toni added them as she wanted to make the video with cheerleading choreography.
4. Toni Basil was and is a world class choreographer who has done dance numbers for films including some Elvis Presley movies and has been Bette Midler’s choreography since the early 70s.
5. Terry Ellis, the head of Chrysalis Records released
“Mickey” as a single after his young daughter heard it and couldn’t stop singing it.
Check out the video!
62. HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Concrete Blonde(Concrete Blonde)
IRS single #102096
Released: 1989
Chart Position: -
In the liner notes for the remastered version of Concrete Blonde’s
Free – the album which spawned the
“Happy Birthday” single – Midwest born Kevin Couch states,
“Growing up in the Midwest I would often romanticize about what life would be like in Los Angeles. No one painted a more vivid picture than Concrete Blonde. This was a darker Los Angeles where one could find crippling frustration, helplessness and even loneliness on their birthday. However, behind it all there was a strong feeling of empowerment and independence.” Reading his statements, I realized the whole thing could’ve been written by me. Like Kevin, I had absolutely no dillusions about the city of angels when I moved here, and a lot of that had to do with the countless hours I listened to Concrete Blonde.
”Happy Birthday” shows the desolatation and loneliness one can feel all alone in the cold city – particularly alone on your own birthday.
“Outside in the hall, there’s a cat fight/ it’s just after midnight/ I guess I’ll be all right/ I’m laid out on the floor/ drunk and poor…” The coolest part about the song is Johnette isn’t terribly bothered about her situation, she just smokes out the window, stares at her ceiling stain and wishes herself a happy birthday while a poppy little song plays behind her. One more brilliant gem from the brilliant mind of Johnette Napolitano.
Watch the video!
61. LOVE IS A STRANGER - Eurythmics
(Annie Lennox/Dave A Stewart)
RCA single #13618 (US)/ #DA1 (UK)
Chart Debut: October 15, 1983 (US)/ April 9, 1983 (UK)
Chart Position: #23 US / #3 UK
Where
“Happy Birthday” hides its glumness inside cheery music, Annie and Dave make no qualms in
“Love Is A Stranger” about being in moody territory and they are going to suck you in whether you like or it or not.
“Love is a stranger of a different kind…” so the song goes, and Annie tells us love will temp you in and tear you apart, love is like a drug that after only one taste you won’t get enough of the stuff, and of course love is the ultimate monster which leaves you walking around like a zombie. With Dave’s edgy synth sounds and Annie’s powerful pipes you’d think I would’ve paid more attention to her warnings.
Watch the video here!
We've had dangerous love monsters, lust, lonely birthdays and divine intervention so come back tomorrow as we keep on moving and see what other treasures the top 100 singles has to offer us as we head to numbers 60-56!Labels: Concrete Blonde, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Olivia Newton-John, Toni Basil, Top 100 Singles Of the 1980s
