The Blog of Rudy Amid » 80s

Music of the 80′s – Movie Edition

rudyamid — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:51:28 +0000

Two things I did a lot while growing up: Watched movies and listened to radio. In the 80′s, the movies had a strong influence on what’s being played on radio. Sometimes the music was much better than the movie! These are some 80′s songs, as part of movie soundtracks, still stuck in my mind:

Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me (1985)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAdaQhitdKg

The “Breakfast Club” is a great movie. It’s one of John Hughes’ classic teen movie. The soundtrack is unforgettable to me. I just love this song. I heard it so many times and I still don’t get tired of it. A bit of trivia: the song was turned down by Billy Idol and Bryan Ferry. I can’t imagine those two sing it, anyway.

OMD – If You Leave (1986)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-dPjM5GiQ

[Original Video Link]

Another classic John Hughes’ film, “Pretty In Pink” has many classic songs. This OMD song in particular was played on the radio so many times, it was hard to miss. The contender is the song “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want“” by The Smiths.

The Furniture – Brilliant Mind (1986)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JeEXP717T0

Another one from Hughes’ film, “Some Kind of Wonderful“, but this time the soundtrack went alternative. This song in particular was played a lot on CFNY 102.1 alternative music station in the 80′s. I still like it.

Harold Faltermeyer – Top Gun Anthem (1986)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCTJmXrgsFg

As I posted earlier, the movie “Top Gun” was a blockbuster success and the soundtrack went to #1 with it. The theme song represented the movie quite well. I also like Faltermeyer’s previous work: “Axel F Theme“.

Bob Seger – Shakedown (1987)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk-W_i7Z59I

I really like the movie Beverly Hills Cop. The sequel is not bad, but not as good as the first one. For some reason, I enjoyed this song by Bob Seger on the sequel, more than the soundtrack of the first movie. I think it just a really upbeat song, and fun to sing along.

David Foster – Love Theme St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=blnXuYiY8Y0

Once in a while, I like a good ballad . This composition is particularly beautiful. Great melody. For a “love theme” it’s quite cheerful. The movie… not so memorable.

Huey Lewis and The News – Power of Love (1985)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbYQXmWrtpA

[Original Video Link]

“Back to the Future” is awesome movie, and it has an equally awesome song by Huey Lewis. I know the lyrics well. I’ll probably ace it in Karaoke.

Duran Duran – A View To A Kill (1985)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ResNDwq_5k

[Original Video Link]

I really don’t care about the movie “A View to a Kill“. For a Bond film, it was badly written, badly acted, and the stunts were boring. However, the featured song was great and they had chosen the correct contemporary band to play it.

Kenny Loggins – Footloose (1984)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL3EepgDe4g

“Footloose” is a good coming of age movie. This is Kevin Bacon’s breakout film. I don’t think he made any other decent film after this, other than “Tremors”. Anyway, the song from Kenny Loggins is so awesome, and it looked like they had fun doing the final dance scene in the movie.

Irene Cara – What A Feeling (1983)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILWSp0m9G2U

“Flashdance” was one of those movies where the soundtrack was better than the movie. Not a good feeling for the producers and director.

Bonus Track

Killing Joke – Eighties (1985)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjyKRRJQEpU

[Original Video Link]

This song was played a lot on alternative radios, and popular in the clubs. The guitar riffs are mesmerizing, and not overwhelming. Little did I know, this song was part of the “Weird Science” soundtrack! I can’t remember where it was played in the movie. I should watch that movie again.

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Music of the 80′s – Movie Edition

Music of the 80′s – UK Club Edition

rudyamid — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:20:41 +0000

In my continuing series of 80′s music (re)collection, I’m listing a few more that were stuck in my mind. During my teenage years, I went clubbing quite a bit. When I was a DJ, I played them a lot, too. These songs were popular in Europe, but in North America¹ they were obscure – at least initially. They were played often in alternative radio and clubs. Now, they’re well known and have huge influences on new bands everywhere.

New Order – Blue Monday (1983)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV7LKjTV5oI

I’m a huge fan of New Order. They started off in the 70′s as Joy Division. Since the lead singer died, they moved on to form the new band. They began with the same depressing music style of Joy Division, but later changed to a more upbeat “clubby” songs which got the attention of the masses. They finally broke up a couple of years ago. It’s too bad, most new alternative bands now want to sound like them – and usually succeed.

Pet Shop Boys – Opportunity (Let’s Make Lots of Money) (1985)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1aYZ3e5EI0

[Original Video Link]

In a Roling Stone magazine, a critic wrote PSBs were “Britain’s Dopiest Duo”. When a friend introduced me to the Please album, I dismissed that critical review. They produced some of the catchiest melody, with smart lyrics. They also made several remixes – labeled them as “dance” tracks. So it was no surprise their songs made it to clubs. This song reminded me of my clubbing days. The PSBs are still together making new albums. I haven’t listened to them lately. They’ve lost their unique sound.

Depeche Mode – Strange Love (1987)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5L0l9hS958

[Original Video Link]

I went to see these guys at the CNE Grandstand in 1987 when they were promoting Music For the Masses album. The appeal of this band was it never went mainstream, yet popular enough in the clubs. I just like them because they always reinvent themselves.

ABC – The Look of Love (1982)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuLcogdames

[Original Video Link]

This group is one of those bands that made me look back and ask, “Where are they now?” Apparently, they were still busy touring in 2009! They were so good back in the 80′s, with their pop dance tunes, but somehow I lost track of them after their album Alphabet City. Anyway, this song was part of the classy album Lexicon of Love, which has wonderful strings orchestra for a pop song. Very catchy. Very dance-able.

Human League – Don’t You Want Me (1981)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KVlz88gXNA

[Original Video Link]

This is a classic 80′s dance tune. Always a floor filler whenever I played this song in parties. I just read the Human League story on Wikipedia, and they seem to have a rough past – but strangely enough the lead singer, Phil Oakey, is still recording, and touring! I’ll bet people will go see them just to hear this song again.

Duran Duran – The Reflex (1983)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsKCcGFrwJQ

[Original Video Link]

Finally, the 80′s dance scene is not complete without these guys. They were the poster children of MTV. Girls loved them. DJs loved to play their songs. However, my personal favorite is “Come Undone“, from their self-titled album in 1993. Since this is about the 80′s, I chose The Reflex because it was their final shining world Pop Music glory.

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Music of the 80′s – UK Club Edition

Canadians had a tendency to like European music.

Music of the 80′s

rudyamid — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:45:49 +0000

A friend once asked me, “What is my favorite 80′s music?” That’s not an easy question to answer. I can’t think of one song that represents an entire decade of music. Instead, the music was integrated into the experiences that occurred in the 80′s.

There are many examples, and in the next few months or so, I’ll try to recall some of my memories of the 80′s as they relate to music that I heard.

Hall and Oates: “I Can’t Go For That” (1981)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccenFp_3kq8

This song reminded me of winter days in Toronto when we would drive, in my uncle’s station wagon, for miles and miles to Richmond Hill to buy some computer hardware & software. The radio station put this song under heavy rotation.

The Police: Every Little She Does Is Magic (1981)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfztiGanKS8

My sisters and uncle had these get togethers with their friends at the house. They would play The Police album “Ghost in the Machine” a lot. This song particularly stuck in my mind because of the catchy beat… and the word “magic”.

Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (1983)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

With the popularity of MTV starting in 1981, my cousin, who was fashionably cool, would watch the show a lot. Since there were only a handful of music videos back then, they played the same videos over and over again. One of the most unique (both in sound and sight) was this Eurythmics video. Seriously, do women actually have short orange hair??

Michael Jackson: Billie Jean (1983)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y

One of MTV’s favorite is Michael Jackson. Billie Jean just had one of those very catch beat and melody. For the longest time, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, “Billie Jean not my low-fa. She’s just a girl, said that I’m not the one. The chair’s not my son.” Memorable song, none the less.

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Music of the 80′s

Hey DJ (Hero)!

rudyamid — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:15:42 +0000

I used to be a DJ in the 80′s, and I enjoy doing party mixes for a crowd, or to a tape recorder. Having two turntables (and sometimes a drum machine), and playing various dance/club songs were fun me. It was an expensive hobby too, I bought a lot of vinyls.

Now, it looks like Activision is going to bring back memories for me with their latest game DJ Hero. It’s like Guitar Hero but using turntable and mixer instruments. I’ve been anticipating this for a while. It looks like it has the “fun” factor in it. However, just like a serious guitar player would laugh at Guitar Hero, I’m also laughing at this setup. It’s marketed to gamers, I suppose I can’t put it down too much. I’ll just roll with it, and enjoy it as pure fun & games.

Here’s the demo from E3 2009.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=f46drTL7e4E

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Hey DJ (Hero)!

April Fool… The Song

rudyamid — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:44:06 +0000

While everyone’s putting up fake posts and news, I decided to go against all of that and write a post about one my favourite band: Chalk Circle. They only released three albums back in the 80′s. By far, their most successful one was “The Great Lakes” EP. One of the popular song from the album was “April Fool”. The melody sounds like Simple Minds‘ “Sanctify Yourself”. Chris Tait, the lead singer, has a voice like Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen. Chalk Circle was called a thinking man’s band because of their smart lyrics. It’s actually pretty difficult to classify their music: It’s smarter than Pop; softer than Rock; more mainstream than Alternative. Thanks to the CRTC rule regarding air-time of mostly Canadian content, I got to hear them a lot in Toronto’s radio and television stations.

Last year I was looking for the original album and couldn’t find it. Now it seems they have a Greatest Hits album which I’ll have to pick up, soon.

Photo Credit: chalkcircle.ca

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April Fool… The Song

Musique Non Stop

Musique Non Stop

rudyamid — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:04:41 +0000

Back in the mid-80′s, I used to be a DJ. Yes, a disc jockey. You know, the guy who spins vinyl and mix tapes for fun and profit. I used to do weddings and private parties. I had a great time doing it, even though it was exhausting work, carrying all of that equipment and doing the set-up/tear-down. I own a lot of vinyls, cassette tapes, and CDs from that era. I can imagine what it’s like to be a DJ now. I’ve seen programs that can beat mix with MP3s and Internet streaming that redefines sending a Mix Tape. I suppose they still need to lug those big speakers around. They haven’t miniaturized good sounding speakers, yet.

My music taste is definitely stuck in the 80′s. As a teenager, I was more impressionable. Peer pressure helped too, as my buddies would listen to the music they liked, introduced them to me, and I assimilated. There were bad music; there were good music; there were awesome music. There were also guilty pleasure music, artsy music, and timeless fun music. I’d listen to them all! Music was the drug for me back in the 80′s.

Now that I’m older, I’ve become picky and too stubborn to change my taste. I still enjoy a few new music every now and then, but not enough to leave a lasting impression. It’s also interesting to note the 80′s bands are now coming back releasing new albums. Then there are new bands doing wonderful, worse, and weird covers of the popular 80′s music. In my mind, there’s still no better music than the 80′s.

Photo credit: pokpok

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Musique Non Stop

The Blog of Rudy Amid » 80s

Music of the 80′s – Movie Edition

Simple Minds – Don’t You Forget About Me (1985)

OMD – If You Leave (1986)

The Furniture – Brilliant Mind (1986)

Harold Faltermeyer – Top Gun Anthem (1986)

Bob Seger – Shakedown (1987)

David Foster – Love Theme St. Elmo’s Fire (1985)

Huey Lewis and The News – Power of Love (1985)

Duran Duran – A View To A Kill (1985)

Kenny Loggins – Footloose (1984)

Irene Cara – What A Feeling (1983)

Bonus Track

Killing Joke – Eighties (1985)

Related posts:

Music of the 80′s – UK Club Edition

New Order – Blue Monday (1983)

Pet Shop Boys – Opportunity (Let’s Make Lots of Money) (1985)

Depeche Mode – Strange Love (1987)

ABC – The Look of Love (1982)

Human League – Don’t You Want Me (1981)

Duran Duran – The Reflex (1983)

Related posts:

Music of the 80′s

Hall and Oates: “I Can’t Go For That” (1981)

The Police: Every Little She Does Is Magic (1981)

Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (1983)

Michael Jackson: Billie Jean (1983)

Related posts:

Hey DJ (Hero)!

Related posts:

April Fool… The Song

Related posts:

Musique Non Stop

Related posts: