Today’s video is Summertime Girls from 1985 by the band Y&T. The song was released as a single from the band’s seventh album, Down for the Count. It was also a studio track that appeared on the band’s live album, Open Fire that came out in early 1985.
Summertime Girls was the band’s highest charting single on the Hot 100 peaking at #55. The song got airplay on rock radio and went as high as #16 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The video was in heavy rotation on MTV and the song still gets played on classic rock radio.
Y&T was formed in 1974 in California and was originally called Yesterday and Today. The band has sold over four million albums and is still touring the world.
Click on the image below to stream, or download, Best Of Y & T ’81-’85 via Amazon.
Love Gun, by Kiss, was released on this day, June 30, back in 1977. The album contained such Kiss classics as Love Gun, Christine Sixteen, Shock Me, and I Stole Your Love. The album was released at the height of the band’s popularity and went on to sell over a million copies. The somewhat controversial single, Christine Sixteen hit #25 on the top forty charts.
The album is noted for being the band’s first album to feature each member on lead vocals. It was also the last studio album to have Peter Criss play drums on every song. Love Gun was produced by Eddie Kramer as were four other albums by the band. He was also the producer for three solo albums by Kiss Guitarist Ace Frehley.
Click the image below to stream or buy Love Gun via Amazon.
Every Friday, we will spotlight a forgotten, or obscure music video from the Gen X era. Today’s video is Cruel to Be Kind by Nick Lowe from 1979. The song appeared on Lowe’s second album, Labour of Lust. The single went to #12 on the top forty charts and was Lowe’s biggest hit in America.
The music video for the song was one of the first videos on MTV. Footage of Lowe’s actual wedding to Country music singer Carlene Carter appeared in the video. Carter is the daughter of well-known Country performers June Carter and Carl Smith. June is best known for being the wife of Johnny Cash and being a member of the legendary Carter Family, performing with her mother Maybell and sisters Helen and Anita. Carl Smith had thirty top 10 Country hits including 5 #1 songs.
Click on the image below to download Cruel to be Kind via Amazon.
Every Friday, we will spotlight a forgotten, or obscure music video from the Gen X era. Ann Wilson, the lead singer of Heart had a birthday this week. So in honor of that, our flashback video is City’s Burning from 1982.
The song is on Heart’s sixth album, Private Audition. This record came out in between their classic rock heyday of the seventies and their huge pop success in the mid-eighties. City’s Burning got a good amount of airplay on what was then called Album Rock radio. It did not make the top 40, but it did go to #15 on Billboard’s top rock tracks.
Click the image below to download “City’s Burning” by Heart via Amazon.
Every Friday, we will spotlight a forgotten, or obscure music video from the Gen X era. This week it’s a funky flashback from 1982, Let It Whip from the Dazz Band.
The song hit #1 on the R&B charts and went to #5 on the pop chart. It also earned the band a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Let It Whip was the band’s only top 40 pop hit. They had continued success on the R&B charts with nine other hits, including three of those that hit the top ten.
Click the link below to order The Best of Dazz Band via Amazon.
Every Friday, we will spotlight a forgotten, or obscure music video from the Gen X era.
Today’s Music video is Der Kommissar from After the Fire. The song went to #5 on the singles chart in 1983. After the Fire was an English progressive rock band who went New Wave. This was their only hit in America. Austrian singer Falco, had an international hit with Der Kommissar in 1982.
Click the link to download Der Kommissar via Amazon.
Six years after the debut of the first Rocky movie, Rocky III was released during Memorial Day weekend in 1982. The film was hugely successful earning nearly 270 million at the box office. It was the fourth highest grossing movie of 1982.
Even more impressive than the financial success was the several ways that the film contributed to the pop culture of the eighties and to the Gen X era.
Mr. T.
Before Rocky III, Mr. T was a bodyguard and bouncer in Chicago. He appeared on NBC’s Games People Play as a contestant for the “America’s Toughest Bouncer” competition. He won that event and this is also where he was first noticed by Sylvester Stallone. This lead to him being cast as “Clubber Lang”, Stallone’s opponent in the film. Mr. T.’s famous catchphrase “I pity the fool” also came from Rocky III. The following year, he was part of the cast of The A Team on NBC and he went on to become a true 80s icon.
Hulk Hogan
Before Hulk Hogan became the biggest fan favorite during the pro wrestling boom of the mid-eighties, he was a bad guy in the World Wrestling Federation. The WWF then was only a northeastern regional territory and not yet the national brand that it was soon to become. This is also where Stallone first saw him perform and this lead him to be cast as Thuderlips, the grappler Rocky fought in a charity wrestler vs boxer match. After the movie was completed, Hogan left the WWF and started wrestling for The American Wrestling Association, which covered the upper midwest and parts of the west coast. Thanks in part to the success of the film, this is where he became a good guy, and Hulkamania started to run wild! In December of 1983, he went back to the WWF, and a month later beats the Iron Shiek to become WWF champion. Also in 84, the WWF went nationwide and Pro Wrestling becomes a true 80s cultural phenomenon with Hogan as its biggest star.
Eye of the Tiger
Stallone had originally wanted to use Another One Bites the Dust by Queen as the theme song for the movie. When Queen said no, Stallone requested the band Survivor create a theme song. That song, Eye of the Tiger became one of the most iconic songs ever made for a movie, and one of the signature songs of the eighties and the Gen X era. It hit number 1 on the singles charts and stayed there for six weeks. When you combine the sales for the original vinyl and the later digital downloads, nine million copies have been sold. Eye of the Tiger was also the title of an action movie from 1986 starring Gary Busey. The song was used in that film as well.
Click the link below to watch Rocky III via Amazon.Rocky III
The #1 song during the week of May 15, 1980, was Call Me by Blondie. The song stayed at the #1 spot for six weeks starting on April 19. It was also the #1 song of 1980 and the eight biggest single of the decade.
Call Me was Blondie’s second #1 song. Heart of Glass hit the top spot in 1979. The song was produced by legendary producer Giorgio Moroder and appeared on the soundtrack to the movie American Gigolo.
The #1 Country song this week back in 1982 was Willie Nelson’s classic version of Always on My Mind. The single also hit #5 on the Pop chart and #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Willie’s other big Pop hit of the eighties was a duet with Julio Iglesias, To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before, which also hit #5 on the top 40 charts.
Always on My Mind was the biggest Country single in 1982. It was the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year for 82 and 83. Nelson won a Best Male Country Performance Grammy Award and the single won Song of the Year and Best Country Song
Nelson’s version in 82 wasn’t the only time the song was a hit. Elvis Presley had a top 20 Country and Pop hit with Always on My Mind in 1972. John Wesley Ryles also had a top 20 Country hit with the song in 1979. The Pet Shop Boys had a #4 Pop hit with their version in 1987. Their version also hit #1 in the UK.
Always on My Mind was originally recorded back in 1970 by B.J. Thomas, but was not released as a single. There are over 300 versions recorded according to AllMusic.
When the first wave of Gen X kids were coming of age, Disco was riding high on the charts. It was the last Baby Boomer-driven musical movement before the new wave and the pop rock of the early MTV days dominated the airwaves.
Disco had been around for a good part of the seventies but it went into overdrive in December of 1977 when Saturday Night Fever was released into movie theaters all over the world. The 16x platinum soundtrack has sold 45 million copies. It’s the second best selling soundtrack of all time behind The Bodyguard. The soundtrack featured disco classics from The Bee Gees, Yvonne Elliman, and K.C. and the Sunshine Band.
Disco made household names out of Donna Summer and The Village People. Some other artists associated with disco are Sister Sledge, Gloria Gaynor, Anita Ward, and Alicia Bridges. As big as it got, and it got big, disco was pretty much over by 1980. Rock and New Wave was in and Generation X took over from the Boomers. While the National disco party didn’t last too long, It was and is a party that will always be talked about.
