#80s

On the Road: Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth Tour, 1989

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Debbie_gibson_electric_youthDebbie Gibson‘s Electric Youth Tour was one of my first concerts and the first one I went to unchaperoned. My best friend and I, 16 at the time, got tickets for the Philadelphia stop slated for August 1, 1989 and waited anxiously all summer for the date to arrive. We were huge fans of Debbie’s since Out of the Blue – we listened to her albums (on cassette, of course), had Electric Youth perfume on our dressers, and would have worn hats just like Debbie if we had any prayer of pulling it off.

Debbie embarked on the Electric Youth tour in 1989 to promote her second album of the same name. The album produced four singles, including the No. 1 hit Lost in Your Eyes. Continue reading →

45 RPMs: Skid Row I Remember You

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Remember yesterday, walking hand in hand
Love letters in the sand, I remember you

Skid Row’s I Remember You is 80s power ballad perfection. I don’t know what this song reminds me of more – teenage heartbreak, lead singer Sebastian Bach‘s impossibly perfect hair, or the frustration at having absolutely no idea what the lyrics “love letters in the sand” actually were in the days before you could simply Google them.
skid-row1_0

Released in 1989, I Remember You was the third single off of the group’s debut album, right after 18 and Life scared us all straight. It reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and perhaps more importantly, according to Sebastian Bach in a 2007 interview, it was the No. 1 prom song in 1990. Continue reading →

45 RPMs: Beastie Boys Brass Monkey

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I drink Brass Monkey and I rock well
I got a Castle in Brooklyn (that’s where I dwell)

beastie-1362673472This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the Beastie Boys‘ debut album Licensed to Ill. Like so many others, I’ve been obsessed with this entire album since 1986, and I always come back to Brass Monkey as one of my top tracks.

Brass Monkey was the second single released from Licensed to Ill with Posse in Effect as the B side. The song reached No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100, which surprised me; I would have guessed it had charted higher. I remember this song being huge among my circle of friends when Licensed to Ill first came out. Beastie-BoysOf course, we were teenagers at the time, and I’m sure anything involving partying and alcohol seemed incredibly cool and intriguing, even if we had absolutely no idea at the time exactly what Brass Monkey was. (It was long thought the Beasties were rapping about a combination of malt liquor and orange juice, but in a 2014 interview, Mike D challenged everything we know to be real and true in this world by stating it was actually about a pre-mixed cocktail of dark rum, vodka, and orange juice. Say what?) Continue reading →

45 RPMs: New Edition Mr. Telephone Man

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Some strange man is on the telephone
He keeps telling me my baby ain’t home

new edition phoneIn the age of smartphone technology, kids today will never experience the true satisfaction of a phone’s click as it slams down into its cradle. New Edition’s Mr. Telephone Man brings us back to a day when your phone weighed as much as the nightstand it was sitting on. Before New Kids on the Block captured the hearts of teenage girls everywhere, Ralph, Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, and Mike were the boy band that would inspire all future boy bands.

In Mr. Telephone Man, New Edition, which would later spawn Bobby Brown’s solo career and Bell Biv Devoe, laments about what must be a faulty telephone line, “because when I dial my baby’s number, I get a click every time.” So young, so naive. We just wanted to scoop them up and hug them and promise to answer every single one of their calls. Continue reading →

On the Road: Cyndi Lauper’s Fun Tour, 1983-1984

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Cyndi Lauper‘s She’s So Unusual was one of my very first albums, and the Fun Tour that supported it was my first concert. Cyndi’s first major headlining tour lasted from November 1983 through December 1984, covering North America and three stops in Europe. lauper tour shirt

I saw the September 6, 1984 show at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. Philly natives The Hooters opened for Cyndi. Because I had actually seen her in concert, I was elected president of my town’s unofficial chapter of the Cyndi Lauper Fan Club, which consisted of me and about four of my friends. I took my duties very seriously at the time (there was a handwritten newsletter and lots of Cyndi buttons pinned on denim), and I still remember that tour living up to its name – just a really fun time with lots and lots of energy. Continue reading →

45 RPMs: Split Enz I Got You

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I don’t know why sometimes I get frightened
You can see my eyes, you can tell that I’m not lyin’

Remember New Zealand rock band Split Enz? We can thank them for Crowded House, which singer and guitarist Neil Finn formed when he left the band, and for the impossibly catchy tune I Got You. This song doesn’t just get into your head; it sets up camp and parties there for days. When I think of new wave pop and the early days of MTV, I think of I Got You. i got you video 2

From the album True Colours, I Got You was released as a single in 1980 with Double Happy as the B side. It reached No. 53 on the U.S. chart, but shot all the way to No. 1 on both the Australian and New Zealand charts. Written by Finn, it was the band’s first international hit. I don’t own any Split Enz on vinyl, but True Colours and I Got You have been on my Want List for awhile. split-enz-i-got-you-1980

45 RPMs: Madonna Into the Groove

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And you can dance
For inspiration

The song that inspired this blog’s name seemed like a good place to start. Madonna‘s Into the Groove, released in 1985, was arguably the greatest gift that the movie Desperately Seeking Susan gave to the free world. (That, and the revelation that you can use a hand dryer on your armpits simply by turning up the nozzle.) I was obsessed with Madonna in the 80s, and this easily ranks in my top 5 of her songs.Madonna Desperately

Inspired by the underground dance scene – which loved Madge just as hard as she loved it back – Into the Groove was Madonna’s first No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom. Never released as a single in the United States, the song was relegated to the B side of Angel, which, other than Madonna’s laugh track at the beginning of the song, doesn’t hold up as well after 30-plus years. And while Into the Groove was featured in Desperately Seeking Susan, it didn’t appear on the soundtrack due to licensing restrictions. It later appeared on the 1985 European reissue of Like a Virgin and on compilation albums like Celebration and You Can Dance. Continue reading →