"I resolved to call her up a thousand times a day. And ask her if she'll marry me in some old fashioned way. But my silent fears have gripped me long before I reach the phone Long before my time has tripped me must I always be alone
Every little thing she does is magic Everything she do just turns me on Even though my life before was tragic Now I know my love for her goes on"
You know how there's always that one song that unofficially sells you on a band? Well "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is what made me decide to like The Police. My dad loved them so I heard a lot of them whether I wanted to or not, but this song off of their 4th album just clicked for me. The only thing better than dad cranking it was hearing Sting sing it live some 20 years later. The song always leaves me a little bit better than it found me. "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" made it to number three on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1981, making it a bonafide hit in the states.
I'm sure that you remember this song, but do you remember the video? Check it out below!
"I never thought it would happen. I feel quite the same."
When I was a kid, Saturday afternoon usually meant a trip to the mall in the next city. My mom was always ready to shop and my dad couldn't hit the record store fast enough. There was a shop near our house, but this place was massive and it eventually turned into a local chain of about 12 different stores. But long before The Gallery of Sound was doing in-store hair band signings and meet and greets with freestyle artists, they were all about the vinyl. They also had a string of tv's set up to watch MTV, something that our cable provider wasn't yet offering. So dad would spend two hours talking to all of the same people that he had talked to the week before, clutching his new issue of Billboard as if his life depended on it. That hasn't changed at least. Getting your hands on a newsstand copy of Billboard is fairly impossible because stores that do carry it usually get a maximum of three copies in.
Anyway, I loved Saturdays because they were rooted in music one way or another. The Soap Factory Disco, Soul Train and of course, American Bandstand were all included before we even left the house. It's strange how the little things really with me because those Saturday car rides really make me smile even now. My dad had a huge gold Buick Skylark that felt (and sounded) like it could drive thru a building and come out the other side. In the summer he would drive with all of the windows down and his stereo was bumping. I realize that car radios probably sucked back then but he was forever playing with speakers and things. All I know is that I could always feel the music coming from behind me.
I soaked up Hall & Oates, Aerosmith, Tom Jones and I'm pretty sure my love of Latin rhythms first started with an extra loud extended version of Barry Manilow's Copa. There were also a lot of other songs that I fell in love with like Toto's "99". Yeah, I know there has always been a debate over the lyrics and what the song is really about. The band has changed their story a few times just to continue to throw people off and truth be told, I could care less. I can remember traffic being at a standstill just a few miles from the mall on one afternoon and not carrying because "99" was playing behind me and I could actually feel the guitar and keys.
It's still a really beautiful piece of music to me. Check it out below.
"I can cast a spell Secrets you can't tell Mix a special brew, Put fire inside of you Anytime you feel Danger or fear Then instantly I will appear Yeah oh I'm every woman It's all in me Anything you want done, baby, I do it naturally"
Remaking a big song done by an even bigger music icon is always going to be a huge risk. That said, Whitney Houston covering Chaka Khan does somehow make sense. When Chaka put out "I'm Every Woman" it was a sultry ode to capable women everywhere. Whitney's spin on it in 1993 was a little more upbeat and fun.
It was the second song off of The Bodyguard soundtrack, an album that was already enjoying crazy success thanks to Whitney's "I Will Always Love You". When the video dropped for "I'm Every Woman" we got our first look at a very pregnant Whitney who appeared to be happier than ever before. She and her bump danced all the way thru the clip, which also included a cameo appearance by TLC.
The song peaked at number 4 on Billboard's Hot 100 but enjoyed greater worldwide success than its' original version. Check out the video below. It's guaranteed to make you happy.
"Gonna be some sweet sounds Coming down on the nightshift I bet you're singing proud Oh I bet you'll pull a crowd Gonna be a long night It's gonna be all right On the nightshift Oh you found another home I know you're not alone On the nightshift"
"Nightshift" is a 1985 hit song by the Commodores and the title track from the eleventh album of the same name. The song, written by then lead singer Walter Orange was a tribute to soul/R&B singers Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye, who both died in 1984. The Commodores originally didn't want "Nightshift" to be released as a single but their record label insisted and eventually the song found its' way to number three on Billboard's Hot 100.
The video reminds me of my grandmother's house because it seemed to always be playing while I visited. "Nightshift" was also the first Commodores song to find mainstream success in spite of Lionel Richie's departure from the group. Check out the video below!
Why crawl into Monday morning when you can kick it off with a great rock track from Queensryche? "Jet City Woman" was the fourth single off of the progressive metal bands' 1990 album, Empire. It was a top ten mainstream rock track and the song that prompted me to buy the album. Pulling the trigger and doing that was a real investment back then. I think that I had really liked the other singles up until this point and so when "Jet City Woman" dropped it was just obvious that I needed a copy of Empire.
The thing was, once I bought it I realized I was absolutely in love with Geoff Tate's voice and so the album was played nonstop for months by me. The band has been around since 1981 and continues to tour but not without a bit of drama. Tate was fired from Queensryche back in 2012 after some questionable clashes with group members. Things got all kinds of ugly before they improved and a court battle left the current roster of Queensryche owning the rights to use the band's name for professional use. Tate now tours with his band under the name Operation: Mindcrime (after Queensryche's popular 1988 release) and sounds really fantastic.
Both groups do a version of that great catalog you'll no doubt remember so well. Check out "Jet City Woman" below!
While I love Billy Idol's rough and tumble style and his anthems like "Rebel Yell" have to rank among some of my all time favorite 80's tunes, I loved when he took a minute in 1987 to slow things down. "Sweet Sixteen" is such a delicate song, one that took most Idol fans by surprise. It showed that this hardcore rocker had a soft side that was worth exploring.
Items Needed Three boxes, scissors, sharp knife, different colored construction paper, black tape, hot glue gun, rope Steps
1. Cover the boxes with construction paper.
2. Go over the seams with black tape, so it forms a square pattern.
3. Arrange the boxes in a stacked formation and glue together. You can also add some tape to doubly secure it.
4. Once dry, cut a hole in the boxes large enough that you can fit in them and move around. Attach a rope to go around your neck.
"Into the flood again Same old trip it was back then So I made a big mistake Try to see it once my way Drifting body it's sole desertion Flying not yet quite the notion"
The early 90's were truly one of the most depressing eras in music history. Grunge replaced hair metal and suddenly everyone was not just introspective, but fairly depressive and that's probably why the sound didn't last for very long. The great thing about grunge was that artists had found their way back to writing real songs again. Between glam rock songs about partying and hot chicks, and dance songs about partying and having a good time, the end of the 80's songwriting lacked depth. It was kind of refreshing to hear artists saying things that mattered again.
I think one of the best examples to come out of the 90's is Alice in Chains' "Would". Sure it embodied the heavy sound that everyone was creating but it also touched on death, addiction and not passing judgment. Jerry Cantrell had been thinking of Andrew Wood (who had died of a heroin overdose a few years earlier) and all of the issues that his untimely death had caused, so he put it to music and people got it.
The song itself holds up better than most other early 90's tracks. Grunge has a way of sounding dated now and only a handful of tracks seem to have held up as well as "Would?". Check out the video below.
Items Needed
Red hoodie, jeans, basket, bike handlebars, white sheet, rope, E.T. doll or baby doll and paints
Steps1. Attach the bike handlebars to the basket. Alternatively, break off one handle on the basket and turn it into two pieces.
2. Wrap E.T. doll in a white sheet. If you’re using a regular doll, paint over its face so it kind of looks like E.T. Then cover the face with the blanket.
3. Attach a rope to the basket, so you don’t have to carry it the entire night.
I want to have some fun Move my body all night long Working hard every day So I ain't staying home no way
So technically, it's Freestyle Friday here at Boom and I know that Samantha Fox isn't exactly in that category but she is one hell of a dance artist. She has also taken part in some of those freestyle shows that criss-cross the globe so in my mind, that makes Fox fair game. Close enough, right? Plus, I've always loved her. Fox was the very first woman that I can remember bluntly singing about sex in songs that actually charted well.
"Touch Me" was her breakthrough hit in the U.S. and I think the shock value alone easily made copies fly off of the record store shelves. By the time Fox returned with a follow-up album in 1988 we all knew what she was about. "I Wanna Have Some Fun" became a hit in my senior year of high school and it was one of those club hits that my friends and I listened to in between Bon Jovi and Def Leppard. It was simply a fun track that just so happened to have a double entendre which worked perfectly for Fox's sexed up image. Check out the video below. Were you a Samantha Fox fan?
I can go for being twice as nice I can go for just repeating The same old lines Use the body Now you want my soul Ooh, forget about it Now say, no go
Yesterday afternoon we took a ride to do some shopping at a mall about 25 miles away. There are outlets about five minutes away but ironically enough (especially for a house full of book nerds) the nearest big bookstore is at that mall, so off we went. We moved to this area well over a year ago and there are a few constants in "the salt life": there is humidity even during boots weather, deer, raccoon's & ducks do coexist in our backyard and last but certainly not least, Hall & Oates is always on the radio.
Always.
We noticed this pattern after a few months. Every time we get in the car there's a Hall & Oates song. Eventually the kids were sold on this duo and when I started to rebuild by record collection we "had to" get Hall & Oates. Not that it took a lot of convincing.
I was raised on Daryl and John. I think my dad had all of their early stuff and by the time they were making slick videos in the 80's I was totally sold. I mean, does any 80's child NOT remember Hall & Oates "Private Eyes" video, complete with trench coats and claps on the beat? I didn't think so. I remember my mom's best friend running a day care out of her home back in the early 80's and I went to help her for a day. I loved Rita and would use any excuse to get to hang with her so sure, I had no problems reading stories and making sandwiches.
On this particular day though, Rita had the new Hall & Oates album (the one with "Maneater") on, all...day...long. It eventually was my job to keep flipping it over after the final song on each side. Hall & Oates were big back then, way big and not just in music. They also had their names attached to a lot of different products and you can find them in nearly every magazine pitching something.
Apparently it's not just our family that still loves Hall & Oates either. There's a reason that they are constantly on the radio here, I found that out last summer when they were scheduled to play a local festival. Tickets sold out in under ten minutes. Who didn't get any? This girl. It was also one of the few times that my media request fell on deaf ears too! Next time around you better believe that I'll be on a mission.
"I'd like to see you in the morning light I like to feel you baby when it comes to the night Now I'm here and I'm all alone Still I know how it feels, I'm alone again
Tried so hard to make you see But I couldn't find the words Now the tears they fall like rain I'm alone again without you I'm alone again without you, I'm alone again without you."
I'm not even going to pretend that there is anything profound aboutDokken's "Alone Again" because there isn't. It is simply a solid power ballad that came before many of the standards of the late 80's. In a way, Don Dokken threw down the gauntlet on how to write and perform one with his 1984 release of "Alone Again".
The melody is good, the lyrics are tight and the song is performed well. What that means is that if this song should come on when you are having a bad relationship day, it might be exactly what you need to hear to feel less alone. Check out the video below,. Pretty awesome song, isn't it?
"You're thinking up your white lies You're putting on your bedroom eyes You say you're coming home but you won't say when But I can feel it coming If you leave tonight keep running And you need never look back again Heard it from a friend who Heard it from a friend who Heard it from another you been messin' around"
I think REO Speedwagon is one of the very first bands that I really remember from childhood. I don't mean just a song here and there either. When Hi Infedelity was released it was always playing somewhere. My dad had it in his nightly rotation. The people that lived across the alley from us would blast it when they were outside and my friend Judy's older brother played it constantly too. They had the big liquor cabinet, side table, turntable thing and if it wasn't REO that was blaring then you can bet it was The Cars instead.
I knew all the words to every single song (whether I wanted to or not) but "Take It on the Run" was probably my favorite. It was a bit heavier and really showcases (still) what a great band REO Speedwagon is. Check out a live performance of it below!
But leaves turn brown and fade Ships sail away You long to say a thousand words But seasons change
If you've been reading Daily Boom for awhile then you already know that I'm a really unapologetic fan of many of the 80's girl groups, like Expose`. Today's throwback just so happens to be their very first number one hit, "Seasons Change", which topped Billboard's Hot 100 on this very week back in 1988.
"Seasons Change" was the fifth single off of Expose's Exposure album which was released in January of 1987. Since the girls were primarily marketed as a dance band and are often credited as freestyle artists it seems that maybe the team behind them didn't expect a ballad to chart well. Either that or they knew that they were saving the best for last.
This song drags me right back to that first high school breakup and I bet it takes a lot of you guys to a similar place, right? Nearly 30 years later I love how timeless "Seasons Change" is. The only thing that gives a clue that it might be an 80's track is that now infamous sax. Back then every great song had a sax solo and honestly, it's one of the things that I miss the most from 80's music!
Oh and an interesting nugget of nostalgia from this video. Gioia Bruno had just found out that she was pregnant with her daughter shortly before filming this!
It's not that I don't love you, oh no It's just that I, I've got to have room to move That's all I need, that's all I ask for Room to breathe, room to move
That's all I need, that's all I ask for Give it to me, room to move Everybody needs, room to move
You guys remember Animotion, right? They had that hit song called "Obsession" that will now probably be stuck in your head for the rest of the day simply because I mentioned it. Well, back in 1989 they also had another hit, "Room To Move" which featured Cynthia Rhodes (ex-wife of Richard Marx) and Paul Engemann on lead vocals. It was featured in the 1988 science-fiction comedy film, My Stepmother Is an Alien and reached number 9 on Billboard's Hot 100.
Believe it or not the lineup on "Room To Move" is almost entirely different from the group that first broke through back in 1984. The original band, led by Astrid Plane and Bill Wadhams, has reunited
in recent years and continues to perform. The lineup that featured Rhodes and Engemann was short lived but they did produce a great song so check it out below!
A few lines in and I'm standing in my parents' very first apartment where my love of music all began. It's a few days before Halloween and my parents were throwing a party for all of their friends. The night before was my kiddie party in our basement. I wore a Wonder Woman costume that was so NOT a Wonder Woman costume because it had a skirt and no lasso. I remember a punch bowl and bobbing for apples and little else. But my parent's party, well that was the real deal. There was neat lighting, a table full of sweets that I was never allowed to have and all of our doorways had beads hanging from them that you were supposed to walk through.
I was 7 years old and beginning to develop my own taste and thanks to my dad's music obsession disco was a big part of it. When I was about five dad started to train as a DJ at a local radio station and his little record collection on a tiny cart with wheels suddenly took over a whole wall of our living room. Even in that small apartment dad's stereo was front and center. His love of music turned into an educated love of stereo equipment. He spent two hours without fail every night cranking out tunes, everything from Pink Floyd to Blue Oyster Cult to ABBA and all the while he was fiddling with levers on all sorts of boxes that were supposed to somehow enhance the sound. I didn't know if the “woofers and tweeters” did any good but the day that he played Chic's “Le Freak” my life immediately changed.
The last song of every evening was picked out by me and by the time 1978 rolled around I was choosing things like “Ring My Bell”, “The Hustle” and “Disco Inferno”. I also waited anxiously for Saturday afternoons to roll around because, thanks to cable television and WPIX in NYC I had discovered The Soap Factory, a weekly dance show. A few weeks before my parent's party we were all watching as Blondie performed a song called “Heart of Glass”. I was mesmerized by the lead singer'sblonde hair, bright lipstick and her turquoise pants suit. My dad always watched The Soap Factory with me, but this time even my mom stopped to check out Debbie Harry. I mean, how could you not?
My mom spent the next week or so in party planning mode. She would fill the bathroom sink with water and bubbles and I'd spend an hour in there playing with all of my Fisher Price Little People. I loved having them swim and ride in their boats every night after dinner and I can remember my mom on the phone in the next room on the phone night-after-night making plans for this bash. My dad was always the laid back one and seemed to have little involvement. She hung sparkly decorations, made food and spiked the punch all while dad was engrossed in his albums. Neither of us realized what he was actually up to and as it turned out, dad's involvement was actually monumental because he was preparing to put all of those newfound DJ skills to good use.
My mom had a surprise or two up her sleeve as well. The creativity was always flowing in that little apartment and so for the week leading up to the party when dad and his music was taking over the living room, mom was in her studio. It was a small room with her easel and mountain of art supplies on one side and her Singer sewing machine on the other. Beneath a window was a big cushion with built-in pillows to nap on. That was my spot to read or draw when mom was busy drawing advertisements for our local newspaper. Dad had thought that mom was working on extra assignments for art school when in fact she had been busy at her sewing machine making a turquoise satin pants suit, just like Debbie Harry's. She had decided to put her blonde wavy hair and 100-pound frame to good use and transform into his new favorite singer, gold cuff bracelet and all, for their Halloween party.
This one night, in particular, reminds me that at one point in time my parents really, truly were on the same page. They really did “get” each other. As mom shocked dad with her costume he was just getting the party started. Dad was the man, but his music collection was the true star of the evening. His friends were all on the floor in front of his racks of records, flipping through everything in amazement and helping him to decide what to play next. Dad's dedications were also a hit because the songs that he played weren't just for particular people but he also had hilarious reasons for his selections.
An hour or so into the party dad pulled out a surprise record that he was really excited about. It was Blondie's “Heart of Glass”, an extended dance mix that wasn't available in the states yet. When he ordered music for the station he would also add a few import records from the UK for his own collection and Blondie had just become available. It was a song that no one else knew until he played it that night but everyone loved it. Even the guys that had been downing their Michelob beer on the floor in front of the stereo all night were finally dancing. One spin of that record led to about 20 more before the night was over.
At first, I might have been the only one not in costume and that was because there was no way that I was going to put that fake Wonder Woman thing on again. My aunt (mom's younger sister) decided in the middle of what looked like a Soul Train line dance that I needed some makeup at least. She grabbed me and her purse and hauled us both into the bathroom. There Aunt Elaine pulled out her black eyeliner and within a few minutes had transformed me into “Cleopatra”. I wasn't sure exactly who that was but my eyes looked like I belonged on The Soap Factory so that kindasorta made me Debbie Harry for the night too, right?
Everyone left after midnight. I remember my dad explaining the concept of time to me and how the digital clock turning to 2:01 am meant that it was Sunday morning even though it still felt like Saturday night. Truth be told it was far later than that and somehow I was still awake. My mom tried to make me go to bed but when I begged for one more spin of “Heart of Glass” my dad put the record on before she could even bother to protest. My room needed to be cleaned up anyway because my bed was where everyone left their belongings upon arrival. They and their coats might have been gone but my toys were all over the place and my precious Little People were scattered all over the room.
I swore that I would help clean up if they let me stay up but instead I climbed into the green recliner that had been temporarily moved into my room during the party. The French doors to my room were open and I curled up there, watching as my parents dragged garbage bags around toclean up the wreckage. My mom told me that I had 5 minutes until she was putting me to bed and so I closed my eyes as Debbie Harry sang.
Who knew that nights like this one actually existed? If beaded doorways, little packs of M&M's and unexpected dance battles were what it meant to be an adult then I really couldn't wait to grow up. I closed my eyes tighter as I heard mom approaching and when she whispered to dad that I was asleep I stayed extra still until she went back to cleaning up. Eventually, I really did drift off to sleep in that chair and woke as dad was carrying me across the room to my bed. As mom tucked me in and kissed me goodnight she did the only thing that could have made this night any better, she took off her shiny cuff bracelet and put it on my arm.
You guys remember Nu Shooz, don't you? Husband-and-wife team John Smith and Valerie Day fronted the pop group, which dropped four pretty popular albums back in the 80's. 1986's Poolside brought us such singles as "I Can't Wait" and "Point of No Return", both of which are probably burned into the memory of most of us that were teens in the 80's.
In case you somehow were unfamiliar with Nu Shooz, Target latched on to "I Can't Wait", using it as part of the retail giants 2015 holiday campaign. That is helping to bring Nu Shooz to a younger audience and the timing really couldn't be better, because Valerie and John just released a new album, BagTown, a few months ago.
"Looking out a dirty old window. Down below the cars in the city go rushing by. I sit here alone and I wonder why. Friday night and everyone's moving. I can feel the heat but it's soothing. Heading down, I search for the beat in this dirty town. Down town the young ones are going. Down town the young ones are growing. We're the kids in America. We're the kids in America. Everybody live for the music-go-round."
Let's kick this week off with an 80's classic that just makes you feel good- at least for a few minutes. Kim Wilde's "Kids In America" was actually first released in the U.K. in 1981 and it took it another year to break through, in America. It was intended to be a feel good anthem and it succeeded almost immediately. The chorus was one that everyone sang back then and I think it's fair to say that if you know it, then to this day you'll find yourself singing along. Check out the video below. I'm pretty positive you'll be singing along too!
I don't believe that I deserve this ride You took me for my very heart and pride You let me down and now your hand is out Well, here's some spare change you can count
"Find Another Fool" by Quarterflash almost feels like a lost hit to me. When everyone thinks of Quarterflash I think "Harden My Heart" instantly comes to mind, right? I happened to catch the video for "Find Another Fool" the other day and remembered that THIS is the song by them that I loved most.
Rindy Ross' vocals and then sax playing is just everything and this band was pretty rock solid. Quarterflash first formed in Portland back in 1980 and within a year or so they hit it big. This live video performance was filmed in 1981 after they were already playing to huge audiences. Am I the only one that misses the saxophone making a regular appearance in currently trending music?
"A girl in love With a gleam in her eye I was a younger boy All dressed in white We're older now Do you still think about me"
When I think back to middle school musical artists like Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper had everyone's' attention. They were like the top flight of what you heard every few hours on the radio but there were also a lot of solid rock groups in the mix too. Journey, Foreigner, and Heart did a great job of breaking up the pop music. So did Night Ranger, the powerful rock band formed in San Francisco back in 1979. They were building steadily and getting decent airplay and then "Sister Christian" broke through and became one of the biggest summer songs of 1984.
It seemed impossible for the band to put out a better song but they did, by chasing "Sister Christian" with "When You Close Your Eyes". Singer Jack Blades wrote the song about reflecting on an ex-girlfriend and apparently, a lot of people could relate to wondering if an ex ever thinks of you. The chorus is infectious and whether you're 15 or 50, the sentiment will inevitably strike a chord. When it first came out I was at an age where everyone around me, myself included, was going through some sort of breakup and so the song sat at number one on the local evening radio request countdown for a really long time.
Looking back on Night Ranger's work now I think what I like the most about it is how truly timeless it is. Songs like "When You Close Your Eyes" could be released now and still have the same gut-punch effect. Check out the video below and you'll see what I mean.
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-2566594-1298431382.jpeg.jpg)
/about/whitney-houston-im-every-woman-57bb69ab5f9b58cdfd3b2da2.jpg)
