Daily Boom 80's Throwback: The Human League- 'Don't You Want Me'

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
That much is true
But even then I knew I'd find a much better place
Either with or without you
The five years we have had have been such good at times
I still love you
But now I think it's time I lived my life on my own
I guess it's just what I must do
Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me
Don't. Don't you want me?
You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me

I have to admit, I don't really remember a ton about being 11-years-old but there is one thing that does stick in my head and that's that 1982 was the year of The Human League in my house. I'm not sure if my dad was still working in radio at the time but he certainly still had his radio buddies and the ability to get his hands on any new music from just about anywhere. In late 1981 The Human League released Dare, their third studio album which didn't really strike too much of a cord here in the states, until they dropped "Don't You Want Me" and it's unforgettable video.

I'm really not sure what it was about the video that made it become so iconic but for whatever reason, the visuals really stuck and somehow felt way ahead of their time. My dad didn't just love "Don't You Want Me" but he had to get his hands on a special German (I think) extended mix import that featured machine guns on the track during the chorus. Dad had a stereo that rivaled whatever you'd find in any radio station and he always cranked things up as loud as he could get away with. This version of this song, drove my mother completely out of her mind. It was the heavy artillery fire mixed in with those synth beats that drove her out of her mind and caused some serious fights.  She would complain and it seemed for awhile there like The Human League was in some serious heavy rotation.

"Don't You Want Me" is one of those songs that I seriously connect to grade school and it seemed to pop up on a regular basis for several years of my life. I talked to my dad recently to try and convince him to come for a visit. Some health issues prevented that from happening but he recently made a point of telling me that he was listening to The Human League, making it pretty clear that I'm not the only one that remembers the drama that their song caused.

Ironically enough, my sister visited this past weekend and while we game planned how to get dad to travel a bit, "Don't You Want Me" was on in the car no less than four times out of sheer coincidence. I'm pretty sure dad's presence was indeed here in some way.

Daily Boom 90's Nostalgia: Prince- 'Thieves In The Temple'

Love if you're there come save me
From all this cold despair
I can hang when you're around
But I'll surely die if you're not there
Love come quick, love come in a hurry
There are thieves in the temple tonight
I feel like I'm looking for my soul
(Soul)
Like a poor man looking for gold
(Gold)
There are thieves in the temple tonight

Do you remember Graffiti Bridge, the Prince film from 1990? Honestly, neither do I but the soundtrack to it is pretty great.  It was also our official introduction to his then-new backing band, The New Power Generation. "Thieves In The Temple" was one of the best songs off of it and it charted very well as a single, hitting number 6 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of 1990.

The song lyrically featured Prince reflecting on a dishonest relationship with a nugget of spirituality thrown in for good measure. As for the beat, well the remixes of "Thieves In The Temple" still are fire. I remember the video debuting on MTV and it being a really big deal because it represented a brand new Prince. New look, new sound and a new band to help pull the full package together. The choreography in the video was pretty tight too. Check it out for yourself below!

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Richard Marx - 'Should've Known Better'

"Another sleepless night I can't explain

Somebody said they heard me call your name

The radio won't let you leave my mind

I know it's over but I don't know why

Should've known better

Than to fall in love with you

Now love is just a faded memory

Should've known better

Now I'm a prisoner to this pain

And my heart still aches for you"

There are very few things that I remember about the beginning of eleventh grade. It was 1987 and I was coming off my very first summer of working full time, which meant a lot of extra cash in my pocket. A lot of that cash was spent on music, of course. Richard Marx was getting airplay with "Don't Mean Nothing" which I really didn't love. But the follow-up single I couldn't get enough of. "Should've Known Better".  And the video that went with it. Marx wasn't exactly my type at the time. I preferred men with bigger hair, lipstick, and spandex, but I played his debut album into the ground.

Many years later I'll readily admit to listening to Marx quite often and "Should've Known Better" is still my favorite. He has also aged like a fine wine and is far more handsome to me now than in 1987. Daisy Fuentes (his wife since Dec. 2015) is a lucky woman. Plus it's nice to see a celeb couple that genuinely seems happy together. Check out "Should've Known Better". below.

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Samantha Fox - 'Touch Me (I Want Your Body)'

"Quick as a flash

You disappeared into the night

Did I hurt you, boy?

Didn't I treat you right?

You made me feel so good

Made me feel myself

Now I'm alone

And you're with somebody else"

Way back in 1986 Samantha Fox REALLY shook the music industry. It was a point in time when women were thought to be best at ballads or bubblegum pop tunes. Taking any stage and blatantly singing about sex was not just unheard of but it was also pretty unacceptable. The double standards were still in effect and so if a male rocker mentioned sex it was cool but women still knew better than to go there. At least until a catchy little tune called "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)" landed in DJ's hands.

I'm sure the fact that Sam was hot and a topless model didn't hurt because she looked like a poster child for sex. And this song worked. It went to number 1 all over the world and much of the music-buying public really latched on to this song. She was playful, provocative and in control- something that appealed to men and women alike.

"Touch Me" was also a great club banger so if it wasn't on your radio or MTV you could count on hearing it at the club. It literally was everywhere. Sam enjoyed a few years of success in the U.S. and she had a string of Billboard hits thanks to the impact of "Touch Me".  Check out the video below!

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Wham!- 'The Edge of Heaven'

"It's too late to stop
Won't the heavens save me?
My daddy said the devil looks a lot like you
Take me to the edge of heaven
Tell me that my soul's forgiven
Hide you baby's eyes and we can...
Take me to the edge of heaven"

This morning MTV Classic reminded me of one of my very favorite songs

by Wham! "The Edge of Heaven" was originally touted as the duo's farewell single and in many ways, it may have really been one of their best. During the summer of 1986 when it was released, George Michael was already enjoying a super-successful solo career and he was totally ready to move on. 

When asked about the obviously sexual lyrics Michael had said that he believed that he and Andrew Ridgeley had gotten away with them because at that point in time no one paid much attention to what they were saying anyway. "The Edge of Heaven" is one of the first black and white videos that I really remember and the guys looked like they had a blast making it, or at the very least they pulled off faking the fun vibe.

Currently Booming: 80's Style Halloween Costume Ideas: Pac-Man

Items Needed
Black t-shirt and tights/pants, white paint, markers, rope, heavy paper, scissors

Steps
1. Paint white circles down your pant or tight legs.
2. Cut out your desired Pac-Man character and decorate if necessary.
3. Attach a rope.

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Chaka Khan - 'Through the Fire'

"Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall For a chance to be with you I'd gladly risk it all Through the fire Through whatever, come what may For a chance at loving you I'd take it all the way Right down to the wire Even through the fire"

I remember the music of 1984 very well. I was in 7th grade and had the radio, really any radio either by my side or in my ear. Chaka Khan came out with "I Feel For You" and the song found some heavy duty radio play in between the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince and more. In gym class (which I hated) we got to listen to a few songs that were on one of the teacher's mixtapes. Chaka made the cut so gym class was just one more place where I heard her voice.

I Feel For You is her sixth solo album and as it turns out, one of the most popular ballads, "Through The Fire" was actually written for Chaka by David Foster. He was so positive that she would sing the song that he originally called it "Chaka". I think it took me a long time to really grow into the soul legend's music. As an adult, I now really get the appeal and talent of this woman.

Check out "Through The Fire" below!

Daily Boom 90's Nostalgia: Linear - 'Sending All My Love'

"I have to say goodbye to you
This pain I have inside
just makes me want to die for you
All these lonely nights
they just don't feel so right for you
Sending all my
Sending all my love
Sending all my love to you"

I completely forgot about Linear and their song, "Sending All My Love" until they randomly popped up on YouTube earlier this year. Then the song came rushing back. It was towards the end of the Latin freestyle craze that this trio hit with the synth heavy dance hit. I can remember Dance Party USA getting tons of mileage out of the guys. 

I also remember them performing it live at a local venue and loving them. "Sending All My Love" did make it to number 5 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1990 and it really was a huge song in its' prime. Here's the original video and I kinda think it's a nice freestyle Friday throwback to kick off your weekend. Enjoy!

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Earth, Wind & Fire - 'Let's Groove'

"Gonna tell what you can do with my love

Alright

Let you know girl

You're looking good, you're out of sight

Alright

Just move yourself

And glide like a seven-forty-seven

And lose you're self in the sky

Among the clouds in the heavens 'cause

Let this groove light up your fuse

It's alright (alright) alright, oh oh

Let this groove set in your shoes

So stand up (alright) alright"

This has been an exhausting week and music is one of the ways that I take my own version of a mental health break. I've learned over the years that, while my taste is eclectic, nothing puts me in a better mood than dance music. Today I turned to Earth, Wind & Fire for a bit of inspiration and thankfully, it worked. When I was ten "Let's Groove" came out and I remember buying the 45 and playing it into the ground- and that was just in the first few weeks that I had it. Disco was technically dead so I clung to anything even remotely resembling it. I danced my ass off in the privacy of my own room and even back then I understood that this was one of those groups that did extra.

They were the whole package, with a whole section of horns and choreographed moves, Earth, Wind & Fire was a force to be reckoned with. In many ways, they still are If you're lucky enough to catch one of their gigs now you'll quickly understand why they are still thriving. Check out "Let's Groove" below. I'm betting it makes you wanna get down too.

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Exposé - 'Let Me Be The One'

"(Let me) Show you how I feel
(Be the one) That I need so much
(Let me) Give you what is real
(Be the one) That I long to touch

Only you can make me feel this way
I'll give you all, come on, let's get away
This love I feel will never ever fade
I'll give you more and more so

(Let me be the one) Hold onto the dream
(Let me be the one) You can trust me at anytime
(Let me be the one) Give you all the love
(Let me be the one) To feel your tender touch."

Expose` released "Let Me Be The One" the week after my sixteenth birthday and it instantly became my very favorite song. It was the third single in a row off of their debut album, Exposure to crack Billboard's top ten. It was one of the biggest songs of the summer and to this day I associate "Let Me Be The One" with laying in the sun, baby oil scorching my skin, Sun In turning my hair only slightly lighter.

Gioia Bruno handles the lead vocals and did I mention the stunning video to go with it? Filmed in London, the ladies are all glammed up for what looks like a (now vintage) couture modeling shoot. This is one of those songs that you know two seconds after it begins and to this day, audiences respond like it's an old favorite. Check out the video below!

90's Nostalgia: Tevin Campbell - 'Can We Talk'

"Last night I,

I saw you standing,

And I started,

Started pretending,

I knew you and you knew me too,

And just like a roni,

You were too shy,

But you weren't the only,

Cause so was I,

And I've dreamed of you ever since,

Now I've built up my confidence,

Girl next,

Next time you come my way,

I'll know just what to say

Can we talk for a minute

Girl I want to know your name"

I'll never forget getting in a cab a few years ago. The driver was in his 40's and had big curly headbanger hair, still frosted as if it was 1988. He was wearing an old RATT concert tee that blended in with his sleeves of tattoos. He was on the phone at first trying to figure out who was going to get the Motley Crue tickets for him and his friends once they went on sale the next day and Instantly liked him. He was like a fossil left over from the 80's but the thing was, he was the real deal. He stayed true to the music that he was raised on and had no desire to change any of that. Or it least that was my first impression. I've since learned never to think for certain that I have someone all figured out in a quick glance or three.

As the cab finally started to move he asked if I minded the radio and of course I didn't. Then he told me he didn't like what was on so he was switching over to a CD. The CD was Tevin Campbell and my jaw hit the floor. As "Can We Talk" started to play I told him I never expected to hear that in any cab, because years later most people don't seem to remember him let alone play his stuff. The driver loved him as much as I always have and we totally bonded over 3.5 songs before I got out of the cab.

Tevin first broke through in 1991 with his album T.E.V.I.N. but I wasn't hooked until he dropped I'm Ready in 1993. I think he was the artist that really convinced me to pay more attention to some of the slow jams peppering the charts, in between my Hole and Nirvana listening parties. The video for "Can We Talk" was shot in NYC's Central Park and I love it to this day. Check it out below.

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Love & Rockets - 'So Alive'

"I don't know what color your eyes are, baby
But your hair is long and brown
Your legs are strong, and you're so, so long
And you don't come from this town

My head is full of magic, baby
And I can't share this with you
The feel I'm on a cross again, lately
But there's nothing to do with you

I'm alive, huh, huh, so alive
I'm alive, huh, huh so alive."

So, I'm recovering from a bad bout with the flu this week and most certainly not at my best, maybe my most grateful, but not my best. I'm not doing live radio for a few days and if you've been reading here for any length of time then you know that radio is my second home. It takes me back to childhood when my dad would take me to the station with him. I called dad yesterday to check-in and I love the fact that just as I'm revisiting the 80's and 90's, so is he. Dad will discover a song that he passed over when it originally charted and his excitement is something that I can totally identify with.

So yesterday dad says that his new favorite song is Love & Rockets "So Alive". It's one that I play on my show fairly often and more importantly, it gives me another song that will remind me of him now every time that I hear it. Love & Rockets first got together in 1985 after their former group, Bauhaus, disbanded. They were an underground British group that fused pop with an old school college radio alternative vibe. "So Alive" went to number three on Billboard's Hot 100 and it spent five weeks atop the Modern Rock charts in 1989. Listen for 20 seconds and I'll bet even if the title doesn't ring a bell, the song itself will.

Daily Boom Lost Hit: Alice Cooper - 'Poison'

Daily Boom 80's Throwback- Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb- 'Guilty'

"Shadows falling, baby, we stand alone

Out on the street anybody you meet got a heartache of their own

(It oughta be illegal)

Make it a crime to be lonely or sad

(It oughta be illegal)

You got a reason for livin'

You battle on with the love you're livin' on

You gotta be mine

We take it away

It's gotta be night and day

Just a matter of time

And we got nothing to be guilty of

Our love will climb any mountain near or far, we are

And we never let it end."

How do you write about old school pop culture for years and not write about Barbra Streisand? Exactly. At the very start of the 80's, she was leading the pack of female artists. She already had more than 20 albums under her belt and had enlisted Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees to write and produce an album for her. He delivered on a grand scale because Guilty remains Streisand's best selling album of all time.

The album's first single, "Woman In Love" skyrocketed its' way up Billboard's charts and remains one of the diva's most beloved songs nearly forty years later. The title track, a duet with Gibb also became a fan favorite. Watching Streisand actually perform some of these classics is almost bizarre. She vacillates in and out of connecting with the song and just seems really quirky onstage. Maybe that's why her fans love her so much. I'm not sure but what I do know is that I still do love "Guilty". Check out a live version below and tell me if you see the quirkiness that I mentioned.

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Timex Social Club - 'Rumours'

"How do rumors get started

They're started by the jealous people

And they get mad seeing something

They had and somebody else is holding."

The year was 1986 and rumors were a topic that any teenage girl was familiar with. Either you spread them, listened to them or were the subject of a nasty little story that was circulating, especially if you were in high school. When Timex Social Club's "Rumors" was released not only was it a huge dance hit, but it became kind of a sing-a-long for every teen girl that I knew. The fact that it landed in the top ten of Billboard's Hot 100 solidified the notion that this song was something that the masses connected to. Check out the video below. Is it one of those songs that you still know all of the lyrics to?

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Madonna - 'Lucky Star'

"You must be my Lucky Star
'Cause you shine on me wherever you are
I just think of you and I start to glow
And I need your light
And baby you know
 Starlight, star bright first star I see tonight
Starlight, [star bright] make everything all right
Starlight, star bright first star I see tonight
Starlight, [star bright] yeah."

It's funny because when I hear the name Madonna the first visual that comes to mind is the early-80's version. Something about the "Lucky Star" video has stuck with me for all of these- decades! I still associate Madonna with her dancers doing choreography to the heavy synth and drum track- and that's just fine with me. I loved those days of suddenly needing lace bows and lace gloves. Piling neon and rubber bracelets on my arms and thinking just about everything in my closet would look better if I chopped off the bottom of it and turned it into a belly shirt! I love the era of my own life that vintage Madonna conjures up for me!

Currently Booming: NEW Prince- 'The VERSACE Experience (PRELUDE 2 GOLD) - Listen

Currently Booming: NEW Tom Keifer Band- 'Rise' (Listen)

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Murray Head - 'One Night In Bangkok'

"One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me."

You may not remember the name Murray Head, but you'll definitely remember the one-hit-wonder that he sang on in 1985. "One Night In Bangkok" was part of the Chess musical that came out after its' concept album took off. Murray was simply a British actor that was brought in to read the lyrics and probably never anticipated the song being so well-received. Check out the video below. Of course, you remember this, right?

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: Toto- '99'

"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.