Pat Benatar - You Better Run

I said, what are ya tryin' a do to my head? Said, whatcha' tryin' a do to my head?

MTV and the Decline of Music, Part II

“You Better Run”, Pat Benatar, 1981

The second song ever aired on MTV was “You Better Run”. Pat Benatar had already established herself as a powerhouse. She had released the albums In “The Heat of the Night”, and “Crimes of Passion” that had sold millions of copies and had been awarded a number of Grammy’s and the American Music Awards. Pretty safe choice for song number 2 really...

A Toronto based company called CHUM Ltd. launched the Canadian equivalent to MTV, ‘ Much Music’  in 1984, noting the success of MTV in the United States, and wanting a piece of the action. The CRTC, which is the governing legal body in Canada, prevented MTV from either bringing its U.S. channel directly into Canada or setting up a home-grown competitor. As a result, MTV was initially content to sell Canadian rights to its programming for rebroadcast on Much Music. Before this happened we had really only seen MTV in bars on satellite. Not really thinking about whether it was legal or not.

Ramble On - Led Zeppelin

T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair...

70's Pick of the Week

“Ramble On”, Led Zeppelin, 1969

Gollum slipped away with Liv Tyler,..uhhhh....I mean Arwen, Elrond’s daughter.  What was going on in this song besides a bit of blatant hero worship of the magical J.R.R. Tolkien, and his beloved ‘Lord of the Rings’?

A long, long time ago...I can still remember how that music used to make me smile¹-

At work I gave everybody on the team a blank cassette tape and asked them to put a song on it that represented their presence within our work group. The idea was that I would then take all the songs, make a compilation tape and distribute it back to everyone. This collection then would be like our groups ‘Greatest Hits”.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Let's have some fun on a Friday: Is Punk really dead?

Quick Hit

My favourite Bonnie Tyler song is “It’s a Jungle Out There”. In the early eighties this  Welsh singer ran amok on the charts with such classics as “It’s a Heartache”, “Holding out for a Hero” ,”Straight From the Heart” and of course the one everybody knows “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.

Grease - You're The One That I Want

I got chills. They're multiplyin'.

Pick of the Week

“You’re The One That I Want”, Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, 1978.

Marie Osmond did not want the role in ‘Grease’ because she did not like the way the character Sandy ended up acting.  Henry Winkler did not want the role of Danny, because he was done with the ‘50s tough guy thing.

This left the door wide open for Olivia Newton-John to change her image and for John Travolta to surge – and history was changed forever.

Spinning Thursday Evening........

Arcade Fire - Funeral

Ian Hunter - You're Never Alone

Swing This Baby - Various

Aeorosmith - Honkin' On Bobo

Aaaaaa, Chewy, Chewy, Chewy, Chewy Chewy, Chewy, Chewy, baby always got a mouthful of such sweet things to say

Songs Everyone Should Know  - Bubblegum Music

I was listening to this excellent compilation called Nuggets “Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968)” the other day. Rolling Stone (Magazine) calls this one of the 50 great albums of all time.  The CD collection is a wall-to-wall attack of garage bands of the era. It is quite brilliant really. It includes songs that are quite well known and were one-hit wonders such as ‘Woolly Bully’ to much more obscure, but still great songs like the Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night”, or “Pushin’ Too Hard” by The Seeds.

The Archies - Sugar, Sugar (Original 1969 Music Video)

Ohio Express - Chewy Chewy (1968)