80's music!

A-ha - The Living Daylights

2007-12-05T12:22:00.001-08:00

Wang Chung - Everybody have fun tonight

2007-11-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

Wang Chung - Dance hall days

2007-11-30T09:11:00.000-08:00

Wang Chung are a British New Wave musical group.

The group found their greatest success in the United States with five Top 40 hits including the 1986 #2 hit "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" and their only UK hit, "Dance Hall Days".

Originally called Huang Chung the band formed in 1979. The lineup consisted of vocalist/guitarist Jack Hues, bassist Nick Feldman, and drummer Darren Costin. Hues originally met Feldman after answering Feldman's ad for a musician in the classifieds section of the weekly British music magazine, Melody Maker, in 1977.

Soon afterwards, Hues and Feldman formed with Bud Merrick and the late Paul Hammond in late 1977/early 1978 as 'The Intellektuals'. In less than a year, the band split up, as Hues and Feldman joined up with future Wang Chung drummer Darren Costin, along with keyboards Simon Campbell, Leigh Gorman and Glenn Gregory, to form '57 Men'. This lineup lasted for less than a year as well.

Huang Chung's self-titled debut album was released by Arista Records in 1982 after several singles, including the minor post-punk hit "Isn't It About Time We Were on TV". In 1983, after being dropped by Arista and signed to Geffen Records, they changed their name to Wang Chung (at Geffen's suggestion, to make pronunciation easier for English-speakers—consistent with the claim by VH1's Pop Up Video that they changed it because people kept calling them "Hung Chung") — and subsequently they released Points on the Curve, which yielded two major hits, "Don't Let Go" (#38 US) and "Dance Hall Days" (#16 US).

Aretha Franklin

2007-11-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Aretha Louise Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has been called for many years "The Queen of Soul", but many also call her "Sister Ree." She is renowned for her soul recordings but is also adept at jazz, rock, blues, pop, gospel, and even opera.^[1] She is widely acclaimed for her passionate, soulful vocal style, which is aided by a massive and powerful vocal range.

A-ha Take on me 1984

2007-11-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

a-ha is a Grammy Award-nominated band from Norway. They are the best selling Norwegian band worldwide with a total of 75 million albums and singles sold (approximately sixteen times the entire Norwegian population). They rose to fame during the 1980s, but continued to be globally successful in the 1990s and 2000s. The trio, composed of lead vocalist Morten Harket, guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (Pål Waaktaar until his marriage in 1994) and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, formed in 1982 and left Norway for London in order to make a career in the music business. They chose the studios of musician, producer and soon-to-be-manager John Ratcliff, because it had a Space Invaders machine. The origin of the name "a-ha" comes from the lyrics of an early song ("Nothing To It"). After checking dictionaries in several languages, they found out that "a-ha" was an international way of expressing recognition, with positive connotations. It was short, easy to say and unusual.

"Take on Me" was the first song Morten Harket heard Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy play. At that time the song was called "Lesson One." After multiple re-recordings and two failed releases, "Take on Me" became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1985. The first release of the song in 1984 was not a major success, but after a few songs were remixed by producer Alan Tarney a year later, it sold 1.5 million copies worldwide in one week. Eventually the single "Take on Me" was estimated to have sold 7-9 million copies worldwide; it peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the UK Singles Chart. Sales were aided in the U.S. by a music video on MTV that mimicked the truck chase from Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil and the climactic scene from the Ken Russell film Altered States. The video used a sketchy animation / live action combination called "Rotoscoping" (in which the video is first shot on normal video, then each frame is hand-traced over to give the animated effect) that tells a fantasy thriller story to the song. At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards "Take on Me" won in six categories. It was also nominated for Best Video Of The Year at 1986 American Music Awards.

The follow-up single to "Take on Me" was "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". In the U.S., the song peaked at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number seventeen on Radio & Records airplay chart. In addition, the music video for the song won in two categories at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

Bryan Adams - Heaven (1985)

2007-11-26T04:59:00.000-08:00

"Heaven" is a power ballad written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and was first released in 1983 on the soundtrack album for "A Night In Heaven", a film about a male stripper. It has been covered by DJ Sammy & Yanou ft. Do and DJ Manian feat. Alia.

Song information

Adams refused to release the song in conjunction with the film and waited to re-release it in 1984 on his own album Reckless. The song was finally released in 1985 as a single with the song Diana on the b-side. The single became Adams' first number-one on the United States Billboard Hot 100. It reached number thirty-eight in the UK Singles Chart that year.

The track featured Journey drummer Steve Smith on drums and was recorded in NYC during a day off in the middle of a tour they were doing together.

Music video

The music video portrays Adams singing in an auditorium, with giant television sets portraying the audience and band. Near the end of the music video, all the screens turn to static, and Adams is shown waking up from a dream, sleeping in a sleeping bag in front of a television, which is showing static. Adams turns off the television, and the screen turns blank television-style.

Heaven cover by DJ Sammy & Yanou ft. Do

Main article: Heaven (DJ Sammy song)

In 2002 DJ Sammy and Yanou made an upbeat dance cover of Heaven.

Other artists that have covered the song

Bailando Pegaditos (Vol. 2) (Musart Records), 1995.
Bert Heerink (from Storm na de stilte Belinda Meuldijk Dutch translation "Schaamteloos"), 1995.
Dystopia (from Attempted Mustache, Royalty Records), 1996.
The Countdown Singers (from Love Songs, Vol. 2, Madacy Entertainment).
Starsound Orchestra (from Plays the Hits Made Famous by BA, Delta Records), 2001.
Drew's Famous (from More Kids Pop Hits, Turn Up The Music, Inc.), 2002.
Eyra Gail (from Eyra Gail, 24/7/Artemis Records), 2002.
Double Dutch, a hardcore dance producer from UK features this song in "Here Comes the Noise." A remix of this track by Scott Brown came out in 2002 on Bonker's Hardcore Mutation vol. 9.
Do (Dominique van Hulst), 2002, platinum in The Netherlands
Emmerson Nogueira, 2003.
Banda Morango Com Mel as "Me Entenda" (from ForrÃ³ Morango Com Mel, Atracao Fonografica), 2004.
Chiquinho do Accordion (from Anthems of Ibiza, Ministry of Sound UK), 2004.
Hanna Pakarinen (from When I Become Me), 2004.
Kate DeAraugo (from A Place I've Never Been), 2005.
Elliott Yamin (American Idol), 2006.
DJ Manian, 2007

Waking up to the Eighties!

2007-11-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

No song invigorates me more than a song from the Eighties. What is it about an 80's song that makes you stop and listen? I could be in a shopping mall and simply by hearing RAH Band's "Clouds Across The Moon" or Madonna's "Holiday", I would be transported to another time.

A time when it was cool to wear bright, shiny clothes and all things in the entertainment world seemed to be of greater value.

Audio cassettes in Sony Walkman were the MP3 players of the day. MTV launched in 1981 and made 80's music what it is today. Did you know that the first video released on MTV was The Buggles - "Video Killed The Radio Star"? The video had to wait two years for its airplay on MTV. The video ushered in the medium that would dominate the rest of the eighties - music video.

The unwritable CD (Compact Disc) also appreciated (increased the value of) music with its clear sound offerings.

It was also a time when music was the second largest selling entertainment media in the world. Cinematic film took first place with Spielberg, Scwarzenegger and Stallone dominating the A-list.

I would love to hear from other fans of the Eighties or Eighties music. I'm sure that you feel like me sometimes and find yourself in another frame of mind just listening to those songs or watching those videos.

Which music video/short film was launched on the 21st November 1984 cinematically and debuted on MTV, December 02 of the same year?

Cowabunga!