Fair enough. Fleetwood Mac is great too!

Another one...........

https://tinyurl.com/ugpsml8

Loving the Orange Juice.

I once knew somebody who thought they were a glass of orange juice.

Went around all day saying "Don't spill me!".

Best known for his time on Fleetwood Mac, this next offering is a solo effort by Lindsey Buckingham, "Holiday Road", the "theme song" for one of my favorite movies, "National Lampoon's Vacation":

https://tinyurl.com/u9z4khk

Next we see it again in its natural habitat, the intro to the movie:

https://tinyurl.com/whnbgro

Man, the dog barking at the end gets me every time! ["Probably kept up with you for a mile or two"]

And here's a little bonus clip from the movie:

https://tinyurl.com/qt3afpa

See, I *do* like video games (I was rooting for Rusty there.)

Don't forget this one from Lindsey.

"Go Insane" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjQa5-FD72g

Pretty great 80s video to go with it.

I like this one............


https://tinyurl.com/v6azekj

I'm going to use this next video for a bit of a segue. Several of my recent videos have had a sort of "Fleetwood Mac-esque" feel to them. And so will this next one, as it features Stevie Nicks. But I'm also going to use this video to introduce a well-known music star I haven't yet covered. But he certainly has a whole bunch of 80s videos I can bring in later in his own right. This particular video is mostly just a video of the song played by the band, which I don't particularly like. There are a few minor effects. But I'm including it because in addition to Stevie Nicks it features the great Tom Petty. Here's "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around":

https://tinyurl.com/tuaz4rw

So, returning to Tom Petty, for a true "Alice in Wonderland" experience, here's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with "Don't Come Around Here No More":

https://tinyurl.com/shmvk7p

I am *so* glad Tom Petty filmed a video with a real theme instead of just showing the band playing the song. The surrealistic effect of the video is what *makes* the song.

Yeah, one of these days I might get around to trying the other flavors of ice cream, but for now I'm going to stick with plain old vanilla. Although I did go crazy once and tried chocolate chip. It had real chocolate chips in it! Talk about living on the edge.

Then again, one of these days I might not be around anymore and there will be no chance for me to try them.

I like vanilla. Even the actual ice cream. I have a somewhat different idea of what "vanilla" means in regards to music, however. Being in the Top 40 (at one time, anyway) isn't my idea of vanilla. The word I have for that is "popular". My idea of vanilla is a video that simply shows the band playing the song. Most music videos (to the extent they exist at all) from the 70s are like that. That's not a slam on the music. There was a great deal of great 70s music (I'm partial to the Eagles, myself). But with no MTV, although the technology was certainly there to make music videos with visual effects in the 70s (and a very few such videos do exist), it was not financially a good idea to do so, because there was no increased revenue to come with the increased cost. Once MTV appeared, the marketing power of video quickly drove the industry to ever more and more innovative visual effects, because the play on MTV attracted tremendous attention and helped sell albums, more than offsetting the cost of the videos. Anyway, I like vanilla so much my next video will be vanilla by *both* definitions: Top 40 *and* a video mostly of just the band playing the song.

Here's Pat Benatar (once again)

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot":

https://tinyurl.com/uy6gxan

Vanilla: Mmm mmm! I'm going to keep sticking to the Top 40 MTV playlist mostly, but I do think, by my definition of vanilla, I'd rather go with other flavors (Videos with actual effects). Don't want to get too radical too soon, though. No Tutti Frutti, Pistachio, or Rocky Road just yet. (I haven't even done *one* Peter Gabriel video yet.) I'm taking my time on this. No hurry. A little chocolate, more vanilla, some strawberry, more vanilla....

I knew you would get a kick out of that. ;-)


"I like vanilla. Even the actual ice cream."

So do I!

From the very beginning, I intended to do what I will now do today, and that is post probably *the* most famous 80s music video of all, Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Today seemed like a good day for that. Now, as almost everyone already knows (but I'll repeat it anyway), "Thriller" is more of a movie short than a music video. It is unusually long. So if you somehow forgot that or even less likely, never knew it, this is very *long*.
I will put in a few trivia facts about it that have been well hashed out over the years. "Thriller" was directed by John Landis, an actual movie director. My favorite work of Landis's was "National Lampoon's Animal House". "Thriller" was filmed near the peak of Landis's career. But not too long afterward, his career took a sharp turn downward with what I like to call "The Twilight Zone curse". Landis was one of four directors on the 1983 "Twilight Zone: The Movie". The segment he directed starred the veteran actor Vic Morrow (of "Combat!" fame) as a racist who gets what's coming to him. Unfortunately, Morrow got a lot more than what was coming to his character. Vic Morrow was decapitated by a crashing helicopter blade along with two young Vietnamese extras in a scene (obviously not included in the movie), but which was the center of a lawsuit by Morrow's family against Landis (and others) for wrongful death. As an aside, I will mention that Morrow's daughter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, played Stacy Hamilton in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (which I've referred to often on this thread), and his death occurred while Jennifer Jason Leigh was involved in her movie. Anyway, Landis actually won the lawsuit against him, but his career was never the same afterwards. Some really weird trivia stuff there, in my opinion. As for "Thriller" itself, again, practically everyone knows (but I'll mention it again anyway) that the legendary horror movie actor Vincent Price is "The Rapper" in both the song and the video (and was "Egghead" in the campy 60s "Batman" TV show). Enough rambling. Here's the King of Pop in his most famous video, "Thriller":

https://tinyurl.com/wfd3kap

Had time to make popcorn and use the bathroom then still make it back in time to catch the end while watching "Thriller".

So I will follow up my King of Pop video with a Queen of Pop video. Here's Madonna in "Material Girl", which gave her one of her nicknames. I like the appearances of Keith Carradine and Robert Wuhl in this one.

https://tinyurl.com/wd7mgyr

Keith Carradine and Robert Wuhl should be in everything.

And now here's Billy Joel with "Pressure":

https://tinyurl.com/r89flbr

Now here you are with your faith
And your Peter Pan advice.
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle pressure.

Here's a-ha with their one hit wonder "Take On Me":

https://tinyurl.com/ucnyvqr

And now here's Yes with "Owner of a Lonely Heart":

https://tinyurl.com/upuyntc

Weirdness

Nice one.

Just say Yesssss!

I apologize for seemingly constantly circling back in one way or another to "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". But darn it! It was just too iconic of the 80s and had a great soundtrack to boot, so I'm going to do it yet again. Anyway, I introduce today Jackson Browne, whose song "Somebody's Baby" was specifically written for that movie.

https://tinyurl.com/t6ve5o9

I just love it when Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) plays with the biology lab monkey at about 2:14 into the video. Although Mr. Hand (Ray Walston) briefly appears in the video, the biology teacher Mr. Vargas was left out. Too bad. Mr. Vargas was cool.

Time for another musician I haven't featured before. Best known for his 70s work, this one, however, qualifies as an 80s song, and both the song and the accompanying video are very upbeat. Here's Rod Stewart with "Young Turks":

https://tinyurl.com/v5ke4nl

And, yes, the song is featured on the fake radio station K-DST in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack. Loved flying around San Andreas with this song playing in the background.

Good old Sir Rod still going strong,a christmas number 1 in the album charts featuring re-recordings of some of his hits over the years, including Young Turks.

Given that it is Christmas Day, I thought I'd present a rare twofer: Two videos, one Christmas-themed and the other not. First the not. After doing "Young Turks" last time, it brought to mind this next video, which has similar themes. Here's John Mellencamp with "Jack & Diane":

https://tinyurl.com/t2qpogs

And now for the Christmas video. Although this thread was to be about 80s videos, I'll admit most of what I put here has been from the early 80s. As the 80s wore on, it seemed fewer interesting songs and videos appeared. But this next video is from just about as far into the late 80s as you can go and still make the 80s cutoff: Christmas 1989. Here's the intro to "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation":

https://tinyurl.com/wrj2xjj

It is interesting that Johnny Galecki, best known for playing Dr. Leonard Hofstadter in "The Big Bang Theory", played Rusty Griswold in this movie 30 years ago. Of the various "Vacation" movies, I rank this one #2, only after the original. Very funny movie.

Merry Christmas!

Also from the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack is this next one: Laura Branigan's "Gloria". I had mentioned this song when I earlier discussed "Self Control". The "Gloria" video has little in the way of special effects (just the disco orbs), but the song is practically an anthem.

https://tinyurl.com/uv2ymny