Speaker 1: You know, making your way in the world today, sure
can take a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away?
What if I told you there's a podcast that could
help you forget about the economy, inflation, and putting into retirement,
You'd probably say, surely you can't be serious. Well, I
am serious, and don't call me surely.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Tristan Martin and you're listening to the Surely you
Can't Be Serious Podcast?
Speaker 2: Okay, Jason, you're ready. I'm ready. Four three two one.
It's the Surely you Can't Be Serious Podcast. Hey guys,
it's nineteen eighty four here and we haven't had a
full episode since last Christmas, but we are back to
rock you like a hurricane. I'm really kidding. Truthfully, we
just called to say we love you. In fact, you
could say that this whole episode is done in the
name of love. Wait. Wait, wait, that's just my pride talking.
I'm sorry. I've just completely lost self control or am
I just paranoid? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll ask your forgiveness,
although I don't know just what I'm asking it for. Okay,
I'm just gonna cool it now. A nice welcome back, everybody,
it is season five of these Surely you can't be
serious podcast?
Speaker 3: Can you believe we've been doing this for coming up
on five years now?
Speaker 2: It's nuts. It is absolutely nuts, And just a couple
of months it will be the five year anniversary of
when we sat down on your back patio and hammered
this baby out.
Speaker 3: You know, almost four years ago from this date, we
recorded a three hour episode and we were like, this sucks.
The start over. We trashed it.
Speaker 2: We are going to be talking about stuff from that
very episode. Our very first episode was an album that
was huge in both eighty three and eighty four, and
then last year, just kind of on a whim, on
an in between seasons episode, we decided, hey, let's do
the top hit of nineteen eighty three. Well, as it
turned out, that ended up being a really fun and
really popular episode, and so we did several top five
lists over the course of last season, and we thought,
why don't we start the year off with another top
five this year?
Speaker 3: Hey, I'm telling you, when it comes to music, nineteen
eighty four may be the best.
Speaker 2: It's incredible, and just as an example of how good
it is, we have covered every single album that was
a top album of that year already, every single one,
is that right? Yes, We've covered the Footloose soundtrack, we
covered Thriller, we covered Purple Rain, we covered Born in
the USA, and we covered Ue Loose in the New Sports.
I mean we've hit them all. Those were the only
albums that were top albums in a Billboard two hundred
in nineteen eighty four. In a job Us, Yeah, good
job us. In our nineteen eighty three top five episode,
we hit some of the ones that we had covered already.
But we've learned over the course of the last season
we need to put some rules on ourselves so that
we can have some new material. That's right. So this
episode we are not touching any songs on any of
those albums that I just mentioned, or any of the
other big albums from nineteen eighty four that we might
have touched on maybe last season, like Billy Joel's Innocent
Man or Lionel Richie's Can't Slow Down.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute now, are you telling me that we're
doing a top five list from nineteen eighty four and
we're not including Thriller, We're not including Purple Rain, We're
not including Footloos, We're not including Billy, Joel, Lionel, Ritchie,
all of those.
Speaker 2: That is correct, sir, Wow, it's gonna be hard. No,
it's not. It's only hard because even without those monumental albums,
there are still a bud jillion songs that are worthy
of talking about.
Speaker 3: Okay, so here's what I think we should do. Let's
go through our top five plus two honorable mentions, and
then at the end of this, let's give the real
top five.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fair, Okay, the real top five being the
ones that we would include the albums that we've already covered. Yeah, yeah, okay,
Well I've got another idea, all right. Yeah, there's one
song that's a nineteen eighty four or mammoth hit that
I say we make it a secret song. It's a
secret episode, and ladies and gentlemen, if you're listening, you
can have access to that episode, that one secret song
that we're going to talk about from nineteen eighty four.
All you have to do is go over to patreon
dot com, backslash Surely podcast and sign up a little
five bucks a month. You'll get access to that episode
and every other one hit wonder that we've covered over
the last year and a half.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something else cool about Patreon that
I just learned. You can follow people for free. So
if you just want to see what we're doing over there, yeah,
go to Shirley Podcast on Patreon. Follow us. At least
you'll be able to see what the song is, what
we're talking about exactly.
Speaker 2: And here's the deal. If you don't like it, we'll
give you your money back. You just you hit us up
at Shirleypodcast at gmail dot com say hey, guys, you suck.
I want my five bucks back and we will send
you a check for five dollars.
Speaker 3: Okay, there you go, dude.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to jump into this list. Can we go.
Speaker 3: Let's go, let's go once you go first? Number five?
All right?
Speaker 2: So say that we do this is we tease it up.
We tease it up for each other. We give a
little clues to see if we can get the other
guy to guess it. All right, Okay, and so here
we are my number five five Okay. This artist had
seven top forty hits during the nineteen eighties. Her songs
have been covered by Michael Bolton and Celine Dion. Okay.
The song that she had big in eighty four was
actually released by an Italian group called Raff in nineteen
eighty four in Italy. That version went to number one
in Italy, and this artist version was recorded and released
shortly after still nineteen eighty four, so they actually ended
up competing against each other on the charts. They were
actually number one and number two in Germany. Raff had
number two and this artist had number one. Okay. In
Switzerland and Germany, this version of the song was considered
the song of the year. It was arranged by Harold.
Speaker 3: Faalt My wait Wait Wait wait held Faltemeyer the top
gun anthem Guy axel f Yes okay, Georgio Moroder's right
hand man, Yeah, you got my attention okay. Singer started
off by singing backup for Leonard Cohen Okay. She decided
to try to get a manager herself and ended up
Sid Bernstein agreed to represent her. He got her a
record deal Jack White was producing, and Jack White introduced
her to this new manager named Susan Joseph, and she
switched Well. Bernstein ends up suing her for fifteen million dollars.
So when you say she in nineteen eighty four, my
mind automatically goes to either Madonna or Cyndi Lauper.
Speaker 2: Of course it does, okay, but it's not either one
of them.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, keep going, keep it right.
Speaker 2: So in nineteen ninety she retired from music because she
had to take care of her husband, who had cancer.
She in two thousand and one went back into the studio,
remastered some of her songs, including this one, made it
a dance hit, and then started performing live again and
was working on her back album when in two thousand
and four she had a brain hemorrhage and died instantly,
totally unexpected. And in two thousand and four, after that happened,
this song hit the charts again. She had had a
little more success with another song, hand On Yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Think I got it?
Speaker 2: Okay, is it Laura Branigan, you got it? Yes?
Speaker 3: This is self control.
Speaker 2: So this intro is the perfect definition of what happens
with nineteen eighty four. You have this beautiful synth intro
with this drum machine and you're like new wave yes,
and then all of a sudden, the crunchy guitar comes in.
Oh man, I love this song.
Speaker 3: This almost made the list for me, my sister and
I particularly love this. We used to watch this video
a lot, and she's like stocked by this guy in
a mask and like who is the guy? And it's
it's definitely an eighties video.
Speaker 2: Great song.
Speaker 3: Laura Bran again, who also sang Gloria exactly.
Speaker 2: Yes, that kind of known for that one.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sadly she passed away. She was only fifty two,
Like she decided, hey, I'm getting back into it. I'm
doing it again. And then right in full steam she brains, yeah,
I didn't know that. Okay, tragic loss. She was amazing.
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, all right, you're number five, okay to my
number five. This song was released March of nineteen eighty four,
peaked out at number three in June of nineteen eighty four.
So this is a big sort of summary type of
feel to me.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: This is a solo breakoff from the guy's original group.
Speaker 2: I think I know what it is. I will say this,
And you just showed it too fast, didn't I Again,
you can give clues if you want to. But is
the named female in this song also in the band's
early video that was aptsolutely terrible. Yes, okay, yes, I
got it, yes, keep going.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, all right, so clearly you know what
this is. But this song was written by Bill Cuomo,
Craig Cramped and the artist. They started working on it
at midnight. They built it off what they call a
scratch track, no words, just him going whatever yeah, and
then a guy came in and filled in lyrics behind it.
The video stars his girlfriend, who wasn't an actress, but
she's certainly attractive enough to be in the video. And
the whole video is Google. You know, it's just like
it's like a video shoot and they're trying to do
all these weird things and it's like they're on a
break and he just starts singing.
Speaker 2: And my favorite part of the video is when the
guy starts playing lead guitar on the mandolind Okay, So
this is Oh Sherry by Steve Perry.
Speaker 3: I love this song man. The synth hook at the
beginning captures me Steve Perry's powerful voice, the should have
been God at the beginning, great intro and then the chorus.
It's just so much fun.
Speaker 2: It was so much fun. I remember when we did
our Journey episode. Go back and check that album out Frontiers.
But I remember that Neil Shoen was talking about how
everybody you know decided to go do some solo projects,
but he went and did like broad rock or heavy
metal or something like that. Right, and then Steve Perry
goes out and does a song that's exactly like a
Journey song.
Speaker 3: Hit number three I was gonna give you this the
Top five June ninth, nineteen eighty four. Yeah, which we
talked about. Nineteen eighty four, great year for music. Here's
your top five ready. Number five is a song I'm
gonna talk about in a minute, so I'm not gonna
tell you. Number four is The Reflex by Duran Duran,
I Love It. Number three is Oh Sherry by Steve Perry.
Number two is Let's Hear It for the Boy by
Denise Williams off the Footloose Cud track, and number one
is Time after Time by Cindy Lapper.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 3: Even though Steve and Sherry went their separate ways, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, I love what you did there, Thank you Hey.
Speaker 3: Loving a music man ain't always what it's supposed to be.
Thank God they did remain friends. She actually never married,
never had kids. She's a yoga instructor that she did
have that one moment and a number three hit written
about her. It's awesome, Sherry Swafford to your number four sir.
Speaker 2: All right, number four four, all right. This band formed
in nineteen seventy two, but they didn't get their an
iconic lead singer until sometime later. Shockingly, this is crazy.
This song is this band's only top forty hit, even
though everybody from the eighties knows who this band is.
Everybody Okay. The lead singer had actually been working on
the song for years based on the chorus that he
came up with, but he could never get exactly what
he wanted. Then, in nineteen eighty three, he was inspired
by sex pistols quyat Riot, but most importantly Mutt Lang's
work on def Leppard's Pyromania Interesting. He's like, that's it,
That's what this song needs to be. Now. By this
time they had signed with Atlantic Records Okay, okay, and
they were given Tom Warman to produce their album. Tom
Warman was known as the metal guy right Motley Crue
and yeah yeah, so well known, good producer. But they
start having problems right off the bat because Tom hands
the lead singer a tape and says you need to
listen to these songs and figure out which one of
them you want to cover. And the lead singer's like,
did you get our demo tape because we have songs,
and he's like, yeah, I listened to it. Just go
ahead and listen to this and see which of these
songs you want to cover. So the lead singer is confused,
but trust Tom, and he listens to the tape and
he's like, yeah, these are songs by Saxon, which I mean,
they're great songs. We love Saxon, but we tour with
Saxon and Tom's like yeah. So he's like, so if
we cover their songs and then go on the road
with them playing their songs, we're gonna look like a joke.
This is ridiculous, right, And he's like, well, okay, whatever,
I guess I'll give it to some other band and
let them have hits with it. And that was just
the beginning of the problems. Tom was resistant to the
band the whole time, tried to talk them out of
three songs on the album that ended up being the
three singles that they released, including this one, which I
said is the band's biggest hit. When they make the
video for this song, they are inspired by Wiley Coyote
and his adventures with the Roadrunner. Okay, this song is
a part of the Filthy fifteen. It was because the
PMRC thought this song promoted violence. So when the PMRC
starts their witch hunt, they invite the lead singer to testify.
And he comes and testifies, and he is dressed up
just like he would be for a concert, and he says, listen,
I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs.
I was raised in a Christian home and I have
a wife and a child, and I try to raise
my family with those values.
Speaker 3: I love this guy. I know exactly who this is.
Speaker 2: He's my namesake. This is d Snyder.
Speaker 3: You got it, twisted sister. This has to be We're
not gonna take it. You got it it. God, this
is a fantastic song.
Speaker 2: My mind was blown when I found out this is
their only top forty hit. I woar, A rock is
not a top forty, none of them. And I was
like what. And of course, the ironic poetry of it
is is that the government was on a witch hunt
for these guys, and then by this century, every political
candidate wants to use this song as their I know
is their campaign song.
Speaker 3: I told you to watch a documentary on Netflix about
Twisted Sister.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: It's a fantastic documentary.
Speaker 2: It really is. I've seen it. It is really, really good.
This is a great story.
Speaker 3: These guys worked hard, toured, busted their butts, and so
for them to have this kind of success, it's fantastic.
The one thing I remember about this particular video and
I want to Rock Yes, is you have the guy
from Animal House who played Niedermeier, who's like, what's that
a twist? And Sister Pen he's wiley coyote but yeah,
and then like I want to rock fun videos, fun band.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that probably that created more of a
problem for him because they kind of became a little
bit slapstick joky after that with their face paint and
the rash and boldness, because they didn't do anything after this, Yeah,
nothing after this album.
Speaker 3: Stay Hungry, all right, D So we've talked about this
band before.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: This particular song was released February third, nineteen eighty four,
reached number twenty five on the Hot one hundred. Okay,
which seems incredibly low for how iconic this song is okay.
Now here's the deal. The singer wrote the lyrics to
this song. He stopped and started ten times, started it, stopped,
through it away, started again, didn't like it, threw it.
Speaker 2: Away all right, And.
Speaker 3: He said he knew this was like a hit. This
is a great song. I've got to get the lyrics right.
And so he wanted to have this combination of attitude sexuality.
Now you mentioned the PMRC. They came after them on
this song because of the video was so us cages
and have caged.
Speaker 2: I got it women, I got it.
Speaker 3: Okay, what do you got?
Speaker 2: Okay? So I know this one because this is my
number three.
Speaker 3: Uh huh okay.
Speaker 2: So this is Scorpions rocky like a hurricane. This song
only made it to number twenty five.
Speaker 3: Twenty five?
Speaker 2: What the heck? What? This song is one of the
most iconic songs from the eighties. You can't go to
a sporting event and not hear this song. As a
matter of fact, another bit of trivia, some guy who
worked for the Pittsburgh Steelers got fired because when the
New Orleans Saints came to play shortly after Hurricane Katrina,
he played this song. They were coming out that was
one of my bits of trivia on this one. Here's
the other bit of trivia. So the drummer, the drummer
from the Scorpions had a significant drug problem and health
problems related to his drug use, and they forced him
to take a break while they were recording this album. Right,
they're about to record this album. They're like, dude, you
are too far gone. You got to go rehab. And
so they get the drummer from Rainbow to replace him
with his blessing, right, And so this poor guy has
to go, you know, to rehab and the beaches of
the Mediterranean somewhere. And after like two weeks, Class Minor
calls him up. He's like, we need you to come
back because we don't sound like the Scorpions without you.
And so out Rainbow goes and incomes James Kotak guy
just January ninth. How old was he?
Speaker 3: Sixty one years old?
Speaker 2: Wow? I mean for a band that's been around, I'm
sure he was. He must have been a guy who
came in because I mean they've been around for forever.
They have like fifty albums or something ridiculous.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we've talked about them before. How their popularity.
We talked about the Moscow Peace Festival and how bon
Jovi was the kind of the closer and the headliner.
But in Russia those people were Scorpions fans.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah they were, they were They were the
big time there. And then of course there's the whole
CIA urban myth.
Speaker 3: You have got to talk about that.
Speaker 2: That's Winds of Change. Was it written by the CIA
or not?
Speaker 3: I would love to dive into that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be fantastic. By the way, the slow
song on the album, I can't remember what it's called on,
but it was thank You Yes, Still Loving You actually
created a baby boom in France in nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3: I love this line for the The bitch is hungry
she needs to tell so give her inches and feed
her well.
Speaker 2: I don't know why the PMRC was upset about it.
Speaker 3: It's poetry.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing in that video, Like you said, it
was the video, not necessarily the song that got them
in trouble. They've got their inside cages and there are
women trying to lustfully get to them, right right, right right.
They weren't using models. These were actual Scorpions fans that
they had recruited. To be in the video.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, enthusiasm.
Speaker 2: It was important. It's true to life, true to life.
Speaker 3: I do love how they actually say the title of
the album in this song, they actually say love at
First Team. And this album cover was a young Jason's favorite.
Speaker 2: Side boob is side boob was epic. Yeah, side boo
boob is epic. Okay, So well that was my That
was my number three. So I've just covered my number
three with you. So now you've got to do your
number three.
Speaker 3: My number three.
Speaker 2: You're number three?
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, so here we go My number three three,
released March of nineteen eighty four. This reached number five
on the Hot one hundred, which I mentioned.
Speaker 2: A few minutes ago.
Speaker 3: Okay, this was ranked number thirty two on VH one's
Greatest Songs of the nineteen eighties. I just heard last
night the lead vocalist for this band talking on hair
Nation saying they were on tour, got a call from
their manager. Manager said the record company has gone bankrupt.
We need you guys back in the studio right this second.
Speaker 2: Was it Chrystalis?
Speaker 3: I guess it could have been Chrystalis. I don't know
what album's crazy alright, go ahead. So anyway, they felt
okay because this song they had in their back pocket.
Now then the vocals on this is done by the drummer.
Speaker 2: Okay, hold that thought, because this one ranks higher on
my list and I want to come back to it.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, all right, all right, two, Okay, you're number two.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, sorry, guys, put a pin in that last one.
It's going to come back up in a minute here.
But hey, we're not going to have another meeting of
the minds on number one, I guess, so it'll be interesting,
all right, all right, so this song was written on
the toilet, all right.
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 2: This band started off in nineteen sixty eight. They had
been around for a while, start off in sixty eight,
and they were a pro rock band, their progressive rock. Okay.
In nineteen eighty, one of the main founders of the band, Leaves,
he's the singer. He Leaves brings in a couple of
guys that we've talked about before. I won't mention their
name yet because that'll give it away. But they release
an album under this band's name in nineteen eighty and
it's got very bad reception, and so basically the band
is dead then for twous events occur over the next
couple of years, and the band comes back to life
with this album and this song, which is the biggest
hit off of the album.
Speaker 3: I think I know it is, but keep going, all right.
Speaker 2: The two guys that came in as replacements for John
Anderson were Trevor Horn and Jeffrey Downs of the group
The Buggles.
Speaker 3: Trevor Horn, I remember that Okay video killed the radio
Star right.
Speaker 2: So after the bad reception of their nineteen eighty album,
the members Downs and how they go on to form
eight and then the members Squire and Trevor Rabin formed
this group called Cinema, and Trevor Horn is still with them.
He's working production now and they decided to hit up
their old lead singer from before, John Anderson about providing
some vocals, says when he comes in, and they've got
basically the two guys that formed this band in the beginning.
This becomes this phoenix out of the ashes and an
entirely new sound. This is not progressive. They're bringing the
new wave with Trevor Horn in here, and they have
an album that becomes their biggest selling album of their
entire career. Trevor Rabin's the guy that came up with
this song while he was sitting on the toilet of
nineteen eighty all right, this was recorded in eighty three,
and when they brought John Anderson in, he said most
of the work had been done, but this song they
really had some trouble with the verses sat down and
John Anderson's contribution was the first two words of the
song move yourself.
Speaker 3: Well, you know the toilet is a very lonely place.
Speaker 2: It is lonely.
Speaker 3: Indeed, yes, this has to be Owner of a Lonely
Heart by yes.
Speaker 2: Another perfect song for the blend of kick but rock
and guitar and new wave synth. And you've got these
guys who are absolute musical geniuses putting this song together.
And I got to say this, actually, I would put
as a tie with another song from this album called
leave It Okay any day of the week. Half of
the time I'm gonna pick this Owner of a Lonely Heart.
The other half I'm gonna pick leave It. We really
should cover this whole album.
Speaker 3: We should, We should. I know James Buckley's a big
fan of this album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's get time to get James on talk about this,
talk about this album.
Speaker 3: That would be fun.
Speaker 2: We could maybe we could compare it to Supertramp. That's
they are couple of bands that don't get the recognition
that they deserve. It's a good idea Super Tramp seventy
nine too. All right, Okay, get out the schedule. Let's
see if we can piscil it in no right, all right, Okay,
we to my number two to your number two. All right.
Speaker 3: So at the front of this, I said nineteen eighty
four is one of the best years of music, and
I stand by that. Yeah, but I'm really spiking the
football that nineteen eighty four is the best year in
pop and I'm a pop guy, right, yeah you are? Okay,
Now I learned I grew into rock, but at this
time in my life, I'm Casey's Top forty. I'm pop
all the way, right. So with my number two, I
might lose some street cred on this one, but that's
okay because I don't care. I'm freaking spiking the football.
This is my one of my second this is my
second favorite song. I'm nineteen eighty four. Okay, here's the trick.
Though this song was released in June of nineteen eighty three. Okay,
it didn't peak in America until September of nineteen eighty four, Okay,
well over a year after the song had been released.
All Right reached number nine in September of nineteen eighty four.
V H one ranked it number forty four on the
Greatest Songs of the nineteen eighties. It's been covered by
Ace of Bass.
Speaker 2: As big of as an Ace of Bass fan as
I know, right, I can't believe it now.
Speaker 3: I'm glad that didn't totally give it away.
Speaker 2: Right there sarcasm coming through right there. If you couldn't tell.
Speaker 3: All right, now, listen, this song is featured in a
movie that you and I have seen a thousand times. Okay, fact,
we will cover it this year. Oh okay, all right,
But it's also appeared in the movie Fraternity Vacation, Romey
and Michelle's High School Reunion, as well as the kit
and Car episode of Night Writer.
Speaker 2: Nope, alright.
Speaker 3: This song is sung by three lovely British ladies Okay,
known as Banana Rama.
Speaker 2: Is this cruel summer? You don't have to apologize for this, Okay?
You know, I know? This is a great song. This
is an iconic eighty four song. You blast this song.
I want to turn it up, put the top down.
This is a great summer song.
Speaker 3: Fantastic now. This is featured in the Karate Kid during
the Ali and daniels Son playing soccer scene. Right, Yes, okay,
and we're gonna cover Karate Kid hearing about a month
or two somewhere in the early spring schedule. Yeah, boom,
here's my kicker on this. I love this. Ok The
video shows these three girls dancing around New York City
and they're kind of interacting with people on the street,
and it's real low budget eighties video. When you watch it, though,
there are scenes where they're more enthusiastic than other scenes. Okay,
and the singers, the girls in the band said that
when we're more enthusiastic, you can tell that those shots
were shot after lunch, because during lunch there was some
construction workers nearby that came over and hung out with
them and introduced them to cocaine.
Speaker 2: Oh whoa.
Speaker 3: So when you see them all fired up, Oh my god,
it's because they had the white powder.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. Yeah, hey, girls, saw you out there?
How you doing it? Exhausted?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: We got just the thing. Yep.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: Okay. So that's your number two, yep. So before we
get to number one, we have honorable mentions, and if
you've got one that was a new discovery for you,
I'm interested to hear what it is. Okay, Okay, all right,
I will do my two honorable mentions real quick. All right, okay,
all right, the first one, hang, I don't even want
to make an I don't even call it an honorable
mention because it's so good. All right, okay, all right,
what you got? All right? This group has a name
that sounds like one of the duop groups from the fifties,
but they weren't formed until nineteen seventy seven. But they
like that fifties group sound, and it's a fantastic name.
I couldn't believe it was not taken by nineteen seventy seven. Okay, okay.
Maybe their best known song was not a hit when
it was released. It only got to forty nine, But today,
like I could, I probably hear it weekly, like it's
just it's always on the airwaves, right all right. It
became big after a beer commercial.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: They had that one come out in nineteen eighty and
then obviously this song comes out in nineteen eighty four.
In between that time, the lead singer had taken some
time off ultimately came back to start recording with the
band again. And it's just like so many times that
we've talked about before, they've got the whole album, they
need one more song, right, and this one is just like, Okay,
let's throw this one on at the end. So they
finished recording it. There's a guy in there in the
studio that they're in where I mean the studios had
James Brown and several other big hits, you know, And
there's a guy sweeping up, old guy, and he's like,
I've been here a long time. I've heard lots of music.
I always know twines are going to be the hits,
and this song is going to be your big hit. Wow.
Like the Douop groups when they first started playing together,
they all wore the same color suit, but it was
a red leather suit. Okay, so I'm gonna give you
the name. Now, see if you can give me the song,
mister music encyclopedia over there. The first song that I
was talking about that they had is that was never
a big hit until later on was called what I
Like about You Oh yeah by the Romantics, and so
the romantics nineteen eighty four hit was a song called.
Speaker 3: Talking in Your Sleep You got it? Yes, oh yeah,
fantastic man. I love the Romantics. Now is the drummer
the singer on this one as well? So the drummer
was the singer on What I Like About You?
Speaker 2: Right? No, not on this one? Okay?
Speaker 3: Okay, great, honorable mintion.
Speaker 2: Okay, what else you got? All right? This band formed
a nineteen seventy seven. They got their name from the
comic book ten ten. Okay, there are two detectives in
the comic book ten ten, and that's where they got
their name. The song spawned from a fight between two
of the band members. They were also actually lovers since
nineteen eighty In addition to working together touring together, they
would get separate hotel rooms so they could maintain their
personal space. They have this big fight. After they make
up from this big fight, they say, nobody really sets
out to write these kind of songs, but this is
really inspirational stuff. Let's write this down.
Speaker 3: Just do you really want to hurt me?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: The two band members are male and female. Okay, okay, okay,
and there were pretty much when we saw him in
the eighties, there were three band members, even though the
name of the band would imply only two.
Speaker 3: The Thompson Twins. Okay, is this doctor, doctor, this has
lay your Hands on Me?
Speaker 2: This is this is their biggest hit. How are you
guessing songs that are minor hits when I'm giving you
their most well known song. It's about a fight?
Speaker 3: Hey, they hang on ha hah. This has hold me?
Speaker 2: Now there you had a boy?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I struggled with that one a little bit.
Speaker 2: Okay, And then I will just tell you. The song
that I was a kind of a new rediscovery for
me is a song ball by Alphaville. Do you know
this songs called Forever Young? Yeah? I like that song.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have thought of it, but that's that's a
great song.
Speaker 2: I like it. I mean I didn't really I did.
I wasn't super familiar with this song, but I came
across it in my research and then I was like, oh,
this sounds like the love scene in some John Hughes movie.
Speaker 3: For sure, no doubt, no doubt. Yeah you nailed it
right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah it could have been I need to go look
that up. I guess definitely could have been. All right, Jason,
tell me your honorable mentions.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm packed full of information even on my honorable mentions.
I'm gonna lead you down the trail here. Okay, yeah,
all right. So technically this song was released in nineteen
eighty four, probably fits better in nineteen eighty five, but
it was released in nineteen eighty four, so I want
to talk about it, Okay. Now, then the title comes
from a nineteen seventy two baseball book.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
Speaker 3: Now, the song is about an earlier, better time in
a relationship where the singer wants to return to those
times with his ex. This guy's famous rockstar been with
a lot of women, but one of the ones that
I came across that he actually dated that could be
the girl is Lois Childs. Does that ring a bell
with you? No? Have you seen the movie Moonraker? Yes,
Doctor Goodhead? The Bond Girl?
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, well her in the early eighties. Okay, Okay,
this Rod Stewart, he had a lot of Nope, no, okay,
this is not Rod Shirt. All right, Okay, yeah, Now then.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna keep leading you down this one video of
the year nineteen eighty five. Okay, there's a little boy
playing drums in this video. Okay, the little boy actually
goes on to become a famous rock star himself. He's
seven years old in the video. Okay, okay, okay. His
name is Josh Paul. He ended up playing He played
for Daughtry, he played for Suicidal Tendencies. Okay, okay, and
he's just playing drums.
Speaker 2: This is gonna give it away, I think.
Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, the lead singer or the singer from this
song this is a solo effort. He was in a
world famous rock band, one of the biggest and best
rock bands of all time. He was driving around one
day and he really did see a deadhead sticker on
a Cadillac.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is Don Henley Boys of Summer YEP.
I freaking love this song, and I love the atari's
version of the song as much, if not more. But that, yes,
that fantastic choice.
Speaker 3: Boys of the title they get from a book about
when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to la which we discussed
daring are we didn't start the fire.
Speaker 2: California Baseball California Baseball.
Speaker 3: There you go all right. So that's one of my
honorable mentions. The other one, I'll eat my shoes. If
you are familiar with.
Speaker 2: This one, okay, if I'm familiar with it, you think
I'm not.
Speaker 3: I think you've probably heard it, but I don't think
it's probably on your radar, okay, Okay. So this is
the first single from a woman who uses only her
first name, so like Tiffany or Madonna, you know, or
or shut A something like that. This reached number eight
on the Hot one hundred. So this is no slack
slack off hit.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: It was featured at the end of a movie that
I really liked as a young teenager.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
Speaker 3: The movie is called Breaking All the Rules, which I
watched in preparation for this because I was like, you know,
it's kind of a teenage sex comedy that I really liked.
Thought it was kind of aspirational for relationships, you know,
kind of chasing hot girls around an amusement park type
of thing. I watched it and it was horrible. It's
such a letdown, a terrible movie. But anyway, the closing
credits are to this song, which kind of drove it
home for me. At the time is Sheila. It is
not Sheila, although Sheila was considered Okay, it's considered a
big crossover hit and influential in hip hop and freestyle.
Although I don't really hear it just sounds like a
pop song. I'm gonna play it for you, see what
you get it?
Speaker 2: Okay. The song is immediately familiar.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: I don't know the title and I don't know the artist,
but the song is immediately familiar.
Speaker 3: All right. So the artist is called Shannon and the
song is called let the Music Play. That's it's a
good one. It's one that I had on a.
Speaker 2: Mixtape, figuring out the broad clasp exactly.
Speaker 3: So there you go. There's an honorable mention pop hit
nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: All Right, have you got a rediscovery?
Speaker 3: So yeah, I do have some rediscoveries, okay, and but
they're all mainstream hits. But it's like I didn't realize
how great they were and still until.
Speaker 2: You're just you're going to use this as an excuse
to rattle off one.
Speaker 3: Hundred no no to put on there no, no no.
Speaker 2: I'll give you two.
Speaker 3: Okay, two that I was immenseally familiar with. But when
I re listened to them, I was like, dang, these
are good, like better than I even thought they were.
One of them is Caribbean Queen by Billy Oshan. Oh my,
I just love that song.
Speaker 2: That song. I know he's a crap out of me.
Speaker 3: Oh you're crazy, It's just I love it, even if
they have like the sound effects where the tiger like
rah in the background. So I love that song. And
then there's a song by Dan Hartman from the movie
Streets of Fire called I Can Dream About You.
Speaker 2: Yep, I know that one too, and it's also an
annoying song for me.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that's fine. Those are my rediscoveries. I love those songs.
Speaker 2: Nice. That's good. So we are onto our number one one, okay.
So this is an iconic band that you just don't
hear people talk about. I couldn't. I mean, I came
across this song, I'm like, oh yeah, and I'm like,
what else did they do? And then I looked at
it and I'm like, holy crap. They've got a ton
of fantastic stuff, right, But you just don't hear people
talk about this band for some reason. I don't get it.
This song title of the song, chorus of The song
is based on a misunderstanding. So the drummer who was
he'd been a singer and other bands and stuff. You know,
he's not the singer for this band, but he would
occasionally sing songs. Right, He writes this song to his
little sister because he's a little worried about what she's doing.
And she's like, these boys have other things on their mind, right,
you know, right right, And his sister's name was Christy. Well, well,
they play the song and they're listening to the song
and the lead singer, Jack Blades, is like, I love this,
and then he looks at the lyrics that the drummer
is written down. He's like, Christy, you said Christy.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, uh I heard Christian. And he's like,
but that's not her name, and he goes artistic license, dude,
Christian is the word that fits here, right if you
haven't guessed it.
Speaker 3: Yes, So this song is Sister Christian by Night Rager.
Speaker 2: Sister Christian all the Time has come.
Speaker 1: And you know that.
Speaker 3: The world to say, Okay, I heard his sister say
that this song was so popular that she was like,
do I need to change my name? Like people are
like this song is written about you. What's your name, Christy.
Speaker 2: Dang?
Speaker 3: I need to change my name.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this and Night Ranger is made up of some
all stars, I mean from other bands even did you
know they were touring with Ozzy whenever Randy Rhodes died
and the guitarist from Night Ranger came in and subbed
until you know, whenever they got Zach Wild or whatever
it is. I guess it's just this song though. Oh
my gosh, this is Baker Street good man. I mean
the bill, the soft piano this and then the the
drums with the bill, Oh my gosh, so good. And
here's the thing. They recorded the song over one hundred times.
Kelly Kegy, the drummer who's singing Yeah, is so pissed
off at having to do the song over again. So
the engineer says, Okay, guys, do it again after over
one hundred takes, and Kelly Kegy, the guy who's singing,
the guy who's playing the drums, is so pissed off
that when it gets to the end of the song, he,
instead of playing the drums, just chucks his drumsticks as
hard as he can across the room and just belts it.
Out and then the engineer is like, okay, come in here,
and they all go in and he's like, okay, we're done.
And it's not because he's pissed off. It's because that take,
that angry, drumless take, was the take that was perfect,
and that's the one that we know today. Wow.
Speaker 3: Okay, we've talked for five minutes about this song and
you haven't mentioned Boogie Knights yet.
Speaker 2: So it was on my list of things to mention. Yeah,
So this song made it back into world awareness in
the mid nineties whenever Boogie Knights was released because it
is the most intense scene in the movie. It's Alfred
Modina dot coc Yeah as a drug dealer right right,
and there's this little Chinese kid walking around throwing the
throwing these little firework poppers, and these guys are there
to try to rob him. So you get this intense scene. Well,
I heard Blades talk about it and he says, yeah,
we're watching the movie. We see this scene where our
song is and all of a sudden, I look over
and we're both sweating bullets. And we talked afterwards, were like,
I feel like we've been to that guy's house. I
feel like, we've been in that scene before. I know
that guy in North Hollywood. We've bought drugs from him before. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I saw Jack Blades seeing for Damn Yankees in
the nineties. So he goes on to build a band
with Tommy Shawn and Ted Nugent and they put out
a great album as well.
Speaker 2: Interesting Comba. We we covered that one of their songs
actually in my band in high school.
Speaker 3: I love Damn Yankees.
Speaker 2: Man. Yeah.
Speaker 3: By the way, this reached number five on the Hot
one hundred, and I mentioned that they got that call
from their manager said the record company is out of business.
You guys have got to get back in the studio
and put out an album. They had Sister Christian already
written and ready to go.
Speaker 2: Nice. Okay, Jason, I've done my number one. It's time
for you, my friend. Okay.
Speaker 3: So my number one hits number one April twenty first,
nineteen eighty four. It knocked out Footloose by Kenny Loggins. Now, then,
this is the first of seven number one hits from
this artist in the nineteen eighties. Okay, this is the
first one, originally titled how Can You Just Sit There?
Taylor Hackford is making a movie with Jeff Bridges and
Rachel Ward Okay, and he wants to include it in
his movie, so he calls up this guy and says,
do you have anything that you could give us for
this movie? Well, it turns out that he had written
this song for his previous album, but he didn't think
it was good enough to include, so he reworked it
with the movie's title, and it goes on to become
a mega hit.
Speaker 2: I know what this song is, okay because this movie
is based on another movie from the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 3: Correct it is, You're right.
Speaker 2: I can't believe pick this song is number one? What
you are a pop fan and this comes very clear
when you pick as your number one song from nineteen
eighty four of all people, Phil Collins Against all.
Speaker 3: I love Phil Collins, everybody love Phil Collins.
Speaker 2: I love Phil Collins. I love this song. I can't
believe you put.
Speaker 3: It number one, but I still a favorite man. When
he gets going on his vocals and he leans on
it and he's screaming out against all odds, I love it.
I love this quote for Phil Collins. By the way,
this is his first of seven number one. He goes
on a Rampage.
Speaker 2: The Invisible Touch comes out this year, right.
Speaker 3: Well, in Visible Touch is eighty six, but that's Genesis.
But even still they get number one hits for Genesis.
So the song is written about his divorce, his wife
and his kids. And we're actually going to talk about
another song on the Miami Vice soundtrack coming up here
in a couple of weeks. But when asked about this
movie against All Odds, which my wife and I joke
that it's the best song for a crappy movie, he said, quote,
the first thing that comes to my mind is the
size of Rachel Wards West is the size of Rachel
Ward's breasts. Oh and I like Jeff Bridges too.
Speaker 2: Oh that's fantastic, fantastic. Yeah. From Here to Eternity was
the original movie, Burt Lancaster, Is that right? Yeah? Wow?
Same exactly like same poster right with them making love.
Speaker 3: On the beach, right it is. This won the Grammy
for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, nominated for an Academy Award,
but he couldn't perform it at the Academy Awards. He
had to watch some dancer lip sync it.
Speaker 2: That's really weird. Yeah, that's really really weird. Ladies and gentlemen,
you have heard my top five. You've heard Jason's top five.
I really, I'm I would really like to know from
our fans, but we need to pull this one. We
need to put the Patreon poll out.
Speaker 3: Are you saying your top five is better?
Speaker 2: In my thought, I am saying that my number one
is better than your number one?
Speaker 3: I love Phil Collins.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, well that's okay, that's all right.
Speaker 3: Where are my Phil Collins defenders right calling you out?
Speaker 2: Come on out, boys and girls. Okay, So we did
this without using any of the albums that we've covered previously,
without also using the ones that we have on the
schedule for this year. That's right, eliminated a few in
and of itself. I don't want to give you too
much there, but we would probably have an entirely different
list if we were able to pick from those albums
that were big in nineteen eighty four. Right, we'll go
back and forth. I'll say my number five, you say
you're number five, Okay, ready? My number five is Purple Rain, Purple.
Speaker 3: Rain off the Purple Rain soundtrack, which we just released
like a week ago, re released. Yeah, okay, my number
five is a song called Magic by the Cars.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, this fantastic song, and we've got that one
coming up on a future episode Heartbeat City.
Speaker 3: Maybe this Summer versus Reckless by Brian Adams.
Speaker 2: Oh those are both so good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're packed with hits.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be great. Gosh all right. My number four
holding out for a hero.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, Bonnie Tylerto.
Speaker 2: You got it Footloose, which we also a tractor scene. Yeah.
Speaker 3: My shoelaces tie around my accelerator just thinking about this.
My number four is Let's Go Crazy.
Speaker 2: By Prince Okay. My number three is Hard of Rock
and Roll by Hugh Lewis in the News.
Speaker 3: Love it fantastic, right, My number three is Thriller.
Speaker 2: My number two is Let's Go Crazy by Prince.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right. My number two is Jump by Van Halen.
Speaker 2: Oh good one, good one. My number one is Thriller.
It has to be. That was the year the video
came out. Wow, it was. I mean everywhere I was obsessed.
We've talked about it. There's the reason that this was
our first episode.
Speaker 3: I can't argue with that one. Yeah, however, you left
off the song of nineteen eighty four when does.
Speaker 2: Cry is that your number one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, everybody, that's it. We'd love to hear
what you think about our.
Speaker 2: List, guys. Like I mentioned earlier, we've got a secret
song from nineteen eighty four that we will be releasing
as a Patreon episode. So just go over to patreon
dot com backslash Surely Podcast sign up for as little
as five bucks a month. We don't ask for something
for nothing. You get all of the secret one hit
Wonder episodes that we've done. You become a member of
our Shurly family. Fun And just to throw this out here,
we do hours and hours and hours of research to
bring you, guys, just a few minutes of entertainment. So
if you want to give a little bit back, we
would love it. It helps keep us going right.
Speaker 3: And like we said, you can follow us over there
for free.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so check it out.
Speaker 3: All right, So d we have next week. We're back
in session.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: This is season five that Shirley Can't Be Serious podcast.
We are comparing Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop versus Eddie
Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop two.
Speaker 2: Another throwback to our first season. We compared trading places
to coming to America. We love Eddie Murphy, but this
year we have Beverly Hills cop Axel Foley coming out,
so we may be able to sneak review in that.
I'll uh top gun Maverick like we did, and hopefully
it's good. I've got my fingers crossed for it.
Speaker 3: All right, fantastic, We'll see you back here next week.
Speaker 2: Thanks guys, see you then.
Speaker 3: Whoa, okay, well that just oh okay, no, no, that's it.
That's it.
Speaker 2: That's it.