The Music Of The 80s - Favorites, Classics And Rarities

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OVERDRIVE!

Yeah! I remember them! They are one of the few good local 80s bands.

 

Rage and Zyzyxx were the other popular bands then before The Dawn

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THE THREE O'CLOCK

 

The Three O'Clock were the quintessential L.A. Paisley Underground band. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio in fact coined the term to describe the set of bands, including the Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green On Red and the Bangles, who incorporated the chiming guitars of the Byrds and the Beatles into their pop songs with a psychedelic bent, and the clothes to match. Beginning as the Salvation Army in 1982 as a three-piece and forsaking the name due to a conflict with the actual organization, the Three O'Clock originally included Quercio, and guitarist Louis (formerly Gregg) Gutierrez. The band plied a garagey sound on their self-titled debut in 1982. When ex-Weirdos drummer Danny Benair and keyboardist Mickey Mariano joined for the follow-up EP Baroque Hoedown and the LP Sixteen Tambourines in 1983, the band found a more polished, perfect pop sound. In 1985 they released Arrive Without Travelling for IRS, followed by Ever After (IRS). Gutierrez departed in 1986. For their Warner Brothers/Paisley Park debut (Prince was a fan), Vermillion, Jason Falkner was added on guitar. Sadly, it proved to be their undoing, as they never really fulfilled the label's expectations and Quercio refused to be pigeonholed as a pretty-boy pop star or spokesperson for the premature retro revival. Quercio continues to play in L.A. pop bands, while Gutierrez became a principle member of Mary's Danish, and Falkner is a solo recording artist.

 

The group was best known for their college radio hit "On Paper" in 1988.

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TEENA MARIE

 

No white artist has sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie, whose big, robust vocals are so black-sounding that when she was starting out, some listeners wondered if she was a light-skinned African-American. Not to be confused with Brazilian jazz singer Tânia Maria, Marie grew up in west Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was nicknamed "Venice Harlem" because of its heavy black population. The singer/songwriter/producer was in her early twenties when, around 1977, she landed a job at Motown Records. It was at Motown that she met her mentor and paramour-to-be, Rick James, who ended up doing all of the writing and producing for her debut album of 1979, Wild and Peaceful. That LP, which boasted her hit duet with James, "I'm Just a Sucker for Your Love," didn't show Marie's picture -- so many programmers at black radio just assumed she was black. When her second album, Lady T, came out, much of the R&B world was shocked to see how fair-skinned she was. But to many of the black R&B fans who were eating her music up, it really didn't matter -- the bottom line was she was a first-rate soul singer whose love of black culture ran deep.

By her third album, 1980's gold Irons in the Fire, Marie was doing most of her own writing and producing. That album boasted the major hit "I Need Your Lovin'," and Marie went gold again with her next album, It Must Be Magic (which included the major hit "Square Biz"). It Must Be Magic turned out to be her last album for Motown, which she had a nasty legal battle with. Marie got out of her contract with Motown, and the case ended up with the courts passing what is known as "The Teena Marie Law" -- which states that a label cannot keep an artist under contract without putting out an album by him or her.

 

Switching to Epic in 1983, Marie recorded her fifth album, Robbery, and had a hit with "Fix It." In 1984, Marie recorded her sixth album, Starchild, and had her biggest pop hit ever with "Lovergirl." Though Marie had often soared to the top of the R&B charts, "Lovergirl" marked the first time she'd done so well in the pop market. Ironically, Marie was a white singer who had enjoyed little exposure outside the R&B market prior to "Lovegirl."

 

Three more Epic albums followed: 1986's Emerald City, 1988's Naked to the World (which contained her smash hit "Ooh La La La"), and 1990's Ivory. Unfortunately, Marie's popularity had faded considerably by the late '80s, and Epic dropped her. In 1994, the singer released Passion Play on her own Sarat label. Ten years later, she signed to Cash Money and released La Doña, featuring assistance from Gerald LeVert, Rick James, and MC Lyte

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THE TIME

 

From their origins as Prince's first pet project to their self-produced funk-rock oeuvre, the Time has been a fascinating and outrageous congregation. Vocalist Morris Day infused his cocky, swaggering personality into dance hits that would make Rufus Thomas envious, and, unlike most of the competition, the band managed to do something unique with Prince's genre-busting innovations. The Time broke up in the late '80s, with Day going on to a somewhat disastrous solo career, Jesse Johnson crafting two dazzling solo albums, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis becoming one of the most successful production teams this side of Gamble & Huff, working with everyone from Full Force and Janet Jackson to the S.O.S. Band and Human League. The group re-formed in 1990 and released the excellent Pandemonium.

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OLLIE & JERRY

 

Drummer Ollie E. Brown and bassist Jerry Knight were first-call recording session musicians. The native Detroiters formed the rhythm nucleus of fellow Detroiter Ray Parker Jr.'s band Raydio. Knight sang lead vocals on Raydio's gold Top Five R&B/Top Eight pop smash "Jack and Jill." As an A&M recording artist,Knight forged an intriguing rock/R&B/funk mix with producer David Kershenbaum on the Top 17 R&B hit "Overnight Sensation" from the LP Jerry Knight and on Super Rare Disco, Vol. 2. Brown produced sides for Klique, Patti Austin, Latoya Jackson, and the Rolling Stones. Polydor Records exec Russ Regan asked Brown to contribute songs to the soundtrack of the breakdancing-themed movie Breakin'. While watching scenes from the movie during a pre-release screening of the movie, a line uttered by one of the character's got Brown's attention, "they can't stop us." While collaborating on the song idea with Knight, the two began to reflect on their music biz travails. Issued as Ollie and Jerry, "Breakin'...There's No Stoppin Us" went to number three R&B and number nine pop in the summer of 1984. The 12" extended version features a more echoey, cavernous mix and burning synth bass with an instrumental on the flipside. The duo returned on the soundtrack for the sequel Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo which included "Electric Boogaloo" which made it to number 45 R&B in late 1984. Knight later co-wrote and produced sides on the Jets, Bunny DeBarge, Natalie Cole -- Everlasting -- and Patrice Rushen -- Watch Out. "Breakin'...There's No Stoppin Us" is on Disco Nights, Vol. 7: DJ Pix, Breaking Homies, Billboard Top Dance Hits:1984, Dance Dance Dance: Dance Hits of the '60s, '70s, & '80s, and Decades of Dance '60s '70s & '80s

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KATE BUSH

 

One of the most successful and popular solo female acts of the past 20 years to come out of England, Kate Bush is also one of the most unusual, with her keening vocals and unusually literate and complex body of songs. As a girl, Catherine Bush amused herself playing an organ in the barn behind her parents' house. By the time she was a teenager, Bush was writing songs of her own. A family friend, Ricky Hopper, heard her music and arranged for a demo to be recorded, which brought Bush to the attention of Pink Floyd lead guitarist David Gilmour. By the time Bush was 16, she had signed to EMI Records, though the company made the decision to bring her along slowly. She studied dance, mime, and voice, and continued writing. By 1977, she was ready to enter the recording studio and begin her formal career, which she did with an original song, "Wuthering Heights," based on material from Emily Brontë's novel.

 

"Wuthering Heights" rose to number one on the British charts. Bush became an overnight sensation at the age of 17 and was obligated to turn in an accompanying album in short order. This she did with The Kick Inside, a collection of material she had written over the previous three years; the album reached number three and sold over a million copies in the U.K.

 

Bush's second album, Lionheart, reached number six but didn't achieve anything like the sales totals or critical acclaim of its predecessor. In England during the spring of 1979, Bush embarked on what proved to be the only concert tour of her career to date, playing a series of shows highlighted by 17 costume changes, lots of dancing, and complex lighting. The tour proved both exhausting and financially disastrous, and Bush has avoided any but the most limited live concert appearances since, primarily in support of certain charitable causes.

 

By this time, Bush was established as one of the most challenging and eccentric artists ever to have achieved success in rock music, with a range of sounds and interests that constantly challenged listeners. "Babooshka" (1980) became her first Top Five single since "Wuthering Heights," and her subsequent album Never for Ever entered the British charts at number one in September of 1980. During this period, Bush began co-producing her own work, a decisive step toward refining her sound and also establishing her independence from her record company. Although 1982's The Dreaming reached number three, the single "There Goes a Tenner" failed to reach the charts, and most observers felt that Bush had lost her audience. Bush was unfazed by the criticism, and even began taking steps to make herself more independent of her record company by establishing a home studio.

 

After two years' absence, Bush re-emerged in August of 1985 with "Running Up That Hill," which reached number three on the English charts and became her second biggest-selling single. The accompanying album, Hounds of Love, the first record made at her 48-track home studio, debuted on the British charts at the number one position in September of 1985 and remained there for a full month, and soon after "Running Up That Hill" gave Bush her long-awaited American breakthrough, reaching number 30 on Billboard's charts. The changes in her sound and her development as a writer/performer were showcased in the January 1987 best-of collection The Whole Story. That same year, Bush won the Best British Female Artist award at the sixth annual BRIT Awards in London. In October of 1989, Bush's first new album in almost four years, The Sensual World, reached the British number two spot. Bush's next album, The Red Shoes (1993), debuted in the American Top 30, the first time one of her albums had ever charted that high.

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T'PAU

 

Named after a character from the Star Trek TV series, the pop-anthem band T'Pau formed in 1986 around vocalist Carol Decker (b. Sept. 10, 1957), guitarist Ronnie Rogers (b. Mar. 13, 1959), keyboard player Michael Chetwood (b. Aug. 26, 1954), bassist Paul Jackson (b. Aug. 8, 1961), and drummer Tim Burgess (b. Oct. 6, 1961). Quickly signed to Virgin's Siren subsidiary, the group released their debut single, "Heart and Soul," in early 1987 with little fanfare. After the song was used in a Pépe jeans commercial, however, it became a Top Five hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The resulting album, Bridge of Spies (self-titled T'Pau for its American release), shot straight to number one in England. Four subsequent singles from the album entered at least the Top 20, though none broke in the U.S. charts. After touring with Bryan Adams and Nik Kershaw, the band added another guitarist, Dean Howard, and recorded their second album, Rage. The LP stalled at number four on the British charts, and its follow-up, The Promise, barely made Top Ten in 1991. After a farewell tour, T'Pau broke up, though Decker began a solo career soon after

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MATTHEW WILDER

 

The defiant chorus of Matthew Wilder's 1983 hit "Break My Stride" -- "Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride/Nobody gonna slow me down" -- could also define his career. Wilder is one of the few artists who was able to escape from the stigma of having only one smash single and yet find more success in the music industry. In the early '70s, Wilder was part of the Greenwich Village folk duo Matthew & Peter. Wilder moved to Los Angeles in 1978 and sang on TV commercials; he also became a backup vocalist for Rickie Lee Jones and Bette Midler. In 1983, Wilder released his first album, I Don't Speak the Language. "Break My Stride" reached the Top Ten in the U.S. A second hit only managed to reach the bottom levels of the US Top 40 called "The Kid's American." However, Wilder's second LP, 1984's Bouncin' Off the Walls, flopped. Nevertheless, Wilder continued to write and produce for others. In 1995, Wilder produced No Doubt's multi-platinum debut Tragic Kingdom. Wilder's work on the Mulan soundtrack in 1998 that earned him an Oscar nomination

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MICHAEL SEMBELLO

 

Best known as the composer and performer of the huge early-'80s dance hit, "Maniac" (from the movie Flashdance), songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Michael Sembello has issued several solo albums over the years, in addition to producing, composing, and performing on other artist's recordings. Born in Philadelphia during 1954, Sembello got his start as part of Stevie Wonder's band in the early '70s, later doing session work for the likes of Sergio Mendes, the Jackson 5, Stephen Bishop, Randy Crawford, and David Sanborn, among others. But it was the soundtrack to the aforementioned 1983 movie Flashdance that brought Sembello his greatest acclaim, as the album has since gone on to be certified six times platinum. Sembello's solo albums have included such titles as 1983's Bossa Nova Hotel (which also included "Maniac" and minor hit "Automatic Man"), 1986's Without Walls, 1992's Caravan of Dreams, and 1997's Backwards in Time, while he also found the time to launch a jazz outfit, the Bridge, in the late '90s (having issued a lone, self-titled debut). In addition, Sembello has either produced or written songs for Chaka Khan, George Benson, Gerardo, New Edition, the Temptations, and Donna Summer

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FRANK STALLONE

 

Elder brother Sylvester Stallone had given Frank a chance to fame. Frank appeared in "Rocky" in 1976. His role was small but he played a part where a street corner group of friends sang to pass the time. Frank already had a group called "Valentine" which did not really make an impact.

 

And thanks to elder brother Sylvester Stallone, who directed the 1983 film Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. Of course, the star was John Travolta. Frank Stallone finally had his shot at fame. Frank had gone solo at this time. "Far From Over" from the film Staying Alive was his biggest hit in 1983 on RSO Records. The song landed in #8 in the US Top 40 and was the biggest hit of the soundtrack. The same soundtrack also featured Bee Gees whose songs fared no better than Frank Stallone in the charts.

 

Frank also sings a duet with Cynthia Rhodes, who is now Mrs. Richard Marx, in the soundtrack titled "Never Gonna Give You Up" (No, not the Rick Astley song). The ballad, unfortunately did not do too well, but was a smash hit in the Philippines.

 

Frank Stallone never had another chart hit after.

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GANG OF FOUR

 

Formed in 1977 by Leeds University students Jon King (vocals), Andy Gill (guitar), Dave Allen (bass), and Hugo Burnham (drums), Gang of Four (along with the Fall, Mekons, and Liliput) produced some of the most exhilarating and lasting music of the early English post-punk era of 1978-1983. Fueled by the fury of punk rock and radical political theory, Gang of Four successfully welded the two in an inspired display of polemics and music that addressed the vagaries of life in the modern world (including love and romance) as matters of political inquiry. Despite the fact that this sounds rife with the potential for being long on rhetoric and short on groove, such was not the case. What made Gang of Four's polemical clang'n'roll so compelling was that it worked as harsh, bracing, and ultimately liberating rock & roll. With Allen and Burnham combining as a formidable and frequently very funky rhythm section, Gill didn't play guitar as much as emit thick wads of semi-tuneful distortion, while King "sang" in a dry, declamatory fashion similar to that of the Fall's Mark E. Smith. The rhythms were stripped down and jagged; at times Gill would dispense with guitar solos entirely and "play" non-solos, which were (surprise!) silence. Song titles sounded like the titles of radical political essays: "At Home He's a Tourist," "Damaged Goods," "It's Her Factory," "Love Like Anthrax," "To Hell With Poverty," all of it openly challenging the audience's preconceived notions about rock music, performance, the cult of celebrity, and the nature of politics. And in doing so, GOF conveyed rage, confusion, and loss of identity as well as any band of its time.

 

After three consecutive sensational albums, as well as a handful of EPs and singles, Allen left in 1982 to form the more danceable and less overtly political Shriekback, while Gill, King, and Burnham recorded the misguided "radical soul/R&B" record Hard with veteran American producers Ron and Howard Albert (who'd previously worked with Stephen Stills' Manassas and Firefall). A near total disaster, Hard signalled that the end was nigh. Gill and King, who by this point had final say-so on the band's musical and political direction, sacked Burnham, and the now "Gang of Two" released a so-so live album (At the Palace) and called it quits in 1984. But legends die hard, and Gang of Four experienced a mini-renaissance in the early '90s with the release of two excellent collections (A Brief History of the Twentieth Century and The Peel Sessions Album). King and Gill put together a new Gang of Four and released the tepid but not disgraceful Mall in 1991. Another reunion, from 1995, yielded Shrinkwrapped. Despite the clumsy and haphazard finish, Gang of Four remains, to the ears of those opened wide by punk rock, an extremely important band, and their music was celebrated in 1998 by the two-disc retrospective A Hundred Flowers Blooming.

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ALPHAVILLE

 

The simple, synth-based Europop of Berlin's Alphaville borrowed heavily from the textures and drama of Ultravox and was essentially a showcase for the over-the-top, Bryan Ferry-influenced vocals of Marian Gold; the early lineup also featured Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens, but membership fluctuated over most of the group's career. Alphaville had a big European hit in 1984 with its first single, "Big in Japan." Their next single "Forever Young" also received recognition in Europe. But their next album, Gold, failed to match its appeal with most subsequent efforts, in spite of using Tangerine Dream's Klaus Schulze as a producer.

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KRAFTWERK

 

During the mid-'70s, Germany's Kraftwerk established the sonic blueprint followed by an extraordinary number of artists in the decades to come. From the British new romantic movement to hip-hop to techno, the group's self-described "robot pop" -- hypnotically minimal, obliquely rhythmic music performed solely via electronic means -- resonates in virtually every new development to impact the contemporary pop scene of the late- 20th century, and as pioneers of the electronic music form, their enduring influence cannot be overstated. Kraftwerk emerged from the same German experimental music community of the late '60s which also spawned Can and Tangerine Dream; primary members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter first met as classical music students at the Dusseldorf Conservatory, originally teaming in the group Organisation and issuing a 1970 album, Tone Float. Schneider and Hütter soon disbanded Organisation, re-christening themselves Kraftwerk (German for "power station"), beginning work on their own studio (later dubbed Kling Klang), and immersing their music in the fledgling world of minimalist electronics; their 1971 debut, titled simply Kraftwerk 1, offered a hint of their unique aesthetic in its earliest form, already implementing innovations including Schneider's attempts at designing homemade rhythm machines.

 

A series of lineup shifts followed, and at one point Hütter even left the group; however, by the release of 1972's Kraftwerk 2, he and Schneider were again working in tandem. Recorded without a live drummer, the album's rhythms relied solely on a drum machine, creating a distinctly robotic feel without precedent -- the concept of purely technological music was, at the time, utterly alien to most musicians, as well as listeners. A series of well-received live performances followed before Kraftwerk began work on their breakthrough third LP, 1973's Ralf and Florian; honing their many ambitions down to a few simple yet extraordinarily innovative concepts, their music began growing more and more revelatory -- even their clean-cut, scientific image was in direct opposition to the dominant pop fashions of the time. Kraftwerk's first album to be issued in the U.S., 1974's Autobahn was an international smash; an edited single version of the epic title track was a major hit at home and abroad, and in America the previously unknown group reached the upper rungs of the pop albums chart. Performed in large part on a Moog synthesizer, Autobahn crystallized the distinctive Kraftwerk sound while making the group's first clear overtures towards conventional pop structure and melody, establishing a permanent foothold for electronic music within the mainstream.

 

Kraftwerk resurfaced in 1975 with Radio-Activity, a concept album exploring the theme of radio communication; indicative of the group's new global popularity, it was released in both German and English-language editions, the latter appearing early the following year. Train travel emerged as the subject of 1977's Trans-Europe Express, which marked an increased movement towards seeming musical mechanization; the line became even further blurred with the follow-up, 1978's aptly titled The Man Machine, a work almost completely bereft of human touches. By this time, the members of Kraftwerk even publicly portrayed themselves as automatons, an image solidified by tracks like "We Are the Robots." Having reached the peak of their influence, however, the group disappeared from view, the first of many extended absences to follow; they did not return to action prior to 1981's Computer World, a meditation on the new global dominance of technology -- a society their music long ago predicted and pre-dated. After topping the British charts with the singles "The Model" and "Computer Love," Kraftwerk again vanished, enjoying a five-year layoff culminating in the release of 1986's Electric Cafe. By now, however, pop music was dominated by synthesizers and drum machines, and the group's stature flagged; but for a 1991 best-of collection titled The Mix, they remained silent in the years to follow, finally releasing a new single, "Expo 2000," in late 1999.

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MARIA VIDAL

 

She is best known for her Top 20 hit "Body Rock" in 1984. It was the title soundtrack of the movie "Body Rock" which did not do too well at the box office. Vidal came up with an album in 1987 which drew little attention. No hits came out of her afterwards.

Edited March 28, 2006 by hitman531ph