Michael Sembello - "Maniac" POLL

the original "Maniac"

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SomberShockingArkshell-size_restricted.gif

yeeeeeeees

sidenote, does this song have the wankiest non-Van Halen guitar solo in a pop song of all time

This is gonna be a good run of polls

fun fact i learned about this guy from this video: he used to play in stevie wonder's band.

also going second option because cocaine is obviously involved.

don’t think I’ve heard this in any context besides bad comedy soundtrack

I unironically love this song. the tapped guitar solo could practically be on Ride the Lightning

Yeah, me too. This is awesome.

As funny as option 2 would be the Yeats paraphrase in the lyrics would seem to suggest that this is impressive, if frighteningly energetic, dancing - like the scene in a ballet where the lead dances herself to death, that sort of thing.

And yeah as far as I’m concerned this song is a classic

supposedly Sembello wrote it as a joke song about an axe murderer with much different lyrics, and was approached to give a song to the soundtrack and he gave them a demo tape with another song on it, but he still had his ax murderer song on the other side, and they for some reason listened to it too, and they preferred that song.

obviously that sounds apocryphal as hell but Sembello himself spread that story!

I love this song, one of the last and most realized boomer-gone-New-Wave moments.

I sang this in 8th grade for choir, my parents and brother used to make fun of my (then)-monotone delivery

What is meant by the line "She's a maniac, in the floor/And she's dancing like she never danced before"

Someone has attempted to embed her in flooring (perhaps because she is a maniac, although clearly so are they) and she is struggling to break free. It's not a pleasant image but it makes perfect sense.

omg lol

The song was inspired by a slasher flick and the lyrics originally referred to a cat-killing psycho. You could not make up a backstory this good:

Sembello wrote this with his songwriting partner Dennis Matkosky, who got the idea when he saw the William Lustig movie Maniac, which is about a serial killer who stalks his victims in New York City. Sembello told Songfacts: "He came up with the original kernel of inspiration and to me with the basic idea and groove and I believe the temporary lyrics for the chorus he had were:

He's a maniac, maniac that's for sure
He will kill your cat and nail him to the door

That direction obviously wasn't going to work at which point the genius of Phil Ramone, producer of the soundtrack who had the vision to see the potential of the song, asked us to change it to the present concept of a girl possessed with the passion of a gift for dance. Without Phil it would not have happened."

That would be "killer" dance moves, then. The synth riff is certainly unhinged.

Also, Van Halen guitar solos are anything but wanky ffs

I had a friend who thought the line is the chorus was "She's a maniac, maniac, that's sure" and i think about that every time i think about this song

she's a maniac, maniac that's for sure
having a manic episode she's had before

He's a maniac, maniac that's for sure
He will kill your cat and nail him to the door

i should not have laughed at this as much as i did. maybe it's because i'm thinking of it as autobiographical and picturing sembello himself stepping out from behind his rack of keyboards in order to go mangle some poor feline, then returning to said keyboards to sing a menacing yet undeniably catchy tune about the deed.

obviously that sounds apocryphal as hell but Sembello himself spread that story!

Missed this post.
idk, a horror movie theme disguised as "hot" AC with stretch-to-fit lyrics is what it sounds exactly like tbf.

It does, for sure

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

love this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvYQ1TNbf2g

omg at beret wearing keyboard player

omg at Michael just leaving the keyboard and picking up the guitar and shredding

omg look at the clown dancers behind him here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJddrU6I9os

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

omg at Michael just leaving the keyboard and picking up the guitar and shredding

― Dig Dug the police (Neanderthal), Wednesday, June 17, 2020 9:16 PM

it was a metaphor for him mangling the poor feline.

(yes, i'm still laughing at that shit)

Interesting fact about Michael Sembello: he lost out on millions of dollars in 1982 when one of his songs, Carousel, was bumped off the track listing of Thriller at the last minute to be replaced by Toto's Human Nature.

On hearing that news, Michael was found rocking back and forth in a corner repeating "Why? (Why?)".

Results incorrect.

Wish I had seen this poll!

Some time in the past few years, I put it together that Sembello was behind the soundtrack to a BMX freestyle video I loved when I was a kid. Some great cheesy 80s motivational music in here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYUSDghZh6M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbXnUr-K50U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uABkEr3UyIA

Maniac always made me think of when the hyperactive 4-year-old next door neighbor would come over to visit my sister, so the poll would have been 9-8 if I had known.

On hearing that news, Michael was found rocking back and forth in a corner repeating "Why? (Why?)".

Ha, touché