Forgotten singles/videos from 1980s movie soundtracks

The closing credits theme from the second best film in the series. The song is not very scary sounding. In fact, it has a drivingly catchy chorus with a very ABBA/Billy Joel "Pressure"-like synthetic piano line. Lyically, it's a sort of celebration of iconic Jason's ability to resurrect himself and continue his moral crusade against selfish and incompetent teenagers.

The video, which features Alice as a phychiatrist and another setting in a crowded movie theater screening "Jason Lives" is fine enough for the image of Alice triumphantly pumping his fist during the chorus. However, I realized last night that I prefer hearing the song while seeing the bold white titles of the Jason Lives production credits cover a black screen.

Rod Stewart, "Twisting The Night Away" from Innerspace.

A polished, tinny rendition of a song he'd already covered on Never A Dull Moment back when he was also a Face. Halfway through the video he goes to a movie theater to see Innerspace. Martin Short and a bald woman are sitting next to him and Martin's obnoxiousness inspires him to jump in front of the screen and sing some more. Martin is peeved but eventually joins Rod on stage, doing variations on his usual Ed Grimley shtick. Rod and Martin fight over the bald woman at the end of the video. While track isn't as commendable as his '70s rendition, the vocal delivery remains lively. You could have him sing over barking dogs and he'd still have charm.

best soundtrack cover evah!

It opens it the two cops, seemingly in character, ahving a funny exchange in their cop car. Later they perform the song with McDonald in an island paradise. Billy Crystal does some silly dancing and the trio lip sync the song together. McDonald appears amused by the actor-comedians and the actor-comedians are allowed to live out a playful pop star fantasy.

The video has a memorable narrative all its own, a sexy free spirited woman arrives at a boring yuppie's house, plays Billy Idol's new single on the stereo, and wreaks all sorts of sexy havoc.

Billy appears on the Warhol prints on the Yuppie prtoganists wall. Aside from a brief montage of "Ford Fairlane" clips during the guitar solo, not nearly enough effort is made to connect the proceedings with the motion picture.

It plagued me.

Heard it on Annie Nightingale. Didn't buy the soundtrack. Couldn't find that, and certainly couldn't find any Lick The Tins albums. This is what happens if the only music shop in reach is WHS. Eventually, having failed to tape it off the radio, and eventually forgetting everything other than the tune, had to ask Q. There was no internet those days, boys and girls. Or at least, a modem was something I'd read about in magazines, but which I could never persuade my parents to buy. No friend was any use.

So having forgotten the name Lick The Tins, I suddenly knew it again, thanks to Q.

This knowledge felt good for a while, but was little use. What I needed was money and a record shop with a large section.

Eventually, in the mid-'90s, I was near a HMV which sold "back catalogue" material. But (a) CDs were *very* *very* expensive compared to the albums going for £2 in the market, and (b) CD players were even more so. I'd shelled out most of my Waitrose earnings on a record/tape/radio deck in 1990: I wasn't in any position to add CD to this any time soon.

Then I got a decent gig with more than decent money. Around that time, someone released a Lick The Tins retrospective. By that time, I'd forgotten the name of the band again, but found the old Q in a civic library and read it with a sense of nostalgia. The tune itself has also been used in another movie (The Snapper), which I watched on a monochrome set during finals and suddenly felt very old.

And suddenly saying "monochrome set" makes me feel very old. It was a funny idea then to use that term to describe a B&W TV, but now even knowing about B&W TVs feels a little, um, test card.

But by then I had the CD. And after a while, didn't just have to listen to it on friends' CD players, as I had my own, because vinyl was no longer the cheapest way to hear good music.

So if it took me that long, an occasional quest which occupied a decade of my life, to get to finally owning the track, why have I not ripped it yet?

I'm such a fickle bitch. What was that band's name again?

Oh! The Turtles made a scary-ass video in the '80s for "Happy Together" featuring footage from Making Mr. Right.

(from mtv.com)

"We're going to be out in the middle of the desert, my band, just standing there with our gear on the dirt. [The] wind's blowing and tumbleweeds.... We're just going to be looking at each other like, 'What's the deal?' It's going to cut to Tom Cruise in the car with his co-star, the girl [Thandie Newton], and she's gonna go 'So where we goin'?' And he's gonna punch on the navigation system and it's gonna go 'Mr. Cruise will be there exactly in...' and the car's gonna pull right in front [of us]. He's going to get out of the car and sit in a chair, right in front of us, and I'm gonna be like, 'So is the song gonna be in the movie?' And he's gonna go, 'I don't know. Let's check it out.' And we're gonna start performing the song, and he's really unaffected. Pretty much throughout the song he's gonna get more and more into it. By the end of the song, I'm gonna have him dancing like 'Risky Business.'"

God I wish his dream had come to life.

The image that has stuck with me all this time is that of Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines coming up from behind a fish tank making fish faces, sucking and puckering their lips.

Aside from a brief montage of "Ford Fairlane" clips during the guitar solo, not nearly enough effort is made to connect the proceedings with the motion picture.

This was because Andrew Dice Clay had a lifetime ban on MTV and was not allowed to be on the channel, even in videos.

Did Paul McCartney's theme from Spies Like Us have a video worthy of inclusion here?

Yes. More pantomine featuring the artist and the two stars from the movie (in this case, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd). Always a bad idea to unite the singers and actors together.

I was always a fan of the Megadëth video for "No More Mr. Nice Guy" from Shocker where Dave Mustaine is strapped into an electric chair and has the juice turned on him. Very convincing shaking, Mr. Mustaine.

And there was this Bob Seger video that I can't remember the name of the song. It was a video intercut with scenes from a fake movie starring (I think) Kris Kristofferson and Randy Quaid. It was very convincing and funny and pretty damn sublime for a damn Bob Seger video. It was like he was getting his revenge on Risky Business for killing "Old Time Rock and Roll" like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIudTcoHzw&search=depeche%20mode%20but%20not%20tonight

...in addition having heard the song for the first time as well.

Anyone actually seen the motion picture "Modern Girls"? I'm assuming the story in the film proper is not as entertaining as the narrative context-less scene excerpts which are fragmented, looped, intercut with, and projected across a performing synth-pop act.

Oddly this video seems to sell the band's image better to me than their work with Anton Corbijn. Gahan is dancing joyfully around with a microphone stand, while Virginia Madsen and Daphne Zuniga reflect the momentary, fragile "happiness" of the lyrics in their experience of the good and bad of neon city 80s LA nightlife. The rest of DM wear leather jackets and dutifully pound on their keyboards.

Am I right in remembering there was a video for "Stand By Me," and Ben E. King appears with the kid actors from the movie?