Songs of the Day: More 80's Soundtracks

Those of us who grew up watching the glory days of MTV (approximately 1981-1990) undoubtedly recall some of the soundtrack videos that were a staple of the channel.  These usually had scenes from the movie intercut with a performance by the artist, but not always.  Here are three that I remember watching back in the day.

The first is "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins.  The film was a loose remake of the Robert Mitchum classic, "Out of the Past".  I have a hunch that Kris Kristofferson would have been the favorite to play the football player/detective, but the "Heaven's Gate" debacle probably sunk his chances.  Ironically, Jeff Bridges was also in "Heaven's Gate", but largely escaped the flak that movie created.



The next clip is "Man in Motion" by John Parr, from the movie "St. Elmo's Fire".  One of the great "Brat Pack" movies with Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, and Ally Sheedy.




The last clip is "Change" by John Waite from the film "Vision Quest", that great amateur wrestling epic starring Matthew Modine.  The only video released for this song was made when John Waite released the single from his album "Ignition".  That video showed Waite and his band trying to talk a young lady out of jumping off a ledge.  Twenty five years later, along comes YouTube.  A "Vision Quest" fan makes a video for the song with clips from the film and does a damn good job of recreating that 80's soundtrack video look.  Behold:



Bonus:

The music video that never was.  While there was a video for "I've Had The Time Of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, almost no one remembers it.  It showed grainy black and white footage of Medley and Warnes singing, with scenes of anonymous dancers and clips from "Dirty Dancing".  However, when people think of that song, they picture the final scene: "Johnny" (Patrick Swayze" strides into the year end show, goes to the Houseman's table and says, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner".  Then they walk onstage together and perform the final dance.


Johnny and Baby dance the final dance together.

And the other video everyone remembers from that movie: "Hungry Eyes" by Eric Carmen.