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.

Songs of the Day: 80's Soundtracks

Here are two often overlooked songs from two 80's soundtracks: "Porky's III" and "Hard to Hold".

The first is "High School nights" by Dave Edmunds from the "Porky's III: Porky's Revenge" soundtrack.  For some reason, the third film in the "Porky's" trilogy had the best soundtrack of them all.  It is almost as if they diverted the money they would have paid screenwriters to the soundtrack fund.  The "Porky's III" soundtrack featured: Jeff Beck, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Carl Perkins, Clarence Clemons, and Willie Nelson! However, what I remember best is "High School Nights" playing over the end credits.




Next is "Love Somebody" from what was to be Rick Springfield's springboard to superstardom, "Hard To Hold".  It did not quite work out that way. Springfield was on a roll, coming off of a few years as "Dr. Noah Drake" on "General Hospital.  He writes in the liner notes in his career anthology "Written in Rock": "I'm sorry, but that movie sucked.  It's one of those situations where you think 'the script isn't very good, but I can overcome it'.  Sorry, you can't."  At any rate, the soundtrack did have some good Springfield originals: "Don't Walk Away", "Bop 'Til You Drop" and this one, "Love Somebody".



Rick went on to have more hits in the late 80's, but he never quite got back to the level of stardom he almost had.