I’ve been looking up Top 40 lists from my formative years and then looking up the songs on YouTube. Fun! And weird! I started with the 1990 Top 40, and then I just kept changing the year in the URL.
Here are the things that stand out to me, as I revisit these old videos:
1. The hair.
2. The guitar solos in the middle of the songs.
3. The way music videos used to be pretty much just the band performing the song on a stage.
One thing that has been surprising me is THE HAIR. And it should NOT be a surprise, considering that the bands of my formative years are called “hair bands.” And I was THERE, and I was doing things like that to my OWN hair, so I’d expect all these things together to lead to a pretty firm memory of The Hair. Still: surprising.
Check out Vixen. ZOMG HAIR. “Edge of a Broken Heart” is in the “songs I still like” category, rather than the “oh dear, how embarrassing” category.
Please pardon the weird, wrong-lyrics version of this Skid Row video and just check out how YUMMY Sebastian Bach is. But do you find yourself wondering what he would look like with a haircut?
Ditto for Nelson. Boys, boys. I wanted your hair for myself SO BADLY. But on you? Well. I’m untressing you with my eyes.
Another one that still sounds good to me is Poco’s “Call it Love”. But what a sad, cynical attitude, Poco!
We Built This City is the song I used to play again and again on the jukebox (you’re welcome, other patrons!), and in fact Starship is the first album I ever bought. And do you know what? It was a record. A record, an actual RECORD! My dad put it on our record player and recorded a cassette version for me. And my mother was very upset at what a dangerous Acid Rock album it was, and fretted that I shouldn’t be allowed to have it.
How many times did I replay Roxette’s “Church of Your Heart”? Let’s not investigate.
Anyway, this is the list I’ve been going through. Feel free to add to it.
We Built This City — Starship
No One is to Blame — Howard Jones
Say You, Say Me — Lionel Richie
Catch Me (I’m Falling) — Pretty Poison
Stranded — Heart
Edge of a Broken Heart — Vixen
Mad About You — Belinda Carlisle
Don’t Worry Be Happy — Bobby McFerrin
Kiss Him Goodbye — The Nylons
Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love for You — Glenn Medeiros
Make Me Lose Control — Eric Carmen
Do You Believe in Love — Huey Lewis and the News
Jump for My Love — Whitney Houston
Eternal Flame — Bangles
I Drove All Night — Cyndi Lauper
Call It Love — Poco
The Last Worthless Evening — Don Henley
Because of You — The Cover Girls
A Little Respect — Erasure
(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection — Nelson
When I See You Smile — Bad English
Time for Me to Fly — REO Speedwagon
Personal Jesus — Depeche Mode
A Groovy Kind of Love — Phil Collins
Little Liar — Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Church of Your Heart — Roxette
Right Here Waiting — Richard Marx
Release Me — Wilson Phillips
I Remember You — Skid Row
I Want You — Shana
Hooked on You — Sweet Sensation
King of Wishful Thinking — Go West
Close My Eyes Forever — Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne
Cold Hearted — Paula Abdul
Your Baby Never Looked Good in Blue — Exposé
In Your Eyes — Peter Gabriel
You’re the Inspiration — Chicago
Oh gosh… the HAIR!
Oh my gosh! I *love* all the songs on your list. I listened to everything Chicago ever recorded. I also loved (and still do) Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA of course) and the Outfield.
Ahh memories . . .
If only we’d had Youtube I wouldn’t have had to sit by the radio with my cassette player ready to record – and hope that no one ruined the tape I was making!
Starship was also the first album I bought w/ my own money (cassette), along with Mr. Mister’s “Welcome to the Real World.” (Broken Wings” anyone?? How I used to LOVE going to the music store!
Your list is excellent. Those are the very songs I would try to “catch” and record onto cassette from the radio, in the mornings while getting ready for school. “Time for Me to Fly” caught me off-guard. MAN, I used to love that one.
Ah, Swistle. On the eve of my 20th high school reunion, thank you for taking me right back to the day when Aqua Net was my BFF.
I went on a Southern Caribbean cruise in 2005 and the headlining entertainment was Nelson. It was sad.
The first cassette I owned was George Michael, “Faith.” My very overprotective mother must have somehow overlooked the fact that track three was “I Want Your Sex.”
I saw Huey Lewis in concert. Um, in 2004. And they were awesome. That’s all I have to say about that.
I bought a Wilson Phillips CD a few years ago for “Release Me” and “Hold On,” which were like life theme songs for my best friend at the time.
I need to use this list as a primer for August, who of course didn’t listen to any pop music during those years.
I saw the Nelson twins open for Styx at a concert in . . . 2005? Not that long ago. But OMG, those are some hot guys with their hair short!
LOL! Love this! My husband and I were just talking last night about how all the makeup in the world couldn’t hide the hotness of Poison OR the ugliness of Twisted Sister. ;)
Love and Affection was one of my very favorite songs! Also,any Depeche Mode or The Cure songs send me right back to high school!
These songs are my growing up years. I think I am the only other person that loved Nelson (or remembers them for that matter). Loved, loved them! I grew up in a small rural town, so hair bands were the norm. Skid Row! Yeah!
Isn’t it crazy that may not have heard a song in years, but hear it and you remember all the words? What is up with that???
Wow, that list is epic. I’m going to be singing Catch me I’m falling (doo doo doo doo doo doo doo), catch me now I’m falling…for the rest of the day, if not the week. There’s a great site called Bradboard that goes through top songs by the year from the 50’s right on up until now in different categories that I’ve used a lot when making mixes – warning: you may be there for days.
yes to all of that…or possibly even YES.
also, vixen: the hair but what about those awesome BOOTS?!
(ha, my word verification is solested…molested by 90s boots perhaps?)
Untressing you with my eyes…….ha ha ha!!!
I love your list. I’ll order your mixed tape. Off the top of my head, I would add:
Missing You — John Waite
Walking on Sunshine – Katrina & the Waves
Sunglasses at Night — Cory Hart
Lola — The Kinks
Melt with You — Modern English
Rush — Big Audio Dynamite
I need to go find an ’80’s station…
I was watching Gilmore Girls episodes on dvd just last night, and I was trying to imagine Sebastian Bach with a hair cut. I couldn’t do it. Funny he still has the exact same hair (or had, before Gilmore Girls was cancelled…*sniff*).
Also, “I’m untressing you with my eyes” is going to make me smile all day. I love it!
We must be the exact same age. :)
Woooow, I’m back at the swim club the summer between 8th grade and freshman year. My hair is BIG, it’s blonde, and it’s chock full of Rave hairspray. Ahh, to be that young again… :)
Emily- OMG. Did Nelson have the same hair?
Oh gosh, this kind of stuff just makes me realize how much older I am now. I mean, I remember being in high school and it seems fresh in my mind, but when I look at videos or listen to music from that era, it seems like EONS ago.
Lesseeee…
How about Wind of Change, The Scorpions? (Though the band is tainted in my mind now that I live in the desert, with REAL scorpions, which I DO NOT LIKE.)
We Built This City is one of the first songs that I knew EVERY SINGLE WORD to. My BFF and I listened to it over and over just to get it right. And now, my 6 yr old loves it! HAHA, keeping the ’80’s alive, that’s me.
Also, what about “Rock Me, Amadeus” and early Madonna and Cyndi Lauper? And from the hair era, “18 and Life” was one of my favorites. And “Un-Skinny Bop”.
Hmm, there doesn’t seem to be any Boston on your list. I’m sure it was just an oversight.
Triple love that list!!! Immediate time warp.
“untressing you with my eyes” Ha! perfect!
YES! Sebastian Bach with short hair!
Nelson, and their hair, came to my school when I was in 8th grade. We won some sort of “Walk America” participation prize.
BEST!DAY!EVER! (then…)
I loved Starship. My cousin and I blasted “Nothin’s gonna stop us” from my stereo over and over again one summer.
No late 80’s/early 90’s Bon Jovi?? SHOT THROUGH THE HEART!!
You know what I can’t seem to get past? Winger’s amazing white chicklet teeth. It seems to me that if you’re going to be a rock band and look ‘bad ass’ then dude, downplay those teeth.
you should TOTALLY sell this compliation on late night tv! except maybe through etsy or something? FREAKING GREAT MIXTAPE :-)
I’d add Martika’s Toy Soldiers to this list. But now you’ve got me listening to Youtube for these songs too.
:)
O Swistle, I love you! I lurrrrrve all that music. I love the hair, too, though. I have hair like the Nelsons, and I’ve been to a lot of their shows and people always think I’m their sister. I once went to a meet-n-greet with them after they’d cut their hair short, and they were all, “I love your hair!!”
I had that Poco song on my iPod the other day. I love it!!
You rock!
NOW i understand why i so desperately wanted long hair in the 90’s, all the boys had it and it looked SO good!!! those songs bring back high school for me in a serious serious way…*sigh* those were the days….
Simply brilliant Swistle – I will be singing We Built This City all freakin’ day!
Gotta love hair bands!!! :D
Ohmygawd- NELSON!! My friend won tickets to their concert off the radio (I believe we were 13 at the time) AND we got to meet them backstage!! I have photos of me and Nelson!
Starship was my first tape as well. My husband and I still belt out We Built This City when we’re hanging around the house.
“I’m untressing you with my eyes.” LOL! Good one! Love it.
open arms by journey. a song I think I wore out. twice.
I LOVE “drive” by the Cars. “Who’s gonna drive you home…tonight.”. Ooh, that gets me.
And hello? Sebastian Bach, total 80’s hottie. I’ll take a little Skid Row, with some Nelson on the side please.
(ok and I suppose Bret Michaels, but he’s just become a new kind of beast now, hasn’t he)
I, um, actually saw Skid Row (they opened for Bon Jovi). And Huey Lewis. They. were. AWESOME!
What I notice a lot is that the musicians are older, like Huey Lewis is in his thirties, etc., whereas today everyone ‘new’ is grossly under-mature.
I recently found myself searching for the song More Than Words Can Say by Alias. I remember riding in the car with a good friend. We’d have the windows down and be singing that song at the top of our lungs.
Your list of songs brings back such memories. Thanks!
Showing my age here, but I was in grade school when these were released… and, well, we listened to country in my house…
When I was a teenager, it was stuff like The Pretenders (Five Hundred Miles), Boyz2Men, and All 4 One
Oh! Yes! And nobody from my decade will ever forget New Kids On The Block…
I am not ashamed to admit, I LOVE SKID ROW. Still, to this day. Sebastian Bach, in his hey-day, still makes me swoon.
You forgot New Kids On the Block!
I (am still going through your archives [and finally sound a bunch of your photos of your cat who looks like mine :)]) can’t believe you mentioned Poco’s “Call It Love.” That is one of my all-time favorite songs, and most people have never heard of it. Oh, I just love that song. :)