Without a doubt one of the best pop songs ever written, Things Can Only Get Better was meant to be a gift of positive energy for the people who had purchased Howard Jones’s first album.  There’s no irony or sarcasm in this song, which is one of the thing that makes it so effective.  Howard Jones is telling his fans that things can only get better.  It’s not just humans that Jones’s song has helped through the years.  He also recorded a version in the language of the Sims for The Sims 2.

This video was directed by the prolific Nigel Dick.  The video features Jones trying to get ready for a concert, while Charlie Chaplin and … I guess that’s supposed to be Daniel LaRusso from The Karate Kid, hang out backstage.  Chaplin was played by Jed Hoile, who was a mime who regularly performed as a part of Jones’s stage act.  It was the 80s.  It didn’t have to make sense.

The video was popular on MTV and helped make the song into a hit, though I’d like to think that a song this upbeat and catchy would have been a hit even without the video.  This is another song that I have fond memories of listening to while driving around Vice City.