Music Video of the Day: Kid by The Pretenders (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

According to Chrissie Hynde, Kid is about a mother who has a conversation with her young son after he discovers that she works as a prostitute. As Hynde put it, “Not all songs are autobiographical.” The video was shot in an amusement park, contrasting the happiness of kids at play with the sadness of the kid being addressed in the song.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: Oh God, I Wish I Was Home Tonight by Rod Stewart (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on October 6, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music

Proving that the music gods have a sense of humor, MTV followed the sublime video for Blondie’s Heart of Glass with yet another video from Rod Stewart. This performance clip is one of the 16 Rod Stewart videos that were played through MTV’s first day of broadcast.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: Heart of Glass by Blondie (1978, directed by Stanley Dorfman)

Posted on October 5, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

After airing the video for A Message To You, Rudy, MTV re-showed the video for In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins. This was followed by the 71st video to makes it MTV premiere that day, Heart of Glass by Blondie.

I was actually surprised to discover that this video hadn’t been featured on this site before because, to me, it just epitomizes an era. But I was actually even more surprised to discover that MTV only aired it once on August 1st. MTV found time play and re-play 11 Rod Stewart videos throughout the day but they could only find time for one airing of Heart of Glass?

Though it’s now one of the band’s signature tunes, Heart of Glass was controversial when it was first released. Many felt the Blondie, which had come to prominence as a part of the punk movement, was selling out by going disco. The song, though, is actually very punk in spirit, even if it does have a disco beat.

This video was directed by Stanley Dorfman, the British music video director who also created the deathless Top of the Pops for the BBC. Because of the appearance of Studio 54 in the video’s opening moments, it was originally rumored that the video was shot there. Instead, it was filmed at a club that closed down shortly after filming. When asked, Blondie’s Chris Stein couldn’t even remember the name of the club but thought that it might have been called Copa.

Finally, shortly after it was first released, the song was featured on an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati and the band felt that show played a huge role in making the song a hit. They even sent the show’s producer a gold record as a way of thanking them. That gold record could be seen in several episodes, hanging in the bullpen.

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: A Message To You, Rudy by the Specials (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 70th video to play on MTV was The Specials’s cover of A Message To You, Rudy. A Message To You, Rudy was originally recorded by Dandy Livingstone in 1968. The original version didn’t get much play but the Specials version, which was produced by Elvis Costello, was a different story, reaching the number 10 spot on the UK charts. This video features The Specials performing the song and it’s one of the few times that black musicians appeared on MTV during the channel’s first day of broadcast.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: More Than I Can Say by Leo Sayer (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on October 3, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 69th video play on MTV was the video for Leo Sayer’s version of More Than I Can Say, which features Leo as an artist who paints himself into a better existence. Visually, this feels like a precursor for A-ha’s video for Take On Me.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: Celebrate The Bullet by The Selecter (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on October 2, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

How’s this bad for bad luck? In 1981, The Selecter was an up-and-coming British ska band, led by Pauline Black on vocals. In February, they released their second album, Celebrate The Bullet. A month later, towards the end of March, they released the album’s title track as a single. That same week, a mentally disturbed man named John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to impress Jodie Foster by shooting President Ronald Reagan. Though Reagan survived the assassination attempt, there wasn’t a radio station in America that was going to play a song called Celebrate The Bullet. As a result, both the single and the album flopped and The Selecter struggled on for just a few more years before they (temporarily) broke up.

Not even a music video that aired on MTV could save the single. This despite the fact that it was a good video that showed the direction that music videos would follow in the 80s, mixing shots of the band performing with cryptic images of Pauline Black walking through what appears to be a catacomb.

Celebrate The Bullet was the 68th music video to air on MTV.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: Wuthering Heights (1978, directed by Keith MacMillan)

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 67th video to make its MTV premiere on August 1st was one of the videos that Kate Bush did for Wuthering Heights. There’s actually two videos for this song, each featuring similar choreography. One version features Kate dressed in a white dress and dancing in a mist-filled room. The other version features Kate in a red dress and dancing in a grassy area. In both videos, the suggestion is that Kate Bush is playing a ghost, which makes either version of Wuthering Heights a good video to start October with.

Both videos have their fans and I’m not sure which one was first played on MTV. But I’m going to go with the video of Kate dressed in white because it was the first of the two videos to be released and it was specifically made for the UK. Produced three years before the premiere of MTV, this video is considered to be one of the most influential ever made and it helped to show that music videos could be more than just simple performance clips.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the day: Wild-Eyed Southern Boys by 38 Special (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

After playing Cliff Richard’s A Little In Love, MTV replayed REO Speedwagon’s Take It On The Run. Fortunately, I’ve already written about the video so I didn’t have to watch it again. Up yours, Speedwagon.

The Speedwagon was followed by the 66th video to make its MTV debut that day, a performance clip for 38 Special’s Wild-Eyed Southern Boys.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: A Little In Love by Cliff Richard (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on September 29, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 65th video played on MTV was the video for A Little In Love by Cliff Richard. Alarmingly, in this video, Cliff appears to be trapped in his summer estate but don’t worry. Cliff is a British cultural institution and the SAS will show up to break him out of there in any minute. Who dares wins.

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

Music Video of the Day: Cruel to Be Kind by Nick Lowe (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on September 28, 2021 by Jedadiah Leland

On August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered. Over the course of 24 hours, 166 unique music videos were played on MTV. Yes, there was a time when the M actually did stand for music.

The 64th music video played on MTV was the video for Nick Lowe’s Cruel to Be Kind. This video was shot on the same day that Lowe married country singer and Johnny Cash’s stepdaughter Carlene Carter at the Tropicana Hotel in West Hollywood. In fact, shooting the video took so long that Lowe was actually late for the wedding, actual footage of which was included in the video. Carter and Lowe’s marriage would last for ten years, from 1979 to 1990.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV: