Today’s music video of the day is for a song that epitomizes the 80s for a lot of people. I don’t know how many John Hughes’s film featured Hold Me Now but it seems like everyone one of them should have. This was not only the group’s first big hit but the video was a popular one in the early years of MTV. This was one of those videos that proved that even a performance clip could be more than just a video of the band on stage.
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I have no idea who directed this or where it was filmed. The Black Sabbath YouTube channel lists this as being the official music video for Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven and the IMDb says that the video was released in 1976 so that’s what I’m going with. I’m going to assume that this video was filmed at one of the American stops during the first part of the Technical Ecstasy Tour.
Like most 70s music videos, this is a pretty basic performance clip. The video lets the band do the talking, as it were.
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The music video for So Alive is appreciated by aficionados of long legs everywhere.
The video was the first to be directed by Howard Greenhalgh, who would later direct the video for Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.
This music video from the German group Scorpions has an old west theme that fits the song well. Send Me An Angel is Scorpions at their most soulful and showed audiences outside of Germany that the band was capable of much more than just singing about being rocking you like a hurricane.
This song was included on Scorpions’s 11th studio album, Crazy World. It was the 4th and final single to be released off the album and it went on to become one of Crazy World‘s signature tunes. While the song peaked at #44 at the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at #22 in the UK, it was a huge hit for the band in the rest of Europe. It was especially popular in Belgium, proving once again that Belgians just have better taste in music than the rest of the world.
Meiert Avis is one of those directors who has worked with everyone who is anyone. He directed many of U2’s early, acclaimed music videos. He later frequently worked with Chris Cornell and the Pretty Reckless and he directed the feature film Far From Home.
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Today’s music video of the day features France’s XYZ rocking out in the desert, with the help of some hard-working models.
XYZ was formed in 1978 and, after ten years of playing Europe, New York, and Los Angeles, they finally got a record contract in 1989. The self-titled album was produced by Don Dokken who later said that the experience was difficult because the band’s lead singer had a thick French accent and the other members of the band was incapable of vocally harmonizing with him. This led to Dokken singing backing vocals for most the songs, including this one.
The video was directed by Craig Morse. On the IMDb, this is the only music video that he is credited with directing. Of course, the IMDb often lists music videos without crediting a director so it’s possible that Morse might have a few more videos to his name. Or he might just be a rare example of a one-and-done music video director.
This single was successful enough to XYZ went on tour with Ted Nugent. The band, however, broke up shortly afterwards.
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In today’s music video of the day, Genesis takes us on a tour of Los Angeles in 1980 and pays tribute to the Beach Boys. Technically, the video is actually about Phil Collins wearing a Hawaiian shirt and driving around the city and searching for his girlfriend but mostly, that was just an excuse to show off Los Angeles.
This video was directed by Stuart Orme, who directed several videos for both Genesis as a group and Phil Collins as a solo act.
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For today’s song of the day, we have this wonderful piece of music from John Williams’s score for Oliver Stone’s Nixon.
Like Suzanne Vega’s Luka, this song is about a woman realizing that a child who lives in her building is a victim of child abuse.
This video is one the many video to have been directed by Matt Mahurin. Matt Mahurin is one of those all-purpose music video directors. Since the 1980s, he’s done videos for everyone from U2 to Peter Gabriel to New Kids On The Block to Marilyn Manson. He also directed the video for Bush’s Everything Zen but let’s not hold that against him.
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Today’s music video of the day is an early one from Van Halen. Coming from 1981, this video was a product of the time when videos were usually performance clips that focused on showing off the skills of the musicians.
As with all of the early Van Halen videos, this one balances the technical skills and talent of Eddie Van Halen with David Lee Roth’s sense of showmanship. David Lee Roth and Van Halen had their conflicts but they were always at their best when they were performing together.
Director Bruce Gowers, who died in 2023, started directing music videos in the 70s and worked with everyone from the Rolling Stones to Queen to Journey, Michael Jackson, Toto, and Rod Stewart. He was one of those directors who worked every everyone who was anybody. He also directed a lot of television, doing countless MTV Movie Awards ceremonies and also working as a director for American Idol.
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Shot in an around Paris, the music video for Depeche Mode’s Strangelove was considered to be so controversial that MTV refuses to broadcast the original version. The band offered up a re-edited version, in which some of the shots of the two models were replaced with shots of the band.
Director Anton Corbijn needs no introduction. Along with being a renowned photographer who has been responsible for countless album covers and music videos, Corbijn has also directed films like The American, Control, and A Most Wanted Man.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 