Take My Breath Away was written by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock after the producers of Top Gun realized that they needed a romantic scene between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis and that they would need something other than Danger Zoneto play during it.
The song was originally offered to The Motels but it was eventually recorded by Berlin. Like most of the soundtrack-related music videos of the 80s, the video for Take My Breath Away is a mix of clips from the film and clips of the band performing.
The theme of this video seems to be that Def Leppard is the band that has fun onstage and off!
This footage for this video was shot over the course of two shows at McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado. Originally, the footage was going to be used for a future concert film but, when Armageddon It was released as a single, the band’s record label said that they needed a music video to accompany it and they needed it immediately. Since the band didn’t want to do another “concept video” (and really didn’t have time to come up with a concept in the first place), the Denver footage was hastily edited together.
The end result was that Armageddon It went on to the become the band’s fourth top ten hit in the United States.
The above video was the second one for Mother, hence why it’s called Mother ’93. It features live footage of the band performing at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater in California. At around the same time this video was in rotation on MTV, Glenn Danzig was invited to audition for the role of Wolverine in one of the early attempts to make an X-Men film. Danzig, who had the right look for the role, had to turn down the opportunity due to scheduling conflicts.
This video also inspired a classic line from Beavis and Butt-Head: “That little dance isn’t very cool.”
Today’s music video of the day is for John Mellencamp’s cover of Van Morrison’s Wild Night.
In 1994, the opening of this video was the most popular 40 seconds on MTV. I have traveled in a lot of taxi cabs and Ubers. I’ve been lucky enough to have some very good drivers but none of them appeared in the 1992 Sports IllustratedSwimsuit Issue. The driver, in this video, is played by Shana Zadrick, a model who was often compared to Cindy Crawford.
Back in 1994, if you enjoyed this video, you could go down to your friendly neighborhood Musicland (or Suncoast Motion Picture Company) and, for just $19.98, you could see even more of Shana in this commemorative video:
The other good thing about this video is that bassline, which was provided by Me’shell Ndegeocello. Wild Night was released at the same time that Ndegeocello had her biggest solo hit, If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night).
This video was directed by Jonathan Kaplan. A former film school classmate of Martin Scorsese’s, Kaplan got his start directing films like Night Call Nurses and The Student Teachers for Roger Corman. He eventually became a mainstream film and television director. His most highly regarded film is probably 1988’s The Accused, for which Jodie Foster won her first Oscar.
Inspired by the collapse of Soviet-style communism in the late 80s and the early 90s (in particular, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow of Nicolae Ceaușescu in Romania), Right Here, Right Now not only sold over 1 million copies but it was also the most played song on college radio in 1991.
The video, which mixes performance footage with news footage from Eastern Europe, was the first music video to be directed by Matthew Amos. Amos went on to direct videos for Stereo MCs, Manic Street Preachers, Slipknot, and the Charlatans.
This was one of the first songs to define the decade that the 90s would be. Of course, within a few years of the song being released, the idea of being “connected” would have a totally different meaning for a lot of listeners.
This is another video directed by Matthew Amos. He also did yesterday’s video, I’m Free.
I’m Free was originally recorded by The Rolling Stones in 1965 and was the last track on the Out Of Our Heads album. To quote Rolling Stone Magazine, the original song was a “folk rocker.” The version by the Soup Dragons was much more psychedelic and featured a verse from Jamaican reggae performer, Junior Reid. I’m Free became the band’s biggest hit, reaching the number 2 spot on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart.
Director Matthew Amos has also directed videos for Stereo MCs, Jesus Jones, Slipknot, and Blur. He’s also film several awards shows and stage productions for the BBC.
Through the Shattered Lens 