Category Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon by Urge Overkill (1994, directed by Drew Carolan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Rest in peace, Blackie Onassis.  Onassis joined Urge Overkill as their drummer in 1991 and he played with the band until their first break-up in 1997.  He was the drummer who played on their cover version of Neil Diamond’s Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon.  The song became a hit for the band when it was featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and, even today, hearing it brings to mind memories of Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace.

Though Onassis would collaborate with Urge Overkill’s Nash Kato on the latter’s 2000 solo album, Onassis was not a part of the band when it reformed in 2004.  Instead, Onassis largely stayed out of the public eye, with the band announcing his death yesterday.

The video for Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon mixes clips from Pulp Fiction with clips of the band performing the song at the type of establishment that would probably be frequented by Tarantino’s characters.  In a 1992 interview with Spin Magazine, Onassis said that the mission of Urge Overkill was to “resurrect the era of the swinger” and that describes the feel of this video.

Director Drew Carolan also directed the video for Living  Color’s Cult of Personality and The Mighty Might Bosstones’s Don’t Know How to Party.

RIP, Blackie Onassis.

Music Video of the Day: I Found Somebody by Glenn Frey (1982, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

What if Glenn Frey never joined the Eagles and became a superstar before pursuing even more success as a solo artist?

This video imagines that Glenn would have been the type of talented bar musician who had his fans but who was still able to sit down and have a drink in peace between performances.  In this video, Glenn finds somebody at the bar and they leave together.  It’s a simple video that probably made a lot of 1982 teens wish they had a job singing at a bar.

This song originally appeared on Glenn’s debut solo album, No Fun Aloud.  Despite the title, this album was all about mellow fun in the California sun.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Boat on the River by Styx (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s a funny story.  My first choice for today’s music video of the day was I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band) by the Moody Blues.  I wrote up a long and in-depth post about the history of the song, the history of the Moody Blues, and the history of the video.  It was the type of post that I would hope to be remembered for.

Then I discovered that I had already featured the video in 2020.  

With a deadline looming and not much time to find something new, I did what I think anyone would have done in my situation.  I grabbed the first Styx video I could find.

This simple video is for Styx’s song Boat on the River.  Boat on the River appeared on Styx’s 9th album, Cornerstone.  It was only released as a single in Europe, where it proved to be very popular in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  Like many of the music videos that were made in the days before MTV, the video for Boat On The River is a performance clip, with the emphasis less on what the song is about and more about the musicianship of Styx as a group.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Jailbreak by AC/DC (1977, directed by Paul Drane)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The music video for AC/DC’s Jailbreak was filmed for the Australian musical program, Countdown.  This was in the years before MTV, when music videos were still a rare thing and there certainly weren’t any channels or streaming sites dedicated to showing them.  The video was filmed in Albion, a suburb of Melbourne.  Bon Scott, Phil Rudd, and Angus Young all played prisoners.  Malcolm Young and Mark Evans played the guards who, during the attempted jailbreak, shoot Bon Scott dead.

At the time, this video was controversial for its use of violent imagery.  It is considered to be the first music video to make use of fake blood and explosions.

The video’s director, Paul Drane, was also the director of Countdown.  In the United States, his best known work is a television special that he directed about Nostradamus which was re-edited and released theatrically as The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Let’s Forget About It by Lisa Loeb (1997, directed by Chris Applebaum)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This song, which appeared on Lisa Loeb’s fourth album, Firecracker, features Loeb asking her significant other to just move on from whatever they are fighting about.  She sings that there is no use in crying over the little things in life but, at the end, she says that she’ll stop crying if her partner stops lying, suggesting that their fight may not have been as minor as it seemed.

This video features Lisa Loeb trashing a hotel room and was directed by Chris Applebaum, who has done videos for everyone.  If you were a successful musician or rock artist back in the day, Chris Applebaum did at least one video for you.

This song peaked at #38 in the U.S.  It did somewhat better in Canada, reaching the 21st position in the charts.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Guess I’m Doing Fine by Beck (2002, dir by Spike Jonze)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Beck.  I’m sure he’s cheered up by now though.

This video was directed by Spike Jonze.  This was two years after Jonze’s received his first Oscar nomination for Being John Malkovich and also the same year that Jonze’s released his second Oscar-nominated film, Adaptation.

Enjoy!