Category Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: When Things Go Wrong by Robin Lane & The Chartbusters (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The 11th music video to play on MTV on August 1st, 1980, the network’s first broadcast day, was When Things Go Wrong by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters.

This song and video are may not be as well-known as some of the other videos that aired that day but, in many ways, the video for When Things Go Wrong does predict what would become the standard MTV music video.  As opposed to the performance clips that most bands of the era used as music videos, this video tells a story, complete with horses, ships at sea, and gothic cliffsides that look like something out of Wuthering Heights.  This is the type of narrative video that would largely replace the stodgy performance clips of the past.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

  1. Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles
  2. You Better Run by Pat Benatar
  3. She Won’t Dance With Me by Rod Stewart
  4. You Better You Bet By The Who
  5. Little Suzi’s On The Up by PH.D
  6. We Don’t Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard
  7. Brass in Pocket by Pretenders
  8. Time Heals by Todd Rundgren
  9. Take It On The Run by REO Speedwagon
  10. Rockin’ in Paradise by Styx

Music Video of the Day: Rockin’ The Paradise by Styx (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

According to Styx’s Dennis DeYoung, this song was meant as a “working class take on what was wrong in America.”

it was also the first song on the Paradise Theater album.  The Paradise was a real theater in Chicago.  It opened in 1928 and, after years of neglect, it was torn down in 1958.  DeYoung saw a picture of the dilapidated Paradise in an art museum and he felt that it was the perfect metaphor for the end of the American dream.  Hence, the album and this song.

And, for that matter, this video.  The video opens with DeYoung on a stage that could very well have been in the Paradise Theater.  He wears a white tuxedo, the type that would have been popular when the Paradise Theater first opened.  Of course, once he joined onstage by the rest of Styx, the video becomes a fairly standard performance clip.

This was the 10th video to be played on MTV on August 1st, 1981, the network’s first day of broadcast.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

  1. Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles
  2. You Better Run by Pat Benatar
  3. She Won’t Dance With Me by Rod Stewart
  4. You Better You Bet By The Who
  5. Little Suzi’s On The Up by PH.D
  6. We Don’t Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard
  7. Brass in Pocket by Pretenders
  8. Time Heals by Todd Rundgren
  9. Take It On The Run by REO Speedwagon

Music Video of the Day: Take It On The Run by REO Speedwagon (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The 9th music video to air on MTV on August 1st, 1981 was the video for REO Speedwagon’s Take It On The Run.  However, due to technical difficulties, only 12 seconds of the video were aired before the Speedwagon was replaced by a black screen, which, to me, sounds like an improvement.  Though MTV moved on to the next video, the video for Take It On The Run would eventually be aired two more times over the course of August 1st.

REO Speedwagon does have its fans.  I’m not one of them but they are out there.  This video was the type of concert clip that celebrated bands like REO Speedwagon in all of their light rocking glory.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

  1. Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles
  2. You Better Run by Pat Benatar
  3. She Won’t Dance With Me by Rod Stewart
  4. You Better You Bet By The Who
  5. Little Suzi’s On The Up by PH.D
  6. We Don’t Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard
  7. Brass in Pocket by Pretenders
  8. Time Heals by Todd Rundgren

Music Video of the Day: Time Heals by Todd Rundgren (1981, directed by Todd Rundgren)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Though it was not my original intention, it looks like I’m going to end up sharing every video that MTV aired on August 1st, 1981, its first broadcast day.  Let’s keep things going with the 8th video that aired on that day, the video for Todd Rundgren’s Time Heals.

Though it was never as big a hit as some of his other songs, Time Heals was a very personal song for Rundgren.  He wrote it while he was still dealing with two traumatic events.  First, he and his girlfriend were the victims of a violent home invasion in August of 1980.  Just a few months later, he learned that, before the assassination of John Lennon, Mark David Chapman made a trip to Rundgren’s home town of Woodstock, New York.  Before fixating on Lennon, Chapman was reportedly obsessed with Rundgren and there was much speculation that Rundgren was Chapman’s original target.  The song was about how Rundgren needed time to heal all of those recent traumas.

Rundgren produced this video with the music that he made from producing Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell.  At the time, expensive music videos, like this one, were unusual.  Though it may not longer seem so, this was considered to be very avant-garde for 1981.  At that time, most music videos were just performance clips, often lifted from concert films or TV appearances.  MTV would soon change that forever.

Enjoy!

The First Videos Shown on MTV:

  1. Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles
  2. You Better Run by Pat Benatar
  3. She Won’t Dance With Me by Rod Stewart
  4. You Better You Bet By The Who
  5. Little Suzi’s On The Up by PH.D
  6. We Don’t Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard
  7. Brass in Pocket by Pretenders

Music Video of the Day: Brass in Pocket by The Pretenders (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The sixth music video to air on MTV on August 1st, 1981 was Cliff Richard’s We Don’t Talk Anymore.

The seventh was Brass in Pocket, by the Pretenders.  Up to that date, Brass in Pocket was the band’s biggest hit and the video — which featured a narrative theme with Chrissie Hynde as a waitress — also represented the future of direction of music videos.  Today, it can be surprising to see how many of the first music videos were simple performance clips.  In the days before MTV, videos were viewed as a novelty as opposed to a necessity.  Due to the popularity of MTV, future music videos would have more in common with Brass in Pocket and Video Killed The Radio Star, designed to generate buzz as well as to show off the music.

When the song was first recorded, Hynde hated it and said that listening to her voice made her cringe.  The song was released over her objections and went on to become one of the Pretenders’s first and biggest hits.  For the record, Hynde says that her feelings on the song have since mellowed and she enjoys it now because “it’s served me well.”

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Little Suzi’s On The Up by PhD (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Over this past week, I’ve been sharing the first music videos that played on MTV on August 1s,t 1981.  Little Suzi’s On The Up was the fifth music video to be shown on that day, following The Who’s You Better You Bet.  Unlike many of the music videos that played that day, Little Suzi’s on the Up was not just a performance clip but instead used the type of camera trickery and bizarre humor that would become the signature of many subsequent music videos.

I don’t know much about Ph.D, beyond that they were a British new wave group.  The name of the band was play on the last names of the members — Phillips, Hymas, and Diamond.  Their biggest hit was I Won’t Let You Down in 1982.  Unfortunately, around the same time, Jim Diamond contracted hepatitis and could no longer tour, which led to the dissolvent of the band.  Watching this video, I’m reminded a bit of Madness.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You Better You Bet by The Who (1981, directed by John Crome)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This week, I’ve been counting down the first videos played on MTV when it premiered 40 years ago.  Today’s music video is the fourth video to be played on MTV, following Video Killed The Radio Star, You Better Run, and She Won’t Dance With Me.

The video for The Who’s You Better You Bet was filmed at Shepperton Studios in March of 1981 and it provided a look at the new Who as this was the first video to feature Kenney Jones on drums.  Jones, of course, replaced Keith Moon after the latter’s tragic death.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You Better Run by Pat Benatar (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Yesterday’s music video was the first ever video to air on MTV.

The video for Pat Benatar’s You Better Run was the second.  As opposed to the video for Video Killed The Radio Star, You Better Run is a performance clip.  There’s no special effects but there’s a lot of Pat Benatar, which is just as good.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles (1979, directed by Russell Mulcahy)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

40 years ago, on August 1st, 1981, MTV premiered.

Back then, MTV was short for “Music Television” and it actually played music videos, something that you don’t see much of on the channel anymore. Today, MTV is best known for cheap reality programming and countless shows in which D-List celebs watch YouTube videos. But before MTV became the Rob Dyrdek network, it actually used to play music.

In fact, MTV revolutionized music and, along the way, it also provided a chance for several talented filmmakers to show off what they could do with just a few minutes of screen time. David Fincher started out directing music videos. So did Spike Jonze. But before Fincher and Jonze, there was Russell Mulcahy, who went from directing trippy music videos to directing Highlander.

Appropriately enough, the very first video to air on MTV was directed by Mulcahy and it was for a song that predicted what MTV would eventually do to the music industry. Video Killed The Radio Star was the perfect debut video for MTV. Produced on a budget of $50,000 and filmed over the course of just one day in South London, Video Killed the Radio Star featured actress Virginia Hey in a test tube and Hans Zimmer playing keyboards. Hey later went on to appear in several Australian films, including Mad Max 2 where she played the warrior woman. Hans Zimmer, of course, went on to find fame on his own as one of the busiest film composers around.

Even before it was featured on MTV, Video Killed The Radio Star was aired on British television and was considered to be controversial because of the exploding television, which was seen as encouraging violence. It was a much more innocent time.

Enjoy!