Today’s music video of the day is early one from Madness.
The song was inspired by Madness’s manager, Jon Hasler, who would reportedly show up at the residences of the band’s members and eat whatever leftovers they had for breakfast. The video was directed by Dave Robinson, who was responsible for many of Madness’s videos.
Enjoy!
This is the type of energy that I want to see from everyone in 2024!
Enjoy!
I just recently discovered this video, despite the fact that it’s been around for a while. I like the song, I like the music, and I love the fact that watching the video reminds me of my favorite (and sadly, now closed) restaurant/bar in Denton. Sweetwater had a wonderful outdoor patio, where my friends and I would spend many a night having the most wonderful conversations ever.
This place also reminds me of a few of the clubs in Deep Ellum where I would attempt to flirt my way past the doorman go whenever I snuck out of my house I happened to be in the neighborhood.
Enjoy!
In this video for Freak, Silverchair performs in an oven so that their sweat can be used as some sort of youth tonic. Don’t worry, the band was not actually in an oven. Instead, they were just surrounded by orange lights and they were regularly doused with water to create the impression that they were sweating while performing.
The video was directed by Gerald Casale, a former member of Devo, a far more interesting band than Silverchair. The video won the International Viewer’s Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Enjoy!
This song was considered to be very racy for its time (“safe sex!”) and, while the music video was a big hit on MTV, it was actually banned from British television. An official reason for the ban was never announced, though it was speculated that the disembodied limbs were considered to be too disturbing for younger viewers.
According to the band, this video was actually meant to be a joke take on all of the over-sexualized music videos of the time.
Enjoy!
Though Accidents Will Happen has since come to be seen as one of Elvis Costello’s signature songs, it was only a moderate hit when it was initially released in the UK. Maybe it would have been more popular if MTV had been around in 1979. The music video was innovative at a time when most videos were just performance clips of the bands in concert.
The video for Accidents Will Happen is considered to be the first fully animated music video. The video was directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, who also did videos for Rush and Cathy Denis. Jankel and Morton would later go on to create Max Headroom and to direct the infamous first Super Mario Bros. film.
Enjoy!
Yesterday, I shared the first music video for Madness’s first single, The Prince, which was just the band performing the song on Top of the Pops in 1979. That video didn’t have Madness’s signature nuttiness so, over 40 years later, the band released a new, official video for the song.
This video is made up for footage that was taken from 1981 Madness film, Take It or Leave It and it features the band in the studio, on stage, and generally having a good time. The film was directed by Dave Robinson, who was the president of Stiff Records and who directed all of Madness’s early music videos.
Enjoy!
Our first music video of the day for 2024 is also the first video to be released for Madness’s first single, The Prince. This song was a tribute to Jamaican ska performer Prince Buster and it was a big enough hit that it led to Madness signing with Stiff Records and releasing a cover of Prince Buster as their second single, One Step Beyond.
(The band’s name was even taken from a Prince Buster song.)
Though the band did not have the resources to shoot an official video for the song, they did perform the song on Top of the Pops and they thought enough of how it was filmed that they subsequently purchased the rights to the performance. The performance was often used as a promo for the band, making it technically Madness’s first music video.
Enjoy!
It’s New Year’s Eve and what better way to say goodbye to 2023 than with this anthem of freedom and empowerment? Free yourself!
Enjoy!
I once had a friend who owned a guitar and this was the only song that he ever sang. That got old pretty quickly but this is still a very effective, well-directed, and well-acted video.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 