Early last year I posted one of my favorite songs from my youth and it was by the band Heart. That song was “These Dreams” and still continues to be a favorite of mine to this day. My second favorite from this band is their power ballad from their 1987 album Bad Animals.
“Alone” is actually an even better song but “These Dreams” was just the song that first introduced me to the Wilson Sisters, Ann and Nancy. Where the earlier song was more folksy in it execution with “Alone” we get a full out power ballad that includes Nancy doing a guitar solo near the end. Ann Wilson crushes this song and just reinforces the fact that she remains one of the best, if not the best, female rock vocalist to ever belt out a song.
Oh, I still have a major crush on Nancy Wilson right up to this day. She’s definitely the first lady of rock.
“All alone silence fills my room But in a memory, I hear you calling me”
Hitting the KTSL charts at No. 12 is the 1990 ballad from the Latin freestyle girl group Sweet Sensation.
“If Wishes Came True” makes this list because it is such an earnest love song that we don’t get much of anyway. This was a song made in a much simpler and less cynical age. While some of its continuing appeal seems to be based on the feeling of nostalgia it brings up for those who grew up during the time this song was released it doesn’t change the fact that it’s an uplifting and hopeful song.
The lyrics are sugary-sweet to the point of causing cavities, but they’re easy to sing-along to and, in the end, there’s nothing wrong with reminiscing about one’s memories.
I’m not sure how much this song was played over and over by heartbroken teens during my high school years but I will guess that it would top a million easy.
“Seasons Change” by the group Exposé comes in at 11 on our “27 Days of Old School” countdown. The group itself was one of the big names during the freestyle and dance-pop scene during the 80’s, but surprisingly this song was their only No. 1 hit. It just goes to show the power of the ballad and this one became of the the go-to songs for teens (probably college age ones as well) during my days.
It’s actually a pretty downbeat song considering it’s about how couples break up not due to any one major falling out, but due to drifting apart because of time and changes.
For teens who fell in love with this song it became a sort of theme song whenever they broke up with their first, second and upteenth true love. I know that as much as school dances love their slow songs this was rarely played during.
“Ice Cube, will take a funky beat and reshape it Locate a dope break, and then I break it”
The first time I heard this song it was on the plane trip from San Francisco to Washington, DC. I was part of a high school civic studies program called CLOSE-UP. It took high school students (who can afford the fee of, at that time, 2000 dollars) from all 50 states to attend a 5 day learning tour of the nation’s capital and learning how the Federal government worked. Let’s just say that even as a high school senior I was already passed the idealistic stage and onto that cynical stage.
“Jackin’ for Beats” was part of Ice Cube’s Kill at Will album and it was the CD I brought onto the plane with me and it literally became the soundtrack to my trip.
This song is literally nothing but sampled beats from other songs and remixed together to form a unique funky beat and bass sound for Cube to drop his lyrics on. Ironically, the lyrics to the song was Cube talking about him stealing (jackin’) beats he thought was cool and funky and using it himself but making it better because he’s Cube.
Below are the songs whose beats were sampled to make up this song and I have a feeling there’s probably a few more that people haven’t been able to figure out.
“If it Don’t Turn You on (You Outta Leave it Alone)” by B.T. Express * “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, “The Payback”, “Funky President” & “Funky Drummer” by James Brown * “I Know You Got Soul” & “Hot Pants. . . I’m Coming, I’m Coming, I’m Coming” by Bobby Byrd * “Bop Gun (Endangered Species)” by Parliament * “Sing a Simple Song” by Sly & The Family Stone * “Big Ole Butt” by LL Cool J * “So Wat Cha Sayin'” by EPMD * “Ashley’s Roachclip” by The Soul Searchers * “Bon Bon Vie” by T.S. Monk * “Psychedelic Shack” by The Temptations * “Hector” by Village Callers * “More Bounce to the Ounce” by Zapp * “Big Beat” by Billy Squier * “Buzzsaw” by The Turtles * “The Haunted House” by Disney * “Welcome to the Terrordome” by Public Enemy * “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground * “100 Miles and Runnin” by N.W.A.”
“I talk sense condensed into the form of a poem
Full of knowledge from my toes to the top of my dome”
It was 1989 and MTV was already something I was watching on a daily basis, but there was something missing from their daily music video rotation. They were criminally lacking with hip-hop videos. So, into the void was BET.
Where MTV was more about dance, pop and rock music videos, BET was all about R&B and hip-hop videos.
I will get all “grumpy old man” and say that I definitely enjoyed hip-hop the way it was during the 80’s and as late as the mid-90’s. For me things in that music scene just ended up becoming too commercialized. Not saying there’s no gems and gold in the trash I here now, but the hip-hop artists back in the my day were pure lyricists. Sure, their rhymes were still all about machismo and bragging about how they’re the best, but they had skill in doing so. I will put it up there that No. 9 on the 27 Days was one hell of a lyricist and he did so at the age of 16 (15 depending on when one thought the track was recorded).
I am talking about Special Ed and his hit track “I Got It Made”.
“Cherry ice cream smile I suppose it’s very nice.”
Yes, I listened to Duran Duran as a wee lad and I must say that they were quite awesome then and even now. “Rio” was the song that I enjoyed listening to the most out of their whole 80’s work.
One thing that Duran Duran could never be accused of would be that they were subtle. The band was a great example of 1980’s excess. From the Miami Vice cocaine-fueled and candy-colored fashion right up to the Gordon Gecko flaunting of wealth and luxury. Whoever said new wave and synthpop was suppose to be all just about happy songs and easy on the eyes videos.
This band and their songs might sound all peppy and such, but they were just as hardcore and debauch as the next hardcore rock band. They just did it in a much different set of fashion style and attitude. No overly hairsprayed glam rocker hair or crotch-tight leather pants. They preferred their attire to be Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs style.
Yes, I want to know what you’re thinking. I do believe I liked this song mostly for it’s beats and catchy chorus, but not much else. Yet, it remains one of my favorite songs growing up during the 80’s.
“What’s On Your Mind” by Information Society has been part of my audio listening rotation for decades now (man, I feel old). Whether it’s the original version released in 1988 or the extended remix or just part of an extended remix by the local DJ. This song always has a place in my queue.
I would say that it’s also my first introduction to dance music that wasn’t part of the Latin freestyle movement. My appreciation of dance and house music will always find it’s roots with this song.
For most people their experience with Huey Lewis and the News’ hit track “Hip to be Square” was due to it being used in American Psycho. It was already a great song before that film came out and continues to remain so, but now it’s taken on an even dark comedic tone.
I used to listen to this song non-stop when it first came out. Now, whenever I listen to it I start seeing Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman dancing to the song while dressed in a plastic raincoat. But before that it was always a catchy song and, dare I say it, a very hip one.
I actually prefer the band’s “Power of Love” track, but this song has to be next in line when it came to my favorite track from the band.
I’ve wondered what my younger self would think about this song now being associated with American Psycho. The answer I always get is that my younger self would think it was cool and hip (ok, ok stopping it there).
Quite the extreme reversal from #4 to #5 but then my taste in music between junior high and high school was pretty much all over the place. I could be listening to the latest teeny bopper, LAtin-freestyle dance track one month then I’m picking up that hard rock or metal song that I knew my parents would never approve of (especially my mom).
Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” was one such song though I was surprised that my Dad actually liked it as much as I did. My first memory of ever hearing “Welcome to the Jungle” was watching the latest and last Dirty Harry film with my dad. It was The Dead Pool and this song was used as a sort of soundtrack in the fake horror film in the film. I’m not sure if my dad liked the song because it was in a Dirty Harry flick or he just liked it because he grew up in the 60’s and 70’s listening to hard rock.
I don’t think my dad was too keen on the Guns N’ Roses look though. Even then he knew the hair metal, glam look was no bueno.
So, “Welcome to the Jungle” was my initial introduction to Guns N’ Roses and pretty much opened up my ears to a whole new spectrum of music. I never abandoned the R&B, dance pop and freestyle songs from junior high and even years later, but hard rock and metal soon joined the LP (and later CD) rotation.
This is the song that ushered me from junior high and straight into high school. Again, much of the music that kids my of my age in 1986 just fell in love with The Jets’ ballad “You Got It All”.
There was something very earnest about this song even for a kid. There’s nothing cynical about the message in the lyrics and it helps that the group’s lead vocalist, Elizabeth Wolfgramm, just killed it. Here’s the kicker….Elizabeth was just 12-years old when she sang this song with the rest of the group (literally her brothers and sisters). Even 28 years since having first heard of this song it still resonates in this cynical man’s heart.
“You Got It All” definitely brings back fond memories of being a kid and just entering those teenage years when anything was possible. I don’t want to be that cliched old man who rails against the music of today’s youth, but one must admit that this song from The Jets has more heart and soul than most of what kids these days are listening to.
Now, you kids get off my porch while I listen to my stories!
