27 Days of Old School: #11 “Seasons Change” (by Exposé)

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Arleigh

“Seasons change, people change….”

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.

27 Days of Old School: #9 “I Got It Made” (by Special Ed)

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Arleigh

“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”.

27 Days of Old School: #3 “Tell It to My Heart” (by Taylor Dayne)

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Arleigh

“Is this really love or just a game?”

This question was brought up by a song which debut during my freshman year in high school. That song was Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It to My Heart”. A question that probably still perplexes teens today as it did over twenty years ago.

Dayne was part of the freestyle and dance pop wave that was hitting the U.S. during the mid-80’s. Their songs was easy to digest, made one’s feet start a-tappin’ and one couldn’t help but want to go out and start dancing. Well, I wasn’t one of them but I still love this song. Dancing was the sort of activity that I wasn’t so keen on during my first two years in high school. Hell, it’s still not something I go out of my way to do, but I’m not as gun shy when at an event where dancing is a possibility.

I think what attracted me to this song was the video itself. Taylor Dayne made for a fine figure of a woman and she definitely came off a quite fierce in this song’s video. It might be due to the huge hair plus the bangs crimped up, but this video and Dayne still works even two decades removed from seeing it for the first time.

Though I will say that the acid-wash jeans jacket and pants her back-up dancers wear don’t quite make the cut. I’m so glad I never owned a pair even when they were “popular” back in the day.