Today, we wish a happy 78 birthday to signer Kenny Loggins. Our music video of the day is for the Oscar-nominated theme song from 1984’s Footloose, which was written and performed by Mr. Loggins.
Enjoy!
Tag Archives: Brian Grant
Music Video of the Day: The Rumour by Olivia Newton-John (1988, directed by Brian Grant)
Today would have been Olivia Newton-John’s 75th birthday and today’s music video of the day is one that she did in the late 80s.
The Rumour was the title track off of Newton-John’s 13th studio album. The song was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and features John on the piano. The video features a stage-bound hotel, where rumors begin and spread with the help of the paparazzi. The snake crawling across a typewriter lets us know all that we need to know about Newton-John’s feelings towards the scandal-obsessed tabloid press.
This was one of the many music videos to be directed by Brian Grant, who worked with just about every prominent musical artist of the era.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Cambodia by Kim Wilde (1981, directed by Brian Grant)
Kim Wilde having Vietnam War flashbacks is not something you necessarily expect but that’s the concept behind the video for Cambodia and it worked well enough for the video to become an early success on MTV. It’s hard for me to watch this video without thinking about Martin Sheen tearing up his hotel room at the start of Apocalypse Now.
This video was directed by Brian Grant and it feels like a prequel to the video that he would direct, a year later, for Duran Duran’s Hungry Like The Wolf.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: View From A Bridge by Kim Wilde (1982, directed by Brian Grant)
Not to be confused with the Arthur Miller play of almost the same name, View From A Bridge was the second single to be released from Kim Wilde’s second album, Select. The song tells the story of a girl who discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her so she goes to a bridge and considers jumping off. Though it’s open to interpretation, the song suggests that she ultimately does just that. This song is a good example of a song about something that no one should do in real life. No one is worth jumping off a bridge for so if you’re thinking about doing it, don’t.
When it was released in 1982, it became on Wilde’s biggest hits in Europe and Australia. It was especially popular in France. If it was released today, at a time when we are all very aware of teen mental health and the dangers of suicidal ideation, this is one of those songs that would probably be very controversial. I know that when I was growing up, there was tendency to laugh off threats of suicide as just teenagers being dramatic or looking for attention. Luckily, that’s no longer the case today.
The video, fortunately, does not feature Kim on a bridge. Instead, it features her and the band performing in a pink-tinted room. This was a popular look for music videos in the 80s and the pinkness of it all helped to keep people from noticing how depressing the lyrics were.
The video was directed by Brian Grant, who was one of the go-to video directors in the 1980s. He did videos for everyone from The Human League to XTC to Peter Gabriel and Duran Duran. According to Wikipedia, he directed a total of 225 music videos during the 80s. He has also directed several shows for British television, including the episodes of the Doctor Who reboot.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Beat The Clock by Sparks (1978, directed by Scott Millaney and Brian Grant)
The song, Beat the Clock, was named after a game show that aired, off-and-on, from 1950 to 2018. On the show, contestants would try to win prizes by completing challenges in a certain amount of time. Like the best game shows, it was simple but challenging. The show originally aired on CBS and, over the decades, switched channels several times. When the latest version of the show ended, it was airing on Universal Kids.
The video does not really have much to do with the game show. Instead, it features Sparks performing while cardboard cut-outs of the band roll down an assembly line. Interestingly, this video was made in the days before MTV, when most music videos were still strictly performance clips. At the time it was released, the video for Beat The Clock would have been unique for actually having a concept behind it.
The video was directed by Scott Millaney and Brian Grant. If Brian Grant’s name seems familiar, that’s because he went on to direct over 225 videos. He did videos for everyone from The Human League to Whitney Houston to Queen to Peter Gabriel and Duran Duran. If your band was big at some point in the 80s, there’s a good chance that Brian Grant directed a music video for you. Grant has also directed episodes for several television programs, including Dr. Who, Highlander, and The Red Shoe Diaries.
Enjoy!
Music Video Of The Day: Pop Muzik by M. (1979, directed by Brian Grant)
“I was looking to make a fusion of various styles which somehow would summarise the last 25 years of pop music. It was a deliberate point I was trying to make. Whereas rock and roll had created a generation gap, disco was bringing people together on an enormous scale. That’s why I really wanted to make a simple, bland statement, which was, ‘All we’re talking about basically (is) pop music.”
— Robin Scott, on Pop Muzik
Before adapting the persona of M., Robin Scott attended Croydon College with Malcolm McLaren (who would later manage the Sex Pistols) and released a folk album called Woman From The Warm Grass. Scott eventually walked away from his folk roots, turning instead to electronic music. Pop Muzik, which was written from the perspective of a DJ, was arguably the first new wave hit and this music video was extremely popular during the early years of MTV.
The video was the first to be directed by Brian Grant, who was a BBC producer at the time. Working with a £2000 budget, Grant created a video that was revolutionary for the time. (In the late 70s, music videos were mostly just straight performance clips.) The success of Pop Muzik led to Grant becoming one of the busiest music video directors around. Grant went on to direct videos for The Human League, The Fixx, Squeeze, Duran Duran, and many others. If you were a New Wave group, Brian Grant probably directed at least one video for you.
I searched but I could not find the names of the two models who appeared in this video. Does anyone reading this know?
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: We Don’t Talk Anymore by Cliff Richard (1979, directed by Brian Grant)
Though he had his occasional hits, Cliff Richard has never made a huge impact in the States. However, in the UK, Cliff Richard is practically an institution. He’s been performing for 60 years straight and has had 14 number one singles in the UK. He’s also the only singer to have had a number one single in five consecutive decades. Before there was the Beatles, there was Cliff Richard.
We Don’t Talk Anymore was Richard’s biggest worldwide hit and it was released during one of his brief periods of American popularity. The video is simple as most music videos were back in the day. Today, music videos are usually mini-movies but, back in the 70s and 80s, they were often just performance clips. This video was the sixth to be played on MTV, airing in between Ph.D’s Little Suzi’s On The Up and The Pretenders’s Brass In Pocket.
As for Cliff Richard, he’s Sir Cliff and he’s still performing. Every December brings a new Christmas song from Sir Cliff Richard.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Kids in America by Kim Wilde (1981, directed by Brian Grant)
Happy Independence Day, America!
For today’s music video of the day, we have Kim Wilde performing Kids in America. This was her first single and one of two of Wilde’s singles to chart in the United States, the other one being her cover of The Supremes’s You Keep Me Hangin’ On. (Wilde found more success in her home country, with 25 singles charting on the UK charts.) The song was written by Wilde’s father and her older brother, both of whom were fascinated by American youth culture.
The video, which finds Kim Wilde literally looking out a “dirty old window,” was directed by Brian Grant, who was one of the busiest music video directors of the 1980s. He also did videos for The Human League, Squeeze, Queen, and Tina Turner.
Myself, I will always associate this song with stealing cars in Vice City.
The only thing better than stealing a golf cart is stealing a golf cart while listening to Kim Wilde sing Kids in America!
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: I Only Want To Be With You by The Tourists (1979, dir. Brian Grant)
Did you ever want to see what Annie Lennox would look like if she wanted to join Jem and the Holograms? You can, and it’s in this video.
The Tourists was the group that both Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox were in prior to becoming Eurythmics.
I love Stewart’s mustache, and I’m so glad he grew out a full beard for Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) instead of keeping it.
Despite only being around for a couple of years, they released three albums and a bunch singles. This cover of Dusty Springfield’s I Only Want To Be With You being one of them.
According to Wikipedia, they broke up one year after this in 1980 after getting signed to RCA Records the same year. Apparently guitarist and bassist Peet Coombes and Eddie Chin, respectively, went off to do their own thing which fizzled out. Stewart and Lennox decided to keep their contract with RCA, and Eurythmics was born.
Aside from Stewart’s mustache and Annie looking like rainbow sherbet, my favorite part of this video is that it is directed by Brian Grant. If mvdbase is to be believed, then 9 years later he directed Samantha Fox’s cover of the same song.
I can believe it. The person who would randomly insert Eddie Chin with what looks like a whip…
seems like the kind of person who would have somebody popup out of a trash can to pull Samantha Fox in.
I Only Wanna Be With You by Samantha Fox
I’ll have to do that crazy video at some point. After playing her sexuality straight for so many videos, they decided to still put that at the forefront, but do it comically.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: The Tide Is High by Blondie (1981, dir. Brian Grant)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1xuu9
This is the third and final version of The Tide Is High. It was made a year later by Brian Grant.
The reason I even knew this existed was because of an entry on mvdbase that described it for me.
Though this videos starts exactly the same way as the previous, it quickly changes with a mix of new and old footage (including the famous circular pink bed scene) with a few still pictures tossed in for good measure.
I read “famous circular pink bed scene”, and figured it had to be out there somewhere if it is so famous. It took a fair amount of digging, but I found it. It was worth the trouble.
The video starts off the same way as the other two except it freeze-frames on the faces of the guys in the band. There are some pictures in the video as well as freeze-frames such as the cover of the single. We see it in close-up, then backed up in order to show the whole band. That shot is the cover of the album the song is on.
Then the pink bed makes an appearance. I guess I was expecting something along the lines of It’s Raining Men by The Weather Girls or that ridiculous scene from Chatterbox! (1977). I wasn’t expecting to see Debbie Harry rolling in a circular pink bed.
Then there’s the shots with her looking at a number ‘1’ in a manner that makes it looks like she wants to have sex? What else are you supposed to read from these looks, given that they are included with her rolling around on a circular pink bed? I’m not 100% what they were shooting for there. It is memorable though.
Horny Vader makes no appearance in this version. But we do get a spaceman on a conveyor belt??? I have no clue about this part.
There are some shots of the band playing, and this is where this version adds something completely missing from the other two.
The Tide Is High was originally written in 1966 by John Holt and performed by the group, The Paragons. When Blondie covered it, they added the reggae sound, which is the trademark of this particular song. Yet, any reference to that fact were noticeably missing from the other two versions. While it seems odd to be here with Debbie rolling around on a bed, we do see a part that ties in to the reggae part of the song.
No rocket this time around. The video ends with the footage of Debbie arriving on the street to leave with the rest of the group.
There you go. That’s the version with the “famous circular pink bed scene.” It must be so famous that it has been all but expunged from the net.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 