Tag Archives: Jim Yukich

Music Video of the Day: Couple Days Off by Huey Lewis and the News (1991, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Huey Lewis and the News were the epitome of a mid 1980s band.  They worked hard and they made videos that celebrated having a good time.  They were never as obnoxious or openly hedonistic as the hair bands of era but they were also out-of-place in the angst-filled 90s.  But while everyone else continues to pay thousands to see Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis and the News will always be the blue collar bar band for me.

This video was directed by Jim Yuckich, who has directed videos for everyone.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Year: Can’t Turn Back The Years by Phil Collins (1994, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

 This music video was directed by Jim Yukich, who is one of those directors who seems to have directed a video for everyone.  If you have ever had a hit song or top-selling album, Jim Yukich probably directed a music video for you.  He directed a lot of videos for both Genesis and Phil Collins as a solo act.  But Yukich also directed videos for everyone from Iron Maiden to David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, and David Hasselhoff.  Going for Maiden to Hasselhoff, that’s a journey!

This song received lukewarm reviews when it was first released but, as is this case with much of Collins’s work, it has since been favorably reevaluated.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Wasted Years by Iron Maiden (1986, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Wasted Years was Iron Maiden’s 14th single and its first off of their Somewhere In Time album.  The music video depicts the same scene that was on the single’s cover.  Eddie is piloting his time machine through temporal space while the band plays.  Eddie was a cyborg for the Somewhere In Time singles.

This was yet another video directed by the very busy Jim Yukich.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Forever Free by W.A.S.P. (1989, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Forever Free was a power ballad from W.A.S.P. and an homage to Lynard Skynard’s Freebird.  It appeared on W.A.S.P.’s fourth studio album, The Headless Children.  At the time, The Headless Children was considered to be W.A.S.P.’s first mature album and it featured the band performing songs about something more than just heavy metal decadence and good times.

Director Jim Yukich is one of those directors who has worked with everyone who was anyone.  If your band was a success during the MTV era, Jim Yukich probably did at least one video for you.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Anything She Does by Genesis (1986, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It doesn’t get much more British than Genesis trying to rehearse while Benny Hill tries to keep groupies (some of whom are Page 3 girls) from sneaking backstage!

This video was never officially released.  As far as I know, it never aired on MTV.  Instead, the video was used to introduce the band during their Invisible Touch tour.  Anything She Does was the one Invisible Touch song that was not performed live by the band during that tour.  Keyboardist Tony Banks, who wrote the song, said it was difficult to play.

The song itself is about a man who is in love with a model that he’s never met.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: The Trooper by Iron Maiden (1983, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today’s music video of the day is for Iron Maiden’s The Trooper, which was one the band’s few songs to achieve frequent radio airplay in the United States.

The song was inspired by Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade and the video features scenes taken from the 1936 film of the same name.  The BBC actually banned this video and demanded significant cuts because they felt that the footage from the film was too violent.  Obviously, back in 1983, no one at the BBC had any idea what the future would hold as far as violence in music videos was concerned.

The footage of the band performing was filmed in Brixton Academy and directed by Jim Yukich, who did videos for everyone who was anybody.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Sussudio by Phil Collins (1985, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The music video for Sussudio was filmed at The Princess Victoria, a London pub that, at the time, was owned by Richard Branson.

This video was directed by Jim Yukich, a frequent Collins collaborator who has basically directed videos for everyone who was anybody in the music business.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Both Sides of the Story by Phil Collins (1993, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Both Sides of the Story was the lead single from Phil Collins’s fifth solo album.  Collins has said that both the song and the music video were inspired by the 1991 film Grand Canyon, which featured a group of Los Angeles residents (played by Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Danny Glover, and others) dealing with crime, racism, gangs, and income inequality.

The video was directed by Jim Yukich, who directed almost all of Phil Collins’s videos in the 80s and the 90s.  The video follows the lyrics of the song, going from the poor to the rich to finally a violent confrontation in the streets.  This is Phil Collins in a serious mood.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx (1989, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Both this video and this post count as a rush job.  I’m writing this at the last second so I picked an easy video to write about.  Meanwhile, in 1989, Richard Marx was so busy touring that director Jim Yukich was forced to go with a simple approach to the video for Right Here Waiting.  The footage of Marx performing the song in an empty auditorium was filmed in Los Angeles during a soundcheck.  Black-and-white tour footage was then added to turn that soundcheck into a music video.  Though the video was simple by necessity, it also captured the loneliness of being on the road and separated from your significant other.

Right Here Waiting was the second single off of Marx’s second studio album, Repeat Offender.  He wrote the song for his then-wife Cynthia Rhodes, who was shooting a film in South Africa.  It went on to become one of Marx’s biggest hits and is still regularly covered by other artists.

Enjoy!