Tag Archives: Jim Yukich

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!

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

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Can’t Turn Back The Years is found on Phil Collins’s fifth solo studio album, Both Sides.  Like much of Collins’s output, Both Sides received lukewarm reviews when it was initially released but it has since been reevaluated.

The 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, David Hasselhoff, and Debbie Gibson.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Another Day In Paradise by Phil Collins (1989, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Another Day In Paradise is one of two songs that Phil Collins has recorded about the homeless.  (The other was Man On The Corner.)  When this song first came out, Collins was accused of being a wealthy and condescending rock star who was more interested in singing about a problem than actually doing anything to solve it.  In an interview with Rolling Stone, Collins responded to the criticism with, “When I drive down the street, I see the same things everyone else sees. It’s a misconception that if you have a lot of money you’re somehow out of touch with reality.”

The video, which juxtaposes Phil singing with images of the homeless, was directed by Jim Yukich, who did the majority of Phil Collins’s and Genesis’s videos in the 80s and the 90s.  The scenes of Collins singing were filmed in New York City and were completed in under an hour.

I am fairly certain that I’ve heard a version of this song in which George H.W. Bush is heard giving a speech about the homeless.  I cannot find any official online confirmation that it exists but I know it’s out there somewhere.

Enjoy!

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

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Everyone needs a couple of days off, even Huey Lewis and the News!

This song was the final single from Huey to chart in the Billboard Top 20.  For better or worse (I would say “better”), Huey Lewis and the News were the epitome of a mid 80s 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 Day: All of My Life by Phil Collins (1990, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

What sets All of My Life apart from all of the other adult contemporary, “easy listening” music that Phil Collins released in the 90s is that saxophone solo at the start of the song.  That sax solo almost makes up for all the bland Disney sons that Collins wrote in search of that first Oscar.

As for this video, it’s largely a performance clip but, mixed in, there are a few scenes of Phil Collins going about his everyday life.  Of course, for Phil, everyday life meant a private plane and a luxury tour bus.  What a likeable bloke!  Personally, I don’t care how Phil Collins spent his money.  As the saying goes, “If you’ve got it…”

This video was directed by Jim Yukich.  Yukich was one of those video directors who, if you were a successful musical artist in the late 80s or the 90s, you would probably end up making at least one video with Yukich.  Yukich directed videos for everyone from Iron Maiden to Genesis to REO Speedwagon.  He got around.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: I Wish It Would Rain Down by Phil Collins (1990, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This lengthy music video finds Phil Collins playing a drummer-turned-singer in the 1930s. With the help of his friend, a guitar player named Eric (and played, of course, by Eric Clapton), Collins auditions for a demanding theater owner (Jeffrey Tambor). While he auditions, he imagines what his life would be like if he becomes a success. He might even win an Oscar, probably for writing a song for a Disney film.

This video is more like a short film than a traditional music video, with over two minutes of “acting” before the singing even begins. This video came out at the time when Collins was still trying to make a career as an actor. I like the video but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that, for some people, it probably represents everything that they didn’t like about Phil Collins back in the day.

This video was directed by Jim Yukich, who directed several videos for Collins. Yukich’s name can be spotted on a clapboard when Collins is imagining what it would be like to be a film star.

In the scenes in which Collins is acting opposite of Humphrey Bogart, Bogart is played by Robert Sacchi. Sacchi built an entire career out of his resemblance to Humphrey Bogart. Whenever a sitcom in the 80s or the 90s needed Humphrey Bogart to appear in a dream sequence, the call went out to Sacchi. Sacchi also appeared in several movies, playing characters with names like Sam Marlowe, Inspector Bogie, and The Bogeyman. According to the imdb, he also appeared in The Erotic Adventures of Three Musketeers as Athos. I’m not sure if I believe that.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Across The Miles by Survivor (1988, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Every story has to end somewhere and for Survivor, it was pretty much with the release of this single. Though Across The Miles was one of their biggest hits, the album from which it came, Survivor’s seventh studio album Too Hot To Sleep, was not. The album was considered to be a commercial disappointment and the band went on hiatus after it was released. There would not be another Survivor album until 2006’s Reach.

To date, Across The Miles is Survivor’s final original single. (Eye of Tiger reentered the singles chart in 2007, coinciding the release of Rocky Balboa and the Best of Rocky soundtrack compilation.) The video for Across the Miles does feature one woman waiting for a phone call in a lonely room but it’s mostly just a clip of the band performing. Like many of the videos from the time, it’s shot in noirish black-and-white.

Director Jim Yukich directed music videos for almost everyone. If you were a band whose music appeared on the Adult Contemporary charts, it’s probable that Jim Yukich did a video for you.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Modern Love by David Bowie (1983, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This video for Modern Love is probably as straight forward as you can expect any music video from David Bowie to be. Filmed during the Serious Moonlight Tour to support Let’s Dance, the video features Bowie and his band performing an encore at Philadelphia’s Spectrum Theater.

This video was directed by Jim Yukich, who did videos from everyone from Iron Maiden to Debbie Gibson to Phil Collins.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Flight of Icarus by Iron Maiden (1983, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

We all know the story of Icarus.  Imprisoned on the island of Crete with his father Daedalus, Icarus fashioned artificial wings so he could fly to freedom.  His father warned him not to fly too close to the sun but the cocky Icarus ignored his father.  The sun melted his wings and Icarus plummeted to his death.  Whenever someone allows their hubris and cockiness to defeat them or they get too ambitious for their own good, we compare them to Icarus.

Iron Maiden wrote a song about the Flight of Icarus, reimaging the story as being about a teenager rebelling against his father.  That’s not surprising as every Greek myth inspired at least one heavy metal song.  Flight of Icarus was Iron Maiden’s first single to be released in the United States.  (At the time, Iron Maiden was better known in the UK than in the US.)  It’s also one of their few singles to receive substantial radio airplay at the time that it was released.

The video was shot at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas.  The Grim Reaper was played by drummer Nicko McBrain.  As for director Jim Yukich, he was one another one of those music video directors who everyone seemed to work with in the 80s and 90s.  He did videos with everyone from Iron Maiden to Genesis to Huey Lewis to Debbie Gibson and David Hasselhoff.  That’s range!

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: I Can’t Dance by Genesis (1992, directed by Jim Yukich)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“It’s not about being unable to dance.  It’s about guys that look good but can’t string a sentence together. Each verse is a piss-take at the scenario of a jeans commercial. It was good fun, but the audience thought, ‘What does he mean that he can’t dance?’ They didn’t see the humor, and it killed the fun.”

— Phil Collins on I Can’t Dance

Ok, Phil.  Whatever you say.

Tony Banks, Genesis’s keyboardist, has said that the song actually came about because he and Mike Rutherford were fooling around with various sounds in the recording studio and Phil, hearing what they were doing, suddenly sang out, “I can’t dance!” The song started out as an improvised joke but then went on to become one of the band’s biggest hits.  It was also nominated for a Grammy.

The end of the video is meant to be a parody of the original ending of Michael Jackson’s video for Black or White.  Black or White originally ended with Michael Jackson’s dancing erratically and destroying a car.  I Can’t Dance ends with Tony and Mike dragging Phil away before can do too much damage.

Enjoy!