If Sucker Punch had taken place during the Christmas season, one could very easily imagine this video as being a scene in the film. It just needs a giant ninja and Scott Glenn offering up words of pithy wisdom.
That said, what this song and this video do so well and what I love about them is that it provides a whole new spin to a very familiar song. Does the Grinch now own a casino or an Old West saloon? Is the Grinch now a gangster? And what exactly is the Grinch’s relationship with Sabrina Carpenter? This video leaves us with much to ponder during the holiday season.
This video was directed by Joshua Schultz, who has also directed videos for Juliet Simms and Haley Reinhart. According to the imdb, he’s currently in pre-production for a film called The Fog.
Happy Holidays! Trust Linsdey Stirling to elevate one of the worst Christmas songs ever written with an energetic performance and an entertaining music video.
(I should admit that I have a personal bias against Santa Baby, one that goes back to my dancing days. Let’s just say that falling flat on your ass in front of a huge crowd of people while dressed like one of Santa’s helpers and while Santa Baby plays in the background is not necessarily one of my happiest holiday memories.)
Today’s music video of the day finds the world’s best-dressed salsa artist in a whole heap of trouble… Why has Kid Creole been kidnapped by a group of New Wave Amazons who are now threatening to hang him in a warehouse? Their leader is Annie and she wants Kid Creole to admit that he is her father. The Kid, however, says differently.
Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy is often compared to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, though Annie came out a few months before Jackson’s song. Much like Billie Jean, Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy features its singer denying being the father of a child. The big difference is that, while Jackson’s song was inspired by a fan who swore that Jackson had fathered her child, Kid Creole has stated that his song is in no way autobiographical. The lyrics of Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy are also considerably more savage than Billie Jean‘s but, because of the song’s upbeat sound, you don’t really notice until you read them:
They say that all is fair in love and war and child, believe it When mama stayed in St. Tropez, she had a fall or two And I’m telling it to you straight So you don’t have to hear it in another way
Oh Annie I’m not your daddy Oh Annie I’m not your daddy
They say that out of sight is out of mind and child, believe it Your mama was in search of love, but all she got was used And I’m telling it to your face So you don’t have to hear it in another place Bring it to me gently now Don’t forget, I’m just a child
Oh Annie I’m not your daddy (mama’s baby’s papa’s baby) Oh Annie I’m not your daddy (mama’s baby’s papa’s baby)
See, if I was in your blood then you wouldn’t be so ugly Oh!
I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna be a
Yes, I’m telling it to you straight So you don’t have to hear it in another way Bring it to me gently now Don’t forget, I’m just a child
Oh Annie I’m not your daddy (mama’s baby’s papa’s baby) Oh Annie I’m not your daddy (mama’s baby’s papa’s baby)
Kid Creole (real name: Thomas August Darnell Browder) has said that the income royalties off of this song alone are enough for him to live comfortably for the rest of his life. The third and final single from the album Tropical Gangsters, Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart and it reached number 18 on the U.S. Club Play Chart.
Don’t Stop Believin’ is now probably destined to be forever associated with The Sopranos but the song itself had established itself as a classic long before it was used in the finale of HBO’s famous show about the New Jersey mafia.
In fact, the song means so much to Journey’s Steve Perry that he was hesitant to give HBO permission to use the song until it was explained to him exactly how the song was going to be used and he was assured that it wouldn’t be played over any type of violence. Other than the members of the cast and the production crew, Steve Perry was one of the few people to know, in advance, how The Sopranos was going to end.
While Perry has said that the majority of the lyrics were inspired by his own early struggles to find success in the music industry, keyboardist Jonathan Cain says that the name was inspired by something that his father told him when Cain was thinking about leaving Hollywood and returning to Chicago. Cain’s father told him, ‘No, son. Stay the course. We have a vision. It’s gonna happen. Don’t stop believin’.”
As for the video, it was filmed in Houston and features Journey performing the song as a part of their Escape tour. With the exception of the infamous video for Separate Ways, Journey was known for keeping things simple and straight-forward when it came to their music videos. This one is no exception.
Animal is a song that took three years for Def Leppard to complete. The band started work on the song in 1984 with producer Jim Steinman, who is best known for his collaborations with musicians like Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler. Steinman’s orchestral style proved to be a poor fit with Def Leppard’s more straight forward sound. After realizing that Steinman wasn’t going to work out, the band brought in Mutt Lange, who was able to get the sound that the band wanted.
Though the band had already found success in the United States, Animal was the first Def Leppard song to became a hit in the UK. Not only did it reach No. 6 on the UK Single Chart but it also scored the band their first invitation to perform on Top of the Pops. (For the benefit of our American readers, that was, back in the day, a big effing deal.)
The video finds the band working and performing in a traveling circus. The video was directed by Doug Freel and Jean Pellerin, both of whom have directed videos for several different artists. Along with directing several other videos for Def Leppard, Freel and Pellerin have also worked with Metallica. On his own, Freel has done videos for Roxette and Faith No More. Pellerin, meanwhile, directed the films, Laserhawk, For Hire, Daybreak, and The Clown At Midnight.
You may think that this song is actually about something other than driving a car but, according to keyboardist Mike Barson, you’re wrong. As he explained it in The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters, “No, it wasn’t about sex … at that time there weren’t many people writing about simple things like driving in your car. You know: rolling your window down, the little joys of life, simple pleasures.”
The video is also a tribute to an actual white 1959 model Morris Minor that the band used to drive from gig to gig before hitting it big. The video finds all the members of Madness playing mechanics and drivers. As frontman Suggs once explained it, “Madness videos were seven extroverts all mucking about trying to outdo each other.”
(Suggs was born Graham McPherson. He chose is his nickname while he was in school, by randomly sticking a pin in an encyclopedia of jazz musicians and hitting Peter Suggs.)
The video was directed by Dave Robinson, who also directed the video for Our House.
The other version features Alexis Denisof, trying to win the heart of a young woman at an arcade by winning her a toy ballerina. George and the band appear in a hand-cranked movie viewer.
Like the other version, this video was directed by filmmaker Gary Weis. Along with the videos for Got My Mind Set On You and several short films for Saturday Night Live, Gary Weis also directed the videos of Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Aland Walk Like An Egyptian by the Bangles.
Obsession was originally written and recorded as a duet by Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight. The original version was included in the soundtrack for a forgotten 80s film called A Night In Heaven, which featured Lesley Ann Warren as a professor who has an affair with one of her students, a male stripper played by Christopher Atkins. The film was a flop but the song caught the attention of the band, Animotion. Their cover version is not only the best-known version of the song but it was also Animotion’s biggest hit.
Directed by underground filmmaker Amos Poe, the video featured the band performing in front of a pool and in a luxury house while dressed up in different costumes. Why Mark Anthony and Cleopatra? Why Amelia Earhart and Rudolph Valentino? Why not? It was the 80s and cocaine was very popular. The important thing is that both the video and the song came to epitomize an era.
I know this is running the risk of becoming a cliché but this is another song that I originally came to appreciate while playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It was the perfect song for going for a midnight joyride in a stolen car. I crashed any number of vehicles into the ocean while listening to Animotion.
As the old saying goes, heavy is the head that wears the crown.
The video for Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence is simplicity in itself. Dave Gahan plays a king who searches the world, deck chair in hand, for a little silence. His quest takes him to the Scottish Highlands, the beaches of Portugal, and even the Swiss Alps.
This video was directed by Anton Corbijn, who has directed many videos for both Depeche Mode and U2 but who is probably destined to be forever remembered for directing the video for Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box. Corbijn has also directed a handful of films, including the Ian Curtis biopic, Control, and Life, which was about the friendship between James Dean and Life photographer Dennis Stock.
As for Enjoy the Silence, it was Depeche Mode’s highest charting song in the U.S. It was also later covered by the former First Lady of France, Carla Bruni.
In 1986, David Byrne of Talking Heads directed his very first feature film. True Stories took place in the fictional town in Virgil, Texas and, as Byrne himself put it, it was “a project with songs based on true stories from tabloid newspapers. It’s like 60 Minutes on acid.”
Some people love True Stories. I am not one of them. However, not surprisingly, the film did have a killer soundtrack. The best known song to come off of the True Stories soundtrack was Wild Wild Life. The video for Wild WildLife takes place at what appears to be a karaoke bar, where different performers lip sync to the song while dressed up as their favorite performers. One person is dressed up like Billy Idol. Another does Madonna. Jerry Harrison imitates Prince. Be sure to keep an eye out for a young John Goodman, who co-starred in True Stories and who damn near steals this video with his energetic performance.
Wild Wild Life subsequently won the award for Best Group Video at the MTV Music Video Awards.
