I don’t have much to say about this video but then again, you don’t have to say much when it comes to Rick James. James was one of those artists who didn’t need an elaborate video to get people to realize that he rocked. All he had to do was get out there and perform.
I hope this song and music video serves as a good start for your weekend!
Enjoy!
Today is the 15th anniversary of the death of Rick James. Our music video of the day is for James’ biggest U.S. hit and his best-known song, Super Freak.
James shot this video during the early days of MTV, hoping that the network would put the video into its steady rotation and help the song become a hit. However, MTV rejected the video. In the early 80s, MTV was notorious for rejecting music videos from black artists. However, Carolyn Baker, who was then director of acquisitions for the network, later said that, “It wasn’t MTV that turned down ‘Super Freak.’ It was me. I tuned it down. You know why? Because there were half-naked women in it, and it was a piece of crap. As a black woman, I did not want that representing my people as the first black video on MTV.”
(The first black group to get a video on MTV would be Musical Youth with Pass the Dutchie in 1982. A year after that, Michael Jackson destroyed what was left of MTV’s color barrier with the success of his videos for Thriller.)
Even without the support of MTV, Super Freak went on to become Rick James’s biggest hit. The song’s distinctive bassline was later sampled by MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This. James had to sue to get credited for the sample. Rick James would later receive his only Grammy when U Can’t Touch This won for Best R&B Song in 1991.
Enjoy!
The year was 1985 and Eddie Murphy was one of the most successful entertainers on the planet.
He was the only star to emerge from the wreckage of Saturday Night Live‘s disastrous sixth season and, by his presence along, he kept the show alive through some tough years. He had starred in the hit films 48 Hours, Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop. He had even won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for Eddie Murphy: Comedian. There was only one world left for Eddie Murphy to conquer, the world of music.
How Could It Be, Eddie Murphy’s first musical album, was released in 1985 and it spawned one hit single, the Rick James-produced Party All The Time, a song in which Murphy laments that his woman would rather party than take care of him. The critics may have hated it but Party All The Time was a hit, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Of course, there was a video:
The main thing that sticks out about this video is how seriously it wants us to take Eddie Murphy as a singer. Murphy may flash his trademark grin but the video mostly seems to be about convincing us that Murphy was not just another celebrity with a vanity album to sell. No, Murphy was a professional and, in case you had any doubts, just watch Rick James get down in the control booth!
Look at how much effort Eddie’s putting into the song!
Towards the end of the song, Rick leaves the control booth to perform with Eddie and to make sure we understand that Eddie Murphy is the real deal.
It’s too bad that Eddie’s being so professional because if any song seemed perfect for Murphy’s sarcastic and uninhibited comedic sensibility, it was Party All The Time.
Though Murphy is still best known as a comedian and actor, he has continued to record music. He even had another minor hit, a R&B song called Put Your Mouth On Me. (You read that right.) Though it’s been 25 years since he released his last album, Murphy did receive his first Oscar nomination in 2007 for playing R&B singer James “Thunder” Early in the musical Dreamgirls.
As for Party All The Time, it has more recently found new life as the unofficial anthem of Scotland’s St. Johnstone F.C.
Through the Shattered Lens 