This time that awesomeness is John Kapelos. When it comes to the early John Hughes films, most people know that Molly Ringwald was his muse and Anthony Michael Hall his alter-ego. But if you look a little closer, there is another actor that appears in all three of the first films that Hughes directed himself. That actor is John Kapelos and he had roles in the trifecta of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science (and almost a fourth). Kapelos, whose roots came out of the great improvisational tradition of Second City, has gone on to a successful career spanning over 30 years and well over 150 roles in movies, television and stage. Find out more about his roles in those 80s classics, his take on John Hughes and his experiences working with him and much more as we get on to some selections from my interview with John Kapelos...

Q: When and how did you get bit by the acting bug? When and how did you get involved with Second City? At what point did you decide that acting/performing would become your career?

John: I started acting in high school. My first production in high school was Guys and Dolls when I was in 10th grade. I played "Nathan Detroit". The year before I did an audition for the school show, but I ended up working on stage crew and pulled curtains. But I sort of got the typical stage show bite when I did Guys and Dolls. It satisfied three basic things: I got attention, I got girls and I got to get out of class. Well, I don't know if I got to get girls, but I know I got to get to get out of class! There was that and I was literally bit by the show business bug. My father was not in show business. He had a clothing store. I was the youngest of three and my brother and sister were very academically oriented. I went to University and started doing some plays there.

Through a couple tricks of fate, I got involved with Second City taking workshops in Toronto. I got to know John Candy. When I decided at about the age of 20 or 21 to pursue acting full time, I told my father. He then made a deal with me that if I got a job within a year, then I wouldn't have to go back to school. He insisted I get a job, so I started taking these workshops at Second City in Toronto. It's a long story, but I started working as an extra on SCTV and I met Bernie Sahlins, the producer at Chicago's Second City, I asked him if he had a job available, he said he did, I waited two weeks and he never called me. I told my parents that I had a job offer, borrowed my Dad's credit card and I went down to Chicago. At the same time, I had been working on getting my American citizenship because my mother was an American. I auditioned for Second City Chicago on August 4, 1978. The same day they offered me a job. I called my mother and she told me that my passport had arrived in the mail, so I figured that was my ticket out of Canada. I worked at Second City in Chicago for eight years. I toured for three years and was in the main company for five. That's really where I learned how to act, how to improvise and how to work.

Q: Second City has such an outstanding legacy. Who were some of the other actors that you worked with during your time at Second City?

John: Well, my teacher at Second City was originally John Candy. He really was a wonderful person and obviously a great performer. Sadly, he is missed after dying way too young. He was also a really, really good teacher. I would say, first and foremost, John Candy. He was working on SCTV in Toronto, so he wasn't in the company. When I went down to Chicago, the ones I worked with in my main stage company were Richard Kind, Isabella Hofmann, Meagan Fay, Mike Hagerty, Jim Belushi, Lance Kinsey, Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Gross and many others. There were many names. There were lots of others who are famous, but famous more for creating shows and producing and not necessarily famous as actors.

Q: Many of the biggest stars on Saturday Night Live came from Second City. Did you ever have ambitions of being on SNL? Did you ever audition for SNL yourself?

John: Saturday Night Live came to audition us, but the producers of Second City didn't want them to see our company because we were a really good company. So they took them into a back space where there were a bunch of other unknown actors and they ended up hiring most of them. That was Practical Theater and included Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger and people like that. There was a little bit of a competition when Lorne Michaels came. Second City didn't want everybody to be poached from them. They would sometimes hide us. That's just the way it goes. I never did directly audition for Saturday Night Live though I think I would've liked to have been on it at one point. But it became evident as Saturday Night Live developed that I was not who they were looking for since I am not a person who does imitations and so many of the ones chosen do. I don't think that was the case with John Belushi or Bill Murray and initially that first generation. They did more characters. But then the type of actor that Saturday Night Live wanted mutated in my opinion and that didn't really play to my strengths. And my strengths are, you know, acting.

Q: How did the role of "Rudy Ryszczyk, the oily bohunk" in 1984's Sixteen Candles come your way?

John: While I was working in the touring company of Second City and I think I was just about to get into the main stage, I told my agent in Chicago at the time that I wanted to get into films. Apparently they were starting to shoot more films in Chicago and there was sort of a gush of them. The Blues Brothers and a bunch of others came in. As luck would have it, John Hughes wanted to meet a lot of local actors. I didn't know who John Hughes was at the time, so I did a little bit of research. I found out that he had worked in advertising, he obviously worked on the National Lampoon and he'd written some great stuff for the Lampoon. I had some friends who were hip to that and that were total "Lampooniacs". I went in for the audition and Jackie Burch was the casting director for what was going to be Sixteen Candles. And I just did a kick ass audition. I am not sure what the Ryszczyk's were supposed to originally be like, but I think that after they saw me they changed the temperament of the family and went more ethnic deciding them to be more Italian-American. I think initially they were thinking in a different way for the family, they saw me and liked my audition so much that they tailored the family more around who I was. The Ryszczyk's became who they were, a sort of dubious-where-they-got-th eir-money-from ethnic family who had definitely a different slant on things compared to the Baker family. It sort of fell together as these things tend to do.

I am not privileged to what went on backstage or how they made their decisions, but boy they really came down in favor of me. John was a huge fan of mine. I remember the first day of shooting on Sixteen Candles was all of the wedding stuff. That was daunting in itself because you were doing the end of the movie at the beginning. I remember just how supportive he was. And I was working with all these wonderful actors like the grandparents who were played by Max Showalter (who was in the film Niagara with Marilyn Monroe), Edward Andrews, Billie Bird and Carole Cook (who is still living and as vibrant as ever). So the casting for the film, I have to say, was pretty cool. Of course, you also have Brian Doyle-Murray playing the priest. So it got off to a good start and after that I started a relationship with John.

Sixteen Candles was filmed during the summer of 1983 and released in May of 1984. It was written by John Hughes, but also marked his directorial debut. It starred Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, both just 15 years old at the time, but they were joined by an outstanding cast of supporting characters. This is the wedding scene that he referenced and features several of those characters including Kapelos as "Rudy" and his wobbly bride-to-be "Ginny" played by Blanche Baker...

Q: You would end up appearing in three John Hughes films in a row. What can you tell us about John Hughes and your experience working for him?

John: Well first I have to say that I am sad that John is gone because I never got a chance to resolve anything since I never really saw the guy for many, many years. He was a very difficult guy to communicate with later on in his career and after he stopped working because he was elusive. Many people who knew him better than I did have talked about his elusiveness. When I first met him, he was very, very engaging. He was totally into his work. He really knew that he wanted to do these movies. He was a man on a mission. He had written so much and he was so hell-bent on getting this stuff down on film the way he wanted it to be that there was a specific nature to his game. I could see that his wife, Nancy, was very, very supportive of him. He had a very tight group of people around him that worked for him. There was part of John that ruled by intimidation. I think that he was somewhat passive-aggressive in his behavior. He would never tell anybody anything negative directly, but you would hear if somebody fell out of favor or if something wasn't working through his minions. He was very specific. He had a very tight relationship with Anthony Michael Hall, as you might imagine, who was basically his alter-ego. John was really kind to me.

He was really hard-working with me. I'm thinking specifically about The Breakfast Club. I remember the first scene where I come in and they are all in the library. I am emptying the garbage can and I say "Hey Bri" and "That clock's 20 minutes fast" and that whole sequence. There was a moment in that sequence that, after shooting eight or nine takes, John asked me to improvise since he knew I was from Second City. That we could come up with stuff on the spot is one of the reasons he liked working with me. An example of that which ended up in the film is during the scene in the basement with Vernon, I came up with the line "When I was a kid I wanted to be John Lennon". That's my line. What John would let me do and what we had a really great time doing was improvising. There was a moment in the scene in the library when I looked at them all and, before I say "That clock's 20 minutes fast", I tell them where I think they're all going to be 30 years from now. It was a great improvised speech and lasted two to three minutes of solid screen time. We shot it and I thought that maybe it would be in the movie. Dede Allen, the late great film editor, put her arm around me and said, "When I cut Gene Hackman out of Bonnie & Clyde..." and I stopped her asking her what she meant. She said, "That whole thing you did here, out. This whole thing you did there, out." So basically I improvised a lot of things with John that didn't make the final movie which was disappointing, but at least we had the actual opportunity of doing it.

The overall thing I got with John is that he was totally in charge of his films, he usually knew exactly what he wanted to shoot and when he didn't know exactly what he wanted to shoot he knew exactly how he wanted to improvise something. He was very specific even when we were improvising. He had strong likes and dislikes. That extended to people. He had a really contentious relationship with Hollywood. He also worked in a great deal of mystery and things were shrouded in secrecy. I can't say that I really knew the guy because I found him to keep himself very much behind a facade. He protected that part of him. He was very observant. He had a very good eye and when you were around him you sort of felt like you were being scanned into his computer. If you met with his approval, that would be a good thing.

The next year, The Breakfast Club was released in February of 1985. It was once again written and directed by John Hughes and once again starred Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall. It also starred Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez and Paul Gleason. Kapelos played the role of "Carl Reed" the janitor and self-described "eyes and ears" of the high school. In the opening scene, Carl's picture appears on a plaque that reads, "Man of the Year" in 1969. This implies that he was a popular kid at that same school when he attended 15 years prior. Here is the scene he referenced when we meet Kapelos' character for the first time and Carl interacts with the kids in the library...[If video does not appear below click on this link to open separate window to watch it]

Q: So then how do you remember getting the role of "Carl the janitor" in 1985's The Breakfast Club? I read that it was originally given to Rick Moranis who left after creative differences with Hughes. Do you know how that went down?

John: It was supposed to be Rick Moranis and it was Rick Moranis. They did shoot for a week or so, maybe less. But Rick insisted on playing the part with a big set of gold teeth, a chain with a wad of keys hanging between his legs which he would play with provocatively and a thick Russian accent. He wanted to do it as sort of a broad SCTV type of character that he was prone to playing. John went with it for a few days, but then he asked Rick if he had read the script because this guy was supposed to have gone to this high school. So they had a definite parting of the ways. I was in New York at the time working with Second City off-Broadway at The Village Gate. Long story short, I'm flown back to Chicago the next day and started working on the movie. An offer was made directly to me and nobody else was being considered for the part at that point. After Rick Moranis was let go, John just got in touch with me. I have to admit, I was initially disappointed when I heard they were shooting The Breakfast Club and I wasn't involved because John had said during Sixteen Candles that he had a part for me in his next film. So he had talked to me about "Carl the janitor" and he had sort of promised it to me. But as much as anything gets promised to you in show business, it gets taken away just as easily. When I read in the trades, literally the day before I ended up getting the part, that they were shooting it in Chicago I thought, "Well, there that goes." It was Kismet, fortunately for me, Rick Moranis and John had a parting of the ways, so I came in and started working.

Q: How did you mesh with the cast especially since you arrived after filming had already started?

John: To be honest, I had a little bit of a stylistic clash with Paul Gleason who played "Principal Vernon". We ended up becoming friends later and I went to his funeral [he passed in 2006]. I liked Paul a lot, but initially he was a little bit tough on me and didn't necessarily like what I was doing. John [Hughes] did like what I was doing. We shot the scene in the basement where I see him going through the files and he was improvising a little trying to extend his screen time in a way. John asked me to cut him off by just saying, "50 bucks". If you look in the movie and see Paul's reaction when I say "50 bucks", he is really actually pissed because I'm cutting him off. After they yelled cut, he even started pushing me and we almost got into a little fight there. To let you in a little behind the scenes, there was slight tension between us that is evident in the film. When he goes, "Carl, don't be a goof", he's also laying it on John Kapelos the actor to not be a goof. For some scenes, you shoot one actor's lines straight on and then come around and shoot the other actor's lines. In another case, we shot Paul's lines first and then they came around on me. John started to ask me to do something different visually and Paul said, "If I would've known he was going to do that, then I would've done something different, so you have to come back and re-shoot my lines." John said that we didn't have the time and it wasn't necessary to do that. So there were incidents like that with Paul. Paul Gleason was good friends with Robert Duvall and there was sort of a machismo in the way he worked. It worked perfectly for the part of the principal. A lot of Paul Gleason is in that character. He was kind of a no-nonsense, jock, not much of sense of humor, old school guy. It all worked out in the wash.

Towards the end of the film the two adult characters get to interact. Carl helps put it all in perspective and challenges Gleason's character saying, "Listen, Vernon, if you were 16, what would you think of you?" Here is that scene (sorry, poor quality) when he also says the line "When I was a kid, I wanted to be John Lennon"...

Q: What can you tell us about working with the rest of the outstanding and mostly young cast?

John: In so far as the cast and the people that I worked with, I never really got close to Molly. I really liked Molly. I remember her mother and father. Her father is a jazz musician and I believe he is blind. I remember Molly's sister, too. Molly had a really strong support group around her. I remember Michael Hall, of course especially in Sixteen Candles but also in The Breakfast Club, just how bright and amazingly funny he was. I really, really liked him. It was obvious that he and John had a kinetic relationship and they were close, close, close. You know Judd Nelson is only a few years younger than me [Kapelos was 28 years old and Nelson 25 when The Breakfast Club was released] and he was playing a teenager in the film while I was playing an adult. Judd's still pretty much the same guy. I saw him recently and he hasn't changed much. He still has that "John Bender" teenage rock n roll rebellion aspect to him. I don't know how well that ages, but that's another story. I never really got close to the guys on the set because by the time I got there they were already pretty much a unit. They all kind of looked at me askance. When I shot The Breakfast Club, I literally found out where the janitor's room was at the high school we were shooting at and I hung out there. When I'm working, I like to stay quiet and focused, although I do like to chat with people at times. I really, really liked all of them. I particularly liked Ally Sheedy. Ally was very smart and, you can tell by some of the work she's done since, very intense and very focused. I really liked the conversations and discussions we had. I remember specifically going out for a walk with her around the high school and having a really good talk. These weren't life-long bonding experiences. Working on a film is somewhat like working in a gypsy camp. You make friends quickly and you're lucky if you keep in touch with them over time. The fact of the matter is that I really, really enjoyed working with all of these kids. There was never a moment where they behaved in a negative way. There was a time when I made a joke about Martin Sheen in front of Emilio Estevez not knowing that he was his father and he sort of gave me an icy reply. I think that maybe he and I had the least friendly relationship, but it certainly wasn't unfriendly. He's just a pretty intense keep-to-himself kind of guy and I don't think we had any personal chemistry as it were. You know it's funny, my recollections of these actors is that they will always be young in my brain and when I see them now, I go "wow!"

Q: You mentioned earlier several scenes that were shot that didn't end up in the final film. Were there any other scenes that you recall that you could share with us? Do you think we will ever get to see any of the deleted scenes as DVD extras someday?

John: There was a lot of stuff shot for The Breakfast Club that didn't end up in the movie. Like I said before, there is a lot of stuff I improvised. There was another sequence when they are looking at a bunch of attractive middle-aged mothers (maybe called "milfs" today) in an aerobics class in the gym. They are sort of checking them out lasciviously. There was also lots of stuff shot that was extraneous. The movie you see ultimately is the movie that it was meant to be. I don't know if any of that footage will ever be released or see the light of day. I think that Nancy Hughes and the John Hughes estate probably have a tight control over that. It probably will never be released as DVD extras. A lot of us were hoping that it would be. At this point, I don't think so. I'd be surprised if it still exists because it probably was destroyed knowing John and his need to control things. Which, in his creative world, is his prerogative.

Q: What were your feelings about it when the film was released in 1985? What are your feelings about The Breakfast Club now over 25 years later?

John: I think I like the film better now than I did back then. I wasn't a teenager, so it didn't seem to have the same cultural impact on me. I realized it was a good movie when it came out. I didn't realize that the quality of the film was going to be as high as it was, as strange as that is to say. I mean there were production aspects, Johnny Corso's set, Universal's publicity, the whole nature of the movie. I think that The Breakfast Club is, rightfully so, a classic film now. I do believe it has stood the test of time. There are so many from the 80s that just do not. One of the main reasons I think the film works is because it's honest, it doesn't pull punches and it was one of the very first films that talked to teenagers on their own level, it didn't talk down to them.

There were also some special cinematic things going on like the use of popular music in the soundtrack. The Simple Minds song ["Don't You (Forget About Me)"] was a stroke of genius. Ironically, the Simple Minds guys didn't like that song and they believe it was forced on them from what I understand. I have met Jim Kerr [lead singer of Simple Minds] and he said they wanted to do their own song, but this is the song they will always be known for. I think it's a great iconic song, but also the fact that John Hughes used pop music in his soundtrack was something other films started imitating more after that. Putting popular music in soundtracks became the thing. I believe that's partly a John Hughes innovation.

The script is f**cking great! The words are great. And the sentiment is great. That's what works. That's why you will find people in high schools today still relating to it. There's always going to be the geek and the jock and the pretty girl and the displaced guy and the quirky girl. There's always going to be these types. And there's always going to be that bullsh*t f**cking teacher that's going to try to ram stuff down your throat because he's holier than thou. There's always going to be that janitor in the corner who has seen it all. I think there's a universality to it and that's what makes good films resonate over time.

Q: Your third Hughes role was as "Dino" in one of my favorite scenes from 1985's Weird Science. What can you tell us about Dino and filming that hilarious bar scene? Who came up with referring to "Gary" as a "malaka"?

John: Let me tell you about Dino. My best buddy, Dino, is a lawyer from Milwaukee. I chose the name Dino because of him. I asked John if I could use the name and he was fine with it. When we shot that whole sequence when they enter the bar and everybody goes silent was my first time ever actually working in Hollywood. We shot that on a big sound stage at Universal Studios.

There was this very large woman who was an extra playing a bar maid. There was this one long shot where they just wanted to get me walking around the bar. Every time I walked across her, she would block me from the camera. Finally, after about the second take, John told me to try not to let her block me but that I could say something to her that they might use in the movie. So I introduce myself to her after the third take and ask her if she wants to work out a bit. She looks at me and says, "Yeah, right" and walks away. So we start shooting it again, I walk up to her and say, "Hey (whatever her name was), can you get a beer to this table?" and she says, "You're standing between me and the camera!" She then jabs me in the chest with her shoulder crushing the microphone I was wearing. They yelled cut and sound guy went, "Whoa!" She ruins this $1500 microphone and I've never seen anybody escorted off the set faster. So that was my first experience with the Hollywood extra.

Yeah, we're pretty much improvising a lot during parts of that scene. We had all of these incredible black character actors working with us. John just thought it was funny, which it is, to have this black bar owned by this Greek guy. I can't say that there was much more forethought that went into that. It's just an amazingly funny screen moment. I came up with malaka. It means jag off or masturbator in Greek slang. So Greeks all over North America were pissed off that I used "malaka" because it wasn't a household word at that point. My mother particularly asked me why I had to use that terrible word. But mothers don't often get their way as we find out.

Weird Science was released in August of 1985 and once again featured the comedy talents on Anthony Michael Hall. He played "Gary" who along with his friend "Wyatt" (played by Ilan Mitchell-Smith) were considered two high school dorks until they invent "Lisa" (played by the gorgeous Kelly LeBrock) and she helps them find their inner cool kid. The film is a little silly and far-fetched, but never fails to make me laugh. Michael Hall was brilliant in it, in my opinion. The scene when they visit the Kandy Bar and he wins over the guys after saying,"She's into malakas, Dino" is one of my all-time favorites from any movie to this day. Here is that entire scene which includes Kapelos as "Dino"...

Q: After three films in a row, was there a reason that you did not appear in other John Hughes films after that?

John: I actually did four films with John Hughes. I was also in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but was totally cut out of the movie. Ferris Bueller was actually my last experience with John. Ferris Bueller was an odd experience because he was sort of counting on me to be something and I think I kind of let him down or the part wasn't constructed well enough. I played the cab driver that drove them all throughout the downtown area, but they edited the part right out of the movie. I don't think the part was well-conceived or necessarily well-written because it was sort of thrown together at the last minute. I think in that regard, if I really look back at it overall (and I have never really said this to anyone so this is your exclusive), maybe after that moment he decided he would move on to a different group of actors. Maybe there was somewhat of a break point that happened there. Because he then did go off and work with different groups of actors and his success was such that John had anybody in Hollywood he wanted to work with. He developed long-term relationships with other actors like John Candy, of course.

Q: Were you able to keep in touch with John Hughes after your time working with him?

John: I never really saw him later on. I bumped into him a couple times socially here in Los Angeles. I tried to get together with him many times, but then he moved back to Chicago and kind of quit the business in a huff. The story goes that he was shooting a film, it was the last night of shooting and he wanted to go an extra shot but the studio shut down the set. He was so upset that he literally went to the airport, got on a plane, flew back to Chicago and never came back to L.A. Whether that story is true or not, it sounds pretty dramatic. I think that it might be at least partially true that he left L.A. and never really came back to Hollywood. He really felt, and I think this might be part of his naivety and his ego at play, and always believed that his creative ideas took precedence over any economic factor or sanctions a studio might put on him when making a film. In other words, he felt that money was beginning to trump him too often. Those controlling the money in Hollywood were becoming too intrusive into his world. John had a real healthy image of himself. You know, he had a big ego. I think it was indulged and, in a lot of ways, he and Hollywood did not understand one another on a basic level. That's my take on it, humble though it may be.

As far as my interacting with him years later, I reached out to him many times and I never heard back from him. This was in the days before email was so prevalent, but I would call his assistant and left many messages. He never returned them, so there's nothing too dramatic there. He just didn't return the calls. Either he was out of touch or didn't want to get in touch or was on to something else. You never know what goes on inside people's brains, right? I think in a lot of ways that John was a talented genius that probably had a lot of stuff going on. One thing I do remember health-wise is that he and his wife were chain smokers. So when I heard he died of a heart attack, it made me think he never quit smoking. He smoked a lot. That sort of belied a nervous or intense level of anxiety he seemed to possess in his being. Hell, I'm not a shrink, I just play one sometimes on TV, but I always thought he was pretty tightly wound. But, so am I, it takes one to know one. I think a lot of creative people are. You just look at the tell-tale signs. He wasn't a drinker. He wasn't a druggie. He may have smoked pot as a teenager because there are certainly pot references in his films. But there was never any evidence of him being like that. He was a pretty solid family guy with two beautiful sons who are now grown and probably look an awful lot like him. I lamented his death. I feel sadly for Nancy and his children. And, obviously, I think he died too soon. And, I think the f**ked up nature of Hollywood prevented us from having more great John Hughes movies.

Q: What can you tell us about your role as "Chuck" in the 1987 film Roxanne? How did the role of "Chuck" come your way? The adaptation was written by Steve Martin who also starred in the film. What can you tell us about Steve Martin and your experience working with him?

John: Roxanne is one of the best experiences I had after working on the John Hughes movies and really in movies period. It still remains to me one of those golden memories where the experience of making the movie and doing the film up in Canada and working with Steve Martin equals the product. I think it's still a great movie. I think it stands the test of time. It's a tad dated, as so many of the 80s movies are, but not as dated as many of the other ones.

Roxanne was an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac written by Steve Martin. It starred Martin along with Daryl Hannah and was released in theaters in June of 1987. Roger Ebert described it as a "gentle, whimsical comedy" with an "ineffable spirit" and I would certainly agree with him. Kapelos plays "Chuck", sort of an obnoxious jerk who owns a store called All Things Dead and who considers himself a ladies man but is unsuccessful in his attempt to pick up "Roxanne" in an early scene at the local bar. Also in the later 80s, John Kapelos appeared in Nothing In Common (1986) with Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason, Vibes (1988) with Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Goldblum, and The Boost (1988) with James Woods and Sean Young. Among his many other film and television roles, you may remember him as "Barry" the sniffing accountant in a 1993 episode of Seinfeld [Season 5, Episode 4].

Q: You have continued to work steadily for 30 years. From your long and impressive list, are there any other films that you are particularly proud of from your career so far?

John: After the John Hughes films, I would say that next to Roxanne my favorite film that I've done is Internal Affairs [1990]. Which is, obviously not a comedy, with Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Laurie Metcalf, Billy Baldwin and directed by Mike Figgis. Next to that would be The Boost [1988] which was with James Wood and Sean Young. Those are some of the other films that I have particular pride in.

Q: What else has John Kapelos been up to more recently? Both acting and otherwise?

John: In recent times, I've done a whole pile of television as cops, detectives, doctors, lawyers, etc. Right now, I'm doing a play at the South Coast Repertory called The Prince of Atlantis which is really great world premier play that we're performing through the end of April. I'm also producing films through my company Carpuzi (which means "watermelon" in Greek). I did my short film Commentary about three years ago which went to Sundance. I'm in the process of prepping a film that I'm going to direct called Palmerston Avenue and another one called The Visiting Professor which we are developing the script for. So I want to direct and do more of that in the near future.

I'm also doing some music. I've been doing a lot of music. I write and play music. I have two albums out. One is called Syd the Karaoke Kid and the other is called May. [Here is a link to check out May on Amazon.com] I'm working on a third album now called Too Hip for the Room which is some humorous songs. That about does it.

I am very happy and honored that John was able to take some time to answer my questions so I could share them with you here. You can keep up with John at his official Facebook page www.facebook.com/pages/John-Kapelos-Pa ge/117419508331194/ . I want to take this opportunity to again thank John Kapelos for his contributions to 80s pop culture especially his roles in those classic John Hughes films and, even more, for going back to the 80s with us here for a little while as well.

That'll do it for another special issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading and hope you are enjoying the interviews as much as I am. If you want a summary of all of my Back to the 80s Interviews posted thus far, please click on that link. Be sure you haven't missed any of them. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on the "Like" button. Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow @OldSchool80s on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Quote of the day: "If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." -Orson Welles

For those who don't know, Al Capone was head of the Chicago mafia beginning in 1925. During his run, he was listed on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list, sold alcohol during the Prohibition era, planned the St. Valentine's Day massacre, and was eventually indicted and convicted of income tax evasion in 1931. He was released from Alcatraz prison in 1939 on humanitarian grounds due to acutely advancing syphilis. He eventually died in January of 1947 in his home on Palm Island, Florida from cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke at the age of 48.

In July 1928, Capone moved his headquarters to a suite at the Lexington Hotel in Chicago. He ran his various enterprises from this hotel until his arrest in 1931. A construction company in the 80s planned a renovation of the Lexington Hotel and while surveying the building discovered a shooting range and a series of secret tunnels including one hidden behind Capone's medicine cabinet. These tunnels connected taverns and brothels to provide an elaborate potential escape route in case of a police raid. Rumors said Capone had kept a very secret vault beneath the hotel to hold some of his wealth.

The decision was made to open this secret vault on live television. Geraldo Rivera, a relative unknown at the time, hosted The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault. The two hour (including commercials) syndicated event was greatly hyped as potentially revealing great riches or dead bodies on live television. Here is one of the commercials promoting the live television event...

I remember tuning in to watch at least a portion of the special. You couldn't help but hope to find something gruesome or exciting that had been trapped for over 50 years inside that vault. Rivera had a medical examiner on hand in case bodies or remains were found and agents from the Internal Revenue Service were present to collect any of Capone's money that might be discovered. When the vault was finally opened the only things found inside were dirt, an old stop sign and several empty bottles including one Rivera claimed was for moonshine bathtub gin. No loot, no skeletons, nothing. What a letdown! Rivera concluded, "It seems, at least up to now, that we've struck out with the vault." That was an understatement.

Despite the disappointing and embarrassing ending, the special became the most-watched syndicated television special ever with an estimated audience of 30 million. The show garnered one of the highest ratings in U.S. television history. Nielsen recorded a 34 average rating and 48 average share in eight markets and a 57 rating and 73 share in the Chicago market. It was at least a success from that aspect. The show became a punch line and cautionary tale and Geraldo Rivera was humiliated, but it also garnered him quite a bit of notoriety and would help launch Rivera's career to another level. He would host his own syndicated daytime talk show, Geraldo, beginning in the Fall of 1987 and running for 11 years. He had another infamous moment on that show in November of 1988 when a brawl broke out and he sustained a broken nose during the melee. But I think will always remember him most for hosting The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault. And, yep, it happened in the great decade of the 80s. Here is a video including his account of the special many years later...

That's all for this issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks so much for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on the "Like" button. Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow @OldSchool80s on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: I saw this spoof of a weather forecast on the planet Alderaan presumably a couple days prior to Grand Moff Tarkin demonstrating the power of the Death Star. I'm always a fan of creative and/or funny Star Wars humor, so wanted to share it here.

Quote of the day: "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure." -Bill Gates

This time that awesomeness is Trevor Steel. He is best remembered as the lead singer and guitarist for The Escape Club. They had five singles reach the Billboard Hot 100 including a big hit in the late-80s with "Wild Wild West" and then in the early-90s again with "I'll Be There". The band split up in 1992, but has partially reunited and released a new album in 2012. You will find out more about the band's early success and biggest hit songs as well as what they are doing now as we get on to some selections from my interview with Trevor Steel...

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a professional musician?

Trevor: I knew I wanted to be a professional musician when I was still at school. I guess I thought of myself as a bit of a rebel in those days and affected an "alternative" pose like a lot of teenagers do. School and I didn't get on very well. I didn't want to work in an office or do anything else my teachers would have recommended. I just stupidly assumed that rock musician was a good career choice.

Q: Please discuss any of your personal musical influences and who molded and inspired the artist you were back in the 80s and have since become.

Trevor: I discovered David Bowie when I was still at school. He was my first influence. Then David Byrne and Talking Heads. I think these two influenced me the most as a lyricist.

Q: Please tell us a little about how and why The Escape Club came to be. How did you choose that name for the band?

Trevor: We got together after two other bands, the Expressos and Mad Shadows, disbanded [in 1982]. We'd all been on the London scene back then and the four of us joined together from the ashes of both bands. Really can't remember how we got the name, given loads of stories over the years but I think like most bands, it was the only one that no one hated.

Trevor Steel and John Holliday (guitarist), former members of Mad Shadows, were joined by Johnnie Christo (bassist) and Milan Zekavica, former members of Expressos, and after almost a year of writing and rehearsing they played their first gig as The Escape Club in 1983. Despite some quality exposure, they would not be offered a record deal for several years.

Q: The band first signed with EMI in 1986. How did you end up with Atlantic and having break-out success there?

Trevor: EMI put out our first record [White Fields in 1986] but when we went to them with the second (Wild Wild West), the A&R man Nick Gatfield, said he "didn't hear a hit." He's pretty high up in the music industry these days. Just goes to show you, they haven't got a clue what they're doing in the major labels. Atlantic bought the album from EMI, so that is how we ended up over there.

Q: You released Wild Wild West in 1988 and it was a huge success. Please take us back to when the lead single "Wild Wild West" was written and recorded. What is the back story about how that particular song was conceived and written?

Trevor: John had heard a Run-DMC track on the TV the previous night and rushed upstairs to put a hip-hop drum beat onto his drum machine. The journey to the drum machine doubled the speed though and when I came round to see him the next morning and started singing over it, it turned into "Wild Wild West". I think we wrote that song in the space of two hours. It was originally going to be three minutes long and the extended section with the rap was only meant for the 12" single. We loved it so much full length though that we put the whole thing out.

The Escape Club released their rock/dance hybrid album in the summer of 1988 and its first single caught attention very quickly. "Wild Wild West" raced up the U.S. charts and would reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 the week of November 12, 1988. The single would also have some success in Australia, but surprisingly not in their homeland of the UK. In fact, this made The Escape Club the only British artist to have a #1 hit in America while never even charting in the UK. Here is the music video for "Wild Wild West" by The Escape Club...

Q: Please tell us about the meaning behind some of the lyrics and what message you were trying to convey with this fun song. (Living in the 80s, heading for the 90s, safe sex, waiting for the big boom, etc.)

Trevor: I guess it was just a reflection of the times, living in the 80s with all the yuppies getting rich quick and living under the fear of the Cold War and AIDS. The "Ronnie" in the song was a reference to Ronald Reagan.

Q: Did you have any feeling that the single was going to be something special or receive the response it did?

Trevor: Not really. We knew it was good but never knew it would catch on to the extent it did.

Q: What changed for you personally and for the band after this single's success? Were you prepared for attention and all of the other things that came with a #1 hit?

Trevor: It was never a big hit in the UK where we came from so our first experience of having a hit was when we arrived in New York City to a #1 record. It was mind-blowing!

Q: Had you been to the U.S. prior to this song's success here? What memories do you have from you initial visits to the country and your U.S. concert tour? How did you feel back then that you were having such incredible success overseas in the United States, but your home country was not showing you the same love?

Trevor: As mentioned, our first visit to the USA was to a #1 single. I'd never been there before but quickly fell in love with the country. It's been very good to me over the years. I live in Australia now but visit the States regularly. We had a solid core of fans in the UK, still do, and they were great to play to so it never really bothered us too much about not making it so big over there. We could fill out the Marquee Club in London so that was good enough for us.

Q: When you have a mega hit song like that, do you (or did you) ever get sick of playing it?

Trevor: No - that song's been good to me and helped me pay for my house. I'm happy to play it whenever asked!

Q: What are your feelings regarding "Wild Wild West" today almost 24 years later?

Trevor: It still stands up really well on radio which is great as it still gets played. I think it still works because we never fell into that 80s trap of using too much reverb and big snares.

Q: The video for "Wild Wild West" was pretty interesting with the mirror effect giving the illusion of disembodied arms and legs dancing. Do you know why the video was banned in the UK? Videos had become so important to a song's success in the U.S. What are your thoughts on the impact that MTV had on your band's success and music in the 80s in general?

Trevor: MTV was the biggest thing for us then. I'd say it was instrumental in breaking the band, much in the way as YouTube does it for bands these days. I can't remember why the video was banned in the UK, I think some kids got scared looking at the disfigured legs. [The video was reportedly banned in the UK for being allegedly sexist and offensive, but not sure why.]

Q: In 1991, The Escape Club had another hit with "I'll Be There". Please take us back to when you wrote and recorded the song. What is the back story about how it was conceived and written? What inspired it? Did you write the lyrics and how long did that take? Any interesting facts or memories you can let us in on from creating this great song?

Trevor: When we were recording Dollars & Sex, our third album, everyone in the record company was on us to write a ballad as that was all that radio was playing from rock bands at the time. A friend of ours' wife died while we were in Los Angeles recording. John had come up with some chords which he left with me one night when the rest of the band were going out partying. I wrote the lyrics and left them on a table. John says that he remembers coming in that night and "seeing them in a shaft of light". I don't know if that story has been exaggerated over time but that's how it was written.

The Dollars & Sex album was released in March of 1991. Its first single, "Call It Poison", peaked at #44 and failed to crack the Top 40. But the second single was a surprisingly different story. The very emotional and moving ballad "I'll Be There" struck a chord with the listening audience. So much so that it would push the single all the way up to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually to be certified gold. If you didn't know, it would be difficult to identify that this beautiful song is by the same band who performed "Wild Wild West". It has become an anthem to many who have experienced losses of their own. Here is the music video for "I'll Be There" by The Escape Club...

Q: Was this song's success a little unexpected or did you have a feeling it would resonate with the audience? What are your feelings regarding "I'll Be There" today over 20 years later? I imagine it has to be pretty cool having a song that has helped many people cope with loss.

Trevor: It has become a bit of a cult hit on YouTube these days. I think a lot of people know the song but don't realize it's us. It's really nice to have touched so many people. We've done an updated version for our new album and put it up on iTunes. I prefer the new version.

Q: You worked with Peter Wolf as producer of your Dollars & Sex album. What can you tell us about Wolf and your experience working with him? Did he contribute anything in particular to "I'll Be There"?

Trevor: Yes, he played the keyboard parts and was very patient in getting a vocal performance out of me. As I'm a producer myself these days, I appreciate what a hard job that is.

Q: What do you remember best about the decade of 80s music?

Trevor: The 80s was my time in the same way that every decade means something to different people. I loved being young, full of hope and belief but I guess that's just about being young. I think the 80s had great songs, way more than you get these days. On my wall I have a disc with the Billboard chart for the week we went to # 1. That same week there was The Beach Boys, U2, Phil Collins, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, George Michael and INXS and that was just an ordinary week in the music charts. All substantial artists with some very big songs; the charts are nowhere near as rich these days.

Q: Why did The Escape Club split up in 1992? Did you ever regret that or was it just time to move on? Did you feel that you might reunite again down the road?

Trevor: We split up for the usual music biz reasons; we'd made a lot of people a lot of money but none of it seemed to find its way to us. Looking back on it, I wish we'd stayed together for one more album but we were contractually tied. John and I reformed the band last year and we've just put an album out with a friend of ours, Red Broad, on drums. It's called Celebrity and I think it's some of our best work.

Q: Please tell us a little about where your music career has taken you since that time. What are some of your proudest professional accomplishments?

Trevor: After the band split, John and I went on to be producer/songwriters based in the UK. We had a few hits there in the 90s, including three #1 singles. I emigrated to Australia nine years ago and started my own record label. I discovered a young band called Short Stack who have had two gold selling albums over here and are about to release their third. My proudest accomplishments to date are to have stayed in the music industry for so long and to have written and produced a few hits. I think the whole reason I do what I do is to reach people so I think I've at least managed to do that in a small way.

Q: As you mentioned, you reunited with John Holliday in 2009 and just released a new album in 2012. Why was it the right time to reunite and release new material by The Escape Club? What are your feelings regarding Celebrity? Please tell us a little about the album and who will like it.

Trevor: The album is written for our generation although, as John and I have been working in music since the band split up, we've been able to stay with the times on a production level. I love it, but then, of course, I would. One of the songs, "God's Own Radio", is getting some plays on AAA radio and people are giving us some good reviews on iTunes and our Facebook page. Check it out for yourself at http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/celebrity/id 490832046?ls=1" title="http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/celebrity/id 490832046?ls=1" target="_blank"http://itunes.apple.com/us/al...

Q: What else is Trevor Steel up to nowadays? Musically and otherwise? What can we expect in the future?

Trevor: Well, we think we may tour the States later on this year and I'm going to carry on writing and producing for other acts. I've also started writing a novel which I hope to get out by next year.

I am very happy that Trevor was able to take some time to answer my questions so I could share them with you here. You can find out more and keep up with The Escape Club at their official website www.theescapeclub.net and at the band's official Facebook page www.facebook.com/theescapeclub/ . I want to take this opportunity to again thank Trevor Steel for his contributions to 80s pop culture with The Escape Club and, even more, for taking a stroll down memory lane with us here for a little while as well.

That'll do it for another special issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading and hope you are enjoying the interviews as much as I am. If you want a summary of all of my Back to the 80s Interviews posted thus far, please click on that link. Be sure you haven't missed any of them. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on the "Like" button. Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow @OldSchool80s on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: I enjoyed these videos created by www.squirrel-monkey.com featuring examples of how current computer technology might have looked back in the 80s. Here is one for Google and another for Angry Birds. Enjoy!

Quote of the day: "Give me love. Give me love. Give me time to live it up." - Trevor Steel from "Wild Wild West" by The Escape Club

I was recently reading an article in Entertainment Weekly (March 23, 2012 issue) on the biggest movie flops of all time inspired by the disappointing opening weekend for Disney's new sci-fi film John Carter. The film cost $250 million to make (not even including marketing and distribution costs) and barely cracked $30 million in its opening weekend. Though it will be years before this particular film's profitability can be fully calculated, the article went on to list the ten movies that have had the greatest net losses based on global box office adjusted for inflation. Surprisingly, the list did not include 1987's Ishtar which is usually thought of as one of the biggest box office failures. It did however have two other films released in the 80s.

The highest ranked, coming in at #5 on the list, is 1980's Heaven's Gate. No, this is not about the cult group which committed mass suicide in 1997. It is a Western directed by Michael Cimino who had directed the 1978 Oscar-winning film The Deer Hunter. The film cost $44 million to make back then and only grossed about $3.5 million resulting in a loss of over $40 million. The loss adjusted for inflation would equate to over $111 million today! The film starred Kris Kristofferson and the cast also included Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Mickey Rourke (in his second film role), Terry O'Quinn (in his first film role) and Willem Dafoe (also in his very first film role). Despite an Oscar-winning director and a relatively quality cast, the film opened to poor reviews and even poorer attendance. Here is the original trailer for Heaven's Gate...

Cimino was given complete freedom and pushed the film far over budget.  He shot over 220 hours of film (1.3 million feet!) and production fell way behind as he sometimes demanded up to 50 takes of individual scenes. Then during post-production, Cimino changed the lock to the editing room, prohibiting studio executives from seeing the film until he completed the editing. Finally, after months of delays, last-minute changes, and cost overruns, Cimino delivered a version which ran 325 minutes (over 5 hours!), but studio executives forced him to edit the film to 219 minutes (still nearly 4 hours long). Cimino's obsessive and overbearing behavior destroyed his burgeoning reputation as a director.

This whole Heaven's Gate disaster had even wider reaching consequences. It effectively caused the demise of the entire United Artists studio which produced the film. UA was owned by Transamerica Corporation which decided to sell the studio and get out of the film production business after this epic failure. UA was sold to MGM which would use the name "United Artists" as a subsidiary division later on. Heaven's Gate proved as a warning heeded by other studios to retain tighter control over budgets and not allow directors to hold too much power or freedom. In addition, Heaven's Gate's poor box office performance had an impact on Western films in total, which had enjoyed a revival since the late 1960s. From that point on, very few Western films were released by major studios, except for a brief revival thanks to the Oscar-winning hits Dances with Wolves (1990) and Unforgiven (1992). I'm telling you Heaven's Gate was a flop/bomb on the most gigantic scale. And in this case, though it happened in the 80s, I am not proud to claim it as part of my favorite decade.

That'll do it for this issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "LIKE". You can also follow @OldSchool80s on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about us as well! Peace and much love.

In March of 1987, Nike introduced their new "Air Max" shoe to the world with a television commercial utilizing the 1968 Beatles' song "Revolution". The advertising campaign was using the tagline "Revolution in Motion", but utilizing the Beatles song was revolutionary in itself since a Beatles song sung by the Beatles themselves had never been used in a TV commercial before this.

With the growing success of the "Air Jordan" shoe and their partnership with Michael Jordan, Nike was soaring as a brand passing $1 billion in sales in 1987. The "Air Max" introduction certainly kept them going on that trajectory. This new revolutionary shoe designed by Tinker Hatfield was the first to feature the patented air cushion in the heel which is visible on the side of the sole. The ad campaign was the brain child of advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy who was also responsible for the iconic "Just Do It" tagline, the "Bo Knows" campaign featuring Bo Jackson, the Air Jordan campaign featuring Spike Lee as "Mars Blackmon" and the "I am not a role model" campaign featuring Charles Barkley among many others. "Revolution" by the Beatles was the perfect choice for the campaign though it came with the little stumbling block of securing the licensing rights to use it.

Nike spent $500,000 to get the rights to "Revolution", but this deal was not made with the Beatles, but with Michael Jackson and EMI-Capitol Records who actually owned the rights to many of the Beatles songs. Though the Beatles had not wanted their music being used for advertising, it was not up to them. Nike had legally acquired the rights to use "Revolution" and it made quite an impression when the commercials began running in March of 1987.

"You say you want a revolution?" Here is one of the commercial spots for Nike Air Max featuring "Revolution" by The Beatles...

For me personally, I was a young teenager who (thanks to my parents) did already know and like music by The Beatles, but I was not as familiar with this particular song. I am sure the commercials helped introduce The Beatles to many who had not really heard them much before. "Revolution" certainly caught my attention and even surprisingly became popular for a whole new generation. In fact, the Beatles' White Album, which contained a version of the song "Revolution", was released on CD for the first time during the summer of 1987 and it actually charted again (peaking as high as #18) nearly 20 years after its original release. Yoko Ono, the wife of the late John Lennon who wrote the song, expressed approval when the commercial was released, saying it "is making John's music accessible to a new generation." The three other surviving members of The Beatles did not see it that way and they filed a lawsuit that summer objecting to the use of "Revolution" in the Nike commercials.

The Beatles charged that Nike "wrongfully traded on the goodwill and popularity of the Beatles" by using the song. Capitol-EMI countered by saying the lawsuit was groundless. In addition to this legal action, there also seemed to be a backlash against Nike by Beatles fans with many saying that John Lennon would have objected to the use of his song to sell shoes. While litigation dragged on, Nike continued to air the commercials until March of 1988 when, though the case was still in court, they decided to discontinue airing the ads using the song. Then, over a year later, in November of 1989, the lawsuits involving The Beatles and EMI were settled out of court with the agreement that the terms be kept secret.

The song by a band who was so revolutionary decades earlier helped sell shoes featuring a revolutionary design in commercials that would be considered revolutionary in their own right. Music can be a very powerful tool. In this case, it helped draw attention and created an emotional link to a brand and product resulting in consumer demand. This took commercial music licensing to a whole new level which continues to be abused to this day. The "Revolution" commercials helped to make The Beatles relevant again to many and for the first time to many more. At the same time, they helped Nike achieve the high profile status that it reached during the mid-to-late-80s. And yes, it is worthwhile to remember that this iconic commercial for an iconic brand featuring a song by an iconic band all happened during my favorite decade. Yep, it is a little bit of pop culture history that happened during the 80s.

That does it for another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks so much for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on the "Like" button. Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow @OldSchool80s on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: Speaking of Nike shoes, here were some shoes that I recently came across which caught my attention. These feature a scene from a favorite classic Atari game by Activision, Pitfall. I can almost hear that distinctive 8 bit sound when Harry swings across the pit on a vine. I am not sure if I would wear these shoes or not, but either way, they are still pretty awesome.

Quote of the day: "You say you got a real solution? Well, you know we'd all love to see the plan. You ask me for a contribution? Well, you know we're doing what we can. But when you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait. Don't you know it's gonna be alright." - lyrics from "Revolution" written by John Lennon

This time that awesomeness is Billy Steinberg. Again, you might not recognize his name, but you should certainly recognize some of his incredible work. Steinberg is half of the songwriting duo along with Tom Kelly who wrote an impressive five #1 singles for five different artists during the 80s. These include some of the biggest hits for Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Heart, Whitney Houston and The Bangles. Their songs have also been recorded by REO Speedwagon, Tina Turner, Belinda Carlisle, Pat Benatar, Cheap Trick, Phil Collins, Bette Midler, Rod Stewart and The Pretenders among others. You will find out which of those hits they helped author and how those songs came to be as we get on to some selections from my interview with Billy Steinberg...

Q: Did you always want to be a songwriter or did you originally want to be the rock star yourself? When and how did you start your career as a songwriting lyricist?

Billy: In the mid-1960s, I was the lead singer in two high school rock bands. We covered songs by the Animals, the Kinks, the Byrds and the Rolling Stones. I started writing songs when I was a freshman at Bard College in upstate New York. My grandmother had given me a Gibson acoustic guitar. I used it to put poems that I had been writing to music. My earliest songs were folk songs, influenced by Bob Dylan, Donovan and Paul Simon. It never occurred to me to write songs for other singers.  I wanted to record my own songs.

After college, I went to work in my father's table grape vineyard in the Coachella Valley in Southern California. On the side, I continued to write songs. In the late 1970s, I formed a rock band called Billy Thermal. Thermal was the name of the small town where our vineyard operations were based. Billy Thermal was a New Wave band. I was attracted to the sounds of bands like Blondie, The Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Billy Thermal began performing at clubs in Los Angeles, like Madame Wong's, Bla Bla Cafe, Cafe 88 and the Troubador. We were signed by Richard Perry to his label, Planet Records. That record was never released but three of the songs were cut by other artists. Linda Ronstadt had a Top 10 hit with "How Do I Make You." Pat Benatar cut "I'm Gonna Follow You" and "Precious Time." I wrote these songs by myself, words and music. Around this time, I started to realize that, perhaps, I was a better writer than I was a singer/performer. I also saw that songwriting could be lucrative.

Q: Please discuss any of your personal musical influences and who molded and inspired the amazing songwriter you have become.

Billy: Since I was a child, I have absolutely loved songs. In 1958, at the age of eight, I began collecting records. My earliest favorites included "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Bird Dog" by the Everly Brothers, "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters and "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson. I listened to my records over and over. The words and melodies were soothing and transporting. I was hooked. There are many artists who have delighted and inspired me. Some of my favorites include Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and the Beatles. I love the blues. I have listened extensively to Robert Johnson, Fred McDowell, Big Mama Thornton, Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. Songwriting teams like Leiber & Stoller, Bacharach & David, Goffin & King, and Barry & Greenwich have been influences.

Q: In the 80s, you formed quite the partnership with Tom Kelly. When and how did the two of you meet each other? Was it just a natural partnership? What can you tell us about Tom Kelly and what he brought to the songwriting process? Is it true that you usually came up with the lyrics first and then wrote the music to the lyrics?

Billy: In 1981, I met Tom Kelly at a party at the residence of producer Keith Olsen. We agreed to try writing together. Since I had written most of my songs alone, I didn't have preconceived notions about whether I was better as a lyricist or as a music and melody writer. Almost immediately, I could see that Tom was the superior musician. He also excelled at writing melodies. Tom was influenced by great melody writers like Brian Wilson, Lennon & McCartney, Smokey Robinson, and Holland, Dozier & Holland. In my songs, I had always written the lyrics ahead of the music. Luckily, Tom was able to adapt to this technique. I would always arrive at our songwriting sessions with prepared lyric ideas.

Q: The two of you had a huge hit with 1984's "Like a Virgin" recorded by Madonna. Please take us back to when the song was written. What is the back story about how that song was conceived and written? What inspired it? How long did it take to write? Did you write it specifically for Madonna to sing? How similar was Madonna's version to your original demo recording? Any interesting facts or memories you can let us in on from creating this iconic hit?

Billy: Tom had a high, powerful singing voice. He was a sought after session singer. Most of our early songs were written in the rock style, like "Alone", which later became a hit for Heart. In 1983, I wrote a lyric that was based on some trials in my personal life. The title was provocative: "Like A Virgin". The first verse reads:

I made it through the wilderness
Somehow I made it through
I didn't know how lost I was
Until I found you
I was beat, incomplete
I'd been had, I was sad and blue
But you made me feel
Yeah, you made me feel shiny and new

Knowing what I had been through and reading these words, Tom's instinct was to approach it as a ballad. But because of the title, the sincere ballad approach didn't work. We tried on several occasions to write a song to my "Like A Virgin" lyric. One day, out of frustration, Tom started playing a Motown-inspired bass line while singing the lyrics in falsetto. Immediately, I got excited and said, "That's it!" After finding the direction, we finished writing the song quickly.

We made a very simple, but effective demo of "Like A Virgin" with Tom singing falsetto. I added some background vocals. We wrote the song before anyone had ever heard of Madonna. We tried pitching the song to several A&R guys but no one responded favorably. The general comment was that the song was catchy, but that the title was bizarre and would not fit any artist.

Then, Tom and I had a meeting with Warner Brothers A&R man, Michael Ostin. He loved our demo of "Like A Virgin" and thought it would suit Madonna perfectly. Several days later, he told us that she loved the song and would be recording it. Her management asked for a piece of the publishing, but we refused, feeling confident that she wouldn't drop the song under any circumstances. We were right. Madonna recorded "Like A Virgin" in New York with producer Nile Rodgers. They followed our demo exactly and Madonna imitated every nuance of Tom's vocal and even incorporated some of my background vocal ideas on her record. When Madonna recorded it, even as our demo faded out, on the fade you could hear Tom saying, "When your heart beats, and you hold me, and you love me..." Her record ends with the exact same little ad-libs that our demo did, so Madonna must have listened to it very, very carefully and liked what we'd done. It rarely happens that someone studies your demo so carefully that they even use all those little details. I guess we were sort of flattered in some ways how carefully she followed our demo. "Like A Virgin" was our first #1 song. Tom and I would go on to have five #1 hits in 5 years.

"Like A Virgin" was released in November of 1984 as the first single from her sophomore album of the same name. It was a huge success becoming Madonna's first #1 (of twelve) on the Billboard Hot 100 when it reached the top spot right before Christmas and stayed there for six weeks. It is considered one of the best pop songs of the decade and, along with "Material Girl", helped make Madonna a superstar and drive the album to become one of the best-selling of all time eventually selling over 21 million copies worldwide. Her live performance in a wedding dress on the MTV Video Music Awards show helped secure her status as a pop culture icon. Here is the music video for "Like A Virgin" by Madonna...

Madonna - Like A Virgin by Warner-Music

Q: Did you have any feeling that this song was going to be something special when you wrote it? What were your feelings when you heard the final recording of your song by Madonna back then? That song certainly launched Madonna's career into the stratosphere, what did it do for yours?

Billy: I knew when we wrote "Like A Virgin" that it was a special song. Musically, it was infectious, influenced by the Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself". But lyrically, it was from a different planet. The missing ingredient was to find the right artist to sing it. Madonna was perfect. With a name like Madonna, "Like A Virgin", hello?! The song launched her career and ours as hit songwriters.

Q: In 1986, Cyndi Lauper had a huge hit with "True Colors". What is the back story about how that song originated? What inspired it? Was it long or difficult to write? Did you write it specifically for Lauper to sing? How similar was her version to your original demo recording? Any other details you can let us in on from creating this beautiful song?

Billy: The lyrics for "True Colors" were originally written about my Mom and the original first verse lyric was completely different from the one that is in the Cyndi Lauper hit.

Original first verse:
You've got a long list
With so many choices
A ventriloquist
With so many voices
And your friends in high places
Say where the pieces fit
You've got too many faces
In your makeup kit

It was much more personal than the lyric that ended up in the Cyndi Lauper song.
Final first verse:
You with the sad eyes
Don't be discouraged
Oh, I realize
It's hard to find courage
In a world full of people
You can lose sight of it all
And the darkness inside of you
Makes you feel so small

Tom and I got together and we wrote "True Colors" using my original verse and the chorus lyric that is still the chorus. But Tom said me that he felt the chorus was very universal and that the verse was not; that the verse was specifically about a certain person. So he suggested that I re-write the verse to make it universally appealing like the chorus, which I did. So it took a long time to write "True Colors" because of this situation with the lyric re-write. It was written at a time when I wasn't particularly adept at doing re-writes, so it took a lot of coaxing by Tom and a lot of unpleasant sort of work by me to re-write the verses. I shouldn't say unpleasant, it was just hard for me to do because I wasn't used to having to re-write a song.

Tom and I, once the song was finished being written, made a demo of it. We used "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Let It Be" as sort of models for the demo we made. We went with the big, mainstream gospel-influenced ballad approach. We sent it around to different artists and we were lucky because Cyndi Lauper was the one who recorded it. And I say we were lucky because if other more middle-of-the-road artists would have done the song, they might've followed our demo which wasn't necessarily a great road map. I think it was an effective demo, but I think Cyndi's record was a lot more special. So I have to give her a lot of credit because, whereas Madonna copied our demo on "Like A Virgin", Cyndi did not copy our demo for "True Colors". She really invented her own very exquisitely beautiful version.

The song is certainly built around that inspiring chorus:
But I see your true colors shining through
I see your true colors, that's why I love you
Don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
Your true colors are as beautiful as a rainbow

"True Colors" was released in July of 1986 as the first single from Cyndi Lauper's second album of the same name. It would go on to be her second (and final) #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 when it held the top spot for two weeks starting on October 25, 1986. It became the theme song for Kodak's film processing commercial campaign which gave it additional exposure. Phil Collins later recorded a nice cover version of his own in 1998. Here is the music video for "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper...

Q: What were your feelings when you heard the final recording of your song by Lauper back then?

Billy: When I first heard Cyndi's version I was taken aback because it was so different from our demo and usually a demo is more sparse than a record ends up being. But in this case it was the opposite. Our demo was rather lavish with background vocals, strings and a big piano sound. Cyndi's record was a lot more stripped down. So it really made a big impression on me and I liked it right away. It was a great creative effort by Cyndi.

Q: In 1987, Heart recorded a version of your i-Ten song "Alone". How did it come to be that Heart covered this song? How was it changed, if at all, from your original i-Ten version? Please take us back to when you wrote the song. What is the back story about how it was conceived and written? Any interesting facts or memories you can let us in on from creating this hit?

Billy: As you know, Tom and I recorded that song on a record we did for Epic called i-Ten, and that record didn't have any success. Tom and I continued to write and we had big hits with "Like A Virgin" and "True Colors". We heard that they were looking for a "power ballad" for Heart. Tom said to me, "What about 'Alone'?" Immediately, I didn't have a good feeling about it because I didn't like the version we did on the i-Ten record. It sounded to me very generic and there was something I just didn't quite like about it. Tom kept pushing me to think about it and he asked me why I didn't like it. I came to the conclusion that, in particular, I didn't like the first line of the chorus. On the i-Ten version, it said, "I always fared well on my own" and it just seemed awkward to me. So Tom suggested we just re-write the first line and we did. We re-wrote the first line and lyrically it doesn't change that much. Now it just says, "Til now, I always got by on my own". So it basically means the same thing, but Tom injected a little bit of an R&B phrasing on that line and it just changed the whole song for me in a very positive way. So then, we made a new demo of "Alone" inserting the re-written chorus and the new demo was great. We submitted it to Ron Nevison who was producing Heart. He really liked it. He produced it for Heart staying very true to our demo. In fact, they invited Tom and me to the studio and Tom sang background vocals on the Heart record.

One interesting thing about the song, even though it was released several years after "Like A Virgin", it was actually written before "Like A Virgin". I would say it was one of the first ten or fifteen songs that Tom and I ever wrote together. I think the fact that a couple of years passed before we re-wrote the chorus kind of helped us to improve it. By the time we re-wrote it, we were injecting more R&B flavor into our compositions. Like I said earlier, I think that livened up the chorus on "Alone" and helped finish it making it a great song.

Heart's version of "Alone" was released as the first single from their ninth studio album, Bad Animals, in May of 1987 even though it had been written over five years earlier by Steinberg and Kelly. It grew to be Heart's biggest hit becoming their second (and last) #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending three weeks in the top spot that July. It also ranked #2 on the Billboard Year-End Top Pop Singles of 1987. Ann Wilson's vocal is perfectly spectacular on this heartbreaking power ballad. Here is the music video for "Alone" by Heart...

Q: Also in 1987, "So Emotional" was a big hit for Whitney Houston. Please take us back to when you wrote the song. Again, any interesting facts or memories you can let us in on from creating this one? What inspired it? Did you write it specifically for Houston to perform?

Billy: "So Emotional" is one of the few songs that Tom and I ever successfully custom wrote for a project. Clive Davis was in touch with us and asked if we could try to come up with an up-tempo hit for Whitney. At the time, Tom and I were really big fans of Prince. He was coming out with hit after hit at that time and we really liked what he was doing. When we wrote "So Emotional" we were sort of feeding off some of the Prince energy. If you were to hear our demo of the song, you'd hear that it doesn't really resemble the Michael Narada Walden produced track that Whitney Houston recorded. Our demo was much more sparse like "Kiss" or "Little Red Corvette" and Tom sang the demo falsetto. The chorus is a great pop chorus and Whitney sang the hell out of it.

"So Emotional" was the third single from Whitney Houston's second album Whitney, and was released on November 12, 1987. It became her sixth of seven consecutive #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 when it reached the top spot in January of 1988. It had already reached the top of the Billboard Dance Chart two weeks earlier and would end up ranked sixth on the Billboard year-end chart for 1988. The single, along with the other three number one hits on it, helped the album achieve sales of over 20 million copies worldwide. Here is the video for "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston...

Q: Any comments on Whitney Houston as an artist in light of her recent tragic passing?

Billy: I think Whitney Houston has been taken for granted in a way as an artist. I think now that she has tragically passed away at too young of an age, people are starting to really appreciate what a great singer she was even more. I think on the list of great female R&B singers, you have to put her right up there with Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight. It is a short list of the best of the best and she is definitely up there.

Q: To finish up the decade on a high note, "Eternal Flame" was recorded by The Bangles and became your fifth #1 single. How did you come to work with The Bangles on this song? What inspired the lyrics?

Billy: Tom and I really wanted to work with The Bangles and I think it is because we loved the 60s. We both sang in rock bands during the 60s and The Bangles were emulating the jangly 60s bands like The Byrds and The Beatles that we liked. We knew that if we got together with The Bangles we could channel some of that 60s stuff that we were both so familiar with. We were introduced to Susanna Hoffs and we got together to write. The first song we wrote with her was never recorded by The Bangles, it was actually recorded on a solo album by Belinda Carlisle. The next time we got together with Susanna to write, we wrote three songs and one of them was "Eternal Flame". Tom and I, both big Beatles fans, had written a song with Cyndi Lauper called "Unconditional Love". And "Unconditional Love" kind of channeled the two beautiful ballads on the Revolver album by The Beatles, "For No One" and "Here, There and Everywhere". We played it for Susanna and she just loved it. She really wanted to try to write something like "Unconditional Love". So Tom and I had that in our heads, that Susanna wanted a melodic, 60s-sounding ballad. We sat down with Susanna and just chatting before our songwriting session. Susanna told us that she had just been in Memphis, Tennessee visiting Graceland with The Bangles and that, at Graceland, there was an eternal flame burning for Elvis. Then I said, "Eternal Flame, that's a great title." I immediately had the image in my head of an eternal flame that was in the synagogue where I grew up as a child in Palm Springs. There was a little red light in the synagogue that they called the eternal flame because it would never burn out and it piqued by imagination as a child. So somehow when Susanna used the words "eternal flame", it was a rich title for me. I immediately took out a note pad and a pen and started to write the lyrics for "Eternal Flame". Then I stuck them in front of Tom, he started to sing the melody on an acoustic guitar and the song was written very quickly.

"Eternal Flame" was released in January of 1989 from The Bangles' third studio album, Everything. The album also included "In Your Room", another hit single written by Steinberg, Kelly and Hoffs. "Eternal Flame" would go to be the band's best-selling single and reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 on April 1, 1989. This made The Bangles only the third all-girl group to score multiple #1 singles in the U.S. This would also impressively give Steinberg and Kelly their fifth #1 single in five years! Here is the music video for "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles...

Q: How similar was The Bangles' version to the original demo recording? What are your feelings regarding the final recording by The Bangles?

Billy: "Eternal Flame" was produced by Davitt Sigerson. Davitt didn't make that many pop records. He went on to become a record executive and then to leave the music industry altogether. He did a marvelous job producing "Eternal Flame". We intentionally did a very spare demo because The Bangles didn't have a keyboard player in the band and we didn't want to present a demo that featured keyboards because we maybe they wouldn't do. So we did a very rough demo that used a strumming guitar in it. But the one thing we did was rather elaborate background vocals as a road map for The Bangles. Tom was so qualified to do these background vocals because he had been such a huge Beach Boys and Beatles fan and Tom had made a living as a background vocalist. He knew how to do them perfectly. Our demo instrumentally was very simple, but vocally we mapped it out quite well. We loved Susanna's lead vocal and all The Bangles' harmonies. We were thrilled, as I said, by the production as it turned out.

Q: It wasn't in the 90s, but how did you come to work with Chrissie Hynde and end up creating the beautifully haunting Pretenders hit "I'll Stand By You"?

Billy: At one point in the early 90s, a gentleman by the name of Jason Dauman approached me and asked me if he were to arrange a collaboration for Tom and me whether we would give him a percentage of the publishing. I was kind of in a rush when he proposed it, so I said yeah okay. He asked who we would like to work with. So I mentioned three people I thought he would never be able to arrange collaborations with: Prince, Bob Dylan or Chrissie Hynde. And I figured I would never hear from him again. But I got a call from him a couple weeks later and he said, "Billy, this is Jason Dauman and I wanted to tell you that you will be hearing from Chrissie Hynde." I thought it was just a preposterous call and that it would never happen. Then I got a phone call and there was a woman on the other end of the line speaking rather tersely and in a relatively low female voice, "Billy, this is Chrissie, Chrissie Hynde." I was kind of flabbergasted because I was a huge Pretenders fan. I thought that The Pretenders' first album was just stunning. Songs like "The Wait", "Tattooed Love Boys", "Brass In Pocket", "Kid" and "Stop Your Sobbing" I just thought were magnificent. I loved her voice, the way it harkened back to great singers like Dusty Springfield and Sandie Shaw. I loved Chrissie. I was so thrilled to get a phone call from her.

So Chrissie told me she would be coming to Los Angeles and she was looking forward to writing something with Tom and me. She made it clear that she wanted a hit song. I don't think she had been on the radio for a couple of years and she wanted to get The Pretenders back on the radio with a hit. I was so excited about it as was Tom. As far as I was concerned, some of her records like "Back On the Chain Gang" and "Don't Get Me Wrong" were great masterpieces. I think Tom and I felt very challenged to come up with something as good as her great hits.

So we got together with Chrissie and the first song we worked on was called "Love Colors Everything". I believe she might have ended up titling it "Love Colours". I think the second one was "Night in My Veins" which became somewhat of a hit for The Pretenders, but then we did "I'll Stand By You". It started out as a lyric idea I had in a notebook. I showed it to Chrissie, she liked it and she got out her big Sharpie pen crossing out words she didn't like and re-writing those. Then we sat with Tom and spent a long time coming up with the music for "I'll Stand By You". Tom took the lead on the piano, but it took us quite a long time to find that song. It was Tom's brilliant idea to modulate the song at the end of the first chorus. There was some old song he knew that did it just the same way we did which influenced us, but I can't remember what that song was. That modulation is a brilliant device in that song. I was worried that it was a bit generic for Chrissie. I knew it was a great song, but I was worried that it didn't have that tough edge you find in most Pretenders songs. I don't know if Chrissie immediately embraced "I'll Stand By You". I think she had the same feeling that it was a good song, but whether it was a Pretenders song, that was the big question. It turned out to be a great Pretenders song.

"I'll Stand By You" was released in July of 1994 from The Pretenders' sixth studio album, Last of the Independents. The single only peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, surprisingly, the Pretenders have not had another hit song in the U.S. since then. It is a powerful and emotional song that I have always really liked personally. Carrie Underwood recorded a beautiful version of the song for Idol Gives Back in 2007 with proceeds going to charity. Here is the video for "I'll Stand By You" by The Pretenders...

Q: What can you tell us about Hynde and your experiences working with her?

Billy: Chrissie is my very favorite person I've ever worked with. She is the most confident as a writer and she's actually the most secure as an artist which is kind of nice when you're a songwriter because a lot of artists don't want to share the spotlight at all with songwriters. For example, you'd never hear Madonna introducing "Like A Virgin" by saying, "Here is a great song written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly." But Chrissie has always been very gracious about sharing the spotlight. A year ago when Tom and I were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Chrissie came from London, introduced us at the induction ceremony and she sang "I'll Stand By You". It was just one more demonstration of what a gracious human being she is.

It was always fun to be with Chrissie because Tom, Chrissie and I are all about the same age. We loved The Kinks, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and we'd have great fun just thinking of old songs and jamming on them.

Q: "Like a Virgin" has to be your most famous song. Of all the songs you've written, is there one that is your personal favorite? If so, which ones and why?

Billy: If I had to pick one song that I have ever written that is my favorite, I would probably have to pick "True Colors". It may have the largest footprint of all the songs. Certainly, "Like A Virgin" is iconic and famous, but "True Colors" is more of a standard. Coincidentally, of all the songs I've written, it made the most money, but I hope that's not the reason it's my favorite.

A couple other personal favorites. I like our song "I Touch Myself" that the Divinyls did [1991]. It's a great lyric. I like the way it starts, "I love myself, I want you to love me". I think that's a really good start for a song. "Falling Into You" is a song that I wrote with Rick Nowels and Marie-Claire D'Ubaldo. I think it's a beautiful ballad that's a little overlooked. It was recorded by Celine Dion [1996] and I think it's a very special song.

Tom and I both loved the work of Roy Orbison and our song "I Drove All Night" was written almost as a tribute to Roy. [Orbison himself recorded it in 1987 and then it was later recorded and released by Cyndi Lauper in 1989.] That's another of my personal favorites of songs that we've written.

Q: What do you remember best about the decade of 80s music? What lasting impact do you feel music from the 80s has made (if any)?

Billy: What can I say about the 1980s as a decade of music? It was a great decade for me. I had my first hit in 1980 with "How Do I Make You?" by Linda Ronstadt. Then in 1981, I met Tom Kelly. In 1983, we wrote "Like A Virgin". In 1984, 85, 86, 87, 88, we had five number one songs in a five year period. On top of that, we had other hits like "I Drove All Night" and "In Your Room". The 80s, that was when my career took off. I think there was some great music made in the 80s. Some of the seeds for music of the 80s really came about in the late 70s when punk rock and new wave combined and revitalized rock n roll. Groups like Blondie, The Cars, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Pretenders, a lot of great energy that harkened back to the 50s and 60s rock. It revitalized music. Not to mention, in the 80s you had some great artists like Prince, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna all becoming prominent. So I think it was a pretty good decade and it was certainly the decade that put me on the map. Now, when I get together with young artists, they often say, "I love the 80s" so it seems that what the 60s were to me is what the 80s mean to them. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that seems to be the way it is.

Q: Please tell us a little about where your music career has taken you since the 80s.

Billy: When Tom and I started to slow down as a songwriting team, I started to write with Rick Nowels. Rick and I wrote some pretty good songs together. I think the best stuff that we wrote had a third writer, Marie-Claire D'Ubaldo who is actually from Argentina. We wrote a few great songs as a team including "Falling Into You" for Celine Dion, "One & One", which is a beautiful song that I don't think was particularly well recorded, and then "The Consequences of Falling" a nice song done by K.d. lang. In the last decade, I've been working with a guy named Josh Alexander. Josh is from Marin County. He and I wrote the song "Too Little Too Late" for Jojo and "Don't Hold Your Breath" for Nicole Scherzinger and some very good projects in the works.

Q: What are some of your proudest professional accomplishments?

Billy: Proudest professional accomplishments... I have always loved songs so much. Some of my favorite records of all time "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan or the more obscure "Pretty Ballerina" by The Left Banke or "I've Been Loving You Too Long" by Otis Redding, "Cathy's Clown" by The Everly Brothers, "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, the list goes on and on. There are so many songs that have moved me in my life. Just to have been able to write songs that have affected people's lives and that remind people of things in their life when they hear them. That's very satisfying for me to have contributed to popular song and to know that people love the songs that I have written. That means a lot to me. When I'm in my car listening to an oldie's channel or satellite radio and a song comes on that I loved as a child, something like "Come Softly to Me" by The Fleetwoods or a great Beatles song that I haven't heard in a while or "Under My Thumb" by The Rolling Stones, those songs are just so meaningful to me, so evocative of the time, they move me so much. That's what I love about songwriting, that in a two to three minute period of time, a song can begin and end and have such impact. It's the combination of the words, the melody and the groove that join together and make something indescribable.

Q: What else is Billy Steinberg up to nowadays?

Billy: Josh Alexander and I are working with a young artist that we have "discovered". Her name is Erika, we are writing some songs with her and we are going to try to get her a recording contract. So that's what I am up to at the moment. I will be very happy if we succeed.

I am absolutely honored that Billy was so generous to answer my questions allowing me to share them with you here. You can find out more and keep up with him at his website, www.billysteinberg.com/. To have one hit song is pretty special, but to have written five #1 hit songs for five different artists is nothing short of spectacular. The fact that all five of those songs were from my favorite decade makes it that much more remarkable. I want to take this opportunity to again thank Billy Steinberg for these incredible contributions to 80s pop culture and, even more, for taking a stroll down memory lane with us here for a little while as well.

That'll do it for another special issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading and hope you are enjoying the interviews as much as I am. If you want a summary of all of my Back to the 80s Interviews posted thus far, please click on that link. Be sure you haven't missed any of them. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on the "Like" button. Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow @OldSchool80s on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". I am sending daily 80s tweets, so sign up to get those. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Quote of the day: "I see your true colors shining through. I see your true colors, that's why I love you. Don't be afraid to let them show, your true colors. Your true colors are as beautiful as a rainbow." - Billy Steinberg from "True Colors"