Being Halloween week, I have already covered an 80s movie and 80s television special so I only thought it fitting to cover an 80s song as well. The song I chose is "A Nightmare on My Street" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.
This is the first single I recall from the 1988 triple-platinum album He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper (even before "Parents Just Don't Understand"). The song's release coincided with the fourth Nightmare on Elm Street film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but producers at New Line Cinema were not pleased. A video allegedly shot for the single was buried, and a disclaimer was hastily included on each pressing indicating that the record and the single was not officially affiliated with the "Nightmare" property.
Since there is no official video for the song (I could not make this a Flashback Video issue), I am going to share with you a homemade video for this comical song which is done using scenes from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. You can watch this video to hear the song and as a bonus you get to see some Peanuts clips too...
As you should know, the Fresh Prince is better known today by his real name, Will Smith. He does not get enough credit as a rapper, but he was a witty lyricist and had good flow back in the day. In fact, I did a past issue refuting another bloggers ignorant claim that Will Smith was one of the 25 worst rappers of all time. "A Nightmare on My Street" is not one of my favorites, but it is from the 80s and I just felt it was fitting with Halloween coming.
That'll do it for another short 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 "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Trying to send daily 80s tweets out via Twitter, so be sure to follow me there. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
Check this out: I was (am) a big fan of the television series Scrubs which is now only available to watch in syndication after a 9 season run. One of the characters on the show, "Ted" played by Sam Lloyd, is a member of an a cappella group and they actually appear in several episodes. Surprisingly, this is a real group and they are called The Blanks and they even have an album out. In the random performances on Scrubs, the group sings commercial jingles, TV theme songs and other songs. In one episode, they perform the 80s classic by Michael Sembello "Maniac" which I especially enjoyed. Here you can watch and listen for yourself...
Quote of the day: "Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold." -Judith Olney
Halloween is almost here, so that got me thinking about the Halloween Specials I used to watch when I was a kid. I, like most people, will first remember It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown which originally debuted in 1966, but has aired every year since then. There was another lesser known special that premiered in the 80s which I also remember and that is the special I will cover in this issue.
Garfield's Halloween Adventurepremiered on October 30, 1985. This animated special follows everybody's favorite lasagna-loving (and evidently candy-loving) orange cat as he decides to go trick-or-treating. This special which would win the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 1986 features Lorenzo Music as the distinctive voice of Garfield as well as songs provided by Lou Rawls. The songs are what really seem to make this special memorable to me. Here is a video which includes the those musical numbers from Garfield's Halloween Adventure...
It seems that CBS has not aired this special since 2000, but it is available on DVD and you can watch the entire show through YouTube as well (above). I showed it to my daughter who had no previous exposure to the Garfield character and she really enjoyed the Halloween special. I did go purchase the DVD and added it to our two other animated Halloween traditions, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Winnie the Pooh: Boo To You Too. It will be nice to have something from the 80s to add to the collection.
That's all I have for this short 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 "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Trying to send daily 80s tweets out via Twitter, so be sure to follow me there. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
Check this out: I had this forwarded to me and thought it was humorous enough to share here. Some are better than others, so hopefully a few make you chuckle. These glorious insults are from an era before all the insults of the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words...
The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor: She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison." He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."
"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas
"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain
"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde
"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second.... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.
"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright
"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb
"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating
"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand
"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker
"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain
"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx
Quote of the day: Just gave you a whole bunch of them in the Check This Out section, but here is one more for good measure... "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin." -Linus from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
If you like that one, here is one more from Linus... "Never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker."
This is the eighteenth official issue of my 80s Movie Trailer of the Week feature I call "Preview Review." I have decided that these issues (like the Flashback Videos) will not include the usual "Check this out" or "Quote of the day" sections at the end like normal issues of Kickin' it Old School usually do.
With Halloween on its way, I thought featuring a horror movie from the 80s would be appropriate. There were lots to choose from, but the one I remember best and most fondly has to be Wes Craven's 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street. This film launched what would turn out to be an entire series and introduced one of the greatest movie villains of all time, Freddy Krueger. "One, two, Freddy's coming for you..."
The premise surrounded Freddy being able to get you in your dreams, but when he killed you in your dream then you also died in real life. The lines between reality and the dream world continue to blur as the story plays out. What results is one of the classic slasher films of all time. Here is the original trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street...
Craven was able to make this film for just $1.8 million and it would go on to gross over $25 million at the U.S. box office alone making it a huge popular and financial success. "Freddy Krueger" was brilliantly played by Robert Englund and is one of the most recognized and scary characters in the horror film genre. Krueger is a child murderer who killed at least twenty children over a decade before the film takes place. Furious, vengeful parents burned him alive in his boiler room hideout when he was released from prison on a technicality. In the film, it appears Freddy is manipulating the dreams of their children to exact his revenge from beyond the grave.
The film also featured Amanda Wyss as "Tina" who is the first Freddy victim. She would go on to play John Cusack's former girlfriend, "Beth," in one of my 80s favorites, Better Off Dead (1985). It would also have the distinction of being Johnny Depp's feature film debut in a small role as "Nancy's boyfriend Glen." Another interesting fact is that over 500 gallons of fake blood were used for the special effects during production, though the movie scares you more in a psychological way than simply with blood and gore.
I still remember watching this film on VHS for the first time home alone all by myself at night. Afterwards, I decided to go outside to shoot some hoops in the back alley all by myself (probably not the smartest things to do). The movie really freaked me out a little and I will never forget being startled by every little sound I heard in the night. Nothing obviously happened, but my mind was playing some tricks on me that night. So when Halloween time comes each year, I always remember my first time watching A Nightmare on Elm Street back in the mid-80s and pray that Freddy doesn't come for me.
That'll wrap up this issue of Kickin' it Old School. Hope you enjoy the "Preview Review" issues and please let me know if there are any particular 80s movies that you want to see me cover. 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 "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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.
OK, I have been promising in my last two issues (Daryl Hall Flashback Video and J-Stache) that I would publish my Hall & OatesTop 10 songs list, so I thought I would get it over with and do it now.
Daryl Hall and John Oatesare the most successful and arguably the best pop music duo in music history. They have seven platinum albums and six gold albums along with 34 singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those singles reached #1, but they have not had one reach the Top 40 since 1990. As I mentioned in my last two issues, they just released their most comprehensive greatest hits collection titled Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates.
I have been a big fan of Hall & Oates from the first time I remember hearing one of their songs. I decided to include all of their songs in my list, though most will naturally come from the 80s. There are video links for the top 10 songs. So without further ado, here is OLD SCHOOL'S TOP 10 SONGS BY DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES (+Bonus 5):
Honorable Mention. "Every Time You Go Away" - This is one of my favorite songs from the 80s and it was originally written by Daryl Hall and included on their 1980 album Voices. It was never released as a single, but was covered by Paul Young in 1985 and Young's version hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. I love Young's version of the song. It was included at the end of the film Planes, Trains & Automobiles, but in that case was performed by a group called Blue Room. Hall & Oates would do a great live version on their 1985 concert album Live at the Apollo as well as the 2002 album VH1 Behind the Music: The Daryl Hall and John Oates Collection. Since I associate it most with Paul Young, I decided only to include as honorable mention on this list.
15. "Maneater" (1982) - #1 in December 1982. According to John Oates the inspiration for this song was English model and actress Kelly LeBrock (Weird Science).
14. "Kiss On My List" (1981) - #1 in April 1981.
13. "Private Eyes" (1981) - #1 in November 1981. Yeah, you know you want to do the hand claps along with this song.
12. "Method of Modern Love" (1985)
11. "Ooh Child" (2005) - Cover of the great 1970 song by The Five Stairsteps
6. "Say It Isn't So" (1983) - Remained at #2 for four straight weeks in December 1983 into January of 1984 behind the Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney duet "Say, Say, Say". [link to video]
4. "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" (1981) - #1 in January 1982 [link to video]
3. "She's Gone" (1974 then reissued in 1976) - Was not successful when originally released, but after "Sara Smile" became a hit it was reissued and went to #7 on the chart. [link to video of live performance]
1. "One on One" (1983) - Was used in NBA commercials back in the mid-80s. [link to video]
There's my list. As you will notice, some of their most popular hits are towards the bottom of my list. I felt those songs like "Maneater" and "Private Eyes" deserved to be on the list even though I don't particularly like them as much as the general public did back then. I like almost anything that these guys put out, but those are my favorites.
According to BMI, there are 14 songs by Hall & Oates which have been played on the radio over 1 million times. Every time I am flipping around the radio stations, you know I am absolutely going to stop when I hear a Hall & Oates song playing. They are responsible for some of my favorite songs from the 80s and from all time. That makes three issues in a row related to them and I promise that will be all for a while.
That's all 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. If you are interested in reading more of my Top 10 lists, please click there for a summary. 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". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Trying to send daily 80s tweets out via Twitter, so be sure to follow me there. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
Check this out: I came across this site called Thereifixedit.com which includes some hilarious photos of interesting and unusual attempts at fixing items. As the site puts it, "We celebrate these iconic images of mankind's eternal struggle to hammer square pegs into round holes (with duct tape.)" I encourage you to visit the site yourself, but I thought I would include two related pictures that made me chuckle. So many uses for a shopping cart that I never realized before...
Quote of the day: "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist." -Oscar Wilde
My last post was a Flashback Video issue celebrating the birthday of Daryl Hall. You cannot think of Daryl Hall without also thinking about his musical partner John Oates. With more than 60 million album sales under their belt, Daryl Hall and John Oates have long since surpassed the Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel as the biggest-selling - and longest lived - pop duo of all time. This week (October 13, 2009) a Hall & Oates 4-CD greatest hits box set called Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates was released.
I will publish my Top 10 list of Hall & Oates songs at some point, but not this issue. I have been meaning to share with you a video that I found to be hilarious and thinking about Hall & Oates reminded me about it. It is a video called J-Stache which parodies the fact that Oates shaved his trademark mustache. You can watch it right here...
The 70s and 80s were good to the mustachioed John Oates, but the rock n roll lifestyle began to take a toll and he knew that change was necessary. After that fateful night in 1990 when John Oates and J-Stache split ways, J-Stache wouldn't go quietly. He refused to slow down his hard-partying lifestyle and was determined to remain a part of Oates' life. Now, they're back together fighting crime and running Oates' Colorado celebrity health spa, Phunk Shui, on the side.
John Oates stars as himself (glad to see he has a good sense of humor about it), with comedian Dave Attell as the voice of J-Stache, his boozing, womanizing, and slightly drug-addled moustache. Whether battling mustachioed evildoers like Geraldo Rivera or diving down another bottle of tequila, J-Stache is a man... err... moustache... of action. J-Stache has a blog at JStache.com which can be pretty amusing as well.
Hope you found this concept and video as funny as I did. Like I said, I will definitely publish my Top 10 list of Hall & Oates songs at some point, so keep an eye out for that issue. For now, let's just reminisce about the mustache behind such classics as "Maneater," "Out of Touch" and "You Make My Dreams" among so many others.
That will wrap up this short 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 "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Trying to send daily 80s tweets out via Twitter, so be sure to follow me there. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
Check this out: I have shared several of the creative and often entertaining "literal" videos for 80s songs in this section before. If you want to find them, just type "literal video" into the search box in the upper right hand column and it should lead you to the multiple issues which featured them down in this section. Anyways, here is another I have been meaning to share with you that I think is very outstanding. It is for Biz Markie's 1989 hit "Just a Friend." Enjoy...
Quote of the day: "Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss." -"Benjamin Button" as played by Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This is the twenty-fourth issue of my 80s Video of the Week which I call "Flashback Videos." As a reminder, these issues will not include the usual "Check this out" or "Quote of the day" sections at the end like normal issues of Kickin' it Old School usually do.
Today (October 11, 2009) is the 60th birthday of singer Daryl Hall. He is best known as half of the hit-making duo Hall & Oates. Hall is one of my very favorite voices of all time and he has written or co-written 11 Billboard #1 songs. Most of those hits were in the late 70s and early 80s. I could do (and probably will some time do) an entire issue on Hall & Oates, but many people do not remember that Daryl Hall also has done some solo work.
He released a solo album in 1986 called Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine which included his most successful single as a solo artist. "Dreamtime" reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was definitely more pop than most of Hall's blue-eyed soul songs, but I still recall it fondly anyways. So much so that this week's Flashback Video is "Dreamtime" by Daryl Hall...
As I said, I will likely do more issues on Hall & Oates as a duo. In fact, this week (October 13, 2009) a Hall & Oates 4-CD box set called Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates will be released to the public. You should also check out Live from Daryl's House, a monthly Internet webcast featuring him playing along with some of his friends and colleagues in an intimate setting. You don't have to watch it live because old episodes are available on the website which you can get to by clicking on the link. Though his best work was from the 70s and 80s, Daryl Hall is still a great musician today at 60 years old.
That will wrap up another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. If you want to see the past issues of Flashback Videos, just type that into the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column and it should give you a list of all of them. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use that Google Search Box to find any past issues or topics 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 "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
Today (October 6, 2009) is the 46th birthday of someone who was special to me in the 80s. This would be actress Elisabeth Shuewhom I had a crush on since her first scene as "Ali with an i" on the beach in The Karate Kid. Like "Daniel Larusso" in the movie, I was immediately drawn to her even though it turns out that she is 10 years older than me. Though I am sure she could care a less, I thought I would do a short issue dedicated to her.
Elisabeth Shue really only appeared in four memorable films during the 80s, but as I said earlier, those appearances really made an impression on me. She also appeared in several commercials, so maybe it was the cute way she tried to get me to eat at Burger King that first caught my attention. Here is a link to watch Shue in a Burger King commercial from 1984. No, I think it was probably the movies, so I will briefly mention the four movies from the 80s that helped prolong my crush through the decade and beyond.
The Karate Kid (1984) as "Ali Mills" - This is one of my very favorite guilty pleasure movies of the 80s and I did an entire issue on it a while back. Go check that out if you have not read it before. This was Shue's movie debut as she played the "Ali" who ends up as Ralph Macchio's girlfriend in the film. Macchio's character falls for her the moment he sees her and that is kind of the same thing that happened to me. She is probably a big part of why I have always loved that movie so much.
Adventures in Babysitting (1987) as "Chris Parker" - Now this is a film that no boy in his teens would have any business wanting to watch other than the fact for me that Elisabeth Shue was in it. This was Shue's first starring role and I feel she made the most out of what she had to work with. Her opening scene of lip-synching "Then He Kissed Me" made my Top Singing Scenes from 80s Movies list. Fun movie for girls, but guys would have to be an Elisabeth Shue fan like me to make it worth while for sure.
Cocktail (1988) as "Jordan Mooney" - This movie hit the jackpot for me since I am a confessed Tom Cruise fan and it also stars Shue as Cruise's love interest. It would nearly impossible to beat that combination for me. I have always found the film to be entertaining, so I am disappointed that it actually won the Golden Raspberry award for Worst Picture. Though definitely not one of my very favorites, I will watch this movie anytime.
Back to the Future Part II (1989) as "Jennifer Parker/McFly" - I was a big fan of the original BTTF movie, but not quite as much of the sequels. In the original, "Jennifer" was played by Claudia Wells but she declined to reprise her role in the sequels and Elisabeth Shue was chosen to take her place. This required re-shooting the final scene of the original film since it was used at the beginning of Part II. I was very happy to see Shue get to play a role in this trilogy which I had enjoyed so much.
None of these were award-winning performances (no matter how much of an impression they made on me), but Shue would go on to get an Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nomination for her role in 1995's Leaving Las Vegas. She would also star in Soapdish (1991), The Saint (1997), Palmetto (1998) and Hollow Man (2000) among many other roles. I will always remember her best as "Ali" or "Chris" or "Jordan" from those 80s films and that might mean there's a little bit of me that will always have a little bit of a crush on Elisabeth Shue. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?
That will 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 "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Trying to send daily 80s tweets out via Twitter, so be sure to follow me there. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
Check this out: Here are a few classified ads which I found humorous, so I share them with you here...
Quote of the day: "Never let anyone tell you ‘no' who doesn't have the power to say ‘yes'." -Eleanor Roosevelt
This is the twenty-third issue of my 80s Video of the Week which I call "Flashback Videos." As a reminder, these issues will not include the usual "Check this out" or "Quote of the day" sections at the end like normal issues of Kickin' it Old School usually do.
Today (October 4, 2009) is the 52nd birthday of hip hop pioneer and business mogul Russell Simmons. He is the older brother of Joseph "Run" Simmons of the rap group Run-DMC and a co-founder of the Def Jam recording label. Simmons joined Rick Rubin back in 1984 to start Def Jam. The first single technically released with a Def Jam Recordings logo was T La Rock & Jazzy Jay "It's Yours". The first releases with a Def Jam Recordings catalog number were LL Cool J's "I Need a Beat", and the Beastie Boys', "Rock Hard", both in 1984. Those singles sold well, eventually leading to a distribution deal with CBS Records' (which would later become Sony Music Entertainment) Columbia Records the following year. Then the first full-length album released by Def Jam Recordings was Radio by LL Cool J in November of 1985. I remember buying that album shortly after seeing LL Cool J's brief cameo in the film Krush Groove. The Def Jam label was on its way to becoming something special.
There were a couple albums released by Def Jam in the coming years which made major impact on not only the rap music landscape, but the entire pop music industry. First, in 1986, the Beastie Boys released Licensed to Ill. This was the first rap album to top the Billboard album chart and is generally regarded as one of the top rap albums of all time. I enjoy several songs from this album, but the video that I especially remember is for the song "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" which was the first single released from the album. It is not a particularly good song and the Beastie Boys themselves are not even big fans of it not performing it at their live shows since 1987. Either way, it is memorable and this week's first Flashback Video is "Fight For Your Right" by The Beastie Boys...
The second is LL Cool J's sophomore 1987 release titled Bigger and Deffer. This album reached #3 on the Billboard album charts and continued rap's move into the mainstream. It included one of the first successful rap ballads with the song "I Need Love" but it is another song which really grabbed most people's attention. The song is "I'm Bad" and it included Russell Simmons as the executive producer. This week's second Flashback Video is "I'm Bad" by LL Cool J...
Def Jam became just one piece in Simmons' corporation, Rush Communications, which included a management company, a clothing company called Phat Farm, a movie production house, television shows such as Def Comedy Jam, a magazine, and an advertising agency. Simmons sold his stake in the record company for $100 million to Universal Music Group in 1999. I have always considered Russell Simmons a business role model and wanted to take this opportunity to wish him a happy birthday as well as recognize some of Def Jam's early accomplishments.
That will do it for this issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. If you want to see the past issues of Flashback Videos, just type that into the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column and it should give you a list of all of them. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use that Google Search Box to find any past issues or topics 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". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also now follow Old School 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". Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.
COPYRIGHT Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
IMAGES All images on Kickin' it Old School were used with best intentions and are readily available in various places on the Internet and believed to be in public domain. Images posted are believed to be posted within the rights according to the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (title 17, U.S. Code.) If you believe that any content appearing on this blog infringes on your copyright, please let me know immediately.
Kickin' it Old School - 80s Pop Culture
The song's release coincided with the fourth Nightmare on Elm Street film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but producers at New Line Cinema were not pleased. A video allegedly shot for the single was buried, and a disclaimer was hastily included on each pressing indicating that the record and the single was not officially affiliated with the "Nightmare" property.
premiered on October 30, 1985. This animated special follows everybody's favorite lasagna-loving (and evidently candy-loving) orange cat as he decides to go trick-or-treating. This special which would win the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 1986 features Lorenzo Music as the distinctive voice of Garfield as well as songs provided by Lou Rawls. The songs are what really seem to make this special memorable to me. Here is a video which includes the those musical numbers from Garfield's Halloween Adventure...
but it is available on DVD and you can watch the entire show through YouTube as well (above). I showed it to my daughter who had no previous exposure to the Garfield character and she really enjoyed the Halloween special. I did go purchase the DVD and added it to our two other animated Halloween traditions, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Winnie the Pooh: Boo To You Too. It will be nice to have something from the 80s to add to the collection.
gave you a whole bunch of them in the Check This Out section, but here is one more for good measure...
but the one I remember best and most fondly has to be Wes Craven's 1984 film A Nightmare on Elm Street. This film launched what would turn out to be an entire series and introduced one of the greatest movie villains of all time, Freddy Krueger. "One, two, Freddy's coming for you..."
was able to make this film for just $1.8 million and it would go on to gross over $25 million at the U.S. box office alone making it a huge popular and financial success. "Freddy Krueger" was brilliantly played by Robert Englund and is one of the most recognized and scary characters in the horror film genre. Krueger is a child murderer who killed at least twenty children over a decade before the film takes place. Furious, vengeful parents burned him alive in his boiler room hideout when he was released from prison on a technicality. In the film, it appears Freddy is manipulating the dreams of their children to exact his revenge from beyond the grave. 
also featured Amanda Wyss as "Tina" who is the first Freddy victim. She would go on to play John Cusack's former girlfriend, "Beth," in one of my 80s favorites, Better Off Dead (1985). It would also have the distinction of being Johnny Depp's feature film debut in a small role as "Nancy's boyfriend Glen." Another interesting fact is that over 500 gallons of fake blood were used for the special effects during production, though the movie scares you more in a psychological way than simply with blood and gore.
watching this film on VHS for the first time home alone all by myself at night. Afterwards, I decided to go outside to shoot some hoops in the back alley all by myself (probably not the smartest things to do). The movie really freaked me out a little and I will never forget being startled by every little sound I heard in the night. Nothing obviously happened, but my mind was playing some tricks on me that night. So when Halloween time comes each year, I always remember my first time watching A Nightmare on Elm Street back in the mid-80s and pray that Freddy doesn't come for me.
Top 10 songs list, so I thought I would get it over with and do it now. 
are the most successful and arguably the best pop music duo in music history. They have seven platinum albums and six gold albums along with 34 singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those singles reached #1, but they have not had one reach the Top 40 since 1990. As I mentioned in my last two issues, they just released their most comprehensive greatest hits collection titled Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates. 
This is one of my favorite songs from the 80s and it was originally written by Daryl Hall and included on their 1980 album Voices. It was never released as a single, but was covered by Paul Young in 1985 and Young's version hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. I love Young's version of the song. It was included at the end of the film Planes, Trains & Automobiles, but in that case was performed by a group called Blue Room. Hall & Oates would do a great live version on their 1985 concert album Live at the Apollo as well as the 2002 album VH1 Behind the Music: The Daryl Hall and John Oates Collection. Since I associate it most with Paul Young, I decided only to include as honorable mention on this list.
15. "Maneater" (1982) - #1 in December 1982. According to John Oates the inspiration for this song was English model and actress Kelly LeBrock (Weird Science).
9. "Out of Touch" (1984) - #1 in December 1984 [
4. "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" (1981) - #1 in January 1982 [
With more than 60 million album sales under their belt, Daryl Hall and John Oates have long since surpassed the Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel as the biggest-selling - and longest lived - pop duo of all time. This week (October 13, 2009) a Hall & Oates 4-CD greatest hits box set called Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall and John Oates was released. 
John Oates, but the rock n roll lifestyle began to take a toll and he knew that change was necessary. After that fateful night in 1990 when John Oates and J-Stache split ways, J-Stache wouldn't go quietly. He refused to slow down his hard-partying lifestyle and was determined to remain a part of Oates' life. 
Now, they're back together fighting crime and running Oates' Colorado celebrity health spa, Phunk Shui, on the side.
is the 60th birthday of singer Daryl Hall. He is best known as half of the hit-making duo Hall & Oates. Hall is one of my very favorite voices of all time and he has written or co-written 11 Billboard #1 songs. Most of those hits were in the late 70s and early 80s. I could do (and probably will some time do) an entire issue on Hall & Oates, but many people do not remember that Daryl Hall also has done some solo work.
solo album in 1986 called Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine which included his most successful single as a solo artist. "Dreamtime" reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song was definitely more pop than most of Hall's blue-eyed soul songs, but I still recall it fondly anyways. So much so that this week's Flashback Video is "Dreamtime" by Daryl Hall...
whom I had a crush on since her first scene as "Ali with an i" on the beach in The Karate Kid. Like "Daniel Larusso" in the movie, I was immediately drawn to her even though it turns out that she is 10 years older than me. Though I am sure she could care a less, I thought I would do a short issue dedicated to her. 
The Karate Kid (1984) as "Ali Mills" - 
This is one of my very favorite guilty pleasure movies of the 80s and I did 
Adventures in Babysitting (1987) as "Chris Parker" -
Now this is a film that no boy in his teens would have any business wanting to watch other than the fact for me that Elisabeth Shue was in it. This was Shue's first starring role and I feel she made the most out of what she had to work with. Her opening scene of lip-synching "Then He Kissed Me" made 
Cocktail (1988) as "Jordan Mooney" - 
This movie hit the jackpot for me since I am a confessed Tom Cruise fan and it also stars Shue as Cruise's love interest. It would nearly impossible to beat that combination for me. I have always found the film to be entertaining, so I am disappointed that it actually won the Golden Raspberry award for Worst Picture. Though definitely not one of my very favorites, I will watch this movie anytime.
Back to the Future Part II (1989) as "Jennifer Parker/McFly" - 
I was a big fan of the original BTTF movie, but not quite as much of the sequels. In the original, "Jennifer" was played by Claudia Wells but she declined to reprise her role in the sequels and Elisabeth Shue was chosen to take her place. This required re-shooting the final scene of the original film since it was used at the beginning of Part II. I was very happy to see Shue get to play a role in this trilogy which I had enjoyed so much.
the 52nd birthday of hip hop pioneer and business mogul Russell Simmons. He is the older brother of Joseph "Run" Simmons of the rap group Run-DMC and a co-founder of the Def Jam recording label. Simmons joined Rick Rubin back in 1984 to start Def Jam. 
The first single technically released with a Def Jam Recordings logo was T La Rock & Jazzy Jay "It's Yours". The first releases with a Def Jam Recordings catalog number were LL Cool J's "I Need a Beat", and the Beastie Boys', "Rock Hard", both in 1984. Those singles sold well, eventually leading to a distribution deal with CBS Records' (which would later become Sony Music Entertainment) Columbia Records the following year. Then the first full-length album released by Def Jam Recordings was Radio by LL Cool J in November of 1985. I remember buying that album shortly after seeing LL Cool J's brief cameo in the film Krush Groove. The Def Jam label was on its way to becoming something special.
First, in 1986, the Beastie Boys released Licensed to Ill. This was the first rap album to top the Billboard album chart and is generally regarded as one of the top rap albums of all time. I enjoy several songs from this album, but the video that I especially remember is for the song "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" which was the first single released from the album. It is not a particularly good song and the Beastie Boys themselves are not even big fans of it not performing it at their live shows since 1987. Either way, it is memorable and this week's first Flashback Video is "Fight For Your Right" by The Beastie Boys...
second is LL Cool J's sophomore 1987 release titled Bigger and Deffer. This album reached #3 on the Billboard album charts and continued rap's move into the mainstream. It included one of the first successful rap ballads with the song "I Need Love" but it is another song which really grabbed most people's attention. The song is "I'm Bad" and it included Russell Simmons as the executive producer. This week's second Flashback Video is "I'm Bad" by LL Cool J...
