Today (June 15, 2010) is the 46^th birthday of actress Courtney Cox (now Cox-Arquette). When most people think of her, "Monica" from Friends is what comes to mind first. For me, I obviously remember Friends too, but probably first think about her short appearance in a music video from the summer of 1984. The video was for the first single released from Bruce Springsteen's best-selling album Born in the U.S.A. The album would stay at #1 on the Billboard album chart for 7 weeks (the entire month of July in 1984 and then again in January 1985) and produced a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles.

"Dancing in the Dark" was the first of those singles reaching #2 for four weeks (which is surprisingly Springsteen's highest charting song to date). The song won the Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance in 1985 and has since gone on to earn further recognition like being listed as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll in a permanent exhibit at the museum. With Clarence Clemons in the E Street Band, it is probably no surprise that this song ranks on my Top 80s Songs with Saxophone Solos list. The video, directed by Brian DePalma, was filmed at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, before and during the initial show of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. The completed video was first aired on MTV on July 10, 1984 and would go on to win the MTV VMA for Best Stage Performance. It received heavy airplay on MTV, helping introduce Springsteen's music to a new, younger, and wider audience. This week's Flashback Video is "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen...

Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark (Official Music Video) - Watch more top selected videos about: Bruce_Springsteen

Dancing like that would definitely be better done in the dark so nobody else could see it! At about the 2:25 mark of the video we see Courtney Cox in the audience for the first time, then at about the 3:25 mark, the Boss invites her on stage to dance with him. Her hair is short like a boy's, but you recognize her face right away. Although Cox had previously appeared in television commercials and had other roles, it is thought that her part in the "Dancing in the Dark" video played a large role in launching her career. She would go on to a starring role in the short-lived television series Misfits of Science (1985) and later a recurring role (1987-89) on the TV series Family Ties as "Lauren Miller", the girlfriend of "Alex P. Keaton" (Michael J. Fox).

She would appear in the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and as Jerry's girlfriend in an episode of Seinfeld before getting her big break of "Monica Geller" in Friends starting in 1994 and running until 2004. Cox is also known for her role in the Scream movies including the 1996 original and two sequels. She married actor David Arquette in 1999 and they have a daughter named Coco. Cox now stars on the ABC sitcom Cougar Town and is rumored to be attached to Scream 4. All of that success owed to a short dance with Springsteen back in 1984!

That's all for 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 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 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". Even though the blog only updates a couple times a week, I try to send out daily 80s tweets. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.