Welcome back once again, here we are at #52, lets have a moment of silence...ok and the song is....Weird Science by American new-wave band Oingo Boingo. Oingo Boingo formed orignally back in 1972 (under the title The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) and were located in Los Angeles, California, and they were active as a band up until 1995. "Weird Science" appeared as track 9 on their fourth studio release album (released in August of 1985), and it also was featured as the theme song to infamous John Hughes 80's teen-comedy and all-time 80's classic film of the same name. It was also became the theme-song for the mid-1990's Weird Science television series. I must add that Weird Science is one of my favorite movies of all time and it is definitely on my top 5 80's movies of all time, but that will be a topic for a later post, and mark my words but I figure its only a short matter of time before they try to remake this 80's classic too, I just hope they don't butcher it too bad...
Its that time again, this time its #66, and the song is...Sex Dwarfby British synth-pop duo Soft Cell. Soft Cell consisted of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball and was originally from Leeds, England. Sex Dwarf came off of their 1981 release album titled Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, which also contained their major 80's hit song which they are best known and renowned for, (and definitely is one of those songs that gets stuck in one's head way too easily) Tainted Love. This was also Soft Cell's first album. The duo became quite big right during the ecstasy club-scene of the early 80's in New York, and this song had a controversial S&M video which was banned in the UK for explicit content at the time. The duo was known for having drug abuse issues and like so many other successful 80's groups were constantly using drugs (according to wikipedia). In the UK Soft Cell achieved Ten Top 40 Hits, and 4 Top 20 albums between 1981-1984. They initially split in 1984, but then reformed in the early 2000's and made a new album in 2002. The song is a bit racy, but if you can handle it, it has a great dance beat and definitely hits an 80's mark that not many others do.
Yes we are back to the 80's once again. This time presenting #69 of the countdown. And the song is....Goodbye Horses, by American singer Q Lazzarus. Q Lazzarus is well known for this song, as it was no doubt her one hit wonder of 1988. I don't know why, I just know that I am a bit stoked to put this song on my countdown, it just doesn't show up on other 80's music radars much if you know what I mean. Goodbye Horses may be best remembered for its appearance on the soundtrack of Silence of the Lambs, as it was featured as serial killer/skinner character Buffalo Bill's theme songin that movie (ugghh, but I never associated it with that, and maybe that is why so many others don't like the song much due to that association). That said, this same song was also featured on movies Married to the Mob, Clerks II, Lakai Footwears' Fully Flared tv commercial, as well as on the Grand Theft Auto IV and Skate 3 video games, and TV shows Family Guy and Nip Tuck. Its a song that gets around, that is for sure, and funnily enough and unintentionally it has ended up as #69 on VJ Samsonite's Top 100 Dance Hits of the 80's Countdown, you know, just in case you forgot already ;-) A few more interesting trivia tidbits that I discovered on wikipedia.com are that Q Lazzarus actually appeared in the 1986 film Something Wild (with Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels) and performing the song The Candle Goes Away. She also appeared in the 1993 Tom Hanks Oscar winning film Philadelphia, performing the Talking Heads song Heaven. Another interesting fact is that for a little while she worked as a taxi-cab driver in NYC. Now the video is a bit strange, but really the most normal appearing video of this on youtube, in fact you should check out all the different videos that have been made for this song on youtube if you get the chance. Well, if you want more info, look her up on wikipedia or lastfm, now get out there and dance!
Here we are again folks, now presenting #75 of the Countdown, and the song is...Tonight I'm Yours (Don't Hurt Me), by British singer/songwriter Rod Stewart. Rod Stewartcomes out of England, and is of English and Scottish decent. Stewart was born in London way back in 1945 at the close of WWII, and he started his music career with the Jeff Beck Group in the late 1960's and early 1970's. In 1969 he also officially began a solo career with his first debut album. Stewart has had something like 62 hit singles over the 5 decades of his music career and he was voted the 33rd Greatest Singer of All Time by Q Magazine. Stewart has a memorable voice and has always had a memorable hairstyle. Tonight I'm Yours (Don't Hurt Me) is a song that came into my awareness not all that long ago, but it was the title track for his 1981 album of the same name. The album and the song were some of the first of Stewart's where he began adding some synth-pop and an 80's New Wave flavor to his sound which so defined his 80's musical style, and was different from his previous work for sure. Tonight I'm Yours reached #11 on the US Pop Albums Chart, and ended up going platinum. The album generated 5 big singles, and incidentally the biggest hit single from that album was Young Turks which reached #5 on the Pop Singles and Mainstream Rock Charts. Well, enough data, now for the song, enjoy yourself some Rod the Bod! Rod Steward - Tonight I`m yours - MyVideo
Well hello hello again! Welcome back to the Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown, and today I am bringing you #78! Now this next band got their name from the villain of an old 1968 Jane Fonda classic sci-fi movie and the song comes from the 14th James Bond film...have you guessed it yet?? Well, totally rad if you have and if you haven't here is #78 of the Countdown...A View to a Kill, by brit-synth-pop new-wave band, and no doubt one of my personal top fav bands of all time Duran Duran. As I mentioned before Duran Duran were named after Milo O'Shea's character from the sci-fi 60's movie Barbarella, and his characters name was Dr. Durand Durand. Duran Duran formed in Birmingham, England way back in the solid year of our lord 1978. According to wikipedia Duran Duran were one of the most successful band's of the 1980's and they led the "Second British Invasion" of the United States. Also a direct quote from wikipedia "Since the 1980s, they have placed 14 singles in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100 and have, according to the Sunday Mercury, sold more than 100 million records. While they were generally considered part of the New Romantic scene along with bands such as Spandau Ballet when they first emerged, they later shed this image." Band members include the ever memorable (mostly for his hair) lead singer Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes (synth and keyboards), John Taylor (bass guitar), Stephen Duffy (vocalist, songwriter and bassist), and Roger Taylor (drummer). They've had many former members but you can look those up if your really keen. A View to a Kill was a stand-alone single (the 13th single by Duran Duran) made for the 1985 release James Bond movie of the same name, and to this very day it is still the only James Bond theme song to have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was co-written by Duran Duran and composer John Barry. Naturally the song was released with the movie in May of 1985. Well, this is one of my favorite bands of all time, so naturally that could be a hint that you might see some more of them on this countdown, but I won't spoil it for you, you'll just have to wait and see, now lets "Dance into the Fire!"
Oh my F6$#^ing Gawd, its the Fu&#$g 80's!!! Welcome back to the countdown, it has been a few days, but we are officially into the 70's now! And yes number 80 had to be an MJ hit, seeing it as the #80 of the 80's. And now, for #79...Will I Ever Understand You, by American new-wave synth pop band Berlin. I bet you thought they were German didn't you??? Was it the name or the blonde lead singer? Berlin actually formed in the late 1970's and originated in Orange County, California. As with my previous post of them, this is their second song appearing on the Top 100 and according to wikipedia there are 4 current members (Teri Nunn is the blond lead singer), and it lists about 10 former band members who were in and out of the band over the years. The core band members of the band are considered to be Teri Nunn, John Crawford , and David Diamond. Nunn left the band temporarily to pursue an acting career at one point and actually auditioned for the part of Princess Leia in the Star Wars films. Wikipedia also lists Berlin as having an inactive period between 1987 and 1998. Berlin are obviously a better known band from the 80's, and have had many hits over the years. Will I Ever Understand You was the first track appearing on their October 1986 release album titled Count Three & Pray. The song also appeared on the Inner Space soundtrack and a club scene from the movie, back when Meg Ryan was young and hot, those were the days. Enough data and repeating facts from the previous Berlin post and on with da music mahn!
Welcome back to VJ Samsonite's top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown! Today we are presenting #82 of the top 100 countdown, and starting to really get into it! And the song is...Love Plus One, by British pop and new-wave group Haircut 100. Haircut 100 were formed back in 1980 (a good year), and had 4 UK Top 10 Singles between then and 1982. The band had some lineup changes over time, but the original group was Nick Heyward (guitar, vocals),Les Nemes on bass, Tim Jenkins on guitar and Rob Stroud on drums. Love Plus One was no doubt one of those top 4 UK Singles and came off of their Pelican West album, released in 1982. Anyways, don't have much more info, check wikipedia for more, and note the song is a good dance hit when you play it on a proper system, as you will note with all of these songs I am posting. When played on a massive stereo system, these songs that sound like they wouldn't be great dance-hits on a little bedroom stereo sound great, oh Snap!
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