Top 10 Alert!
Song#: 1830 Date: 03/10/1984
Debut: 57
Peak: 7
Weeks: 17
Genre: Rock, New Wave
Pop Bits: The Cars grabbed their first Top 10 Pop hit when "Shake It Up" reached #4 in 1981. After the success of that single and its same-named album, the band decided to take a bit of a break. A couple of members did solo projects including Ric Ocasek, whose album Beatitude featured the #5 Rock/#47 Pop single "Something to Grab For." Later in '83, the band got back together and with producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, they set out to record their next album titled Heartbeat City. This first single got things started and it shot up to the Top 10 thanks in part to an inventive MTV video that grabbed a lot of attention.
ReduxReview: I wasn't much of a fan of this song when it came out. The video was certainly inventive and fun, but the single didn't attract me, which was kind of a bummer since I was a fan of "Shake It Up." For some reason, I didn't like the staccato keyboard riff that set the song up. It played like a childish taunt and it kind of irritated me. Alas, I've grown to like this song and find it kind of fun. I also like Mutt Lange's production. He really beefed up the band's sound so they didn't sound so synthpop-y. He gave the band a bit of a backbone, which they needed, and it paid off.
ReduxRating: 7/10
Trivia: The video for this song was quite something at the time. Computer graphics and effects were just starting to get used and director Jeff Stein really wanted to throw all he had into this video. Stein had filmed other performance-style videos for artists like Billy Idol ("Rebel Yell"), but he thought The Cars were too boring of a live band to make that work. So he tried to convince the band to do an effects-laden one with the help of a company that did some odd ads for the National Enquirer. The band wasn't necessarily on board with this approach, but gave in and work began. It was a long and tedious process (using effects that are simple and commonplace today) and by the time the song was ready for release, the video wasn't quite done. It was missing the fly that buzzes around. However, the video had to get out so it was initially aired unfinished. Soon after, the fly was added and the video was formally done. In the end, it all paid off as the video won the very first MTV Music Video Award for Video of the Year. It beat out the likes of Michael Jackson's mini-movie "Thriller" and Herbie Hancock's inventive "Rockit" video.
_________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment