Tag: MTV

by Eric Vardeman

Music Monday – Week of June 18th

US Top 40 Singles for the Week Ending June 18th, 1983

Irene Cara spends her fourth week at #1. She’ll still spend another two weeks in the top spot.
Five songs jump into the Top 40 this week: “1999” by Price, “Sweet Dreams” by The Eurythmics, “Stand Back” by Stevie Nicks, “She Works Hard For The Money” by Donna Summers and “Is There Something I Should Know” by Duran Duran. All solid 80’s classics (adding more proof to my assertion that 1983 is the greatest year for 80’s music).
There are two songs on the chart this week that currently aren’t available for streaming in the US, for some strange reason: “She Blinded Me With Science” and “Electric Avenue” (that’s why there are strange versions of them on the playlists). Each artist has an extensive catalog available on Spotify EXCEPT for these songs. I can only surmise that it’s a recording label issue.

by Eric Vardeman

Music Monday – Week of May 28th

US Top 40 Singles for the Week Ending May 28th, 1983

Welp. A day late and a a dollar short this week due to the holiday. Sorry about that…

Irene Cara starts a six week run at #1 with “Flashdance… What A Feeling”.
Lot’s of new entries on the chart this week including some 80’staples like “Our House” by Madness and “Come Dancing” by the Kinks.
Ronnie Milsap’s single “Stranger In My House” tops out this week at 23. While it reached higher on other charts, it stalls out here because some radio stations refused to play the song due to radio personnel believing it’s guitar solo sounds too much like Led Zepplin. Some stations go as far as to edit out the solo but still don’t give it substantial airplay. This lost air time keeps it from going any higher on the chart. It’s personally my favorite Ronnie Milsap song for two reasons: his voice and, you guessed it, that guitar solo.

by Eric Vardeman

Music Monday – Week of April 30th

US Top 40 Singles for the Week Ending April 30th, 1983

Well, looks who’s back in the top spot! After a week off, Michael Jackson moves back into the #1 spot with “Beat It”.

There are three songs that are about to fall off the charts, “Back On The Chain Gang”, “I Know There’s Something Going On” and “Twilight Zone”, that have all been on the chart for over 20 weeks. Of those three songs, “I Know There’s Something Going On” by Frida (of ABBA fame) leads the pack with 26 total weeks in the Top 40. It’s the debut single from her solo album produced by Phil Collins who, incidentally, plays drums on the track. A month ago, Collins cracked the top 40 (barely) with another drum heavy track, “I Don’t Care Anymore”. That track peaked at 39 before falling off into oblivion (I honestly thought it climbed higher on the chart than that).

by Eric Vardeman

Music Monday – Week of April 9th

US Top 40 Singles for the Week Ending April 9th, 1983

Michael Jackson owns the top spot for the sixth straight week. He also owns the tenth spot.
David Bowie debuts on the charts with “Let’s Dance” the first single from the album by the same name. This album will be Bowie’s biggest commercial success and most accessible to the listening masses. Little known fact: Stevie Ray Vaughan is the guitarist on this album. Bowie and Vaughan met at the Montreux Jazz Festival in ’82 and Bowie was so blown away by the guitarist’s talent that he recruited him to play on the album.

by Eric Vardeman

Music Monday – Week of March 26th

US Top 40 Singles for the Week Ending March 26, 1983

Michael Jackson still holding strong at #1 while his next hit, “Beat It”, is climbing the charts.
One of my favorites, “On The Loose” by Saga has finally dropped from the list.
Prince is slowly climbing the charts with what will be his first top 10 hit, “Little Red Corvette”. His first top 40 hit was “I Wanna Be Your Lover” (a song that would sound right at home with Justin Timberlake or Adam Levine) in 1979. That was also his most recent. “Corvette” isn’t actually the first single from the album 1999. The song “1999” was released late in 1982 but it barely got a peek at the top 40. It’ll be re-released later this year after the success of “Corvette”.
The song “Twilight Zone”, by Golden Earring, has peaked at #10. All told, the song will spend 27 weeks on the charts. Guitarist George Kooymans was inspired to write the song after reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum (a nod to the longevity of that franchise). The music video was one of the first to feature a cinematic story line and dance choreography. The original version of the music video, however, was rejected by MTV because of a shot of a topless woman and simulated drug use during one of the dance sequences.

by The Retro Rambler

Spend Your New Year’s Eve in the Past With These Countdown Specials From the 80’s and 90’s

2017 is about to come to an end, and 2018 is right around the corner. If you’re like the majority of folks in this world, you’ll spend your New Year’s Eve watching a countdown show from Times Square. But, if you’re like a select few of us, you’ll watch a countdown show from a year in the past! To help you out with this, I’ve got three old specials uploaded to my Youtube channel for you to enjoy this New Year’s Eve.

First up, you can roll back the clock 35 years and watch MTV’s New Year’s Eve Rock ‘n’ Roll Ball from 1982! It features Martha Quinn as the host, and has performances by Flock of Seagulls, The Producers, Duran Duran, and more!

Now we jump forward 10 years to 1992 and MTV’s New Year’s Eve Special with host Hammer, and featuring Bell Biv Devoe, EMF, Marky Mark and the Funk Bunch, Naughty by Nature, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Guns ‘n Roses, and a special appearance by Cindy Crawford!

And last but not least, it’s the Fox New Year’s Eve Live from 1992 that features Penn & Teller, Sam Kennison, and Guns ‘n Roses.

Well there you have 3 classic News Year’s Eve celebrations to choose from for your viewing pleasure. But heck, why choose? Just watch all three back to back and kill a few hours this New Year’s Eve and live it up, old school.

by The Retro Rambler

Elvira’s MTV Halloween Special from 1986

Back in the day before Netflix and Youtube, when good old fashioned television was all we had for our viewing entertainment pleasure, tv specials like these were looked forward to for days and weeks. I remember watching specials like this, and considered them appointment television. So here, in all it’s glory, is the original Elvira’s MTV Halloween Special from 1986. Find a quite evening, turn out the lights, fire this up, and step back in time to 1986 for some Halloween fun with Elvira and cool old music videos.