Best 80s Pop Songs: Our Ultimate Mixtape (ft. Sonny Hollywood Pooney)

Hey y'all, welcome to another episode of Past Times at 80s High. Got an awesome show for you today. We're gonna do another one of our mixed tape series, which is, you know, a two-sided ten-song tape. Um I have the boys as always. Hello, brother Mike. Hey, how's it going? Good, good. Dongo. Hey, how's it going? Good, Kevin. You do. And I'm AJ. And last but certainly not least, we have a special guest today. And that is Sonny Pooney from the Growing Up Rock Podcast. Sonny Hollywood Poony, forgive me. And uh also uh one of our favorite uh interactive podcasts, which is uh Kiss Podcast, Podcast Rock City. How you doing, Sonny?

Doing great and glad to be here.

Awesome, awesome. Did you want to give a little uh info on your shows?

Yeah, both are you know, obviously rock podcasts, uh pretty much both come out on Sundays. Uh we are live with Podcast Rock City on YouTube on Sundays. And uh for Growing Up Rock, we do a quick episode on Fridays and we release on Sundays. And uh both podcasts I've been a part of since 2017. Uh Podcast Rock City was already going. I joined a podcast that was already going. Uh, but Growing Up Rock, we started from scratch. So uh haven't missed a week in Growing Up Rock since the day we started. So we're pretty consistent with it.

Nice, and I love the shows, they're just awesome. You guys do such a great job, and it's so fun to be able to, you know, speak our mind on PIC. I love that, makes a big difference for sure. Awesome, awesome. And uh, Kevin, Kevin, do we have any shout-outs this week?

We certainly do. We got some new listeners. Uh Jonesboro, Arkansas, joined in with us. Um, this is weird because we were just talking about being big in India, but Junagod Gur Gurat. You nailed it. I maybe. How do you know I nailed it? Do you know how that's pronounced? Um Arden, North Carolina, and I probably will butcher this one too, but Westlake, Ohio. Did I say that right?

Oh yeah, I think you got that one. That one? Yeah, right. Awesome.

But no, it's just great to have people. We we do have some good friends. Uh, some of the same people we were talking about are interacting with us um on the socials, and hopefully that's leading them to join us here on the podcast, and uh, we all get together and have a good time.

Awesome, awesome. And uh one other thing I just wanted to get out there. Um, with Sonny on, you know, with podcast Rock City, Mark and I doing our little side episodes once in a while for um preachers of the night. Just God bless Ace Freely. Um, we've lost such a true legend, uh, one of one, just a fucking riot, exactly. Incredible. I mean, the amount of guitars he's influenced is astronomical. And I'm talking top five, you know, and actually, Sonny, not to talk about your show uh all the time here, but uh, listened to your episode on him the other night, your quick fix there, and such a good call with the rings and the bracelets and everything he would wear. And is are those wrapping off his fucking strings or what is he making? Yeah, but what was the word you used? Was it slopalicious?

Yes, right, because he's playing to his guitar solo, and during the solo, you're hearing a you know, that's uh his necklace is hitting, the rings hitting, the bracelets hitting. You don't know if he accidentally hit the switch, you don't know if he started in the wrong place. No clue.

No, but man, was he awesome? Uh, and we're gonna miss him. Um, and uh, by the way, he was not the youngest member. Paul Stanley was is still the youngest member of the band. Um, just something that everyone was saying. And anyway, rest in space, ace really the only spaceman in my opinion. The only absolutely all right. So, what we're doing today, everyone, is we are doing, like I said, the mixtape, but we are doing pop songs and more specifically 80s pop songs. And of course, we are gonna give our guest the honors. So, Sonny, we'll get the ball rolling right away with you.

Yeah, so to give you an idea about how I came up with a list, you know, I'm a rocker at heart MTV kid, uh, started music 90 1984-ish. So, MTV was important in my house. Although I was into hard rock, you know, you would watch MTV and you're like waiting for the next KISS or Scorpions or Docken or Bonjour Iron Maiden video to come on, but you're waiting for hours and hours and hours because that stuff's not rolling all all the time. So then you end up getting exposed to pop music, and you don't really know that it's seeping in until you start listening to top 40 radio in the car and you start humming these songs, and it's like, how the hell do I know what this song is? And you don't realize you've heard it on MTV ten times, right? So I ended up loving pop music, and I'm a teenager at the time. Girls love pop music, so I guess I guess I gotta keep listening because you know they're not gonna listen to girls aren't gonna listen to Docken, so it's like, alright, well we're gonna keep this.

Probably not.

So then I'm like, alright, I gotta choose 10 songs. So I'm like, okay, let me try some criteria. So I'm like, can I hum the vocal melody without ever even listening to the song right now? And to this day, like, do some of these songs like make a playlist for me? And if I was to make a woman a mixtape, whether I was pissed out off at her or whether I wanted to make her up to her, um, would these end up on the tape? That got it down to like 900 songs. We don't got time for 900 songs, right? So I use a randomizer a lot. I took the 900 songs, threw them in a randomizer, picked out 15, ranked them, and then put five in the bullpen just in case there's a repeat. Nice.

And basically I ranked them in the way that I like them.

So my number 10 today uh is a song called Someday by Glass Tiger. So if you remember that, it was released in '86, third single off the debut album, written by the vocalist and the guitar player, and Jim Balance, if you didn't know that, from Brian Adams fans.

Oh, nice, yeah.

Yeah.

And Creatures of the Night fans. That's right.

Uh Someday Won a Juno Award, which, if you don't know what a Juno Award is, it's the Canadian uh uh representation of a Grammy Award.

Did Ace win one of those? Not to interrupt.

No, no, Ace didn't win one of those. Um they were writing a high because you remember Don't Forget Me While I'm Gone, uh While I'm Gone, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Huge hit. So this was supposed to be kind of the backup hit, and it was, it was a top 10 hit, uh, but super catchy, like mid-tempo song, and I'm sure most people, not everybody's gonna remember or know all the songs I'm gonna talk about today. That's great. That's what we're gonna do.

You and Kevin should get along great then.

Exactly.

It's a deep cut. Awesome, awesome. And going back to what I said about the Juno Award, Kevin Donnie. I don't know if you know this, but Ace Freely, till the day he died, I'm pretty sure thought he won a Grammy.

It was the People's Choice Award for Beth. Because he didn't he, in an interview, he was he was talking, he called his his wife or something. He was like, hey, what's that one? Send me a picture of that one that's on the mantle. Isn't that a it's like, no, it was it was some other like minor people's choice or something like that.

Yeah, it was the people's choice award for Beth that Goldie Yon introduced you or or awarded. All right, brother, we're that's to you.

All right. Well, the 1980s. I'm telling you, pop music back then, it was incredible, absolutely incredible. Pop today is I mean, it's unlistenable as far as I'm concerned. The way I did this, I did it with basically pop songs by pop bands. But anyway, what how I kind of do my list, these are songs that I would actually listen to today regularly. But anyway, I'm going with uh Dirkami Sar by After the Fire. Which was actually done by a German band called uh Falco. They did it in 1981. Oh, you you do remember. But um Takami Star, that is uh that means the commissioner, and there's two theories on what this song is about. One is about a girl that's you know just going down a bad path with drink and drugs, and the other one is, you know, big brother watching you all the time. But I just love the guitar riff on this, and it's just such a great tune. So that's my song one on side one.

But uh, what were you gonna say? I was just gonna say that's not the German one I thought you were gonna take first.

But anyway, I won't say anything.

Here I got nine more tunes, but uh but yeah, do you you guys remember the song, right?

Oh yeah. I actually don't, but I because I couldn't listen to him.

Oh yeah, of course.

If you remember Falco You Will Die. That's the Bar of the Dead. Rock Me Amadeus. Falco did rock me Amadeus, too. Oh, they did. Yeah.

Amadeus, Amadeus.

I remember the second you sang it, Mark. I of course I know the song. I just never heard of the actual name of it, I guess.

Because if you don't know the song, I will be happy to sing.

No, please don't. Uh right. So that's to me. This is the one I was questioning if I'd get picked on about it because it's probably more new wave than pop, but pop is pop in our eyes, like you said. And for our podcast's sake at Pastime's at 80s high, I had to go with the Go Go's 1981. We got the beat. Maybe this is not, you know, the definition of pop. It just takes I pick my songs by something that puts me back to a place in my life, and this just fucking brings me right back to Ridgemont High. I don't know, I love it. And like I said, I'm the non-music geek here for you, I'm not as brilliant as you guys. You were all thrown out of the house, AJ.

Yes, David and I. Oh man.

So Dungo, I'm gonna send it right over to you.

All right. I I'll I'll yeah, just a little and then I'll keep it succinct for the rest of the picks. But to start it off, like, you know, I want to kind of talk about what Sonny said, and Kevin said the same thing, and it just made a brilliant point is that back in the 80s, you did have to listen to songs that you normally wouldn't listen to because of MTV or the radio. You now with streaming, people can totally be selective and totally ignore anything that they don't want to listen to. So it's kind of cool that we were kind of like forced in a way to be exposed to songs that we normally probably wouldn't listen to. And I think that's a an awesome thing because sometimes you're like humming that song, and it's like that's got a good groove to it, and you know, you normally wouldn't have picked up on it if all you were listening to was your heavy metal or you know, hard rock.

But thank God for MTV and radio. Yeah, they actually played instruments back then too.

But like he said, like the 1980s, I think, is like the decade where the world was at its most pinnacle creativity level because there were no wars going on, you know, other than some small skirmishes, the economy was pretty good globally. I mean, it was just an awesome time, and there was so much creativity from all different people, and it was just an amazing time. So I had an immense time trying to narrow stuff down. So I used the Billboard Year End Hot 100 for each year, and I tried to pick a song in the top 10 of that 100. So the whole year top 100 lots of angles here from every yeah, but uh you know, I wanted to do like I love the cheese, so I wanted to do like 10 of my cheesiest songs, but I I I stayed with that could be a different cast, right? Right. So from my 1980 in the top 10 of the year-end hot 100 was do that to me one more time.

I can never get in the man like you like you just be once again.

Um just the great duo, and I know we used them on one of our other casts.

Yeah, so we're just gonna say I will, I will.

So what a great duo, you know. So I love those two. I love that song, you know. My dad was jamming WHDH and Boston Mass, and that that would be on the radio, so that was kind of cool, you know. Good memory from those times, but uh love it.

Yeah, well, that's why we do it, these memories, right? Yeah, unbelievable.

All right, Kev, wrap it up. All right, to finish off the first round. Um, I I agree with Sonny. There was over 900 picks to to go with this, and and trying to narrow it down. I did start with okay, not bands, not rock bands that wandered into pop, not new, not so much new wave that wandered into it, but then I started thinking about how I mean pop is influenced by the subgenres. The the I mean, if you look at late 80s, I mean, so much of pop was influenced by the heavy metal that we were listening to. And so there's a lot of crossover there, but I tried to stay with you know what was just kind of pure pop. I don't know if I actually made it, um, but but that was what I aimed for. And then it got down to, I mean, I couldn't go with do I know the words because they all come back to me. So it went to what what did I have an emotional connection to, which is something that AJ talks about a lot. So I'm gonna start off my tape with the king of pop, Michael Jackson, Billy Jean.

Billy Jean.

Which was just such an amazing rhythm section in that song. And it's funny because uh Quincy Jones being the producer didn't like the bass line. Can you imagine looking at somebody and going, Yeah, I don't like that bass line? I'm like, Are you fucking crazy? That's like one of the best bass lines ever. Right. I can still see the lights, but go on. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, him dancing the lights and whatever else. Um the the other thing that always struck me about it is that um Jackson went up to Daryl Hall, and I think it was at um USA for a Band-Aid or one of those. And he was like, you know, I I I took that from I Can't Go For That. And and Daryl was like, and you might think you did, but you didn't. That's that's not it. It might have inspired you, but you didn't steal it from me. And Michael was like, I stole that from you. And Daryl's like, yeah, no, no, not exactly. Um so just a great song, an iconic song from an iconic album and an iconic artist.

Indeed, unbelievable.

Yeah, I just yeah, you just wonder what was going through his mind um to do all that crazy stuff because he was such such a talent of just bizarre, maybe a little bit fucking kooky, too.

So maybe that's I believe it could happen from you know what age did he start at.

About three. And and you know what he was exposed to at that age, like hearing now all the stuff that goes on in Hollywood and music and you know, drugs and all kinds of mischievous behavior going on. So he was exposed to probably too much for a child of that. Way too early.

Overbearing father, right?

I was gonna say Joe, Joe did not get father of the year. No, ever.

Yeah. Awesome though. Great pick, Kev. All right, Sonny, we're back to you for song number two.

All right, so my next song, uh, and I think we would all agree 80s pop music was fun too. Absolutely. Something that I don't love about the 90s is somehow it all got depressing all of a sudden. Right. Um, and uh, you know, uh Michael Jackson is a good example of it. There was a lot of diversity. So there was there was people from all backgrounds, there was females entering, like pop music was coming from literally everywhere. Yeah. So my next song is a song you may remember, but not admit to remembering because unless you hung out in the dance clubs, uh, you would have had to hear it on the radio. And it's from 1986 from Jermaine Stewart. Remember, you don't have to take your clothes off to have a good time. Yeah. You remember that song?

Yeah.

Funniest song ever, one of my favorite pop songs.

I do, and vaguely, I just I can't quaint. You don't remember? You don't have to take your clothes off. Yes, yes. I do, I do. I do.

Yep, yeah, okay. Um he was a soul trained dancer. He had connections to Jody Watley. Jody Watley was also a soul trained dancer. I love that. Jody Watley got her she got her started Shalomar. He uh he auditioned for Salamar, didn't get the job. So it was Culture Club that gave him the break because he did the backing vocals to Miss You Blind. And that's what kind of got him to take off, yeah. Um but yeah, this song was a top five hit on the Billboard 100, so great song. Nice.

Yeah, great tune. I thought of ratings too with the Billboard, Sonny, because I knew you'd have a lot of those to shout out for sure. Great pick. Awesome.

All right, Mark, to you. All right, well, briefly what I wanted to say to ahead of my first pick was I wrote on the top 1980s pop song Mixtape One, meaning we could have probably a hundred of these damn things, you know what I'm saying?

Easily. Yeah.

So anyway, let me take you back to Quebec City 1983. Oh no. Okay, well I I I'm actually gonna reference this in two of my picks, but I was up there and this kid that spoke not a lick of French. I was 18 at the time, Sonny, so the drinking age up there was eighteen, and well, I I might have had a few and there are more, but anyway, this kid comes up to he just goes and w he takes me into this nightclub and it's like, oh my god, where where did all these girls come from? And you know, it's just so the song is okay, sorry. The Greg is it Kine or Ken band? Ken. Greg Kin band Jeopardy Yes, everybody. And how come all these years this is gonna make me look dumb? I don't care. I always thought this song was by Hollow Notes. Really? I don't know why. I don't get it.

Well, I thought the Stones did another one, another one bites the dust for years, too. So okay.

Well, no, all right. So anyway, that this song was playing, you know. Billy Jean was also playing, but I just I love the chorus on this song and a fun tune. I love it every time I hear it. I says, that's my uh yeah, my favorite Hall of Oak song is Jeopardy. You know? It's like okay. So but you know, Weird Al did a nice version of it too. And uh I just hope Sonny doesn't go on Wheel of Fortune and have to sing I Lost On Wheel of Fortune, you know, because he's gonna be on that show, damn it.

I'm gonna be someday.

Someday I'd fold under the pressure, man. Oh, you thought you'd be one of those people you you see on YouTube or whatever.

Yeah.

Awesome, Mark. Now, before I go to me, just real quick, is that the same Quebec trip where you were hit by the car?

Uh yes, that would be. Yeah, you know, we're gonna get into that on another pit today. And I'll explain why I probably got hit by said car and I was under the influence of politicians drinking at seven in the morning.

Under the influence. I'm sure they twisted your arm really bad.

I couldn't believe it. I will get into that later on in the show, but uh love the Michael Keaton thing.

You want a beer? And he's like, Well, it's like seven in the morning. Scotch? Want a beer? Seven o'clock in the morning. Scotch? You know, like scotch. Awesome. Yeah, I know.

You're gonna rewire the whole thing. 220, 221, whatever it takes.

Okay, so two to me. This is by in 1984, by Dead or Alive. My favorite version of it is probably John Lovett's, and that is you spin me round like a record. This song to me just, I don't know, it makes me want to do the African Anteater ritual when you get to the middle of that song. It's just a lot of fucking fun. And like you said earlier, or all of you have, I mean, MTV just drilled these into our head and the radio, and we had no choice but to listen to it. I had to kind of be in the closet a bit, but God, it was so fun, and it still is to this day. You know, when I hear it, I can't help, and I do want to start. You know, these most of these songs make me want to move, and that's what I love about them.

So dungo to you. So I'm at my so I'm going sequentially. So the the uh do that to me one more time was 1980. So 1981 at the year-end top 100, coming in at number six was, and I'm sorry I have to sing, I can't sing pop songs. It was first trying.

Celebrate good times, come on, D D D.

It's a celebration in a row, Donnie. There's a party going on right here. A celebration to AJ hit the mute button.

So bring your good times and your laughter too. We gon' celebrate your party with you. Come on now, let's all celebrate and have a good time. We gon' celebrate and have a good time. It's time to come together. It's up to you. Watch your pleasure.

I can't help it. It's such a fun song. I love the song. I pull I'll pull that out on karaoke. You gotta do it, man. It makes you want to dance, and it's fun, and it that's what I went with.

Nice dog.

Cool and the gang celebration.

Yes, sir. And the gang. That was definitely written down on one of my pieces of paper for sure. Yeah, nice pet.

Spelt the same way as the menthol cigarette brand, awfully. Cool. I don't know if there's a connection there, but all right, Kev. Have at it. All right. Well, I started with the King of Pop, and I, of course, have to move on to the Prince. Let's go crazy, 1984.

Yeah, great tune.

Absolutely amazing tune. Like you guys were talking about, everybody's mentioning how MTV became just out of necessity of covering 24 hours of music, playing music that we weren't necessarily into to begin with. And probably 1984, I might not have admitted a lot of the songs that I picked that I that I liked. But I think the difference is there was quality in those songs. There was musicianship. I mean, Prince is again an anomaly. The the guy was just amazing on so many levels, and still probably should be up in the top five rock guitarists ever. Um, the one trip that we made to the um Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that I don't even want to talk about anymore because all the politics involved with that. Um, but they showed the music hall of fame. Yes, the the something something hall of fame. But they showed the clip of him on stage with with Petty and um Harrison's son and whatever doing while my guitar gently weeps. And he just walked into that room onto that stage and he kicked every single one of their asses, and I'm gonna go to the house. But anyway, let's go crazy was one of the first ones that really, I mean, after I'm not gonna list them off because they might be on your list, but it was kind of it was kind of early on in his popularity, although his career started well before um the movie and and Purple Rain and all that. Uh, but the thing that always kind of weirded me out is when we lost him recently, I started listening to his music again. And let's go crazy starts with funeral music. There is a kind of eulogy going on, you Googlist, um, with you know, this thing called life and and whatever else. But he died of a drug overdose in an elevator. Remember, he says, next time you call it that shrink, Dr. Beverly Hills, you know, Dr. Everything Gonna Be Alright. And he talks about overdosing in the song or taking drugs to fix your life in the song, and then the elevator. So I just found that was very c weird the way that that lined up, and it struck me when we lost him.

Yeah. Yeah, that song, uh, I'm a huge Prince is my number one guy. So I'm a huge Prince fan. I have I got stuff in the computer nobody's even seen or heard. Um, but that song was a live take.

Yeah.

The album cut is a live take. They can figure out how to make it sound right in the studio.

Yeah.

So that preaching thing he does in the front is all off the cuff, and the guitar soul on it is all off the cuff. It's awesome. Wow.

And that guitar soul kicks ass.

Yeah.

But he pretty much played and recorded like 24-7. I mean, that's that's what he did. When he wasn't playing basketball with Eddie Murphy's little brother and making pancakes, he was in the studio with different people recording music, and that's I think it's I I'm I'm in awe that you have some of that stuff. We know, and it might come out later, that he had years worth of music recorded, and he but it wasn't stuff that he wanted to release or was gonna release later. But now obviously that the family has control of it, we'll probably see some of it.

Yeah, so I'll tell you, uh, it was a podcast, right? Start the grown up rock podcast. We do a prince episode about 50 episodes in after he died. And uh I we waited a year after he died to do the episode. And then one day I get something in the mail, and it's two terabytes of all print stuff. No wow that's like I've never even seen or heard of this stuff. Wow, that's fucking amazing.

Wow, I'm unbelievable. Now, do you know where that came from, Sonny? No clue. Wow.

Wow. That is like so incredible. The fact that they were anomalous. Yeah. Anominous. Phenomena.

Menomina.

Okay. Anonymous. That's what I'm listening right now.

No, but the address is when somebody does something like that. I mean, that is so cool because they're not looking to, you know, get a at a boy, you know. Incredible. Okay.

Awesome. All right, Sonny. That's number three to you.

All right. So my next song is uh probably a song you've heard before. It's called The Look by Speed uh Swedish pop duo. This song's uh pretty cool story. So it was a fourth single off their second studio album, and they had only released it in Sweden at the time. They were trying to get to the States, but EMI said that their music would never work in the States. Okay, so so what ends up happening is it's doing well in Sweden. There's an exchange student that's going from Sweden to back to home, grabs a tape of this thing and sends it to the local record uh the radio station. Tells the guy, hey, you might want to tells the program director you might want to listen to this tape. The program director, of course, doesn't listen to it. And so the guy's like, you know, two weeks later, he hasn't heard it on the radio, so he's like, okay, well, I want my tape back. And the and the program director's like, alright, let me listen to it real quick. Heard the look, loved it, plays it, doesn't stop getting requests from it. They're one of the biggest radio stations and connected to 500 others, makes a bunch of copies, sends it out to the radio stations. EMI hears it says, Who's this new band? and signs Roxette. The very album of the company not gonna work here, and two weeks later, they had a number one hit. Jeez. And at that point in time, there was only three number one hits from a Swedish group. That was Blue Swades Blue Suede's hooked on a feeling in 74, Dancing Queen from 76, and the next one was the one. Wow. Nice unbelievable.

Some of the stories are ridiculous.

Yeah, they're just like songs that are destined, and they go. I've heard that similar stories about songs that just in bands that just didn't make it uh or or got theirs through some odd, you know, handed to somebody and whatever else. Um one of the things that I loved, Frank Zappa says, you know, he says, when he started out in the 60s and 70s, it was all the big guys smoking cigars with music, and they were like, uh fuck it, give it a try. And he says, and now you get all these, as Mark would say, pencil neck geeks that are sitting there, and they won't let anybody in because they think that they're so smart that they know exactly what people want, they really have believe in themselves beyond what they should, and they lock out a lot of good music because they think they know better. And and Zappa ended up saying, I think we were better off with the big fat white guys smoking cigars.

Yeah, oh fuck, pretentious.

Yeah, they've got nothing to do with music anymore. I I gave up my subscription to Rolling Stone when they put the Spice Girls on the cover with Rolling Stone in Pink. I think that was 80 something.

Great story, though. Great story. All right, Mark. That's three to you.

All right, I'm going with Voices Carrie from Till Tuesday. Nice. Amy Mann, I absolutely love her voice. Um, I don't know if you've ever seen the video to this. Um, the song is basically about, you know, he wants me, but only some of the time, and he's off banging some brunette chick, and but this song, I just it I love the synth synthesizer on it, and it brings me back to a time. It's from 1985, and Donnie worked there, but the Summit at Four Seasons, uh it was a resort that I was a groundskeeper at back then. I don't know, I just remember on a rainy day, listen to it, driving up the hill, and there's this little lawn ornament that was like a white heron or something. And uh we were getting ready to move at the time. We moved to South AJ doesn't like the place, but Hensdale, New Hampshire, and I don't know why it puts me there. I'm I'm I'm a little strange, Sonny. I'm sorry, but uh anyway. Big Al, God rest his beautiful soul, ended up taking the damn thing. I'm not advocating for uh you know stealing, but it ended up putting it on our front lawn. But it's just I love Amy, man. I um you know, she was the bass player. It was they were kind of a I don't know, new wave punkish band, would you say?

Well, like they're pop today.

Well, they're pop today, but I just I love her voice. I mean I my favorite Amy is Amy Lee from Evanescence, but uh I just great song, though. Yeah, very catchy.

All right. Now to me. Okay. My number three. Uh now I got a little confused on a few of my picks where the years weren't very clear. Um, because it I have 83 and 84, but I believe it was 84. Uh, this is uh the guy in the shades, man, and that's Corey Hart sunglasses at night.

So I can so I can keep track of visions in my eyes, kill the money to the money, too.

I you could not get away from this song back then.

I think Kiss took that song a little too seriously.

Right, no kidding. Never see them without him. But I know, you know, it was just he's Canadian, so Sonny, I question your Canadian love once in a while, but I see you've been doing those shows with the the five Canadian pics you like.

Yeah, I don't hate all Canadians. You know who you are. Wait a minute. Does that mean you don't like Rush or you do? I hate Rush.

It's so funny because you either love them or you hate them, it seems.

I can't stand them. Yeah. I'm not a massive.

Again, you don't like almost human, and I love that song.

So can't stand that song either.

But but Corey Hart, Canadian, and it was a great song, and I loved it.

So dungo. All right. So in 1981, but I'm we're at 1982 in my book mixtape. But um, 1981 bled into 1982. It was the number one in 1981, but it continued in 1982, and that's uh Kim Karnes Betty Davis Eyes.

And she'll tease you, she'll unease you, how the veteran just to please you.

She's a coach yet, and she knows just what it takes to make a problem.

She got it, Bob, stand outside, she's got Betty Davis.

It's such a kick-ass tune. I love her rasp, her powerful vocals in that song. It's such a smooth like tune. It's just a cool jive tune, you know. I love it. I love that song. And Betty Davis was like 73 years old, and she wrote to Kim Carnes, and like, thank you for making me, you know, back in the modern times again. Because, you know, she was a smoke show when she was a young actress, you know, and she aged gracefully. But you know, like all of us, we get old and change our appearance changes, and and uh that song just kind of brought her back to being sexy and cool again. And I thought it was a good one.

Yeah, because she has a sexy voice.

Yeah, yeah, big time.

Great pack.

Yeah, of course.

Wasn't there uh I don't think it was Weird Al, but somebody made a cover of that or uh goof on that. He's got Marty Feldman eyes.

You'll start shaking, body quaken from the caffeine that you're taking, and you're voracious, and you know how many cups will make your blood rush.

Uh but if I remember correctly, Betty Davis is mer is buried right here in New Hampshire, I think down in Rochester way. Oh, I did not know something like that. Yeah, her and uh I won't be able to think of his name, but from um Casablanca, the police chief Humphrey Bogart, or no, no, no, no, no. The the police chief. Um nope, it's not coming to me. Sorry.

I get it. We'll add it in for you, people. Claude Raines was a master of voice and subtle expression, known for his commanding presence in films like Casablanca, 1942.

Yeah, yeah. Put it on the website. All right, all right, Kev, take it away. All right, so I got the king, I got the prince, and now I'm going with a queen. George Michael, I love the guy, he is such a great songwriter. So many of his albums, uh he's he does, he plays all the instruments. I want your sex is just you talk about the songs that make you want to move. And I'm also a little partial to it because I think it it actually sealed the deal for me a couple times uh back in the day.

Oh really? Nice.

Yeah. Yeah. There's actually three versions of it that are um put into a dance mix. One with with uh one was the lust version, uh the brass in love, and then last request. So there's there's three parts to the song, but again, it was just it was a juggernaut. It was the first single from Faith, which was what he put out right after he left uh his buddy in Wham. And he just skyrocketed from there. And just, I mean, a fantastic, fantastic tune.

And he did like girls too. I mean, I know every he's famous for I don't know if it's Harold Rest area thing.

I didn't know he went both ways. I thought I thought he had a couple beards, but I didn't realize that he, but I don't I didn't know him all that well. So I'm not positive about what his preferences were, just no, I talked about it.

It's gonna come up, he's gonna come up again, maybe. Possibly. Oh boy. I mean, I don't know. Could be a cover. All right, Sonny.

That's to you. All right, so my next song, we haven't mentioned them yet, San Francisco Brothers, Huey Lewis in the news. Yes, in the 80s. I ended up picking from 86, stuck with you.

I have it, happy to be stuck with you. I can't see that so it's done with me.

So it always goes.

Yeah. So he had he had to move on, as he said.

Let's try. Right? So how was he stuck with her if he wasn't even with her?

He would just be happy to be stuck with anybody, probably.

I guess so. He's unbelievable, though.

Unbelievable. Oh, they they were the staple, they were a staple in the yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.

All right, Mark, I think you're next.

All right. Well, this is a song with a fantastic guitar rift. It's Genesis, it's just a job to do. There was a TV show in eighty-five, eighty-six called The Insiders. It was the theme song to it. But I was a huge Genesis fan back in the 80s. And how many hits did they have between that and uh Phil Collins?

Solo called A million?

A million, yeah. I've never heard the song they're talking about. I've never heard it.

Bang, bang, bang, and down you go. It's just a job to do.

Is it a Peter Gabriel song? It's it's after Peter Gabriel. Oh, so it's uh it's Phil Collins again?

Yes. Yes.

Yeah, it's uh Yeah. I've never heard that song.

I got a name, I got a number, I got a job to do, I'm coming down on you. Uh exactly.

I got a name. Is it on an album? I remember the Meg Hits, but I don't remember that one.

I wonder if it's just for the show. Like like a soundtrack song. Maybe it's not on an album. You know what I mean?

Uh it's okay. But I just you know what what I really like about it is the guitar, uh, the guitar riff. It's just really cool and you know, see, and here we go.

We learn a song. So it's great about it. I mean, I found the okay.

Well, you'll learn it. We'll he'll we'll figure it out.

All right. All right, number four. Um back to Michael Jackson, and I almost took Billie Jean Cav. I'm glad I didn't. I went with beat it.

You better run, you better do a true chance. Don't wanna see no blood, don't be a much. You wanna beat the better, do what you can, don't beat it. But you wanna be better, just beat it.

This is because as I say, you know, I go by memories and where these things take me. And good friend of mine back in the old neighborhood was Aaron Real. And we actually built a stage in the backyard, and we performed for the neighborhood and played this song, and I was Michael Jackson, and I can't dance to save my fucking life.

Our uncles are incredible dancers, Sonny. But it the dancing gene skipped a generation. Oh, big time. Big oh god.

But then, of course, Eddie Van Halen and Steve Lukather. Hope I got that right. That's it. But incredible guitar solo, and you, Donnie, I believe, were saying, and Sonny maybe too, about the guitars in the, you know, and Mark, you said it too, I think. Just the guitars in some of these pop songs that came out and shined and were fucking incredible.

I mean, there's no different things. You know, in comparison to today's crap.

Oh, yeah. Oh, and this just going back to the 80s pop, just it was incredible. You know, it it was shoved in our ears like you said in the beginning, Sonny. But at the same time, if the shit that they put out now was shoved in our ears, I don't think we'd be singing along to it. No, you know, I think I'd just drive in silence. I'd rather do that.

Shove an ice pick into my ear.

Exactly. Well, I was involved. Lukather was involved in a lot of those songs. He's done over like 3,500 or something like that. Unbelievable. Sessions. You know that song, uh Talk to You Later? He co-wrote that song. I love that song. Right.

The two at the Capitol Theater in Concord. Yeah. Nice.

I think it's almost like 10,000 songs when you put the Picaro brothers together, Luca Third.

And Joseph Williams and those guys. Yeah. Exactly.

They were like, because I mean, Toto was like a thing that they did. They were established as the best studio musicians and songwriters. And then and then they did Toto. It's like I want to become side side hussers. Yeah. And then I want to go to Europe.

Like, we're all done being studio musicians. We want some of the fame too, right? Yeah, right? Yeah.

All right, Dongo. So 1983, coming in at number six on the year-end top 100, was turnaround every now and then, I guess. I had to take it. Um Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. It's just a it's a staple of the 80s. I loved it in the movie.

Ever now and then I get a little bit low and it never coming back. Ever now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my teeth.

Ever now and then I get a little bit dead. Ever now then I get a little bit of fancy the fucking fucking Ever now and then I pull up.

You fucking ever now and then I pull up. And I need to now tonight.

I fucking need to bowl.

He's like looks around like, did he just say swear? That guy's fucking great. Yeah. Yeah. Old school. This is a great tune. I mean, it's it's kind of a cheesy tune, and you know I love the cheese, but so that's what I'm going with. Not cheese if you love it, Dongo.

Right. Well, yeah, you know, it's it's funny, Donnie, is you you you talk about the cheese, but that was actually that song was part of a rock opera that Jim Steinman wrote, and Jim Steinman from who did uh Bat Out of Hell with Meatloaf. And so, yeah, that was a whole other rock opera that was supposed to be there, and it just kind of that was a piece of it that survived. And he listened to it. I mean, Steinman had this way of almost taking like Broadway type music and making it rock songs, and and that's kind of what that was, and that's why he just he knows how to like get in there and that call and response intro is just like quintessential 80s, you know.

Yeah, yeah, awesome.

Yeah, all right, Kev, keep talking. It's you. Oh, okay. You know that's not really my forte. I'm not a talker, uh, not much of a talker, not much of a drinker.

He's at Cliff Claven.

Let me tell you something then, I'm me. Uh Culture Club.

Yes.

Do you really want to hurt me?

Do you really want to hurt me? Do you really want to make me cry? Breast this kiss is the one that find me beloved In my heart five Shoot my colour finding stuff this people always found me. That's a step for step too far. Do you really want to hurt me?

Mean they were so iconic at that time, and you know, looking at the videos now, um, Boy George is nowhere near as shocking today as he was then, because you can just go to Walmart and see somebody even more like not sure of who or what they are, but looking he looks really mild, but he freaked us out back then, and definitely one of those bands that I wouldn't have walked into the into the bathroom at in my high school smoking a butt and gone, you know, I was checking out the new Culture Club album last night. That's that's a story that never would have happened, but again, it was something that was drummed into us, and you realize that the rhythm section in that song is just it's killer. It's absolutely killer.

A lot of great songs.

Yeah, 1982, just a great, great song that embodies that era.

Nice. Or you know, very different looking people. I thought of Vinny Vincent. Oh, yeah. I don't know what's going on with him, but he has not aged gracefully. No. Well, I don't know. She has not aged gracefully.

Right. She he no disrespect.

I just don't know if I mean he's he claims. No, but of course I'm not transitioning or whatever, but he looks more feminine now than he ever did. Yeah. Well he was pretty battle-axe back in the early 80s. Sonny, off to you to finish up side one.

Alright, so what's crazy is the Vinnie Vincent conversation came up, and my next song has to do with Vinny Vincent. Nice. No kidding. So I could have gone with Missin You by John Waite, but I decided to go with Tears, which is on the same album from 84. So if you don't know what Tears is, and it's possible you've never heard it, it's actually a song co-written by Vinny Vincent. Awesome.

No kidding.

He handed it to Peter Chris in 82. 82 did, you know, Peter did shit with it like he does with everything else. And then they handed it to John Waite, and it was a single after Missing You. Go try it. It's on no breaks off of John Wade. John Wade's one of my favorite singers of all time. I get off things. Yeah, he's great singer. But I love that talk singing, man. It works. I just saw him live like a year ago. Did you really? He absolutely killed. Tons of energy from mid-70s. Unbelievable. Wow.

Yeah, from the babies right through his solo. I mean, he just one of those voices that just it's distinct and it hits you, and and really great song choices as well.

Yeah, yeah. Did Benny play on Tears or He did not. He just co-wrote it with Adam Mitchell.

Thank God for his songwriting, I'll tell you, because boy, did he fucking help Kiss Out, which is another podcast.

But I always wanted that one, didn't we? What crazy I mean, excuse me, uh Creatures of the Night would have sounded like if Ace was on it. Or if they did they did not do the Elder and went, you know, they took Ace's advice and did a heavy record. I think every kid will never know that too.

I'm sure somebody listening can probably do it on AI and put it out there somewhere. No, yeah.

You mean the future of music? Yeah. I guess I should just smash my guitars now. It seems that way. Yeah. You know? I wouldn't. Oh well, Mark, it's you. All right. Well, I'm bringing up George Michael again. This song it it hits me emotionally. It's it's called Fire the Figure.

I have had enough I will be the one who loves you till the end of time.

I don't know. It's this song can take me back to when I was what 23 or whatever it was in the uh late 80s. That's what we do hear it pastimes. And what's uh teener colorage? Am I pronouncing that right? And that that just made me think, I I gotta look up. Did George Michael like girls too? And he did. He did. Yeah. So but no, it just and if you listen to the song, it's it's just it's emotional. I mean, it just Oh yeah. That's uh it it just I don't know what it is, it just goes right to my heartstrings. Those are the ones that hit you, man.

Well, all the best girls have daddy issues, so that song kind of plays right into it, doesn't it?

Daddy issues, well, hey, you know, won't get into that, but uh I mean it just gives me goosebumps, and yeah, that that was just a brilliant, brilliant song.

Right. Awesome. And I know we got karaoke people on this show. Darn definitely ringing all the time. I'm gonna tell you right now, careless whisper kills. Oh, yeah. Oh, Caroless Whisper, Careless Whisper Wham.

Not hair whisper. Oh, yeah. We've used that in past.

Careless Whisper's about my cat. Wait a minute. It's a Mexican.

Am I being shut up here?

Oh man, too coming. All right, I'm wrapping up side one here on my tape. This is the one that I'm gonna get shit about, but you guys know I gotta crowbarum in. Okay. And this is 1980 leading off side two of Unmasked, and it's kissed naturally, and it's the song Tomorrow.

No, I think Unmasked is awesome.

Awesome. I love it. Oh, I meant just the song, but yeah, it's one of my favorite Kiss albums. I mean, I say that about a dozen of them, but this song to me, I love it. It's it's so power poppy and so fun. And I actually had Kevin listen to it last night to, you know, ask his opinion, you know, is it usable? Which I try not to share our picks ahead of time, but I I thought I'd get hung out to dry taking it, but the whole album's really power pop. But this just takes me back. I love the tune, I love Paul's vocal on it. I also have to mention something because this album had a skip on it back when I was a kid. And it's right when say a word, say a word, and it would just skip over and over and fucking over. And I found the box of records in my shed when I was moving into my new place. And I f Dongo, you gave me that turntable, thank you very much, and I fucking popped that record on. Whammo.

Didn't have to say a word, say a word, say a word.

Same skip. I was so excited. I know, I know, but I thought the shed would have warped it over the past three decades. Tell them the killer story. The what story? Oh, the album in the trunk. Yeah, never put an album on your fucking dashboard is the story.

No, I I put it in the trunk. It was it in I I was in the trunk. I bought killers.

In the summer, in a thousand-degree weather.

I brought it back, and it was so friggin' warm. They were so mad at me. And David put it under a lamp and melted it back. Oh no, it worked.

And that's for the greatest original kiss songs ever written, in my opinion. So you know it's funny, Agent.

Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

Go ahead.

So, I was saying, talk about the dashboard. Funny story. Took this girl to a concert. She hadn't been to very many concerts. She left her, she left the tickets I bought in the glove compartment, and you know, it got all black. We're headed to the show, and they're all black, and I'm freaking like, ah, what the hell, right? We just basically started dating. And I am freaking out that these concert tickets are gonna be right for the throat. Right? Married her. We've been together 32 years. I hear that story every she's probably hearing me right now. Tell her the story, then I hear the story later. Did you get into the show? Oh, yeah, we got into the show. Nice. Boys to Men, Montel Jordan.

This is how we do it.

This is how we do it.

That was the point.

Oh, cool. That reminds me of an Ace Fraley story I heard yesterday on Eddie Trunk because a woman ran into Ace at some concert that he never would have been at in a million years unless it was for a girl. So I'm guessing you went to that for your wife, Sonny. Awesome.

And she just texts me. She goes, Yep, I'm hearing the story right now. Nice. Nice.

Great. Okay, Dongo. All right. So 1984 coming in at number eight on the year-end Hot 100 is kind of a song that's this Casey Kasem. Very good. Yeah, this is Casey Case him live. Um, it's owner of a Lonely Heart from Yes. It's a unique song, and I love the you know, like such a cool like drum solo, keyboard thing, whatever. But it's just a cool song, you know. Not mainstream, but they that was a pop song that was pretty popular in the day. So absolutely, but I think that was great area, but we'll let you keep it.

I think that was when they brought Trevor Rabin in, who was um Buggles originally. I mean, that's where we first saw him was Video Killed the Radio Star.

Yeah.

Um, but I believe he's the one playing guitar on that.

First video ever. That song made a movie. Do you remember it in the breakup? I don't know. Oh, the one with Jennifer Hanniston? Yeah. It's in the breakup. It's at the dinner. Yeah.

Good Carol. Yes, Dennis. Totally awesome. Tank, tank, and tank, tank, tank, and tank, tank, and tank, tank, tank. Move yourself. You always live your life. Never thinking of the future. Prove yourself. You are the move you make. Take your chances, win or lose. See yourself. Your every step you take. You and you, and that's the only way. Shake. Shake. Shake yourself. You're every move you make. So this star again.

And they do a version of it at dinner because her brother is in the Tone Rangers and they have a cappella version that they do. Oh, that's cool.

I remember much put that in there. Vince Vaughn, yeah.

All right. Great pick, Dawn. Kevin, you're wrapping up side one.

So I'm going to end side one with the King of Pop's sister, Janet Jackson, When I Think of You from 1986. That was just, I don't know. It just there is a distinct feeling in that song. And it's really kind of it's about that thinking about that nice feeling you get when you're thinking about somebody that you want to be with or that you're with. And it's just that it just the song kind of embodies that nice feeling that you have when you're shoveling the driveway and thinking about that that special person. And the Super Bowl. And the Super Bowl, yeah. I wasn't gonna bring that up, but sure. Pandrobe malfunction. Um and that, but that being a number one made her and Michael the first and only brother and sister to have a number one on the Hot 100.

Nice. Wow.

So still holding up today, as far as I know.

And now a short commercial break.

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So my next pick, and this happens uh unfortunately every time somebody passes, but Eddie Van Halen passes, and all of a sudden you got 200 people that come up and say, Hey, Eddie asked me to be the singer for Van Halen when they got rid of Dively Ron. Like the list is getting longer and longer and longer. This one's actually confirmed. So there was a point in time Patty Smith was asked to be the lead singer for Van Halen, and she actually said, and I quote, I was a New Yorker, I didn't want to live in LA, I was pregnant eight months, and those guys were drunk and fighting all the time. That was her answer. But my choice is from 82, goodbye to you. That was her first single off their first album, and it's like pop punk almost, and it's so bebop-y and it's so fun. So it's like I'll be sitting there at the poker table playing poker or whatever, and this pops on just random in my head, and it's just like I'm the doot do do, you know, and just kind of listening, and it's just one of those fun songs. So yeah, goodbye to you, my skin.

Yeah, great song. All right, Mark, to you. Oh, speaking of fun songs and speaking of Prince that was brought he was brought up earlier. That he actually wrote this Bangle song called Manic Monday. And um, as you know, I mean, Susanna Hoffs, I picked her in my 1980s crush.

And have talked about her multiple times.

Incredibly sexy, unbelievably sexy. Thank you very much.

Just another manic.

A little bit coming in. Just I love her voice, just the way what song was that was Walk Like an Egyptian, where she did that little head turn. The little the little look I look like. Every boy in America stood his salute. I mean, oh, and she was in a movie when she oh my god, got down to her friggin' underwear and little tiny bra. Oh my god. Yeah, yeah, she does, she does, and uh, I know the bangles, they weren't around for long. They had a lot of infighting, but they had some fun songs. I mean, we're not talking about any of the other members. I don't even know if I can name one, to be honest with you. So I guess that would piss me off, too.

Right. It just always makes me when we talk about those, you know, some of the bigger girl bands. I mean, did they know that their name was the Bang Gals? I know, right? I thought Banana Rama get the reference, they must have, right? I mean, I'm just saying.

Yeah, that's a very good point. It was probably thought through. I would say, yeah. I thought they were the Cincinnati Bengals cheerleaders.

Yeah, they're called the Bengals, by the way. They are called the Bengals.

As they shouldn't, yeah, that's cool.

Nice. All right, confused with the Buffalo Jills. Is that a Mark joke? That was a Mark joke. No, it's not a that's what they were called. The Buffalo Jills. Oh, they really are. Yeah, my my wife is from uh Western New York, and we're out there now introducing the Buffalo Jills. I thought for sure it was a terrible mark joke.

Oh no, I don't know. It is, it just also has a root somewhere else.

Yeah.

Okay. Uh song number six to be leading off side two, and we've discussed this in the past. I will not go into much detail on it, but it's 1982 Hungry Like the Wolf. Duran Duran. Donnie, you said it fucking perfect in the last one. If you don't move when you when this song kicks in, right, you don't have a soul. Like, it's just such a great group. And and I I could have went, and that's off Rio. There were so many songs I could have gone from this band. I won't say a single one because you know they could come up again, but I loved Duran Duran. Hungry Like the Wolf is one of the greatest pop songs in my book, and that's why it's leading off side two. Okay, Dongo.

All right, so 1985 for me in my Billboard year-end Hot 100 coming in at number eight is a rock tune, but it's a pop rock tune. And we probably got one of the best intros of any pop rock songs. And going back to Sunny talking about MTV, I want my MTV, and it's dire straits money for nothing. Um, awesome guitar, fucking da da. You know, that's such an awesome intro of that song. Classic tune. It's got Sting doing some background vocals on it. Um, just a classic tune. I love that song.

You know, you ever tried to play it? It's like a you've like hit two octave strings.

You've interesting. No, and I heard that it was like a studio mishap that made that tone or something. I did hear I could be wrong on that, but like he just he something happened and he was like, Let's roll it. And it it maybe it was his necklace or his bracelets.

Yeah, right. Yeah, he was trying to do an ace fraley thing. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. There's there's a lot of debate about what equipment was being used and where the microphones were placed and and all of that. And there was something that wasn't exactly as they had planned it, and he decided to go with it. Yeah. Um, he said that he was trying to emulate Z Top sound with that. But the crazy, the craziest thing about it is was one of those studios on, I can't remember the name of it, on the in the island somewhere. And Mark Knopfler actually said, geez, you know what regrate if we could have Sting do the intro on this, and somebody went, Oh, he's upstairs. Oh shit. It doesn't happen in most people's lives. Right. Hey, you know, I I wish that Gordon Ramsay could help me with this chicken stalk. Right. He's right over there. He's next door at the neighbors. Right.

It's just like a commercial serendipity, I believe that's called. I don't have that kind of love. Serendipitus. Serendipitous. Dip it is. Now I can't picture it and I couldn't tell you what happens in it, but I still feel like that was an incredible video too. Oh, yeah, it was a cool video, too. For sure. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it was one of the early computer generated.

I can't see it like going left and right in it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes. Very pixelated and square. Yeah. Exactly.

Atari like.

Yes. That's exactly uh eight-bit. Um, another thing, I just because uh dire straits is one of my favorites. Mark Knopfler, I think, is gotta be one of the greatest living guitarists. He actually wrote that song. It's it's exactly what you think it would be. He was in a appliance store and he was sitting down at like, you know, the mocked-up kitchen, and he could so they couldn't see him, but he could hear the guys at work there, and those were the things they were saying. And he just grabbed a pen and paper and started writing the song down. It's like, and it's pretty much exactly what these guys were saying.

We got some movies, refrigerators, we got some movies gonna TV.

All right, Kev, well, you're yapping again. You might as well keep earlier.

Yapp it away. So I probably could have taken any of 50 songs from this band because to me they kind of one of those bands that embodied the sound of the era, but I went with tempted by squeeze.

Wish that it would stop. Tempted by the fruit of another. Tempted but the truth is discovered. What's been going on now that you have gone? There's no other.

Different and Tilbrook are just great songwriters. Uh Tilbrook had some, he had some different feelings about the song because Paul Carrick ended up singing it because Elvis Costello suggested it. They had originally done a slower Motown version that Glenn sang. Uh, but he came back around to it later on and kind of fell in love with the song, and it was kind of the launching point for them. And this just struck me because he said it floats me back to that time when youth was a cloud and I drifted around from day to day. And I was like, wow, that's kind of where we're headed with this podcast. Just trying to think about those days when we didn't have mortgages and kids and bills to pay and all that. It was like enough money to go to McDonald's and and maybe see a concert and get an album, and and that was it. So I don't know. That just that just struck me. That that statement took me back.

Great line. Yeah, the good old days. Uh the coin on the floor of the Geo Metro for gas.

Make me think of that. Right. That will get us an extra three miles.

If we put that in the gas, actually in the metro, it would have got us to Portland, Maine.

Awesome. That was a gallon back then. And with the Geo Metro, that was 45 miles or whatever.

All right. We're on to song seven to you, Sonny.

All right, so I'm gonna go with a song that should be on every sexy time playlist. If you have a sexy time playlist, you should have a sexy time playlist.

Have you met my wife?

Need one no matter what. Right. Okay. 1982's sexual healing.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.

Oh yeah.

What a great song. And you know, some of these songs I I feel bad because they have like controversy around them. So, like this one, once it got to be a hit, nobody cared until it got to be a hit. Then it's like, well, I had a hand in writing that. And I had a random writing that. So some guy from Rolling Stone shows up in Belgium because Marvin Gaye's in Belgium running from the IRS and his ex-wife.

Okay.

This is 81. He's writing songs in Belgium. Some guy from Rolling Stone comes and says, I'm gonna interview you, whatever. Sees that I guess Marvin Gaye had SM magazines around and cartoons and stuff and comic books he was looking at. I don't know what SM comic books there are, but whatever. Suppose he's looking at these comic books, and supposedly this guy says, You need sexual healing. And then supposedly Marvin says to him, What does that mean? and write it in a poem and let me know. And then they wrote the song together. Marvin's brother says, That guy wasn't even around when that song got written. Right? And of course, all that stuff happens after Marvin dies. Oh man. Right? Of course. It's like $15 million lawsuit here, $15 million lawsuit here. So they decide they go, Well, we're gonna give you credit, but we ain't giving you $15 million. So homie got credit for writing the song or whatever. But it's a great song. The problem is that you know what, the the controversy shit always pisses me off afterwards.

Oh, right. Right, right. Right.

It's like it's gotta be ironclad before it starts because you never know what's gonna be a hit. But damn, this is one of the best songs of the 80s. Oh, such a great tier.

I can tell you, Dollar, that it's sexual healing. Get up, get up, get up, get up. Let's make it up tonight. Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.

But then they turned around. Didn't his family sue the the thick kid for blurred lines saying that it was um that it was a ripoff? Yeah, and I mean it's it's I don't know. It's and that always takes me back to uh vanilla ice. No, mine was dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. It's like shut you idiot. But you know what I mean? But now he gets paid every time somebody plays that queen song.

So and then you know, you got just as many people who aren't musicians that say, well, there can only be so many notes in the world, but then you could argue with Eddie Van Halen and copy anybody, so why do you have to?

Right? Exactly. Exactly. Awesome. All right. Now I'm gonna take you back to uh the uh trip to Quebec City. This song is uh The Politics of Dancing by Reflex. You have to see the video, but the the bald guy with the the bass, man, he makes bald look badass. And uh anyway, so uh this song always hit home with me because we got into this Greyhound bus or whatever. I was working as a page at the State House in 1983, and they had a trip to Quebec City. We get on the bus at 6 45 a.m. And this guy breaks out his little case with shot glasses and whiskey. It's like, what the fuck am I looking at here? It's quarter to seven in the morning. And needless to say, I couldn't handle it, and we leave me and my roommate for the weekend, and uh I'm crossing the street and they drive like crazy maniacs up there, and uh next thing you know, I got hit by a car, bounced right off. I mean the car stops, I'm like, Yeah, you're fine, and I laugh for the next hour, which is ridiculous. But but I mean, this song is so groovy, it's just so kick ass for a pop song. I'd love this tune. This is probably the song I just mentioned, it's probably the my favorite song on the whole list. Yes. All right. Cool. So my rant's over.

All right. Number seven to me then. And this is off uh it's Denise Williams off the Footloose soundtrack in 1984. And it's Let's Hear It for the Boy. Yeah. This song to me, I can sing every friggin' word to it.

Let's hear it from the boy. Let's give a boy a hate.

Let's hear it from my baby.

You know you gotta understand.

Yeah, exactly, Sonny. It makes me want to move and just groove, and I love it. And you know, you you watch the movie, and I I mean, I pray to God they stop remaking classics into a new movie. Oh, wait, maybe because I can't fucking stand it. I don't know that they've ever succeeded. It's like take a movie that could have been good and make it great. Stop taking classics and making them shit. You know, it's nobody has an original thought in their head out there anymore. Yeah. So they keep doing that. But this song by Denise Williams, the video's pretty funny too. You got the kid in the dunce hat, and he comes out and starts doing like incredible dance moves in his top hat and cane, but kind of a little disturbing at the same time, too. Because I'm like, why is she singing to a little fucking boy here? But anyway, it's a great song.

And I just was upset they allowed dancing. I mean, I was rooting for Jonathan Lithgow on that one.

Okay, Donnie, take it away.

All right, all right. So I'm at 1986 now on my mixtape, and I'm at rounding out at number 10 on the Billboard Year End Hot 100 was Addicted to Love from Robert Palmer. And I think we all remember that video from just the you know hot girls in the video. They all just dancing back and forth, and that was a classic uh video. It was kind of a boring video, but it wasn't that boring when you had something nice to look at. So that was no, you had to like a cool song, you know. Might as well face it. We're addicted to love bee. You know, it's got a cool, cool beat to it. Um just a fun song. Absolutely. Simple and fun. And that's what I think the biggest song that you've got. Personified the 80s is simple and fun.

I take it back. That was a number 10 song that year. You just told us. Uh so all right, Kev.

All right. Uh I again this is one of those bands that that I really think kind of defined the sound of the 80s. Many choices from from their catalog, but the one that got me was Head Over Heels, Tears for Fears. Oh, great. Such a great band.

Uh where were they from, Kevin?

Sorry to interrupt you. Uh British, I believe. Um, no, no, not much more to say about it, other than that was a great song and a great band, and really enjoyed it. That was the fourth single off uh uh uh Songs from the Big Chair and 1985, and just it is what it is. A great 80s pop song.

Did they ever come out with anything after that that I mean even reached that level?

Well, yeah, everybody wants to rule the world.

Yeah, I I was just about to say that it's all off the same album, though.

I was I was talking about the next album.

I wasn't talking about No, after that, I think it was Sowing the Seeds of Love, which was a very Beatlesque kind of Sergeant Pepper's, and I don't think it had the popularity that that um that songs from the Big Chair album had.

I had three songs on my list from that one album, Kev, so I'm so glad you took that because I scratched it, but that's how awesome it was. Unbelievable. All right, we are we here. Number eight to you, Sonny.

All right, so my number eight is from what I believe to be one of the best songwriters of my lifetime, Richard Marks. I absolutely love yes. And uh, and I could have picked a lot of songs, but I went with uh 1989's If You Don't Want My Love, it's off of Repeat Offender. So that album, it's six singles. This wasn't one of them, and it could easily be.

Yeah.

Um and it's there's a little bit, there's a little more rock to it. It's co-written by Fee Wabel of the Tubes. Uh Richard and Fee are actually great friends. They've written a lot of songs together. Uh, but I love Richard's voice, and I love that song. Yeah, if you don't want my love, 1989.

Nice. Do you know? I've always wondered, and I never looked it up, but is he an offspring of one of the Marx brothers? Is that somewhere in his lineage? I just remember looking at his face, thinking that there was some structural you know similarities there, but I was never able to confirm nor deny.

Yeah, I've never heard that. Um now he's married to one of my crushes, Daisy Fuentes.

Daisy Fuentes, yes, wing.

Yeah, but uh yeah, I've never heard the Marx Brothers thing. Yeah at all.

Might have just been in my head.

He has is it him that has a great relationship with Barbara Streisand, like they're best friends kind of thing? Yeah.

It's just songwriters because songwriters got like four or five um, there's like four or five of them that hang out all the time. They have all these great songs. He's got a great story. Used to have a podcast that he's like, somebody approached me about this, you know, 14-year-old. They wanted me to write a song with her, and I'm like, what do I got to say to a 14-year-old? It's like year 2000 or 2005, and like I got nothing to say about this chick. Like, I don't want to write a song with her. It was Taylor Swift. And he's like, looking back, I guess I missed on that one.

Well, he might have helped her on her way because aren't most of her songs about being rejected by men?

Yeah, yeah, pretty much, yeah.

So maybe he was the first. Sent her on her path.

All right, brother. All right, well, um I might get some shit for this song, but it's the Thompson twins, Doctor Doctor. This is the song of 1984 for me. I was working at the post office as a casual delivering mail. It just reminds me of going to work, but I mean, it's a little the vocals are a little cheesy if you watch the video, but the to me, what makes this song is the actual music. Again, I I hate to keep saying the same damn thing, but it just gets me right here in the world.

That's a great dune, though.

Yeah, but it's it's such a pop 19. I mean, it's almost like central casting for a 1980s pop song, as far as I'm concerned.

And I'm the bird.

Just a great song. I mean, I don't even know if they were related or they were married to each other. Well, they were twins. They were twins.

They were twins. It was the blonde woman, the red-headed guy, and the big black guy. They were they were twins, but triplets maybe.

I do know they ended up being llama farmers or something like that. Wow. Seriously, that's serious. I think someone a couple of them end up being llama farmers or something.

Well, isn't uh artists are pretty eccentric.

Well, yeah, the uh um I can't think it's Ian. Uh what's his name from from Jethro Tull? He raises sheep and and salmon.

Oh, Anderson. Yeah.

Yeah, Ian Anderson. Yeah.

Oh, Ian Anderson.

Sheep and salmon?

Is that what you say?

Sheep and salmon, yes. That's gotta be a property. Uh I would be willing to bet. Yes.

Well, he's Scottish, so you know, there's probably like they used to say about Western New York, the the men are men, the women are men, and the sheep are nervous. I don't know.

Sorry. All right, to me, number eight. And this one I might get a little emotional on. That's all right. I'm not sure. I don't know if it'll be a little pop or if it's more fantasy. And it's 1984, I believe it's Lamal. And that's the never-ending story. And this song to me has so much meaning to me. I went to this movie I think seven days in a row when it came out. I was 12 years old. All right. I went with an old, old friend of mine that I'm still very close with, a female. And at 12 years old, there was a reason I went to this movie seven days in a row.

You hit puberty already at 12? Oh. I guess that's about it.

I hope so, but anyway. We had ideas. I loved this movie, it was just spectacular to me. And this song, You Say Your Heart Chords, brother. Like it really strikes mine. And something I wanted to say about it before I go to you, Dongo, is in one of the seasons of Stranger Things, there is a scene in this where it's Dustin and Susie. She is like bitching at him, saying she wants him to sing the song. So this poor kid, although embarrassed, has to sing the song to her, and he breaks out into song, and the scene, it's making my hair stand up right now, put it that way, is one of the greatest scenes. I burst into tears and watch it like 20 times in a row when I look at it.

Turn around. Look at what you see in her face.

And the memory to be still.

So did you make a move on the young lady, or were you too?

I didn't have to because she made the move on me seven days in a row, which is why I went to the movie seven days in a row.

It wasn't even the friggin' movie then.

Well, it kind of was a combination.

Dongo, take it away, my buddy. All right. So 1987. I'm at 1987, and then the you know, Billboard Year End Hot 100 coming in at number one, which is not my pick. This is not my pick, was Walk Like an Egyptian. Just to throw back to that. That was number one at that time. I don't think anybody's gonna grab that one. But at number 10 was Bon Jovi Living on a Prayer. This is a rock pop crossover. It is kind of rock, but Living on a Prayer. That's what got the chicks, you know. That was, you know, chicks weren't going to Iron Maiden, but they were going to Bon Jovi concerts. So yeah, that's where you could find them.

Um they weren't going to rush concerts. That's for sure.

No, no, they definitely want to yes concerts. Although I do have a good story that I can share off air about a yes concert. Um uh anywho, but Bon Jovi living on a prayer.

So you were saying you were halfway there, you had Bon Jovi hair.

Yeah, oh yeah, I had the Bon Jovi hair for sure. You did.

All right, Kev, to you.

All right, now just I want to clear something up because I was trying to do a mark. I was setting you up with the young lady at the theater and asked if you made a move, or were you too shy shy, which was Kathy, which was the lead singer, was Lamal.

Gotcha. Did I say his name right? Lamal? I did. Good.

Uh as far as I know, absolutely, but I haven't hung out with him in years, so I don't remember how to pronounce it. But anyway, so what I've got here is another, again, as we get closer to the end, bands that just kind of had that 80s feel. And and this band, I I don't I when you go back and look at them, they had much more impact than you would have thought they did. But psychedelic furs had a ton of great songs. Um, I ended up going with the big one, which was Pretty in Pink from the soundtrack said movie. It's just a great song. I I love his voice, I love the sound of the band, and it just it felt like the 80s. Interestingly enough, I I always kind of knew this, but he based the lyrics on his ex-girlfriend's friend and a woman he met at the pub, and they were basically well, they're basically whores. Uh, they they imagined themselves as being very, very popular because they were very, very easy. Um, but the guys were pretty much laughing about them behind their back.

This is must hold in the dream and dream.

Great pack oars. I love it when we use that word on our podcast.

Oh, you mean like the Smurfett?

Smurfett.

Still wanted I wanted to.

She was the only female on the cartoon, Sonny. I remember. I remember.

Somebody actually, I saved it. There was actually a meme, and it was like um uh Snow White talking about having to deal with the seven dwarfs and another Disney princess, and then it just turns and it's Smurfett just like passed out on the ground, like you don't have a clue what I have to go through.

Right, right. All right, where are we here? We're at number nine. Number nine? Number nine is off to you, Sonny.

So I'm gonna go with so my number one um artist of all time, I told you earlier, was Prince. Number two is Kiss for Me. Number three for me is Hollow Notes. I absolutely love it.

They were a great concert.

I think I've seen them probably live 30 times. I love Hollow Notes.

Nice.

Um, and if anybody listens to me on the podcast or you've heard me say it before, I'll use this phrase called vocal gymnastics. What I mean by that is at the end of the song, the person's just going off on vocal runs because they have the villa ability to do so. Uh the Alice Coopers and the Gene Simmons of the world, the Ozzys of the world don't have the ability to do so, but the Mariah Careys and the Daryl Halls of the world do. Then you'll hear people say stuff like that person can sing the phone book, and Hall ends up there too. So the song I picked was off of 88's Ooh Yeah, and it wasn't it was a single, but it wasn't one of the hits, and it's called Talkin' All Night. The reason I picked a song is because literally the hook and the choruses 1245, call it to one, we're talking all night. I mean, it is literally the phone book, and then he goes, 145, call it to two, we're talking all night.

Call it three, we're talking all night. Caught it to four night.

It's literally the fumble. It is the fumble.

Yeah. Incredible song, Sonny. And I don't know if you got my reply, but Yeah, I saw it. That's why I was wondering. Was that a because I told you I was nocturnal, and then I saw those lines.

I'm like, you saying I'm up all night, but no, it was more about I knew we weren't gonna share our songs, and I'm like, I'm picking a couple people might not know. I still got one that somebody uh somebody may not know, but I was like, yeah, these are my favorites, so I go with it. That's cool. Go with it. Absolutely.

I mean, Daryl Hall is absolutely the king of the blue-eyed soul. To be as soulful as he is and and be from Philly and and and very white. I saw him last year, yeah, and he's like pushing 80 at this point. And he's still he's good, but but he's got it down to a science too, because because my buddy does uh security for that venue, and he was like, he's leaving the stage at 1035, and we escort him. I mean, literally, like the the show ended on the on a dime, and I saw the police escort leaving. I mean, like he walked off the stage, got in the vehicle, and left. He was there's no lollygagging hanging around. He's like, I'm out of here. Gotta go to bed. See you later.

I think most elderly artists and rich people are like that. Bam, gone.

Those, especially the blue eyes old guys. Uh, and like I said, I've seen these guys tons of times live. Man, they are tough to see live because you can't sing along. Because what'll happen is they'll start changing the vocal melody because they're just doing what they feel like doing today. Yeah, they're singing along, going, God damn, stop changing the vocal melody. Like I made the movie what it was. We'll try to sing along. But they got the talent to do it, so they do it.

Yeah, and they're with the song for the nine millionth time, too. So they can put some stuff into it. But uh AJ and I were talking about that last night. That you know, Hall of Notes had some songs that worked and wouldn't have worked for other people. Uh, Method of Modern Love, um, M E Tult. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's not working for anybody else. Yeah. Uh Private Eyes. Yeah. Um, Adult Education.

I mean I took Family Man off my list today.

Yeah. I don't see anybody else having success with those songs because the lyrics weren't like, you know, they weren't catchy, they weren't flowy, they weren't, but they made it work.

Oh, incredible band.

Most mostly it was O clapping on private eyes. So that was really.

I was like, ooh, it's Daryl Hall, the other guy.

The other guy, yeah.

Well, notice you don't see him on Daryl's house or any of the other stuff.

Well, that's because they don't get along. I know. I was gonna ask, but they've been fighting since the day they met.

They've been fighting. Oil and water, yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, a little bit oil and water, a little bit. They both needed each other and both think they're more important than the other person. And then they got raked over the coals by some of their management, lost all lost all kinds of money. So then when you lose all that money and then you make it back, then you become very mistrusting.

Interesting.

John wanted to sell the songs, Daryl doesn't want to. Then Daryl needed money and he wanted to send those songs, and John Owen said, Fuck you, we're not doing that. Yeah, right. They're just fighting like us.

Unbelievable. So Oates was kind of like a the music business. Yeah.

Kind of like the music guy.

Yeah. Did he write a lot of the songs, or was it most

Yeah, they wrote a lot of the songs uh separately but together, if that makes sense, right? So kind of like Paul and Genius, everything's written together, but really they're in silos writing stuff together, right? But when it comes down to it, especially with pop songs, because the guitar player, nobody knows who it is, right? The vocal is what attracts it, and that's what gets you the hit. And I don't care how big John Oates thinks he's it thinks he is, he's the other guy.

Yeah, he is the other guy, absolutely. Yeah, he's the sidecar, he's the Robin.

Although the mustache, I don't think anybody can emulate.

Well, that's what I was saying. The soul glow.

Yes, yes, John John Oates.

I just had a blast at that concert. It was down in Manchester on the river. Yeah. I mean, what a great.

People just get up, start dancing. I mean, it's danceable.

I mean, their tunes are just they're awesome. I mean, the vibe is great.

Uh unbelievable. All right. Mark, we are to you for number nine. Number nine.

Number nine. Okay, so I'm going with a song that I did talk about in our hodgepodge, and this is Nina. Um, not in all sessions, 1982, and then Red Balloons came out the following year. And listeners that are of a certain age do not realize that back then there was this thing called the Soviet Union, you had East Germany, and Nina was German, okay? So there's this wall standing up. And uh, you know, you it imagine that. Like, say you go north of Plymouth or something, and then you go up there and there's no freedom, and you have uh the Stasi running after you. And this song is, I mean, it's kind of an anti-war song, but I mean, there was a lot of these songs back in those days. What's that?

Incredible fucking song, which is when I said I that wasn't the German song I thought you were going with. Obviously, this was it.

Yes, not in Schluff Ballon. I mean I like the German version a little better. Yeah, but yeah, and this song also reminds me of uh back in the summer of 83. There's not a reason I remember it. Well, there is. I went fishing on a 14-foot aluminum boat out on Saunders Bay every single day with my dad. Or they played this every time we'd go, the song would come on. That's all awesome, you know. Great fucking song, too.

All right, yeah, where are we here? To me, yes, to you, AJ. All right, and repeat artist, not song, and okay, it's 1983 from the album Sports, another Huey Lewis, and I had to go with this, even though it's the big one. I went with I Want a New Drag.

I want a new job.

Every time it comes on, I sing it. Yeah, there is a lot of deeper thoughts in this song for me, why it's important, but just I love it, man. I mean, talk about catchy, like you said, Dawn. It's just very catchy unreal.

And I'll go to you. All right. Coming in at number two in the 1988 Billboard Year End Top 100 was I Need You Tonight from In Excess. So slide over here.

I've got to let you know.

Just a good pop song. I mean, catchy beat, um, you know, just fun, fun tune.

Makes me think of why not. Like when I when you say in excess, it makes me think of Devil Inside. Yeah, Devil Inside. Us running the lights with the eight buttons. Yeah, yeah.

You hear the rough. Rumors on how Hutchinson died. I read somewhere that he was doing the whole uh you know, doing a asphyxiation.

Oh, yeah, that's a thing. All right. Yeah, yeah.

All right, that's to you, Kev. All right. Uh, this one I think it might have come up anyway, but since half of the duo recently left us, um, I'm going with Soft Cells Tainted Love. Specifically, the Where Did Our Love Go addition, dance mix, whatever you want to call it. David Ball just passed this week. Um, Mark Almond is still out there. Uh, the song was originally done by Gloria Jones, who was dating Mark Bolan of T-Rex. I'm sorry, it wasn't it was covered by it was originally written by Ed Cobb from the Four Preps, who was Ricky Nelson's backup band, and done by the Supremes. So there's all kinds of like lines that go to this song, but I think anybody from our era would remember that that dance mix um that Soft Cell did.

Awesome. Wow, Kev, I'm impressed today. Like, you're going really quick. That's not you typically.

Well, I I just these are I mean, I love these songs, but I just don't have the the background for this stuff like I do with my stuff we do.

I'm just fucking with you. All right. We do the decade series. We're talking about a whole album. So we're talking about one song in this case. So it makes a big difference.

All right. So here we are, wrapping up our side two. That's to you, Sonny, to wrap it up.

All right, so there was no way we were gonna do an 80s list, and my last song wasn't gonna be from Prince. That's just not gonna happen. Um because of who I am. Uh, and but I picked one of uh it was a hit, but it's kind of an underground hit. It's called Another Lover Hole in Your Head.

You need another lover. You need a lover. Baby, baby. You know there'll be no other.

It's you know, it's got the funk, the pop, the dance elements that all pretty much Prince songs had. It was on parade in '86. It was supposed to, it was in the movie Under the Cherry Moon, which is a god-awful movie. If you haven't seen it, don't bother. Um and it's on the same album that had the number one hit kiss, right? So um it was the third single, so not not very many people know it. Now, what's crazy is, of course, Prince did a lot of these songs all by himself, but the only person that does anything else on this song is backing vocals, and it's done the backing vocals is done by somebody named Susannah Melvowan, who is Wendy's sisters. Remember Wendy and Lisa from Prince, this Wendy's sister. Yes. And that's the person that nothing compares to you is written about. That's who Prince was.

You mean nothing compare that one?

Yeah, yeah. By that bitch Sinead O'Connor. Never forgive that bitch. Prince dies, and she had all this shit to say about it. It's like, dude, nobody would even know the fuck you are if it wasn't for that guy. Shut the Moss Isley. Yeah. I hate that shit. Um, but anyway, another lover hole in your head. If you never heard it, I'm telling you, you'll listen to it once and it'll be in your head the rest of the day.

I've I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The stuff that nobody knows from Prince is my favorite. The B-sides, the dance mix, erotic city, let's pretend we're married, the stuff where he just goes beyond what what you could ever play on the radio. Sexy motherfucker. I mean, come on. That's that's like just you start with James Brown and you end up at sexy motherfucker. I mean, it's just such a great, great tune.

That's weird, Kev, because normally you don't like to go deep. That's what she said. Oh, did she?

All right, Mark. Where do you to wrap it up? I okay, sorry, Kevin. Um well, this song is, I don't know, this is probably a pretty deep cut. Uh, I don't know if anyone will know this song, but it's Dave Edmonds slipping away. And I just think that the the guitar riffs on this song are very crisp and edgy, and of course he's singing about, you know, a girl that he's gonna lose and everything, but this is gonna sound silly, but the reason I fell in love with this song was back in 1983, the Boston Red Sox were starting to suck. And uh Channel 4 had uh highlights of them making errors and striking out and everything. And I just remembered Dwight Evans making an error out in right field, and and they were playing this song in the background. They finished 79 and 83 that year. It was Yaz's last year. This is how my mind works. I'm sorry. I get it.

I still have the newspaper of that year.

Of 83? Why would you tell you we're gonna be able to do that?

Because Mum saved Yaz's last year. But go on, I'm sorry.

No, but it is a great song. It is such a great song, and it's so typical. Um, and I don't know if you guys noticed that most of my songs came from the early 80s, and to me, 1983 was by far the best year for pop music. Yeah. And it in in my mind of what pop music was, at least. Awesome. Well, Mark, again, another riffy song.

Since it's off to me, I will say the same thing. I believe thus far 84 is my latest pick. Now, I'm going to my number 10, though, and for this song, I could not find the release date for it. And you guys probably will not know this song. But do you know Gary Wright wrote Dreamweaver? Yeah. Okay. But for some reason, I can't find this anyway, anywhere, but it's from the North Shore. My one of my favorite movies. And it's called Am I the One? And it's such a catchy tune when you w are watching this movie with them all falling off their surfboards, and just it gets you pumped up, kind of.

And I the one.

But it's definitely got the 80s feel to it. If anyone wants to call me out and say that it wasn't in the right decade, so viet, but it's a great fucking song, and that wraps up my tape. To you, Donald.

All right. As you know, I've been using the Bill Ward year-end hot 100. If you want to go back and look at 1983 and 1984, each one of those 100s are amazing songs. That is like probably when the simulation started to break down in our society.

You know what I mean?

Because it's just an amazing amount of talent and diversity and just yeah, a pinnacle of creativity. Um, I digress. So, anywho, um, in 1989, coming in at number nine was Baby I Love Your Way, which is a medley of from will to power of you know, I love your way and free bird medley. It was just a cool song.

Why don't you I love your word in a day?

Um, you know, it incorporated the Peter Frampton, ooh, baby, I love your way, and and Freebird, which had probably a little bit, they should have cut the solo off at the end of the song a little bit. Like, hey boys, we get it. It's time to it's time to wrap it up. Like, until they went a little too long on the solo, but that's all right, right? It's creativity. Sonny loves it when songs go long, don't you, Sonny? Yeah, my favorite. Right, right, you know, uh, it's just a fun song to wrap up wrap up the decade.

So all right, Kevin. Let's wrap it up. Number 10.

As I bring this to a close, there was a sound and a feel to the 80s, and I just think this band did it. And I'm talking about missing persons. Words. What are words for? Dale Bozio with the the plastic bra that just had the painted sides. I mean, she was so sexy. Uh her husband Terry uh Terry on drums and Warren Carulo coming from Frank Zappa's band, which still amazes me that Zappa's band kind of generated little feet and missing persons. I mean, that's a pretty large spectrum there in musical influences, and they all kind of worked under Frank's tutelage. The album was called Spring Sessions M, which was an anagram of Missing Persons. Uh they recorded it at Frank's utility muffin research kitchen. That was his recording studio.

Or in those muffins.

Girl, you thought he was a man, but he was a muffin. Top of the muffin. Yeah, top of the muffin, yeah. The muffin top.

Yes.

Uh, but just a just a great song that really embodies that feel of the 80s. I think that um I think that Lady Gaga owns her owes her entire um persona to Dale Bozio. I I think she just kind of copied her from everything that she did, and Dale did it better and many years earlier. Just a great band. And actually, uh Warren Cucarulo ended up after that band broke up. He was working with John Taylor from Duran Duran in like 85-86.

Who you love.

Oh, absolutely. And and Taylor was like, I'm gonna leave the band. And Duran Duran kept trying to get him to stay, and while they were still negotiating, Cucarulo sent the rest of the Duran Duran a uh demo tape, and they were like, Why are you sending us this? And he was like, Oops, he didn't he kind of jumped the gun on it. They were still negotiating with Taylor, and then Taylor did eventually leave, and Cucarulo came in in 86 when it was kind of the whole Duran Duran thing was was waning, but um still again the just interesting lines from Zappa to Duran Duran blows my mind.

Incredible.

Bottles, I'm sorry, bottles the mind, AJ. It does bottle the mind.

Bottles awesome boys. Well, that was a lot of fun. 80s mixed tape. I mean, how can you go wrong? Dungo, thank you so much. Eight, thank you, AJ. Thanks, everybody. Yes, Mindeed, Brother Mike.

Well, it was great to have Sonny on the show today. Thank you, Sonny. And that was a lot of fun, and uh, we'll see you next time.

Awesome, Kevin?

Yes, thank you, AJ, and thank you, Sonny, for bringing your sage wisdom to our little podcast. It's uh it's not often that I get uh that I get stumped. It does happen, but you got me a couple times. So I uh I bow to you, sir.

And Sonny, thank you so much, man. We couldn't appreciate it more. You coming on. We you know, you're out there in the podcast world and not just on your two shows, Growing Up Rock and and Podcast Rock City, but man, you seem to be all over the fucking place out there. So thank you so much. And uh, did you want to get any contact info or anything out?

Yeah, so I appreciate the invite. But uh yeah, I'm out there on the social, so I'm easy to find. Just look up Sonny Pooney on Facebook or Twitter. That's probably the easiest way to find me. And uh, you know, if you want to send an email, just send it uh to growing up rock at gmail.com. That's easy too. But uh yeah, I'm out there, it's a hobby, right? I got a real job. You guys all got real jobs. Um it's a fun hobby, and it's cool to talk music with folks on a good time today.

Awesome, well, we appreciate it very much. And boys, thank you so much, and everyone out there, thank you for listening. And we are out.

Sweet jeans are made of easy. Who am I to decide? I traveled the world in the seven seats. Everybody is looking for something, stomp and want to do it, stomach and want to get to Stomp and Want to Stand up and want to be a little bit.