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And today’s generation thinks they own “weird” in music. Back in the eighties, Boy George and the Culture Club were the absolute height of weird, and if they hadn’t sounded so good… but they did. And they continued to sound good through several top hits, including KARMA CHAMELEON.

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No matter what jokes have come out since, and no matter what may or may not be true legally speaking, in the eighties, Michael Jackson was IT. His “Thriller” album, as I recall, only had ONE song on it that didn’t hit the charts. Everyone was trying, and failing, to do the Moonwalk. This video, “Beat It”, was one of his most famous. Gotta face it, that boy can dance.

Even Weird Al had to get in on this, and he did a great parody song that most of the nation played till they were sick of it…. “Eat It”. Really, when you compare the two videos, Weird Al did an incredible job. I used to have this album, and I distinctly recall a thanks to Michael being printed on the sleeve somewhere.

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Well, I may have missed on that last Hank Williams Jr. song, but I found thiss one, and this one is quite possibly the best song Hank Jr. ever did in his life (my opinion, of course). The song is TRUE, too. I live in the Ozarks, and everything he says about country folks is dead on.

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Well, I can’t get ahold of an uncopyrighted version of this one, and I am not wanting to step on anyone’s toes. If you search it on YouTube, you are going to find it. Because this is a music history type blog, I really wanted to mention this one. Hank Williams did the original, but in the um, eighties, I think, Hank Jr. redid the song, and there was an extremely mixed reaction to the results. When he made the recording and the video, he used an old clip of his father singing, combined it with himself singing, and the way the effects were handled, he appears to be doing a duet with his father’s ghost. Instead of being entertaining, it was just… scary. At least, I thought so, and I wasn’t the only one. Look it up and decide for yourself.

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The eighties were the beginning of the “anything goes” attitude of the modern times, and Styx was quintessential eighties. This is extremely evident in this video… rock guitars, rolled sleeves, and long hair, but the hair is EXTREMELY well combed. It looks like he probably used a half can of hair spray on it, the way it bounces but doesn’t get messed up:)

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The song “Puttin’ On The Ritz” made a big splash when Fred Astaire danced to it. Personally, I have always consideered his to be the “authentic” version, certainly the best. There is just a timeless, classic apeal in the singing and dancing talents of Fred Astaire.

In the 1980s, long after Fred Astaire was finished with it, Taco remade the song with more modern effects. However, no sooner was the video released then controversy hit, and BIG. The whole video had to be edited and re-released, because Taco’s original video showed two men in vaudevillian minstrel “blackface”. The fact that the makeup was exactly in keepig with the period of the song made no difference, history was swept under the rug in favor of political correctness. THIS is the “banned” version, which still contains the minstrel makeup. You decide.

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The 1980s were a somewhat steadier time than most. The oil crisis was, for a moment in time, over, Microsoft was causing an full blown electronic revolution, the economy was good overall. And in the music world, the sounds were more diverse than they had ever been before. We will show that over the course of time, as our collection from this era grows. We didn’t always know what the words actually meant, but we loved dancing to songs… like GOLD, from Spandau Ballet.

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Jumping ahead to the 1980s, it’s a very different scene. The flappers are long gone, and most of the hippies hold jobs in corporate America. The Baby Boomers are exercizing it up, worried that their boom will bomb. Reagan is President, the King is dead, and Rick Springfield hits the charts big with JESSIE’S GIRL. You know, Rick Springfield was my favorite singles artist of the eighties. You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of him.

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