Thursday Thirteen #3 (11/2/2006)

Thirteen Things about Michael Thirteen Favorite Music Videos from the 1980's, when MTV SHOWED music videos! 1. The J. Geils Band - "Centerfold" - Okay, I was a teenage guy and there were lots of girls in negliges and sweaters and stuff. 2. Men at Work - "Down Under" - Probably the most famous video by these Aussies, I once heard that the scene at the end with the guys dressed alike carrying the box was an omage to a slavery issue in Australia's past. Never could figure out Greg Hamm's teddy bear on the rope though. 3. Hall & Oates - "Family Man" - Darryl and John never really broke past the performance video to do concept videos in the 80's, but Family Man had this cool animation running across the screen while they were shown being beat on by lots of little kids. 4. Michael Jackson - "Thriller" - Okay, despite the fact he has proven to be nuttier than a goo-goo cluster, it was and is still a landmark music video. John Landis directed. 5. The Hooters - "And we Danced" - the first hit single for this Philadelphia-based band. The drive-in theater that the video was shot at is now a strip mall, but in the 70's my family would go there, in Exton, PA. 6. Huey Lewis & the News - "If this is It" - these guys always had fun with their videos and this was no difference with the whole beach thing while Huey obsessed over the chick in the white one-piece and the guys were buried up to their heads in the sand. 7. Paul McCartney - "Pipes of Peace" - This video did not get a great deal of play, it was from the same album that had "No More Lonely Nights." The video was set in WW I, and depicted a Christmas Day armistace that lead to the English and German troops coming out of the trenchs to play soccer, exchange well-wishes, drinks, and smokes, eventually disrupted by artillery and McCartney returning to his trench with a German's girlfriend's picture instead of his own. 8. BandAid - "Do They Know It's Christmas (Feed the world)" - Still my favorite contemporary Christmas song. I love watching the video and seeing all the singers so young. There's a longer version that either shows and/or reads a letter about the production night. 9. Duran Duran - "New Moon on Monday" - The lyrics are kind of hard to make out at times, but I always liked the video depicting a resistance movement to an oppressive government and there are a lot of fireworks at the end. 10. Glen Frey - "Sexy Girl" - It wasn't a big hit, the second or third song from his solo album "The Allnighter," but it had a really pretty girl that moved into his neighborhood and got every guy's attention. 11. ZZ Top - "Sleeping Bag" - from the album "Afterburner" - it continued the rebellious neature of the guys and their keys to the magic car that changed lives in all their 80's videos. 12. Twisted Sister - "We're not gonna take it" - Glam Metal and the reappearance of Actor Mark Metcalf spoofing his role of Niedermeyer from Animal House as a drill-sergeant father. 13. U2 - "Where the Streets Have No Name" - In an omage to the Beatles rooftop performance, the boys in U2 staged and filmed a performance on a roof in LA that drew so many fans the police came and shut them down. There are many other great ones, but these were the first 13 I thought of. Other suggestions are encouraged in the comment section. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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