For Father's Day, how about a visit with the person who served, within television at least, as America's Dad back during the '80s, Bill Cobsy. The Cosby Show topped the ratings with Cosby playing the head of the Huxtable household. The character of Cliff Huxtable was that of a successful, affluent doctor living with his large family in a nicely furnished home.
Cosby's amiable and fatherly personality could be seen in another of his very frequent appearances during the '80s, as pitchman for Jello Pudding.
Cosby's appealing personality could not save the 1985 introduction of a new coke formula, dubbed "New Coke," and almost universally rejected as not "the real thing." But Cosby gives it the old college try here, and you can see his persuasive skills in full force through his facial expressions and charisma.
Here's a re-post of a previous post, which is also sort-of a follow up to my last post on the great musical year of 1983. One of the biggest happenings of 1983 was the "Second British Invasion" of bands, which I have written about frequently on this blog. This was the era of Culture Club, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, and so many others. One of the more interesting occurrences of the Second British Invasion was the re-emergence of the great '60s band, The Kinks, on American airwaves with their wonderful song "Come Dancing." This post was originally presented on November 9, 2011.
The Kinks first became well known during the first British Invasion of music groups during the 1964-1965 era, with hits such as "You Really Got Me," and "All Day and All of the Night," and "Tired of Waiting for You." In 1970, they again hit on both sides of the Atlantic, with "Lola." Although the Kinks continued to make music, and continued their popularity in the U.K., they largely disappeared from the U.S. charts during the '70s.
Then in 1983, after an absence of many years, the Kinks joined in the Second British Invasion of the U.S. music charts, and had a big hit with a wonderful song called "Come Dancing." "Come Dancing" was a sentimental gem of a song which tenderly recalled times past. According to Wikipedia:
The song is a nostalgic look back at childhood memories of its writer: the Kinks' frontman Ray Davies, remembering his older sister going on dates to the local Palais dance hall where big bands would play. The lyrics tell how the Palais has been demolished and his sister now has her own daughters who are going on dates.
"Come Dancing" is a tribute to Davies' sister Rene who bought him his first guitar, with the song's lyrics affording Davies' sister a happy life denied her in reality. Living in Canada with her (reportedly abusive) husband, the 31-year-old Rene was visiting her parental home in Fortis Green at the time of Ray Davies' thirteenth birthday — 21 June 1957 — on which she surprised him with a gift of the Spanish guitar he'd tried to persuade his parents to buy him. On the evening of the same day, Rene — who had a weak heart as a result of a childhood bout of rheumatic fever — suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing at the Lyceum ballroom.
Its a sweet song, and a great song for a comeback by the Kinks onto the American airwaves.
Surfing the net this past week, I came across some items about that monumental year in pop music, 1983. That year has always been a favorite of mine, and considering the happenings occurring in the music scene that year, it has claim to being one of the most eventful years in rock and pop history. It was, after all, the year of Thriller, of the Second British Invasion, and the year when MTV surged forward as a cutting edge music medium.
This article in the Toledo Free Press gives us a flashback to a memory from that era regarding one of the most popular groups of the decade The Police, and their great 1983 album, Synchronicity:
At 17, I was at the zenith of my love for record collecting,
but I would walk past the new releases to check the torn-out
Billboard pages tacked over the singles bin. I had been raised
on country-western music; other than my mom’s Beatles LPs, I
did not know much about pop. During a swim party at a friend’s
in the spring of 1979, I heard the slashing guitars and
hysterical pleadings of “Roxanne,” and I never again settled
for steel guitars and Nashville slickness. I followed
The Police through their exponentially successful rise of
“Message in a Bottle,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.”
When “Every Breath You Take” exploded in the summer of 1983, I
followed its chart progress like a sports fan rooting for a
team’s pennant chase. I still remember the numbers: A debut at
No. 36, a jump to No. 24, a leap to No. 12, a move to No. 5,
then an eight-week run at No. 1 that, as a longtime fan
of the band, made me feel as triumphant as if I had
written the song myself. No song dominates the memory like a summer song, and to this day, hearing the pistol-shot opening of “Every Breath You Take” takes me back to the summer of 1983.
The '80s blog Rediscover the '80s, had a post recently about another 1983 group and album, Huey Lewis and The News' Sports. Here's some memories from that post:
Once I was able to save up and buy my own music
in the
mid-late 80s, I remember acquiring Sports on
cassette. I loved it. I also
remember it still being one I
listened to in the car when I first learned how
to drive in
the early 90s. It's one of those albums that I never used
the fast
forward button on (maybe rewind.) . . .
The music blog All Music encapsulates the spirit of 1983 this way:
If any year captured the heady rush of the early '80s, it was 1983,
the year Michael Jackson's Thriller became a phenomenon and, not
coincidentally, the year of MTV's prime. The cable network debuted two
years earlier but '83 was when music videos took over, popping up on
cable channels and network TV, and along with videos came a glorious
period of hit singles by one-hit wonders, new invaders from
Britain, and veterans who now mastered synths and drum machines,
the latter inexplicably led by grizzled, hairy blues-rockers ZZ Top and
the visionary jazz-fusion keyboardist Herbie Hancock. Underneath all
this televised glitz were some major debuts: the first albums from
Madonna, Metallica, R.E.M., and Hüsker Dü, and the first singles from
the Smiths and Run-D.M.C. And there were the mammoth hits -- yes,
Thriller, but also Def Leppard's Pyromania and the Police's Synchronicity,
all giving us more than enough reason to love 1983.
Following up on the last post, memories started coming to me about my mom's life long love of TV cop/detective/investigator/law type shows.
Here was one of her faves from the '80s... Magnum P.I.
Just watching this now, and the theme music immediately takes me back to those days. My mom passed on, back in 2003. But I imagine her in heaven with Magnum P.I., or Simon and Simon, or Hart to Hart on... enjoying watching these shows immensely. This one's for you, mom.
....and a Happy Mothers Day to all moms out there.
One of the most celebrated, and remembered cop shows from the '80s was Hill Street Blues, a show noted for quirky characters, but with an undercurrent of grittyness. I remember fondly the theme song, by a veteran writer of many police themes, Mike Post.
Daniel J. Travanti starred as the chief, Captain Frank Furillo, but perhaps the most most memorable line of the entire series came from the daily briefings conducted by Sgt. Phil Esterhaus (Played by Michael Conrad), who always ended each briefing with "Let's Be Careful Out There." That was a line often repeated during the '80s.
On the opposite extreme of '80s cops shows was highly stylized Miami Vice, a show oriented to the age of MTV, with colorful sets, slick background music, and fast-paced editing. The intro showed scenes of the Miami area, then popular due to the effect of Miami Vice, the popularity of South Beach style pastel colors (a fave in the '80s), and Gloria Estefan's Miami Sound Machine.
Miami Vice's hugely popular theme was from Jan Hammer.
Just wanted to draw your attention to a great '80s related post over at fellow retro-blogger Go Retro! about the prominence of sax in '80s music. Very fun post full of music videos. Takes you back..
Reminds me of that line from the Rob Lowe character in St. Elmos Fire ("Billy") who is a sax player in a very '80s-ish band in that very 80s movie: "Do You believe in premarital sax?" Admittedly bad line.
Here's a saxy clip from that movie:
UPDATE: It seems like this is a popular topic. Another of my fave retro blogs Kickin It Old School has had a post on the same topic. Check it Out.
Continuing my recent focus on fun '80s songs and videos, heres another quirky '80s song from a band that would become one of the major bands of the era.
The Bangles were originally part of the Paisly Underground, part of a music scene inspired by the music and culture of the 1960s, particularly the British and psychedelic scenes. The song "Going Down To Liverpool" came off of The Bangles heavily British "mersey beat" (i.e. First British Invasion) influenced first album, All Over The Place. This was during the groups early days, in the halcyon days of the Paisly Underground, before the Bangles hit it big with the Prince-written "Manic Monday," and the follow-up "Walk Like and Egyptian."
You can clearly hear the early Beatles-esque style here. And the video features a guest appearance from Star Trek's Spock, Leonard Nimoy.
