song of the day – “Raspberry Beret” | PRINCE AND THE REVOLUTION | 1985.

Posted on April 21, 2017 by retrogod1985

Hard 2 believe it’s been an entire year since we lost Prince at the far-too-young age of 57. I’ll never forget that day, April 21, 2016. I was at work in Central Maine, and one of my co-workers said that Prince had died. I told him that wasn’t funny. We had already lost so many great musical talents by April 2016. It was truly a year of losses like no other, right until the end of the year.

On April 21, 2016, after work, I was heading down 2 the Portland area (the Westbrook Performing Arts Center, 2 be exact), 2 see Men At Work alum Colin Hay perform a solo acoustic show. That day, I actually didn’t have many Prince songs on my iPod, so between Men At Work and Colin Hay tunes on my iPod, I channel-surfed the radio on the way 2 the show 2 see if they were paying tribute 2 Prince. They were. And Colin Hay himself played a little bit of “Little Red Corvette,” and called it a “weird day.” It certainly was that.

The wonderful Colin Hay, performing live at the Westbrook (Maine) Performing Arts Center, 4.21.16.

1985’s “Raspberry Beret” is far and away not my favorite Prince song (and maybe not even in my Top 20, though I do love it), but one year ago when I learned Prince had died, I heard this song on the radio more than any other Prince song. And I’ll never forget that.

Released on April 22, 1985, hot on the heels of the still incredibly popular PURPLE RAIN, AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY took Prince and his band, The Revolution, on a more psychedelic than commercial musical journey than with PURPLE RAIN or previous efforts, garnering comparisons 2 The Beatles’ SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, in both sound and the album’s cover artwork.

The full album artwork for 1985’s AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY. For the singles released from this album, images were used from this album art as the art for the singles.

In the September 12, 1985 edition of ROLLING STONE, Prince disagreed with the Beatles comparison: “The influence wasn’t the Beatles. They were great 4 what they did, but I don’t know how that would hang 2day. The cover art came about because I thought people were tired of looking at me. Who wants another picture of him? I would only want so many pictures of my woman, then I would want the real thing. What would be a little more happening than just another picture would be if there was some way I could materialize in people’s cribs when they play the record. I don’t mind [the album being called psychedelic], because that was the only period in recent history that delivered songs and colors. Led Zeppelin, for example, would make U feel differently on each song.”

“Raspberry Beret,” the first American single from the No. 1 album, AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY (“Paisley Park” was released as the first single in Europe and other parts of the globe) incorporated strings and Middle Eastern finger cymbals (and a harmonica on the 12-inch remix), and was released in mid-May 1985, three weeks after the album’s release, and it only took three days 2 debut inside the Top 40 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100, rocketing in at No. 37.

By early July 1985, “Raspberry Beret” seemed like it would B Prince’s third No. 1 song in America, but Duran Duran’s “A View To A Kill” had other plans. “Raspberry Beret” spent a week at No. 2 one week after LIVE AID, and was one of the biggest U.S. singles of 1985. It would also reach No. 3 on BILLBOARD’s R&B chart and No. 4 on BILLBOARD’s Dance chart.

Around the world in more than a day, “Raspberry Beret” was not one of Prince’s biggest international singles, but it did reach No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 8 in Canada, No. 13 in Australia, and the Top 30 in the U.K., Belgium, Holland and Ireland.

An edited version of the remix can be found in the video 4 the song, which won an MTV Video Music Award (his first) 4 Best Choreography In A Video. If U R a fan of the TV show, CHEERS (like yours truly), U will notice the young girl who hands Prince his guitar in the first part of the video (which I couldn’t obtain) is Jackie Swanson, who played Woody Harrelson’s love interest in CHEERS, Kelly Gaines. Jackie Swanson and Prince were friends, and the “Raspberry Beret” video was her professional debut.

From the video of “Raspberry Beret,” this is Jackie Swanson, of CHEERS fame, handing a guitar to her friend, Prince.

In October 1990, the late, great Warren Zevon recruited Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills of R.E.M. 2 record an album of covers, and “Raspberry Beret” was one of them. The only single released from the album, it reached No. 23 on BILLBOARD’s Modern Rock chart.

Though there wasn’t a lot of press or promotion 4 the album, AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY still managed 2 reach Double-Platinum status here in the U.S., and two singles from the album reached the BILLBOARD Hot 100’s Top 10 – “Raspberry Beret,” and the wonderful “Pop Life,” which reached No. 7 in September 1985.

Of the album’s mixed reception, Prince also said in that 1985 ROLLING STONE interview, “I talked 2 George Clinton, a man who knows and has done so much 4 funk. George told me how much he liked AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY. U know how much more his words mean than those from some mamma-jamma wearing glasses and an alligator shirt behind a typewriter?

“I’ve heard some people say I’m not talking about anything on this record. And what a lot of other people get wrong about the record is that I’m not trying 2 B this great visionary wizard. Paisley Park is in everybody’s heart. It’s not just something that I have the keys 2. I was trying 2 say something about looking inside oneself 2 find perfection. Perfection is in everyone. Nobody’s perfect, but they can B. We may never reach that, but it’s better 2 strive than not.”

A year after Prince left this world 4 another, those words still ring so true 2day. “Raspberry Beret” isn’t my favorite Prince song, but it’s the one I’ll listen 2 first on every April 21, because it’s the one Prince song I heard more on that day than any other.

I miss U Prince, wherever U R. Peace and Love 2 U and then some…

(real) one-hit wonder of the week – “Miami Vice Theme” | JAN HAMMER | 1985.

Posted on October 22, 2016 by retrogod1985

Between late 1979 and the end of 1989, there were nearly 500 (real) one-hit wonders of the 80s that reached the BILLBOARD Hot 100 just one time, a list that includes Soft Cell, Gary Numan, Timbuk 3, The Church, Bronski Beat, Nik Kershaw, The Buggles, The Waitresses, Ultravox and two different bands named The Silencers. Once a week, I’ll highlight a (real) one-hit wonder for you.

In April 2004, I put together a theme show for my little 80s radio program, STUCK IN THE 80s (on WMPG community radio in Portland, Maine). This wasn’t your ordinary theme show – it was actually about themes, TV themes to be exact. The show was called DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR SET. In the course of 120 minutes, I played a total of 63 80s TV themes, along with some bits from shows like WKRP IN CINCINNATI and CHEERS. I also played a special remix on TeeVee Toons Records (later TVT Records), named after a line in one of the favorite cartoons of my youth (THE JETSONS), “Jane, Get Me Off This Crazy Thing!” It was co-produced by Ivan Ivan (who produced Book Of Love’s wonderful debut album), and featured TV themes from the 50s and 60s.

Fast forward 12-and-a-half years, and on tomorrow night’s show (10.23.2016), I’m going to revisit the show – DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ADJUST YOUR SET: THE SERIES FINALE. In listening to the 2004 show this week, apparently I concentrated more on quantity than quality, but this time I’ll bring back the coolest and most memorable themes of the 80s, and some I didn’t get to last time, including “Falling” by Julee Cruise (the vocal version of the theme from TWIN PEAKS), and an entire set dedicated to 80s TV theme show legend, Mike Post.

One song I did get to last time and will play again tomorrow night was the biggest TV theme song of the 80s, and the last instrumental to reach No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Hot 100 singles chart until 2013 – The “Miami Vice Theme” by Jan Hammer.

MIAMI VICE, starring Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas and Edward James Olmos was prolly the flashiest (and grittiest?) crime drama of the decade, and was one of the biggest TV shows during the second half of the 80s. The show debuted on NBC in September 1984, and in August 1985, the show’s theme, by the Prague-born American musician, composer and producer, was released.

While Jan Hammer will forever be best known for his Synthpop work on MIAMI VICE, his specialty has been Experimental music and Prog Rock, and over the years, he has contributed to and collaborated on several albums with the NYC Jazz / Rock Fusion group, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, legendary Rocker Jeff Beck, Jazz Fusion guitarist Al Di Meola, plus work with Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, Mick Jagger (on his 1985 solo album, SHE’S THE BOSS), Journey’s Neil Schon, the late, great Clarence Clemons and many more.

In August 1985, the popular theme from MIAMI VICE was released as a single, in advance of the TV soundtrack. Another song that would appear on the soundtrack, “Smuggler’s Blues” by Glenn Frey, originally appeared on his 1984 album, THE ALLNIGHTER, but due to its inclusion on the TV show, it became a Top 15 hit in late June 1985.

Jan Hammer’s “Miami Vice Theme” debuted on the Hot 100 in early September 1985, reaching the Top 40 a couple of weeks later. It was climbing the Top 10 this week in October, and in November 1985, it spent a week at No. 1 and a total of 22 weeks on the chart. It was also a big multi-format hit, charting on BILLBOARD’s Adult Contemporary, Dance, Rock and even the R&B chart, where it reached No. 10.

Around the globe, the “Miami Vice Theme” reached the Top 10 in the U.K., Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland. And though his follow-up from the MIAMI VICE soundtrack, “Crockett’s Theme,” was a big hit in the U.K., Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and Holland (where it spent four weeks at No. 1), the “Miami Vice Theme” was the only hit Jan Hammer had on the Hot 100.

With music from Jan Hammer, Glenn Frey (“Smuggler’s Blues” and the No. 2 hit, “You Belong To The City”), Phil Collins, Tina Turner and more, the first MIAMI VICE soundtrack spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s album chart. It was the biggest TV soundtrack ever until Disney Channel’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL in 2006.

On top of composing the theme for MIAMI VICE and music for 90 of its 112 episodes, Jan Hammer has composed and produced music for at least 14 films, and 20 episodes for a popular early 90s British television show called CHANCER, starring Academy Award nominee Clive Owen.

Jan Hammer turned 68 this year, is still working nearly 50 years after his start in the music business. In a 2014 interview with ROLLING STONE about MIAMI VICE and the show’s 30th anniversary, Jan was asked about the show’s legacy (and that of his one American hit), and he said, “We definitely shook up the TV world. You can still feel certain aftershocks, even at this late date. [Musical] shades of it show up here and there, but it’s more of an intangible thing. I get [Google News] alerts with reviews, and they’ll say, ‘There’s this synth, and it’s very much Jan Hammer-like…’ It’s really amusing. And then I’ll go and listen to it and I’m like, ‘Yeah, they have a point’.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDU-2qMre0

song of the day – “People Are People” | DEPECHE MODE | 1985.

Posted on September 11, 2016 by retrogod1985

Today (9.11.2016) marks the 15th anniversary of the horrific terror attacks against the United States. I wasn’t even there (I was living in Portland, Maine on 9.11.2001), and still, I’ll never get those images out of my head, especially when the North Tower of the World Trade Center fell straight down to the ground one hour and 42 minutes after being hit by American Airlines Flight 11, a flight out of Boston, leaving a gaping hole in the New York skyline, and changing thousands upon thousands of lives forever…

My heart broke when I found out that Mohamed Atta, the head highjacker of Flight 11, spent his last night on Earth in South Portland, and flew out of the Portland International Jetport to Boston on 9.11.01. My heart also broke when I learned that David Angell and his wife, Lynn, were on that flight.

David Angell was a writer and producer for my favorite TV show, CHEERS. He was also a co-creator and executive producer for the CHEERS spinoff, FRASIER. The first two shows of FRASIER that year were dedicated to them. David was the only person I “knew” who died as a result of the terror attacks on New York, and when my dear friend Shawn took me to the incredibly moving 9/11 memorial in 2013, I was able to find his and Lynn’s names.

From the 9/11 memorial, 10.4.2013. (Photo by Ron Raymond, Jr.)

Today, I write this from Seawall (part of Acadia National Park here in Maine), the most peaceful place on the planet for me. The only sounds to be heard are passersby and the sea. And, apart from hurricanes or bad storms, time has no meaning here. Seawall looks the same as it did 40 years ago. Still, I’m reminded of 9.11.01 today, as many of us are, and I’m also reminded of some songs that will forever have an association for me of that day, even though have nothing to do with 9.11 itself.

Those songs include Cyndi Lauper’s 2002 song, “Water’s Edge” (from her SHINE EP) (“Oh, I wish you could wrap yourself around me / I am gripped by a loneliness…”; “I went to the water’s edge and saw my life eclipse / I went to the water’s edge and then felt myself slip / I dreamed that I was floating, just coast until I grew fins / I want to catch this tide back home and feel you again…”).

Sinéad O’Connor’s haunting 1991 cover of Elton John’s “Sacrifice” (from the TWO ROOMS tribute album) is another song that had no connection to 9.11 and yet will always remind me of that day. Her version of the song was played on STUCK IN THE 80s on the Sunday following 9.11.01. Although the song is actually about a breakup of a marriage, whenever I hear her stirring version, I can’t help but still get goose bumps.

Sinead O’Connor, from the “Sacrifice” video.

Another song played on that 9.11 tribute show (and the tribute show for the 1999 school shootings at Columbine, as well as 2011’s COLD WAR CLASSICS show) was the song that introduced me (and many others in America) to Depeche Mode – “People Are People” (whose video even features military footage from The Cold War).

“People Are People” was originally released on a 1984 North American compilation of the same name to help generate interest for new fans of the band who somehow (like yours truly) missed out on the band’s first three albums. “People Are People” was to be released as part of Depeche Mode’s fourth studio album, SOME GREAT REWARD, later that year, but Sire Records wanted to get a jump start on promoting the song – and the band – to commercial and college radio.

Released in March 1984, “People Are People” was a big hit in the band’s U.K. homeland, reaching No. 4. It also reached the Top 10 in other parts of the world, including Austria, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Norway, Poland and Switzerland, and spent three weeks at No. 1 in Germany (where it was used as the theme song for the West Germany TV coverage of the 1984 Olympics).

The song attracted an audience on Modern Rock stations and college radio stations here in the U.S., but it took awhile for “People Are People” to gain momentum on commercial radio. Eventually, though, it did. The song finally made its debut on the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in late May 1985, and reached the Top 40 about a month later. It would spend two weeks at No. 13 in August 1985 and also reached the Top 15 in Canada.

Written by Depeche Mode’s principal songwriter, Martin L. Gore, he admits “People Are People” is one of his least favorite DM songs, despite its success, and the song hasn’t been performed live since 1988. It’s been said Martin prefers to have subtle metaphors that allow people to find their own meanings in the songs he writes, and he feels that “People Are People” doesn’t fit that description.

Well, I know at least for me, the song carries a lot of weight. Sure, it’s the song that introduced me to Depeche Mode, so it’s special in that regard, but the reason it has appeared in all of these tribute shows (including the one for 9.11.01) is because of its plea for peace, love and understanding between nations and races and then some…

“People are people so why should it be / You and I should get along so awfully… / So we’re different colours / And we’re different creeds / And different people have different needs / It’s obvious you hate me / Though I’ve done nothing wrong / I never even met you / So what could I have done / I can’t understand / What makes a man / Hate another man / Help me understand…”

The South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial, New York City, 10.4.2013. I’ve never seen colors like that before (generated by water, anyway) before or since… (Photo taken by Ron Raymond, Jr.)

Overall, I’d like to think things have changed for the better since 9.11.01, yet there’s still lots more work to be done. But, as I look out at the peaceful sea on this late summer afternoon, on this day of remembrance, an old favorite adage comes to mind – “Why can’t we all just get along?!” Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello asked that question nearly 40 years ago with “(What’s So Funny) ‘Bout Peace, Love And Understanding?” and Depeche Mode asked that question more than 30 years ago with “People Are People.” It’s my hope that maybe one day those questions will be answered, and then I won’t need anyone to help me understand. That continues to be my hope…