memories of the ’80s – They Don’t Know by Tracey Ullman

For those listeners of music in the 1980s, Brit sounds dominated the airwaves and one hit came from an actor/comedian – Tracey Ullman’s They Don’t Know.

Ullman had been a successful performer in London’s West End productions, including Grease, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Starlight Express.

Thanks to a theatre competition, Ullman’s star began to rise, and she was offered a record deal with Stiff Records, with her debut album in 1983, You Broke My Heart in 17 Places.

The single that became a hit was Breakaway, with Ullman’s comedic turns in the video making it a UK hit. But the follow up single became an international hit: They Don’t Know.

Originally performed by Kirsty MacColl, the song had been a hit in 1979, rising up to number two on the UK music charts. Ullman recorded the song, with MacColl singing backup and the in 1983, the song hit number two again, as well as number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the US Adult Contemporary charts.

With a silly video to accompany the single, the song was played endlessly and eventually became the theme song of Ullman’s comedic show Tracey Takes On.

Ullman continued her career with the success of The Tracey Ullman Show, the second series produced by the fledgling FOX TV Network, but it was her unique combination of voice and comedic style that made her cover song a radio gem.

memories of the ’70s – Don’t Give Up on Us

For those tv viewers of the 1970s, the radio airwaves were soon playing one of their favourites – David Soul’s Don’t Give Up on Us.

The co-star of Starsky & Hutch, which had debuted on screen in 1975, used his notoriety to go back into the studio, and record a single written by Tony Macaulay, a well-known British songwriter and composer.

Released as a single in the UK in early 1977, the single shot to the top of the charts, spending four weeks at number one in January and February.

When released in North America, the single shot to the top of the charts, and grabbed the number one spot for one week in April on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as hitting number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart.

Thanks to his weekly appearance on television, the single was a popular one on radios across North America, but David Soul became a  one hit wonder, never achieving musical success again.

As a flash in the pop culture history timeline, this song made a quick splash, but showed the power of tv and music to combine and benefit one another.

memories of the ’80s – Valley Girl by Frank Zappa

This influential and eclectic artist collaborated with his teenager daughter to achieve a one hit wonder with the song Valley Girl.

Frank Zappa, a self-taught composer and singer/songwriter, was well-known for his solo creations, collaborations and his work with his band Mothers of Invention.

Zappa was one who challenged authority and convention in his beliefs and his music and ironically, his only Billboard hit was the song Valley Girl.

Released on Zappa’s 1982 album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch, the song was peppered with the slang made popular by the teen girls and boys of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley in the early 1980s.

Hitting number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song popularized the Valspeak and also showcased Zappa’s daughter, the 14 year old Moon Unit. Phrases like omigawd, gag me with a spoon, so bitchen and I’m sure, no way!

Ironically the next year, the film Valley Girl directed by Martha Coolidge, became a big hit, but this song wasn’t included on the popular soundtrack.

Zappa continued to create unique music, working with rock, jazz and classical musicians – yet his one hit wonder was the antithesis of what he represented.

I did love this silly song – and could never rationalize how Zappa created it -I’m guessing the the irony went way over my young teen head.

memories of the ’70s – Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed

Although this vocalist was well-known among many music fans, one song propelled him into the pop culture one hit wonder category – Walk on the Wild Side.

Best known for being the 1960s band The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed left the band in 1971 to go solo. His first solo album, the self-titled Lou Reed, was recorded for RCA Records in London with members of the Brit band Yes.

It included a few songs that had been recorded by The Velvet Underground, but never released. The album drew very little notice, although it did gain a positive review in Rolling Stone.

With his next album, Reed worked with David Bowie and Mick Ronson, hoping to gain a bigger British audience. The album Transformer was released in December 1972, with the first single “Walk on the Wild Side“.

The song was a radio hit, despite its lyrics which alluded to oral sex, male prostitution, transsexuals and drug use. Influenced by the 1956 novel A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren, Reed’s song was based on five people who were part of Andy Warhol’s Factory scene.

Scenesters Holly Woodlawn, Joe Dallesandro, Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling and Joe Campbell (Sugar Plum Fairy) were all namechecked in the song with their lifestyles the backbone of the song, which was edited for US radio airplay.

Despite the raunchy innuendoes of NYC’s underground, the song became Lou Reed’s badge – the one song that pop culture attributed to him. Although his career as a singer/songwriter has continued, this song became its own entity.

In consequent years, Reed was alleged to be annoyed of the song and rarely performed it. But for those fans of this odd one hit wonder, it lives on as a commentary of 1970s New York City or a catchy song that had a good beat.

memories of the ’70s – I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

In the early 1970s, radio program lists were all playing this country crossover hit “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.“

Written by Joe South and performed by singer Lynn Anderson, the song was originally on an album by Joe South. Singers Freddy Weller and Dobie Gray issued covers of the song, as well as girl group The Three Degrees.

Anderson wanted to record the song, but her husband/manager Glenn Sutton felt it was a man’s song and wasn’t appropriate for her. Getting the songwriter’s permission, the lyrics were altered and the song recorded in a lighter, uptempo pop style.

Columbia Records producer Clive Davis liked the new version and wanted it released as a 45 single.

First going on the country charts and then the pop charts, the single made Lynn Anderson the singer of the moment, hitting number one in the United States on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles and Hot 100 charts as well as in several other European countries.

Anderson won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1971, while songwriter Joe South was nominated for two Grammys for Best Country Song and Song of the Year.

This became Anderson’s signature song, and many other artists covered the song in her wake including Loretta Lynn, Kitty Wells, Dottie West, Carol Burnett, Jim Nabors, Glen Campbell, Percy Faith, Andy Williams and Dinah Shore.

Although Anderson continued as a country artist, her popularity was never as hot as when she recorded I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. 

memories of the ’70s – Disco Duck

In the height of the disco years, a Memphis-based DJ decided to mix it up with a tribute to a former ’60s song with the creation of Disco Duck.

Written by DJ Rick Dees, Disco Duck was inspired by 1960s novelty song The Duck, which took him a day to write, but three months to convince any musicians to record the song.

The story of the song is someone who decides to dance like a duck but is embarrassed, until he realizes everyone on the dance floor is emulating his slick moves.

Dees paired “duck” vocals with orchestral and disco sounds, and did a part one and part two for the single release. Although the song’s quirky oddity caught the ears of radio stations across the US, Dees station in Memphis refused to play the single and forbid Dees from playing it on his own show.

Dees had put together Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots, and began performing around Memphis, and as the song grew in popularity, Dees landed the group a spot on American Bandstand. In October 1976, the song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Dees was fired from his radio station after speaking about the success of his single on his radio show and hired by the competition in Memphis. Meanwhile, the song was used in the1977  film Saturday Night Fever, during a scene where senior citizens are being taught how to disco.

I remember hearing this silly song, and not paying much attention to it – years later when I saw a segment on disco, it was cited as one of the horrible consequences of disco – although its intent was always being a novelty and not a true representative of a classic disco song.

Dees is still a successful DJ, now based in Los Angeles, and for music history, created a silly song that embodied the mid 1970s.

memories of the ’80s – Valley Girl

Are you like totally, so seriously, like bitchin? Fer sure, life is so like, tubular if you’re like seriously, a Valley Girl.

This stereotype of an ’80s teen girl was a popular affectation of the early 1980s, describing those middle class girls, spending a lot of time at the shopping mall in pursuit of the rad outfit and tre ankle boots in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

With their teased hair, multi-layered outfits and adjective-laden vocabulary, Valley Girls were the mean girls, the cool girls, the girls whose response to nearly every situation was whatever!

Musician Frank Zappa released the single Valley Girl with his daughter Moon Unit Zappa in 1982, mainly to spoof the stereotype, but instead the single popularized the Valley Girl, especially for the girls’ slang used in the song.

In 1983, the film Valley Girl was released, starring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman, a teen romance story of a Valley Girl and non-Valley punk dude. Laden with the Valley Girl speak and with the characters dressed to excess (and spending too much time at the mall and listening to new wave music) the film epitomized the Valley Girl way of life, as well as showing the down and dark world of punk L.A.

Director Martha Coolidge  loosely based her film debut on the classic story of Romeo and Juliet, but with a twist. And because her budget was so low, a soundtrack cd wasn’t released with the film, but after the popularity of the film at the box office, a soundtrack was released, featuring classic new wave songs by Modern English, Plimsouls and Josie Cotton.

Although not as closely tied to the Valley Girl phenomenon, the 1981 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High did include some Valley Girl characters (ie. Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh) as well as showed the location of the centre of the universe for the Valley Girl – the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

I became quite enamored of the film Valley Girl when I saw it as a young teen – like any girl, trying to look cool, be cool and fit in was the dominant view of highschool life. And I certainly got behind dressing like a Valley Girl, with the layers of gloves, mini-skirts, leg warmers and ankle boots. But the language was strictly spoken at school – any time I tried to bust it out at home, my Mum would quickly correct my speech, not happy with any use of slang.

Although the Valley Girl was an ’80s stereotype, she still lives on, brought back into pop culture via The OC and Gossip Girl, but forever epitomized in the 1980s girl, who was gnarly for those fishnet tights – seriously!

memories of the ’80s – Wierd Al Yankovic

Satire and parody made the leap from the sidelines to the front of the line with the unique stylings of pop star / comedian / producer “Wierd Al” Yankovic.

Alfred Matthew Yankovic grew up in California and was an architecture student at Cal Poly when he was nicknamed “Wierd Al” by fellow students, which became his DJ name for his radio show.  

Thanks to the influence of the Dr. Demento radio show, Wierd Al decided to experiment with parody and did his first unique version – My Bologna, a satire of My Sharona by The Knack.  Dr. Demento loved it, as did The Knack, who suggested to their label Capitol Records to release it as a single. Thus a music career was born.

In 1980, Yankovic recorded Another One rides the Bus, his satire send-up of Another One bites the Dust by Queen. Once again promoted on the Dr. Demento radio show, Yankovic’s version became a popular request. Dr. Demento took Yankovic with him on a road show tour, where he met Jay Levey, who became his manager and put together a band for Yankovic to concentrate on music full-time.

Unique versions soon followed such as I Love Rocky Road inspired by I Love Rock n Roll by Joan Jett, which led to Yankovic’s first self-titled album in 1983.

In 1984, Yankovic released his second album Wierd Al Yankovic in 3D, with its lead single Eat it, a parody of Michael Jackson’s Beat it. The song and video did so well, the single hit number 12 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Yankovic’s satire didn’t just stop at lyrics – his creation of videos was an amazing recreation of the original, with a healthy dose of parody, humour and slapstick.

Yankovic went on in 1985 to do his own mockumentary, The Compleat Al, continued to create parodies and then in 1989, made his film UHF, which had Yankovic as the lead, working at a cable tv station.

As a result of his creativity, Yankovic has been nominated for nine Grammy awards (has won three), four gold records and six platinum records in the US.

I enjoyed the parodies of Wierd Al – his attention to detail and the mix of slang and inuendo paired with humour were unique and ridiculous. Although there was always chatter that many musicians didn’t enjoy the satirical send-up, I suspect they all did, since it was a stamp of having made it to such a high level of awareness amongst fans, that everyone would recognize a parody of the original.

Wierd Al Yankovic continues to create - but its his 1980s creations that still bring a smile and a laugh to many.

memories of the ’70s – Convoy

Breaker, breaker good buddy, do you seen any smokeys? The world of CB radio and long-distance truck driving managed to become instilled in pop culture in the mid-1970s, thanks to the novelty song, Convoy, sung by C.W. McCall.

McCall is the pseudonym for Bill Fries, a singer/songwriter who specialized in the hurtin’ country songs that talked about rural life and being on the road. He focused on using that unique style of speaking/singing, which helped him incorporate the slang of the CB (citizens band) radio users.

Released in 1976, Convoy became the first country song to hit number one on the pop charts at the same time. Its catchy CB lyrics detailed a trucker rebellion, showcasing their frustration of working endless hours as they transport goods from coast to coast. As the majority of North Americans travelled by car, the use of the CB radio grew in popularity amongst casual users, who wanted their own ‘handle’ and to share info on the highway speed traps, as the speed limit had been reduced to 55mph. It wasn’t just for the professional drivers anymore.

Fueled by the interest in the trucking genre in popular culture, director Sam Peckinpah, inspired by the hit song, produced the film Convoy, starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw and Ernest Borgnine.

The film detailed the antics of “Rubber Duck” (Kristofferson) as he drives his way through the southwest, encountering a Jaguar driven by Melissa (McGraw), his fellow driving buddies (Pig Pen and Spider Mike) and corrupt sherriff Dirty Lyle (Borgnine).  Fries recorded a new version of Convoy for the film soundtrack.

But it was the language of this world that became memorable, with its unique descriptions of the police, vehicles and cities: such as Smokey or Bear (police officer), Miss Piggy (female police officer), 18 wheelers (truck w/tractor trailer), Shakytown (Los Angeles), Chi-town (Chicago), Bullshit City (Washington DC), back door (rear), swindle sheets (driving logs), Cornfield Cadillac (John Deere tractor), and one of my favourites – Pregnant rollerskate (Volkswagen Beetle).

I never quite understood the fascination for the slang and the world of trucking. I assume its a symbol of freedom, that ability to take off and be your own boss on the open road, especially during the 1970s when cars were the most equitable mode of transport within North America. And since the profession is dominated by men, its seems like another thing that men love and women just don’t get.

Although the obsession for this world has since passed, in 2004, country singer Paul Brandt did a cover of Convoy, and had himself a hit record and video, thanks to all those fans who are still obsessed with hitting the highway, looking for a way to drive fast and far, and avoid those smokeys.