SoundPress.net Feature Article: We Are The '80s CD Series! (CD Release)

WE ARE THE '80s CD SET:
Celebrating the Hitmakers from the Oft-Maligned,
But Musically Rich Decade of Musical Diversity!
A SoundPress.net Feature Article by Rich and Laura Lynch

In an unprecedented co-venture between Legacy Recordings, a division of SONY BMG MUSIC, and VH1 Classic, a unit of Viacom, a new series of CDs entitled WE ARE THE '80s brings the most influential artists of the decade back into the spotlight where they belong - underscored by a full-scale U.S. tour this summer 2006, headlined by Rick Springfield with special guests Loverboy, Eddie Money, and Scandal, four of the artists featured in the series.

A quarter century after the premiere of MTV at 12:01 a.m., on August 1, 1981, the cataclysmic changes brought about by the first decade of the video revolution are continuing to be seen and heard in the music of today's twenty-somethings' artists. Celebrating Bangles, Loverboy, Eddie Money, and Scandal (all on Columbia/ Legacy), Bow Wow Wow and Rick Springfield (on RCA/Legacy), and A Flock Of Seagulls (on Jive/Legacy), the first seven WE ARE THE '80s collections arrive in stores in July 2006, boosted by a high-profile media and marketing campaign that will be underway all summer. The title of the series comes from the popular "We Are the '80s" blocks of video programming that regularly air on VH1 Classic.

Meanwhile, the VH1 Classic music channel is growing up, expanding from a 12-hour programming wheel to a full 24-hour cycle in 2006. To deliver more concerts, videos and music specials, the channel has inked an exclusive programming deal with the BBC. As of September 2006, BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test anthology series and concert footage from artists such as Tom Petty, The Police and Lynyrd Skynyrd will begin airing on the network. They will be part of its Classic in Concert original series. New VH1 Classic franchises set to debut soon include the weekly Rock and Roll Picture Show (May 6), the monthly Class Of ... (June), the 27-episode Classic Albums (fall 2006), and the Classic Artists documentary series (fall 2006).

Often maligned and disrespected - but never imitated or duplicated - the "decade of decadence" that was the '80s is now officially retro-cool, and its gold, platinum, and multi-platinum artists and bands are being properly recognized for their utter greatness. Each entry in the WE ARE THE '80s series will contain an hour of music, 12-14 tracks of hit singles and well-chosen album cuts drawn exclusively from each group's '80s output. In the case of A Flock Of Seagulls and Scandal, this will include previously unreleased material, as well as material making its first appearance on CD. Each package will also contain newly commissioned liner notes (please see writers below). All seven launch titles will carry a suggested list price of $11.98.

All seven WE ARE THE '80s CDs will also feature a link to Taito, the company behind "Space Invaders" in the '80s. Insert any of the seven CDs into a computer, key in wearethe80s.com/spaceinvaders, and the customer will be routed to a website on which they can play "Space Invaders" and other classic Taito games.

BANGLES: From their very start as members of L.A.'s Paisley Underground, the heart and soul of Bangles' music could be traced to the affection of singer-guitarists Susanna Hoffs and Vicki Peterson for the music of the Beatles, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. The direction was shared by Vicki's younger sister Debbi (on drums) and new bassist Michael Steele, formerly of hard-rock girl group the Runaways. Working with Columbia producer David Kahne, their debut LP All Over The Place won raves, with clips of the tasty "Going Down To Liverpool" (written by Kimberley Rew of Katrina & the Wave) and "Hero Takes A Fall" (by Susanna and Vicki) becoming early MTV adds. In fact, Prince saw the "Hero" clip, was besotted by Hoffs, and gave his "Manic Monday" to the Bangles, which became the lynchpin (hitting #2) for the success of their second album, Different Light. Followed by "If She Knew What She Wants (#29, written by Jules Shear), "Walk Like An Egyptian" (#1 for four weeks), and "Walking Down Your Street" (#11), the LP hit #2, spent 82 weeks on the chart, and sold 3 million copies. Their next hit, produced by Def Jam's Rick Rubin for the Less Than Zero movie soundtrack, was a #2 cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter" which Bangles had been performing since their club days. Everything, their third album continued the winning streak with the Kelly-Steinberg hits "In Your Room" (#2) and "Eternal Flame" (Bangles' second #1), but the attention Hoffs was receiving drove them apart in 1989. "The oft-misunderstood quartet," as Scott Schinder's liner notes characterize Bangles, pursued wildly varied solo endeavors in the '90s before reuniting in 1999, to cut a song for the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me movie soundtrack. Their full-fledged 2003 album, Doll Revolution, was a welcome release by one the most important, successful and beloved bands of the '80s.

BOW WOW WOW: Several factors contributed to the emergence of Bow Wow Wow in mid-1980, starting with their creator Malcolm McLaren, the London pop culture and fashion maven who had taken the Sex Pistols as far as that could go, until their demise the year before. He dangled an offer in front of Adam Ant's three backing musicians and they jumped at the opportunity to dump Mr. Goddard for the infamous manager's new brainchild. Then there was 14-year old singer Annabella Lwin (born Myant Myant Aye in Burma), whose nude pose on Bow Wow Wow's first album cover nearly brought the Empire to ruin. Before that, however, was the world's first cassette single, "C30, C60, C90 Go," another stroke of marketing genius by McLaren. When he parted company with the group in 1982, they turned to American manager Kenny Laguna, of Joan Jett fame. He took the advice of promo man Steve Leeds and hooked up Bow Wow Wow with the Strangeloves' 1965 Brill Building confection, "I Want Candy." The video became an MTV staple in the music channel's first year, and extended the band's ran for another year before they hung it up in 1983. Notwithstanding the passage of time, notes Randy Haecker, Annabella and Leigh Gorman have kept the Bow Wow Wow trademark alive and kicking since the late-'90s, most recently the 2004 tour that included the KROQ radio 25th anniversary concert in L.A., and an appearance that same week on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS: Two decades (plus) later, it's time for rock history to transfer some affection to A Flock Of Seagulls for doing their fair share to advance the fortunes of romantic synth-pop on both sides of the Atlantic. Fronted by Mike Score (vocals and keyboards), whose impossibly-coiffed peroxide blondeness made the world forget about Haircut 100 altogether, Flock was visual eye-candy at the dawn of MTV. Free to wave high their Liverpool flag, they woke up dance floors with their top 10 chart debut in the summer of '82, "I Ran (So Far Away)," then followed up with "Space Age Love Song" (lovingly paid homage in the Adam Sandler movie The Wedding Singer) and "Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)." There was always something ominous and dreamy about the group, who helped open the door to "the decade of disposable day-glo culture," as New Jersey writer and DJ Mike Cimicata characterizes the '80s. More than most, it would be difficult to imagine those years without A Flock Of Seagulls.

LOVERBOY: Of all the acts in this series, there is not one who is more quintessentially '80s than Loverboy, whose career is bounded by the decade itself - formed in 1980, disbanded in 1989 - with a litany of 14 perfect chart hits which comprise the sequence of this collection. Originally conceived in Toronto as a two-man studio-only endeavor starring guitarist Paul Dean and singer Mike Reno, it quickly morphed into a profitable touring band with the additions of keyboardist Doug Johnson, bassist Scott Smith, and drummer Matt Frenette. In 1981, the second record industry collapse in two years, and the worst financial crash in its history, had left the business in serious need of a jolt. Mid-year, two well-charted singles into their career ("Turn Me Loose" and "The Kid Is Hot Tonight"), Loverboy was waiting in the wings with "Working For the Weekend" when MTV premiered at 12:01 a.m., August 1, 1981. If the music business was looking for a way to pull fans back into the stores, Loverboy's hook-infested rock anthems - and sexy, steamy videos like director Martin Kahan's "Hot Girls In Love" - were just the ticket. Loverboy's first four LPs were consecutive multi-platinum sellers, and movie producers quickly learned that it didn't hurt to have a Loverboy track on your soundtrack album, like the Mike Reno and Ann Wilson (of Heart) duet "Almost Paradise" as the Love Theme of Footloose, or the band's "Heaven In Your Eyes" on Top Gun. After disbanding at the end of the decade to pursue solo projects, it was inevitable that the millennium would bring a Loverboy reunion. Despite the death of Smith on a sailboating accident in 2000, Loverboy has kept going on the road, and their fans couldn't be happier.

EDDIE MONEY: Back in the '70s, the cop's son from Brooklyn was on the fast track at the New York Police Academy while moonlighting as a rock and roll singer around town - until he got sidetracked and wound up in Berkley, where he was 'discovered' by Bill Graham and signed to the promoter's new Columbia label deal. A healthy string of hits with producer Bruce Botnick in 1978-79 ("Baby Hold On," "Two Tickets To Paradise," "Maybe I'm A Fool") and two platinum LPs established Eddie's career. Into the '80s, Eddie was hooked up with the top AOR producers in the country, starting with Ron Nevison (Jefferson Starship, the Babys) on Playing For Keeps, which brought a new kind of sound to Eddie's fans ("Running Back"). After a two year break, and a move to legendary producer Tom Dowd (Allman Brothers, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton), Eddie came back to his platinum ways with a gutsier bottom on No Control, returning to the Top 20 with "Think I'm In Love," a #1 Mainstream Rock hit. Dowd stayed on for Where's The Party? which netted a couple of mid-chart singles with "The Big Crash" and "Club Michelle." Now the stage was set for one of Eddie's biggest albums, as Can't Hold Back broke the platinum barrier, notching up one of his biggest career hits with "Take Me Home Tonight" featuring Ronnie Spector, followed by "I Wanna Go Back," "Endless Nights," and "We Should Be Sleeping," an incredible 14-month chart run. Eddie stayed with that album's main producer Richie Zito for the next LP, Nothing To Lose, a wise decision that brought another top 10 hit with "Walk On Water." For Eddie Money, the decade - though not his chart longevity - wrapped up with 1989's Greatest Hits Sound Of Money, a well-deserved collection that contained four new tracks, one of which was his top-charting cover of Jennifer Holliday's summer '88 Olympics ballad, "Peace In Our Time."

SCANDAL: Scandal founder Zack Smith's instincts as a New York commercial jingle-meister served him well when he decided to refocus his energies into a smashing hard rock band in 1982. Singer Patty Smyth had the pixiefied looks and throaty R&B chops to give the new group a distinctive female lead vocal front. Guitarist Keith Mack (abetted in the studio by newly-signed Columbia 6-string wonderboy Ray Gomez), bassist Ivan Elias, a popular studio keyboard player named Paul Shaffer (in his freshman year as bandleader on a late-night talk show with a young comic, David Letterman) and the late Frankie LaRocca on drums - filled out the newly christened Scandal. The debut was a 5-song EP (or mini-album) produced by Vini Poncia, fresh from four years in the studio with Kiss. The EP's entire contents are presented here - including the back-to-back MTV faves "Goodbye To You" and "Love's Got A Line On You" (director Martin Kahan's first rock video) Also from those first sessions are three previously unreleased tracks ("Grow So Wise," "If You Love Me," "I'm Here Tonight"), and the first CD appearance of "Goodbye To You"'s B-side, "All My Life." Two summers later, working with power pop producer Mike Chapman, Scandal broke the platinum barrier with The Warrior LP, whose title tune made the Top 10 and set the stage for Patty Smyth's solo career - while Scandal went the Darwinian way of most things '80s.

RICK SPRINGFIELD: Rick Springfield belongs to that special caste of artists whose career-start predates the '80s (in his case by a full decade, as a rocker in his native Australia beginning in the late-'60s) - but whose greatest success and whose musical identity is forever defined by the '80s. An emigre to Los Angeles (by way of London), he was in and out of at least four record deals by the time he started writing the songs that would become his first RCA Victor LP, 1981's Working Class Dog. There are several tales told of the origins of "Jessie's Girl" - was she the girlfriend of a guy Rick met at a stained glass class, or was the title inspired by Ron Jessie of the old L.A. Rams? Whoever, she was Rick's debut #1 single at RCA, the first of 16 chart hits at the label through 1988, all but two of which are presented here (in chronological order). His so-called 'overnight' success propelled him into the virtual career-defining role of Dr. Noah Drake on the popular daytime soap opera, General Hospital. It was a three-year stint during which he was also a bonafide Top 40 rock star with a string of eight hit singles, three platinum LPs, high visibility on MTV, and sold-out tour dates. When he finally left the show, it was to take a chance on a movie career in 1984's Hard To Hold (with Patti Hansen). It was an early example of a movie being out-succeeded by the soundtrack LP, which hit platinum and spun off three Top 40 singles: "Love Somebody" (written for Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead!), "Don't Walk Away" (inspired by Peter Gabriel), and "Bop 'Til You Drop" (whose video clip launched the career of director David Fincher, of Seven and Fight Club renown). Rick turned his attention inward to spiritual guidance in 1985, and Tao was the result, an album that resonated with his fans and sent two songs into the Top 30, "State Of The Heart" and "Celebrate Youth." His final RCA album Rock Of Life and its title tune single also marked Rick's '80s finale. But nearly two decades later, he has never left the stage. "Continuing to wow fans across America with his dynamic live show," writes Ken Sharp in his liner notes, "bolstered by an arsenal of hit songs from his heyday, Rick Springfield might have made his mark in the '80s but his musical career continues to thrive well into the 21st century."

Launched in May 2000, VH1 Classic is a 24-hour network that presents music videos, concerts and music specials featuring classic rock, soul and pop artists ranging from the '60s, '70s, '80s and early '90s. Featured artists include The Beatles, The Stones, Tina Turner, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Stevie Wonder, The Police, and many more. Learn more at www.vh1classic.com.

(Originally Published on August 16, 2006)

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