The other day Metal Sucks introduced me to Firewind’s cover of Michael Sembello’s “Maniac.” That in turn took me to iTunes to search for other covers and yielded the interesting remake of “Super Freak” by Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby. As much as I loathe most of the covers that were made in the ’80s, I love when someone does a good cover of an ‘80s tune. And I’m not talking about someone adding a club beat behind a track and calling it a remake; it seems like almost every really popular song was remade into a dance track by some DJ within the past decade. I’m talking about cool covers with some different sounds or ideas incorporated into the original sound; since I like the Firewind track, a good example would be power-metal covers of pop tunes. (One of these days Manowar is going to cover “Who’s Johnny?” and I’m going to be all over it.) So, help me out and let me know some of your favorite covers of ‘80s tunes so I can make a mix of my own.

NEW MUSIC FOR THE COLLECTION:
Big Big Sun, Stop the World
David Drew, Safety Love
Nitzer Ebb, That Total Age
Nik Kershaw, Human Racing
Dave Edmunds, Riff Raff

We continue on with our look at the bottom 60 percent of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the ‘80s with more “C” artists.

(more…)

Download the full mix HERE

“Theme From Shaft,” Isaac Hayes

MGM was behind this film, it made a ton of money at the box office, Isaac Hayes won an Oscar for the theme song, and yet the movie itself looks like crap. Maybe it’s the lousy VHS copies I’ve viewed over the years, but I thought for a “major motion picture” the production values would have been better. After a quick Wiki search, I learned that MGM budgeted the film at a little over $1.1 million, so perhaps they weren’t expecting the film to do much in terms of box office action. Twelve million dollars later, MGM rode the, um, Shaft cash cow home for two film sequels and a few TV movies. Damn right!

“You Should Be Dancing,” Bee Gees

When Saturday Night Fever came out, I’m sure people were drawn to it for the dancing and the music — and didn’t bother to notice the R rating. Paramount Pictures, with a successful soundtrack screaming up the charts, was certainly getting an earful from “the suits” at Gulf & Western, who were probably pushing for a re-edit of the film so younger kids and grandmothers could see it. They got their way with a PG version a year later. (more…)