Top 80s Hits: Halloween Themed Playlist

To kick off the Halloween season, we're bringing back a popular episode from season1. In this episode, Jim and Lindsay make a playlist of Halloween theme songs from the 1980s. Join us as Lindsay introduces Jim to a non-'80s Halloween country song, Jim geeks out about MJ and Lindsay questions whether or not Ozzy really bit the head off a bat. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Join us today as we make a playlist of eighties
songs with the Halloween theme. A new episode of Children
of the Eighties is next. Hi, I'm Jim and I'm Lindsey.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
And this is Children of the Eighties. So this is
episode two of our Halloween themed episodes. In case you
miss last week, on Friday the thirteenth, we talked about
urban legends and spooky stories we heard as kids and
how they affected us. So go check that out for
some nostalgia.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
That was fun. I enjoyed that episode.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I did too. I thought it was a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Fun, even though it gave me the creeps over.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
You know, you know, you know bloody Mary.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
No, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well you're still afraid of bloody Mary? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Stop it?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Should I say it a third time?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Please this house?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
So did you get any feedback from last year?

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yes, I got feedback. People thought it was funny. Then
I'm still hung up on that.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
At forty four, what the bloody Mary they is?

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I just said it a third time and I don't
see a creepy lady in the mirror. Well prove it's an.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Urban life and we scowed over a little bit. You'll
be able to see me. I am the creepy lady
of this house. But yeah, I don't know. I cannot
believe that I'm the only adult that still gets totally
creeped out by that.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well you should see candy and then no, that would
be even worse.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
No, thank you. So what kind of feedback did you get?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
So you and I have gone back and forth on
this over a few different episodes. Right, you always thought
it was an urban legend about people, you know, putting
razor blades and candy bars and that kind of stuff. Right,
We've gone back and forth. You don't believe it. I
tell you that it's happened, and you're like nope. So

(02:27):
you know Sean from Generation Rewind, Yes and Content of course,
you know, he's like one of our biggest promoters, right.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I know. I love Sean and I love his podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah. Well, after he listened to our episode, he messaged
me and he was like, dude, I just listened to
your episode, and I'm telling you, when I was like
six years old, six or seven years old, my mom
went to the store and got me a pack of
like Hostess donuts and I was opening I was opening

(02:59):
them up and breaking them through because that's when all
the razor blade stuff was going on and he found
a rusty razor blade.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Doty, Yes, are you kidding me?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
I am not kidding you, No way, I don't believe it.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
I have to hear that. First of all, I just
whacked the table, so you know that's gonna sound terrible. Sorry,
I don't believe it. I cannot. I have got to
hear that straight from Sean's mouth or it did not happen.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
You will hear it from Sean's mouth because we are
his first guests on his new podcast called pod Tent,
where he likes to promote podcasts.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I love it. I love it, and I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
So but I have a feeling that instead of him
interviewing us now you are going to be interviewing him
about the donut razor blade siesco.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
I have a thousand questions, like what kind of store
did they buy the Hostess whatever at? What did his
mom do, what did he do? What? You know? What
did did they go back to the store, What did
the people at the store say?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Like, I believe his mom called Hostess and he said
that for the next six months, his kitchen looked like
a Hostess donut shop.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Oh wow, so Kid's dream coachry?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Right? Probably I wonder if he broke those open to
check from that, I would hope.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
So, I wonder. I mean, I'm assuming the package looked sealed. Man,
I have so many questions.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, I'm thinking that maybe it might have happened at
the factory rather than somebody breaking.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, that doesn't make me feel any better.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, I mean it shouldn't. But I'm just saying I'm
sure the package was sealed. I mean, I'm not sure
we can ask Sean.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
But so, my grandmother told me a story about when
my grandfather got home from World War Two and he
was just trying to find any job he could get.
He went to work at a bakery and he wore
a ring and it had like an insignia on it.
And he went to work one morning and the insignia
was on the ring and he came home that afternoon

(04:56):
and it was gone EO, and he doesn't no it happened.
I know.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
That'll ruin a good cherry Danish.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I know, right, So can you imagine?

Speaker 2 (05:08):
No? I cannot. So was that all the feedback you
got was just people making fun of you about being
afraid of Bloody Mary.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
I mean I'm an easy target because I'm a I'm
a big chicken.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Okay, So, speaking of last week's episode, we did mention
Phil Collins on the last episode, and I think that's
a good segue them. Yes, your good friend Phil. So
this week is all about music.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
So okay, So let's stay away from like the eighties
for a moment because I want to hear what do
you think when you think of a Halloween a good
Halloween theme song?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
So decades other than the eighties.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
So do you tell me about the eighties?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
I have a list? Do you have a list? I
have a list of all I got a list. Okay,
So Monster mashes An, Don't You're the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult?

Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yes, that's on my list too. Both of those are online.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
What about a Superstition by Stevie One, Yes, no way?

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
How about uh Werewolves of London by Warren.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
Zevon, Yeah, because you know I love that song anyways.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, so I'm gonna throw a newer one because those
are all from like the seventies, right, Master Mash may
even be from I think.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Monster goes back to the early sixties.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
I'm gonna throw one out for you after the turn
of the century. What uh Dracula's Wedding by Outcast.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I don't even know that song. I've never even heard it.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, you love Outcasts, so now you got to go
listen to it.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
My my Atlanta boys. Okay, what about zolmber Zoel.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, the Cranberrier, Yes, that's your favorite.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yes, I love it. Highway to Hell ac DC Oh okay, right,
I don't know. Maybe is that a stretch?

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Uh no, No, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
So I've got I've got one for you that you're
gonna have never heard of. But you know me, My
heart's in country Marie Levau Bobby Bear nineteen seventy three.
I love that song.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
I don't know that one.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
I think you need.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
I think you need to play a clip of that
even though it's not the eighties.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Oh listen, I would love to nothing will give me
a second, Let me pull it up.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
She lives in a swamp and a hollow, loud wear
the water snake and a relegging dogs. You got a bad,
boneybody and strange and if she ever seen y'all messing
around that you go.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Out of the man done go. I mean, you know
they say Marie Leveau was a was a real person
back in the day in Louisiana.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Oh yeah, I thought I reckon nice that name?

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Did?

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Was she into the voodoo?

Speaker 1 (08:03):
She did the the doo, the v doo. But I
love that song. It's a fun song. Would you think
you like it?

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (08:10):
I mean it's you know, not my thing, but.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
I'll go with don't add it to the playlist.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
It's Halloween, right, Some of these songs were played on
the radio around Halloween or maybe on Halloween when we
were kids. But I think over the last several years,
like things to things like Spotify and Pandora, halloween playlists
have become a thing. Right if you attended like a
Halloween party that had like particular playlist. So what do

(08:36):
you think about that?

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Just to tell idea, I've I've always struggled with trying
to pull up like a Halloween theme playlist on say
like Pandora, because then it always wants to play like
the theme song from I don't know, I'm just kidding
Adam's Family, like Friday the Thirteenth, Part twenty six, and

(09:00):
it's some weird piano music or keyboard music and it's
you know, not not catchy, not really good, not you know,
like right.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
So that's why I like Spotify or like Amazon Music
with Alexa, because you can create your own, your own
playlist and put in your own, you know, the exact
songs that you want, and it won't play, especially with Alexa,
it won't play anything but that hashtag.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
This is not an ad.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
It is not. But if they want to pay us,
we'll take it. So we're going to make a Halloween
playlist with songs from the nineteen eighties.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
So are they going to be like creepy, scary, I'm
not going to sleep tonight songs or are you going
to give me some leeway?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
I mean, if you are afraid of these songs, then
I can't help you. But yeah, I mean there's there's
some that you know, you're like, yeah, I could see
where that's a little bit eerie. But then so some
of them just have you know, something that might go
with Halloween just in the name of the title, right,

(10:08):
it may not necessarily be a Halloween song. So think
about like Stevie Wonder Superstition, Right, that's not a song
about Halloween, but it's very appropriate yes for Halloween.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
So and is this gonna be in any particular order
or are we just gonna love it back? Now?

Speaker 2 (10:23):
I think we're just gonna love it back and forth.
I'm not you know.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Can I be Serena?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Absolutely? I know she's your favorite. So but if you're
gonna be Serena, then I'm gonna then I need the
advantage of serving first. So I'm gonna go first.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
So this is going to be quite the eclectic list.
We have pop songs, we have some rock songs, we
have a little bit of rap and some new wave
and I might even toss in a hair band so for.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
You, Okay, okay, this should be fun. All right, I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Are we ready to get started?

Speaker 1 (10:58):
I'm ready?

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Do we have let's get started music?

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Give me a minute.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay, So my first song that I'm putting on our
playlist is Maniac by Michael Sambello.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
You guess cut us, give this get this post speaks,
that's what this.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
N Halloween song.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, it's called Maniac.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
She's a She's a dancing maniac.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
She is a dancing maniac. But let me give you
some song facts. Okay, So this song is from nineteen
eighty three. It's on the Flash Dads soundtrack. Obviously, it
was Grammy nominated for Record of the Year and Best
Pop Vocal Performance by a Male. It was also nominated
for Song of the Year. It was nominated for an

(12:26):
Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. It hit
number one on the Billboard Charts in nineteen eighty three
and was there for two weeks. It was number one
in Canada too, in Australia, Spain and Switzerland, number ten
in the Netherlands and possibly the most eighties thing of all,
it hit number six in West Germany. Ooa see kids

(12:49):
back in the eighties and going all the way back
to the After World War Two, Germany was split into
two East Germany and West Germany. They've since combined, so
there is no more West Germany.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
And go back and listen to our time capsule episode
if you want to learn more about that.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Exactly nice plug. So it finished on the nineteen eighty
three year in charts is number nine, so it's a
top ten song for the year in nineteen eighty three.
So this is why I think it's a Halloween song.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
I mean, you're I mean, you've got some explaining to
do so.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
It was written by Dennis mccowsky and Michael Simbelo, who
was the singer. Obviously, the original idea for the song
came to Mkowski while he was watching a news report
on a serial killer, and the original lyrics were somewhat gruesome.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
WHOA right, I want to know what serial killer?

Speaker 2 (13:46):
Yeah? I would like to know that too. And then
after you know that idea came to him. Both of
the gentlemen saw a movie named Maniac in nineteen eighty
that expanded on the lyrics, but the director of Flash
Dance loved the demo of the song and asked that
they changed the lyrics to be more adaptable to the movie.

(14:07):
And that's why we have them singing about you know
a lady from Pittsburgh dancing.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
Okay, okay, Well I'll give it to you on the
grounds of the serial killer. Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
So do you have any personal feelings or stories about
song at all? I don't you don't.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
No, I mean, see, I associate this song with flo
Flash Dance.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Obviously, yes, So the Flash Dance soundtrack is one of
the best soundtracks of the eighties.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
Didn't we see that on Broadway?

Speaker 2 (14:40):
We did see Flash Dance on on Broadway. I thought,
can you name some other songs from the Flash Dance?

Speaker 1 (14:45):
Why are you doing this to me?

Speaker 2 (14:50):
How about flash Dance? What a feeling?

Speaker 1 (14:52):
Oh? There you go? What?

Speaker 2 (14:55):
There you go? This Iron Kara? Who I claim? You
know how everybody calls Kenny L. Loggins the king of
the soundtrack, right, Iren Kara to me is the queen
of the soundtracks because she did Flash Dance, she did fame.
I think she may have done something and like breaking
and maybe something else. So I love the Flash to

(15:18):
Dance soundtrack. It's fantastic soundtrack. But of course I always
think of Tommy Boy when I hear this song. You
know when Yeah, after he falls in the mud and
Rob Low is spraying him with the with the hose
and waters flat everywhere, Chris Barley starts dancing, singing mediac.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
So, okay, good choice choice to get us, I mean,
to get us started. You know what, I'll let you
have it good.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
I'm glad that you are being so kind. So what
is the first song that you have?

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay? I was kind with you, so I expect you
to return the favor. Okay, Okay, Man Eater hauling oats.

Speaker 6 (16:01):
She'll shut you up.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
It was released in nineteen eighty two on their studio
album H two. Oh Now I am not a big
Haul of Oates fan.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Oh wow, how dare you?

Speaker 1 (16:24):
I know the look you're giving me. I just I'm not.
Can I just be quite honest for a moment, And
I know that you will get messages from all your buddies.
Here's what I know about Hall of Notes. Back in
the late eighties, possibly nineteen ninety, Danny Wood from New

(16:48):
Kids on the Block named Hall of Oates as his
favorite artist. That is about where it starts and ends
for me with Hall of Notes.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, come on, you know this song? You know?

Speaker 1 (17:01):
No, I do know this song. But I had to
I honestly, I had to do a little bit of
research because I know the song. I don't really know
much info about them. They're not going to be I'm
never putting them in the time capsule.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Oh my gosh. They would go in the late seventies
and early eighties pop rock time capsule. I bet you
they had about thirty five top forty hits.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
No, I know, I know that I'm not in the majority.
I get that. I'm so sorry. So the song reached
number one on the Billboard Hot one hundred chart right
before Christmas in nineteen eighty two. John Oates has since explained,
and this is some people disagree with this and that

(17:47):
he's maybe trying to I don't know, saye face, which
I don't really understand why, that the song is not
really about a woman, it's about the city of New York, okay,
And that they used it in context that the city
was female and the city was a woman because people
would be able to relate to that better.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Okay, that makes sense. But do you think he's trying
to rewrite history?

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I do think he might. I think he might be,
But again I don't know. I mean, artists can can
get artsy fartsy like that. So who knows right.

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Right in New York City would eat somebody out in.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
The very possibly could Okay, So let me give you
just a little bit more information. Are you ready? So
in Canada it reached number four as a top single.
Belgium it reached number eight, Australia number four, Canada Adult

(18:48):
Contemporary number one, I mean it goes on and on
Ireland number eight. Spain it reached number one, okay, so
it did really well on the charts.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, I mean it was huge. I remember it. So
I've got a funny story about this.

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Tell me.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
You know my buddy Bob, of course, him and I
worked at the same place a couple of places ago.
Where we worked, there was a lady there who was
known as just the ultimate man hater. I guess maybe
something went wrong in her life. I don't know, but
she was a man hater, and so anytime we would

(19:33):
see her coming, we would start humming this tune, and
instead of saying man eater, we would say, man hater.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
That's funny, that's also kind of bad. I got something
else for you. I just realized we can't. I mean,
since you brought up West Germany, I need to counter
with my West Germany number fifteen where it peaked in
West Germany.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, I mean the West German They loved the haff Right,
so I don't know, they loved Hall and Oates, but
they loved David hassel So maybe if David Hasselhoff had
saying man eater, it might have happened.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
It's a little bit of a music career, yeah, a
little bit, nothing to probably write home about. But right,
those good looks, you don't have to be able to sing.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I mean, listen, you can say that the haff is
good looking and I can't argue with you. But Darryl
Hall back in the late seventies and early eighties, there,
you know. I bet there's many a lady that would
argue with you.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
I don't know about that.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
And John Oates and his curly hair and his mustache.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
Whoh, that's Stash all right.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
So we've started off strong with Maniac and man Eater.
So my next song is going to be you know what,
why don't I just play it for you?

Speaker 6 (20:56):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (21:17):
So that is twilight Zoned by Golden Earring. Do you
ever hear that one?

Speaker 1 (21:21):
No? It's creepy.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Well it is called twilight Zone.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Well there you go. What happens at two am?

Speaker 2 (21:28):
So nothing good facts about the song, song facts, fun facts,
whatever you want to call it. Nineteen eighty two, it
spent twenty seven weeks on the pop charts.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Well that sounds impressive.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
That's more than half the year. So it hit number
ten that's where it peaked. It was number one on
the US mainstream rock charts. It was number one in
the Netherlands and number five in Belgium. So over there
in the low Country. He's in Europe. It was a
big hit, so it ended up number nineteen on the

(22:04):
Billboard Hot one hundred Year in Charts for nineteen eighty three,
which you know, if you think it only it only
got up to number ten, so obviously it was on
for over half the year. That's why it was ranked
so high for year in. But I did some a
little bit of research about the song, so it was
inspired by the band's guitarist who was reading the Born Identity.

(22:26):
I'm not sure what the Born Identity has to do
with this song, but it pays tribute to obviously the
Twilight Zone, the old TV show. It's the only top
ten pop single in the US by Golden Earring, And well,
I guess that's about all I have for the facts
of the song. What do you think about that?

Speaker 1 (22:47):
I mean, considering I've never even heard of Golden Earring,
I'm glad because otherwise that they hadn't had another Pops
single that I had missed. Otherwise I would be like,
where did I live my life? Under a rock?

Speaker 2 (23:00):
So I think the song rocks, you know, but I
don't think i'd even list it probably in like my
top five hundred.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Oh whoa, whoa sorry golden ear ring.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Well, I mean, if you think about it, there's you know,
we could easily name five hundred songs better than that.
So I like twilight Zone the TV show and twilight
Zone the movie better than I like twilight Zone the song. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:27):
Correct. When I was growing up, twilight Zone always was
on in the middle of the night if you were
up sick in the night. Uh huh, yeah, so that's
what I kind of associate twilight Zone with.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
I also like twilight Zone Tower of Terror MGM.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Well you know, MGM, that's the Tower of Terror is.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
My favorite exactly. So I'm putting the twilight Zone on
our Halloween playlist.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
Okay, I will allow it. Get a little rock, I
will allow it's. Let's rock a little bit, you know what.
I want to keep on rocking, okay. In fact, I
want to take it up a notch and I want
to like rock rock rock rock rock rock.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
Oh no, what are you going with?

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Uh huh?

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Why don't you play it?

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Okay? Instead of telling you let me play it? What

(24:35):
do you think about my choice?

Speaker 2 (24:36):
Well? You you can't have Halloween without going with the
os Man.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Oh I know, right, So this was bark at the Moon. Obviously,
Ozzy Osbourne came out in nineteen eighty three. This is
gonna surprise you. Okay, are you ready? I'm ready, Okay,
I actually really like Ozzie.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Really, Yes, that does surprise me.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
I know it does. Now, I'm not going to just
sit around at home listening to Ozzy Osbourne. But I
think he's hugely talented and I respect him for that.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Well, I think it's funny he's he's a lot like
he's kind of the opposite of Bob Dylan. Right, you
can't you can't understand a word he speaks, but when
he sings, yes, it's crystal clear.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
It's clear as day, whereas.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Bob Dylan you can't understand he already sings, but when
he speaks, it's crystal clear.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
So bargat the Moon. It was the first single released
from his nineteen eighty three album of the same name.
Some would argue this is his most popular song. How
do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (25:37):
I always felt like Crazy Train was his most popular song.
But yeah, I mean, you know, this is just like
rocking at its hardest, right.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
So this was the first music video he ever did.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Oh really, yes.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yes. The song peaked at number twenty one on the
UK Singles Chart and number twelve on Billboard's Album Rock Tras.
Ozzy is a big juckal and Hyde fan. Okay, so
the video kind of tells that story to some extent,
and so that's why they worked that in. It was

(26:13):
a big deal, I guess, because this he has, you know,
this crazy image biting the heads off bats and all
this crazy stuff that he's doing, and this being you know,
like his first video people had, people had like high expectations, so.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Said that he bite the bat's head off on the video.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
No, not in the video. Did he really do that?
Or was that an urban legend.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
I've heard people say it. I've never seen it. I
don't want to see it if it is true, So
we'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
The title of this song came from a joke that
Ozzie used to tell where the punchline was eat poop
and bark at the moon. So he had the you know,
he had the like words were already like you know,
working in his mind because of that joke. And then

(27:07):
you know, I think like somebody else in his band
came in and put the riff with it, and they
it just went from there, but I thought you might
enjoy that where the idea came from.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
I did not know that.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, So what I know about this song, yeah, tell me,
is that it is the final song to beat Guitar
Hero two on the PlayStation. And I know that because
I played Guitar Hero.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
Did you beat it?

Speaker 2 (27:33):
And I did beat it? But playing Bark at the
Moon took me a while to beat it because it's
just so fast, and yeah, it was tough. It's some
somebody slaying on that guitar. And I always thought it
was Randy Rhodes. But I heard that Randy Rhodes died

(27:55):
right before this was released or you know, this was recorded,
So it was not Randy.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
No, it was not. I feel like that the heavy
metal bands tell me if I'm wrong. They they never
got the credit that they probably deserved in being musically talented.

Speaker 2 (28:16):
They got it from the metal heads, for sure. Yeah,
from the population in general.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Problem probably not, because I mean, listen to the music,
like this is a rock and song, like this is
a really really good, well written song.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
And it's it's great for Halloween. I'm talking about Bark
at the Moon and you think of were wolves and
everything else. So yeah, I love it. Great call there,
thank you. Okay, So my next song is a Halloween staple.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Oh yeah, yeah, tell me.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
I'm gonna go ahead and play it for you now,
So many is it? So what do you think about

(29:13):
that one?

Speaker 1 (29:14):
That's a good one, right, So that's a good one.
That's the first one that I know deserves to be here.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
So that is Somebody's watching me by Rockwell, so you
ready for the deeps?

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Bring it on?

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Nineteen eighty four hit number two on the Billboard Hot
one hundred. I would have thought it would have been
a number.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
One song, but yeah, what happened there?

Speaker 2 (29:38):
Well, it was at number two for two weeks or
three weeks, and it was kept off by two of
the biggest songs of nineteen eighty four, Jump by Van
Halen and Footloose by the afore mentioned King of soundtracks,
Kenny Loggins.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
And Footloose is your favorite movie?

Speaker 2 (29:56):
No, listen, We've discussed this. I don't watch movie about dancing.
I don't watch Footloose. I don't watch Dirty Dancing. I
don't watch Flash Dance. We're not doing songs.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
We're gonna we're going to review Footloose.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
We'll see. So it's number two here, but it was
hit number one in Belgium, France, and Spain, number two
in Canada, the Netherlands and West Germany.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
Again.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
It was also a top five song in Switzerland, Sweden,
South Africa and New Zealand. It finished the nineteen eighty
four Billboard Hot one hundred Year in charts at number
twenty six, which is surprising to me. I would have
thought it would have finished higher because the song was huge,
But I think it was on the charts for a
very short time. It just kind of skyrocketed up and
then it fell like a falling star afterwards. The backing

(30:49):
vocals were done obviously for those of you that don't know,
but I think you should know by Michael Jackson. But
here's something that I didn't know also, Germaine Jackson.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
I didn't know Rockwell and Michael Jackson were childhood friends.
Did Rockwell purposely try to sound like Michael Jackson?

Speaker 2 (31:09):
No, I don't think he was trying to sound like
Michael Jackson. I think he just got Michael Jackson to
do his his backing vocals. So here's what happened. Rockwell
brought the demo over to the Jacksons, not Michael's, but
to the Jackson's house to play it and asked him
if they liked it. Michael Jackson had him sing it
several times and then asked Rockwell who was going to

(31:30):
be singing the backing vocals. Rockwell didn't have anyone in mind,
so he asked Michael if he would do it, and
Michael said yes, and he brought in Germaine so they
sang background vocals. Rockwell is the son of Motown record
CEO Barry Gordy. I have never heard that before, so

(31:51):
he secure He actually secured a deal at Motown without
his father's knowledge. No way, Yes, And he was the
name Rockwell because he believed that he rocked well.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
Oh my goodness, insert I roll here.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Right, I'm not making that up. That's not a dad joke.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
Did he ever go and do anything else though? Other
than the song he had?

Speaker 2 (32:16):
He had? He had another song that was a minor hit.
But yeah, so what do you think about this song?

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Oh? I love this song?

Speaker 2 (32:25):
So I really liked the song, but I mainly liked
it because Michael Jackson was singing the background with vocals.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
I I always thought that Rockwell was trying to like
be a Michael Jackson.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Maybe he was.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
That didn't take away anything from the song for me,
but I just thought, well, you know, he's just trying
to mimic.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
So let me ask you this. If it's Joe Blow
doing the backing vocals, do you think the song ever
hits big.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
No.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
I don't think it does either.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
No, I don't.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I think it was propelled for it by the power
of MJ.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
I think he probably should have involved Barry Gordy.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Well, so here's the deal here, you know why he didn't.
Wikipedia says that Barry Gordy was less than enthusiastic about
his son's music until he heard the single with Michael's
familiar voice doing background vocals, and then he was like,
oh okay.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
So he didn't like you didn't like?

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah, no, terrible. So you know, I like the song.
I enjoyed the song. I like the video. The video
is pretty cool, and I think the song speaks to,
you know, all of our paranoia.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Oh yeah, absolutely right, So that's my good choice. I
like it. Third song, speaking of MJ, what do you Got?

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I mean, I think I know what you got?

Speaker 1 (33:54):
Now you don't know you don't know nothing. You don't
know nothing.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
I used to.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Say, I don't feel worthy honestly to cover the song,

(34:37):
but I'm going to do my best.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
No, you go for it, you got it.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I'm going to do my best obviously. Thriller Michael Jackson.
It was released November nineteen eighty three in the UK
in January twenty third, nineteen eighty four in the US.
It was the seventh and final single from his sixth
studio album, also titled Thriller. The music video was huge.

(35:03):
It was a huge deal that premiered on MTV December second,
nineteen eighty three. Do you remember the first time you
saw the music video?

Speaker 2 (35:12):
We watched it on December second night.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Did you seriously?

Speaker 2 (35:15):
I can tell you that for sure.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yes, Like did you know like kind of countdown like
today's the day?

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (35:20):
And you remember absolutely? Okay? What what was your reaction?

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Blown away? It was a movie. So Michael Jackson was
all about not just being the best, but getting the
best the best at whatever he was doing. So for
beat It, you know, he got Eddie van Halen to
play the guitar to beat It right. His album I
Think Dangerous when it came out in the early nineties.

(35:46):
He got Slashed to play the guitar, right, so he
was all about the best. So of course he got
Vincent Price, you know the best you know horror guy,
uh right, you know in the business. And of course
he got John Landis to shoot his video. Yes, and
this may be in your research, but he saw Michael

(36:09):
saw American Werewolf in London that had these crazy special
effects where they actually showed a guy transforming from a
guy to a werewolf and was just blown away. And
he calls John Landis and says, I want to do
a video for thriller for a song that I've got
coming up, and I want you to direct it. I

(36:29):
want you to do all the makeup and everything like that.
And so yeah, I absolutely remember the build up to that.
We watched it, we recorded it on VHS. After that,
they had a documentary called the Making of Thriller, Wow,
and it was an hour an hour and a half long.
We recorded that. I probably watched that thing one hundred
and fifty to two hundred times as a kid.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Was that the first time you saw Michael Jackson's red
leather jacket? Was that video or had you already seen it?

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Somewhere else that's different than the beat It jacket, right,
I think so, then that would have been the first time.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
Okay, So the music video was inducted into the National
Film Registry. It's been named the greatest music video of
all time. You know why various publications.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
Why because it is.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
I love that. I'm not arguing. I totally agree. It
peaked the number four on Billboard Hot one hundred. It
reached number one in Belgium, France, and Spain, and then
it hit the top ten in many many other countries.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
So here's the thing. I love Thriller, but it probably
isn't a big song without the video. It's probably just
another OK song on the Thriller album. Not as big
as beat It, not as big as Billy Jean, you know,
not as big as Pyt or any of that. But

(38:03):
the video pushed it over the top. Now, obviously it
still wasn't as big a hit as Billy jeanner Beat It.
But when you say it was number four, yes, yeah,
it's number four because of the video.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Stayed at number four for two weeks. It finished as
the seventy eighth single on Billboard's Hot one hundred for
the year nineteen eighty four. Did you know that the
song was originally titled Starlight?

Speaker 2 (38:32):
I did not.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
The chorus lyrics give me some Starlight, Starlight Sun. Quincy Jones, though,
felt like the song should be the title track and
that Starlight just wasn't cutting a title track.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Jones was correct.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
They wanted something much more mysterious because they were wanting
Michael Jackson to be mysterious. What they want him to
be mysterios.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Once again, Quincy was right.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
Oh absolutely, I'm sure probably ninety nine point nine percent
of the time. Quincy Jones is right. So Thriller returns
to the Billboard Hot one hundred chart almost every Halloween. Wow,
isn't that crazy? That blew my mind?

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (39:21):
So this gave Michael at least one top twenty hit
across seven consecutive decades from nineteen sixty nine on the
Billboard Hot one hundred.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
That's crazy. It's gonna be hard to follow that one.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
I mean, we that might should have been the grand finale.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
So I'm gonna follow that one up with something completely different,
not even a big hit at all. But why don't
you go ahead and play this next song that I
have queued up for you. So that song is called

(40:10):
dead Man's Party, and it is by right the name.
The name is appropriate right for Halloween. Dead Man's Party.
It is by Oingo Boingo. So this song did not
chart at all as big as Michael Jackson song was.
This song did not chart at all. So it's on
the nineteen eighty five album called dead Man's Party. It

(40:31):
was featured in the nineteen eighty six Rodney Dangerfield movie
Back to School and the actual band performed it at
the party at a party scene in the movie. So
do you know who the front man was for that?
Alf Close elf Danny Elfman.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
Oh no, I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
So you know all the all the scores of the
Tim Burton movies. Right, we talked about him during the
PA He's a big adventure part, that's right. He uh
So sometimes he performs this song as the final encore
at some of his Nightmare Before Christmas concerts.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Oh that's interesting, okay.

Speaker 2 (41:13):
And other than you know, being one of the great
you know, movie score writers of the last thirty forty years,
That's about all I have on Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo
and the song dead Man's Part.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
I wonder what possessed him to be the front man
for Oingo Boingo.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Well, I think that's where he started, right, He was
just a he was a musician, and then he got
in and.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Worked his way.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Okay, okay, okay. This next song, I don't think that
it gets more nineteen eighties than this song in this countdown?

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Okay you ready, I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
I like that song.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
That's that's a I like that song too, and I
got I got a story about that later on, but
I'll like, oh good, I like you talk about it.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
So song came out in nineteen eighty two and hit
number three on the US Billboard Hot one hundred chart
hit number one on the US Billboard Hot Rock.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Track hold On. I'm not sure that's a rock song,
although that pretty good guitar rock. I don't think of
Duran Duran as.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
A no I don't need rock group, but I know
I don't either.

Speaker 2 (42:53):
That's probably a little bit more rocky than most of
their stuff.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
It also hit number one in Canada and was a
top five song in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa
in the UK.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
So every place that speaks English.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, pretty much. Let me think about in the eighties,
Like this is like just so so eighties.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
It is very in a good way.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
I mean that in a good way. Yes, it finished.
Nineteen eighty three is number seventeen on the year in
Hot one hundred. So what you said you had a
personal story.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
So yeah, So nineteen eighty two was about the year
that I got to start listening to music on my own.
Right prior to that, it was always whatever my parents
were listening to in the car or whatever, you know,
whoever was in the car with was about the only
time that I got to hear music. So you know,
the top, top top song you know, I was familiar with,

(43:54):
but other than that, So nineteen eighty two I got
to start listening to my own music. And I specific
remember this song and that was probably you know, saw
it on MTV the video on MTV as well, and
I just thought this was like a fantastic song. My
next door neighbor was a huge Duran. Duran fan, you know,

(44:17):
I liked him, but I wasn't a huge fan, but
this song was definitely to me, was like there their
greatest you know, this to me was better than the
Reflex and this is so this is my favorite probably
Duran Duran song.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Yeah, okay, I love it.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
That's a that's We've got some nineteen eighty two songs
on here. I know you said Thriller, and I know
you said it was kind of released on the radio
in nineteen January of eighty four, but the video came
out in eighty three.

Speaker 1 (44:47):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
And and actually Thriller the album actually it was nineteen
eighty two. It was just it was so big and
so huge that it lasted from eighty two through eighty four,
which is really kind of funny.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
But I mean that's crazy though, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
But yeah, so we've mentioned, you know, Maniac eighty three,
a man Eater, which I think you said was eighty two,
and now Hungry Like the Wolf, which is also eighty two.
So yeah, eighty two is when I kind of started
hitting my stride and that's kind of my happy eighty
two to eighty four is kind of my like my
happy years of music. So that makes me happy that

(45:24):
you put Hungry Like the Wolf on here. And the
name's appropriate, Yes, it is so, and the wolf probably
barks at the moon. Yeah, yeah, in the Twilight Zone.
Maybe okay, could be a man.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Eater, could be at a dead man's party.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
All right, So my next song, we're gonna do something
totally different. So why don't you I'm gonna you know what,
I'm just gonna play it for you out just one reason.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
The rock the house within the day time just brings
wood clear.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
You wouldn't find a good freak. And it went, all right,
what do you think about that one?

Speaker 1 (46:15):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
It's the freaks come out at night.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
I don't know it by Houdini, like okay, So you
might not know it because it didn't chart on the
Billboard Pub Charts nineteen eighty four, so we got another
nineteen eighty four song, rock Well was also eighty four,
and I think we got another nineteen eighty four song
coming up. So it hit UK Singles chart, got all
the way up to ninety seven on the UK Singles Chart,

(46:42):
all all the way up. It was actually on the
US Hot Black Singles Chart at forty three, which I
didn't know was a chart.

Speaker 1 (46:49):
I didn't know that was a thing.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
So it got up to forty three, and then it
was on the US Hot Dance Club Play It got
up to number twenty five, so it's big obviously, big
kind of club sound, so it's a it's got a
little bit of a funk sound and some hip hop obviously, right,
And the song is actually about nightlife in New York City.
So you talked about Hall of Oates earlier, right with
man Eater being about New York City, and that may

(47:13):
have been Revision is history, but this is not Revision's history.
This song is about the night life of New York City.
Some cool things about the video. The video has run
DMC in it, and it also has future rapper Jermaine
Duprie cool and he was a dancer for Hoodie at
the time. So I remember hearing this song in like

(47:38):
fourth or fifth grade and I liked it a lot.
It was completely different than anything that was on the radio,
and I thought it, you know, just had a cool sound.
I've always kind of liked the funk sound, even from
like the seventies, you know, bands like Parliament and Wild Cherry.
I've always kind of liked that. So this was kind

(47:59):
of to hear. And you know, I mean, they weren't wrong.
The freaks do come out.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
They do come out after ten pm. I will say,
have all the songs we've done so far, this one
is the one that's gonna be stuck in my head.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
Yeah, I say it's very catchy, is it not?

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (48:16):
It is. I like that.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
That's good.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Okay. I think it deserves a place there. So I'm
glad you've put it on our list.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Okay, And I think I think I know what your
next song is.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
You don't know?

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Also gonna be from the great year of nineteen.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Years four, don't know? Hold on.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
Something strange?

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Who you're gonna call something? We don't.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Who you gonna call?

Speaker 1 (49:00):
There you go? You did know? Like you've seen my
notes Ghostbusters Ray Parker Junior and you're right nineteen eighty four.
Obviously it was the theme to the movie Ghostbusters. Absolutely
hit number one on the US Billboard Hot one hundred.
Was there for three weeks. I kind of would have

(49:23):
thought maybe longer, but I don't know. Also hit number
one in Belgium, Canada, France, South Africa, and Spain.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
It was a top five hit get Ready Australia, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, West Germany and the UK.
It was number nine on the nineteen eighty four year
end US Hot one hundred number three hundred eighty two

(49:56):
on the All Time US Billboard Hot One.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Wow Okay.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
It was nominated for an Academy Award this song, Wow Okay,
but lost to Stevie Wonders. I just call to say,
what you know, I love that song.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
I know you love that song. But I would choose Ghostbusters.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Away, would you?

Speaker 2 (50:16):
I wow? But I know you love that song, so
that would be offensive to you. So this song was huge.
I mean, it was huge, top five and it looks
like about a dozen countries or so.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
I mean, it was like it's all over.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
We've had more mentions of West Germany in this podcast
and probably every other podcast combined that isn't based somewhere
in Germany.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Yeah, so there was some controversy.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Oh, I've heard about this.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
But did you know this at the time or did you.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
I did not know this about I did not know
this at the time. I actually mentioned my buddy Bob
earlier in the podcast, but he probably should have been
a writer for Rolling Stone. Nobody I know knows more
about the history of music than he does. And he's
the one that actually told me about the lawsuit.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
So the song sounds eerily familiar to I. Want a
New Drug by Huey, Lewis and the News there. So
there was a lawsuit of course that Huey filed against
Ray Parker Junior. It was settled out of court with
a confidentiality agreement so nobody could talk about it. But
eventually Huey broke that agreement in two thousand and one.

(51:27):
So then Ray turned around and sued him back and
he got some money.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Too, so also he got some of his money back there, I.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Guess worked out for him there. So supposedly hue was
approached to do the theme song for the movie and
he turned them down. Ray was approached and obviously said yes.
So the filmmakers may have planted the seed of Ray
ripping off the song without Ray even like realizing it.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
So we can't really blame Ray, then, is what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
I'm not sure that we can. The filmmakers used I
Want a New Drug as the temporary background music in
many scenes, including a clip they sent to Parker for inspiration, So.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Oh yeah, no, then you can't blame right.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
It seems like it might have all been a setup.
So the Montreal screw job.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Knife reference, I love that, So I got some personal
stories about this song. Oh good, So the video was awesome.
Do you remember the video at all? Yes, So it
featured cameos by a bunch of stars, Chevy Chase, the
f Wore I mentioned, Irene, Kara Quinz, soundtracks, John Candy,
Melissa Gilbert, your buddy, Jeffrey Tambour from Arrested Development. Yes,

(52:50):
George went, Norm from Cheers, Al Franken, Danny DeVito, Carly Simon,
Peter Falk, and Terry garr Elle in the video.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Terry gard Now that's a name we haven't heard, probably
since nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
She was a dumb and dumber in the in the
early nineties. Oh, that's a hoot. So I also remember,
So this song was so big, right, Ray Parker became
you know, he had he had another he had more
hits than this, but this was his biggest break. So
he became really popular. Would guest stars show up in

(53:27):
a lot of places? So he guest starred on Give
Me a Break one episode.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
I did not know that.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
I don't remember it, and I remember that, And I
also remember, you know the ultimate dad joke where Nel
Carter was like, I'm gonna go you know, I got
to go in the other room make a phone call,
and Ray Parker Junior was like, well, who are you
gonna call? And of course the three girls yell Ghostbusters
and the laugh track goes off and everything. But yeah,
total dad joke there. So I mean, no, Carter didn't,

(53:54):
you know, didn't want to go to her grave being
known as to give me the break lady. I mean
we discussed earlier.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Yeah, I don't blame her, but we couldn't have done
this list and not included this song.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
No, absolutely not no. So you're you're You're getting all
the big hits and I feel like I'm getting the underground.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
I know, how did that work out?

Speaker 2 (54:11):
I don't know. I don't know. So speaking of underground,
maybe not underground, but songs that weren't super popular. I'm
gonna go ahead and play this next song for you,
which I bet you've never heard before.

Speaker 5 (54:25):
I bet you're right.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
Okay, So that is Teenage Frankenstein by Alice Cooper. So
if you can't have a Halloween playlist without Ozzy Osbourne,
you also can't have a Halloween playlist without Ozzy without
Alice Cooper, Right, I agree?

Speaker 1 (55:00):
And again, this is all rock.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
It does rock. This song was recorded in nineteen eighty six,
but not released until April of eighty seven. It failed
to chart in the US, which might be why you
hadn't heard it before. Okay, I'm in hit number eighty
on the UK Singles Chart. So it was written to
be featured as part of the soundtrack to Friday the Thirteenth,

(55:23):
Part six. You know what the subtitle of that movie.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Was, I actually don't I don't remember.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Jason lives oh, because apparently you had been dead before.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
I was gonna say what was going on in one
through five?

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Right? So yeah, so this was written specifically for that soundtrack.
Teenage Frankenstein. But I've got a personal story, and you'll
start to realize how gullible I was as oh as
a kid. Okay, I was introduced to this song when
I was about thirteen years old by my friend from Upstreet, Jeff.

(56:07):
He was he was really into the metal. We kind
of had some of the same musical tastes when we
were younger, but as we got older, he started going
turn into more of a metal head, while I kind
of stayed like the glam metal hair band guy. Right,
So Jeff, Jeff brings over like this just this demo

(56:28):
like tape, right, and he puts it in. He goes, hey, man,
I want you to hear this song that I wrote,
you know, and I had my friend's band record it.
But this is kind of how I feel about myself,
you know. I mean, we're thirteen. You know, when you're
thirteen you kind of feel weird, you feel awkward or whatever.
And so I listened to it. It was teenage Frankenstein,

(56:50):
and I thought, wow, this is really cool. I even
went and got my dad and I'm like, dad, listen
to this on Jeff. Yeah, And my dad was like, wow, Jeff,
that's really good. Of course my dad wouldn't have heard
Alice Cooper, right, I wouldn't have heard Alice Cooper if
it would didn't hit the charts, right, and so you know,
it never really hit the airwave, So really, how was
I to know? And then I come to find out

(57:11):
later on that it's Alice Cooper and I'm like, jeffy man, like.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
How how much longer down the road? How long did
this thing go?

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Probably six months to a year?

Speaker 1 (57:21):
Are you kidding me? Oh?

Speaker 3 (57:23):
Man?

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Jim, I thought Jeff had written a great song about how.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
I really like Alice Cooper. Yes, So I think if
you have a very like stagnan or stale memory thought
or idea of who Alice Cooper is, do a Google
search and might be surprised to find out truly who
he is now as a person.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
You know, I've heard about the show that he puts
on in concert. I've never been, but I heard he
does the whole guillotine thing. Yeah, and just really puts
on a cool show. So yeah, Alice Cooper is a
He's a cool dude. I loved him in Wayne's World. Yes,
there you go when he was dropping knowledge about the
history of Milwaukee to Wayne and Garth.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
So I think we were a little too serious there
for a minute. So I need to lighten it up
a little bit some things to make them hard. See

(58:39):
how fun is that?

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Yeah? So that's uh, that's like the perfect Halloween song
because as a kid, I mean, what's Halloween for just
to go out and get kids lots of candy.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
So this is the English new wave group Bow Wow Wow,
which I feel ridiculous, say.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
I bet they bark at the moon too, right.

Speaker 1 (59:05):
They released I Want Candy nineteen eighty two. It was
the first and only single from their album The Last
of the Mohicans. The band was made up of members
of Adam and the Ants, along with the thirteen year
old lead singer Annabella Lwnn.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
She was only thirteen. Yeah wow.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
It was a top ten hit in their native UK.
The song appeared on two VH one countdowns. It was
number eighty six on VH one's one hundred Greatest Songs
of the Eighties. Really, and it was number eight on
VH one's one hundred Greatest one Hit Wonders of the Eighties.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
I can see that I might disagree with one hundred
Greatest Songs of the eighties, but.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Okay, so this song, this is it's a song that's
been covered numerous times. It was originally done nineteen sixty five.
It's been recorded by a total five different artist over
the years, but this is probably arguably the most popular version.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
I would agree, Yeah, it's the only version I know.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
So there you go. Not a lot about that, because
I mean, unfortunately, not a lot to tell.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Well, I think that's a great Halloween song because again,
you want candy, right, there's nothing eerie or spooky about it.
You know, kids just they want to dress up, but
really what they want is they want to go out
and get as much candy as they can.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
They just want candy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
It's all we wanted, is kids. We weren't allowed to
have it a whole lot. So Halloween was like the
greatest and you would pretty much be snacking on candy
until Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Yep, yep, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
So my next song we had mentioned earlier about Alice
Cooper's song being for Friday the thirteenth, Part six, and
this song that I am speaking of was also featured
in a horror movie in the nineteen eighties, and it
has also that appearance that I promised of a hair band.

(01:01:19):
So playing on me, I am going to play for
you dream Warriors by Dockin, so I don't want to dream.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
No more makes me lowd So this song.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Was featured in Nightmare on Elm Street part three, subtitled
Dream Warriors.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Which I have a feeling that movie would make me so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
It hit number twenty two on the US Hot and
Mainstream Rock charts, but did not chart on the pop
charts at all. It was released in nineteen eighty seven.
Did you know that Patricia Arquette was in Nightmare and
Old Street Part three? No, I didn't this was her
first movie. So the video so we did talk. You know,

(01:02:24):
we'll talk about the video in a second, but you
know this was by Docking hairband. How he hits those
high notes?

Speaker 1 (01:02:30):
I don't know, That's what I was wondering. Are we
sure that that's a guy or is.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
That that is Dart saying no, this is not heart singing,
although the hair link was probably about the same. Yes,
So the video shows clips from the movie, and it
also featured Patricia Arquette and Robert England. Of course, in
the video there was a little bit of so the

(01:02:57):
videos mostly just clips from the movie, right, but there's
a little bit of original footage in the video, and
it's Freddy Krueger trying to intimidate or terrify Patricia Arquette
before she is rescued by Docin who drive Freddie off
with the power of rock and roll. And so at
the end of the video, Freddie wakes up in bed screaming,

(01:03:21):
which reveals that the video was his dream and he exclaims,
what a nightmare? Who were those guys?

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
Cool? That?

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
Right? So Dream Warriors probably my favorite Docin song, and
I've actually seen docin Open up End concert for who
did they open up for. I want to say it
was Docin, Sebastian Bach and Poison whoa Docin did not
play Dream Warriors. That was the only song that I
really wanted.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
To hear them play, and then they didn't do it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
And then they didn't do it. So what That's what
happens when you get to the concert early before the
main show.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
There you go, well, since we're talking Freddy Krueger.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Let's just we're gonna finish it off.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Let's just keep on with that theme. These burns are like.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
The waves and his name is French.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Do you wear the.

Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
Outside?

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
He's going on the week, but he can't be there's
a Nightmare on My Street. Oh yeah, you can't have
Halloween themed eighty songs and not have this one on
there No, absolutely no Nightmare on My Street. DJ Jazzy
Jeff in The Fresh Prince loved it, loved.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
It when it came out. So I love DJ Jazzy
Jeff in the Fresh Prince period. But when they release
a song, I'm like, oh, that is awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
We are the only people in the US right now
talking about Will Smith and not in relation to his crazy,
insane wife. In the book she's just released.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
I thought you were gonna say the slap herd around
the world.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
No, we've done moved past, gone crazier than that. So
this was on their second studio album, which I love
the name of this album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper.
It became a crossover hit in the US, reaching number
fifteen on the Hot one hundred. So it was released
as a single in early nineteen eighty eight. I don't

(01:05:30):
know why that surprised me. I would have said ninety before.
Obviously I compiled. We compiled this list, right, It felt
a little later to me, but I would.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
Have said eighty nine. But yeah, eighty eight.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
They thought at the time that it was going to
be considered to be a part of the soundtrack for
A Nightmare on Elm Street four, but the producers of
the film decided against using it, probably.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
Because it's too silly sounding for or a movie.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
So Newline Cinemas, which held the copyright for A Nightmare
on Elm Street for the franchise, they ended up suing
DJ JZ Jeff and the Fresh Prince Record album or
record label for copyright infr infringement, forcing the label to
destroy the music video that they had done. But twenty

(01:06:31):
twenty five years later, a copy of the video came
out online anonymously. It was posted, so it is out
there if you want to google it, you can't see it.
So both sides eventually settled out of court, but as
a result, the vinyl pressings of the album contained a
disclaimer sticker that says this song is not part of

(01:06:51):
the soundtrack and is not authorized, licensed, or affiliated with
the Nightmare on Elm Street.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Films, which is funny because the lyrics are clearly about
from Freddy Krueger, and in fact, if you listen to that,
they actually play the music, the creepy, eerie score music
from Nightmare on Elm Street in that only they do
it in a in a little bit of a you know,

(01:07:19):
a hip hop way or a modern music way rather
than the than the real creepy thing from But you know,
Will Smith says, you know, we went to see the movies,
and you know about this guy named fred You know,
he wears the same hat and sweater every single day

(01:07:40):
and even when it's hot outside and he wears it anyway, uh,
you know, and he comes to me at night when
I'm asleep, you know, and I can't believe there's a
Nightmare on My Street. I mean, it's clearly Freddy Krueger.
I don't know why New Line Cinema had to see
him other than I guess the whole world is just
about let's get as much money as we can, because
I don't see how Will Smith did anything but help

(01:08:04):
promote their movies with that song.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
I mean, I guess, but it's such a like it's
more of like a spoof. And I think if you're
wanting to keep you know, the horror in the horror
film industry, you don't want to be associated with this
kind of silly twist.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Yeah, but I agree with you, except for the fact
that by Nightmare on Elm Street Part three, in Nightmare
on Elm Street Part four, which he was hoping to
get the soundtrack on, Freddie had become a spoof of himself.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
You think, so, yes, he was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
He was like a jokester and a prankster in the
in the movie. I mean, it was, it became absurd.

Speaker 1 (01:08:53):
Okay, I'll give that to so.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Yeah, I'm not down with Newline Cinema for that. Okay, Well,
you know what pro I'm pro Jazz and the Prince.

Speaker 1 (01:09:06):
I was gonna say, I bet DJ Jazzy Jeff and
the Fresh Prints weren't down with it either, No, they weren't.
So Newline Cinema said they would cut down the amount
of money that DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
had to pay them if they would star in a movie,
and Newline Cinema not pay them for it, right, and

(01:09:29):
they said no.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Yeah, I don't blame them because who knows how long
they would have been on that movie set.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
So yeah, I'm pro Jazz and pro Prints.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Well, poor Prince, somebody needs to rescue him. Maybe Freddy could.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
Usually maybe what were you going to say? Usually usually
the Prince is the one rescuing people.

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
Oh not in the situation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
All right. So that's our playlist, fourteen songs. Like I
said at the beginning, it's quite the eclectic mix.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
It really was. It was fun though.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
We got stuff for hip hop fans and just general
ladies fans and for rock fans. We got a little
bit of everybody. So I hope you enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
I know, I hope you did.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
I enjoyed it. I mean, ultimately, I mean, we do
care what people think, but ultimately we do this because
we enjoy it. But we would love to hear from you.
Please reach out to us on social media, and of
course we would really appreciate if you would listen to
us subscribe like give us a five star review.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Tell a rating, telling, don't tell a rating, give us
a rating, tell a friend, and telephone telephone a friend.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
It's really late, people, and we're doing the best we can. Okay,
until next time. I'm li See and

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
I'm Jim and we are children of the eighties.