I thought I might have an 80s American powerpop summer. This may comes as bad news to Mondo, on whose blog I'm guesting shortly when I've made my mind up which three tracks to pick. Or he might embrace it. It's a minefield, I tell ya.
Anyway, this stems from a sudden remembrance of John Parr's Naughty Naughty. John Parr was of course the hitmaker behind the briliant St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion), one of my favourite tunes of all time (and for a very long time my ringtone) from one of my favourite films of all time. The growling rocker reached a peak with that, and from there it was downhill all the way.
So, listening to some US stuff over the weekend I was reminded of Naughty Naughty. At the time I thought it was daft, but now I can see it's a corker. I love anything from sort of 83-86 that fits in with that Brat Pack feel. You know, post-new wave powerpop with a rock edge that could only have been made in America. I loved it then as I love it now: John Cafferty, The Romantics, The Cars, Cyndi Lauper, The Go-Gos's (sic), Joan Jett, Journey, The Motels, John Cougar Mellencamp, etc. And let's not forget the bands from here who were bigger over there: The Fixx, Wang Chung, Naked Eyes, etc., and not forgetting John Parr himself.
Sadly you can't embed the video (don't know why people disallow these things) so click the link
So here's the Go-Go's
