The post Culture Club “Colour By Numbers” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Bananarama’s cover of the 1969 song, written by Robbie van Leeuwen, first charted in 1970 when the Dutch band Shocking Blue took the song to number one. You can hear that version here with a slower tempo and a 60′s jangly-psychedelic-guitar sound. I, of course, love the 80′s version, all dancey and new-wavey, and I still like to do the “Venus” arm-dancing moves I mastered from watching Bananarama’s version, which was played incessently on MTV during the late summer/early fall of ‘86.

The post Bananarama “Venus” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

I really love this picture of Robert Smith and worked tirelessly in the mid-80′s to replicate his hairstyle on myself.

The post The Cure “Let’s Go To Bed” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Side 1 received most of my time back in the day; as I sit and listen to the album now, I don’t recall any of the songs on Side 2, even “Look Mama” which charted at #2 in the UK (but was not released in the US). Better known, of course, are the singles “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life in One Day” (check this out for a glorious new wave mullet!) and “No One Is To Blame.”

The lyrics to “Things Can Only Get Better” are perfect for Jones today:

Treating today as though it was
The last, the final show
Get to 60 and feel no regret
It may take a little time
A lonely path, an uphill climb
Success or failure will not alter it.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Jones!

The post Howard Jones “Dream Into Action” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

The soundtrack mixes so many genres it almost gives the listener whiplash. We’ve got Aerosmith for classic rock (“Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”), Poison for glam rock/faux metal (“Rock and Roll All Nite” – covering KISS), Slayer for heavy metal (“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”), an Alyson Williams and Oran Juice Jones R&B duet (“How to Love Again”) and Glen Danzig with Roy Orbison representing one of the weirdest collaborations ever (“Life Fades Away”).

The best tracks were also the soundtrack’s most successful. LL Cool J’s “Going Back to Cali” is sooooo smooth, sparse and 80’s rap-tasctic. “Bring the Noise” by Public Enemy was probably my first exposure to political hiphop, though it would take a few more years for my full appreciation of their music. And then the Bangles’ cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Hazy Shade of Winter” – desperate, frantic, frenetic.

The post “Less Than Zero” Soundtrack appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Knowing virtually nothing beyond “Electric Avenue,” I did a bit of quick research on Grant. I thought he was British (and he is) but he was born in Guyana. He also began his musical career much earlier than the 80s: his first hit single was all the way back in 1968 with the Equals’ “Baby Come Back.” So NOT a one-hit wonder!

“Killer on the Rampage” is a unique mix of new wave and reggae, especially in songs like “It’s All in You” where the vocal style is reggae but the bass and guitar have a very typical 80’s flavor. This song in particular would right at home on movie soundtrack like “Beverly Hills Cop.” “War Party” is another tune that is heavily reggae in its beat and lyrical phrasing, but subtly teases around the edges with some classic 80s pop elements (namely the sound of the synthesizer).

The post Eddy Grant “Killer on the Rampage” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

Wham! were perfect for the mid-1980s MTV generation: catchy, fabulously good-looking, British, danceable yet able to invoke tears of desperation and heartbreak. “Careless Whispers” was the #1 song when we had an 8th grade dance and I was just suffering the pain of my first dashed boy crush.  I had to watch him dance to this song with one of my best friends while I sat, devastated, at the cafeteria table in the school lunchroom and pretend that it just. didn’t. bother. me. But then “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” came on and we danced with abandon, wishing in the dead of a midwestern February winter that we, too, could wear short-shorts and have a mop of sun-kissed feathered hair.

The post Wham! “Make It Big” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

In the 80’s I had this album on a Maxell tape – the other side was Nitzer Ebb’s “That Total Age” – and it was my favorite tape to listen to on road trips. I’d pop it in the Walkman and promptly fall asleep. I’m not sure I ever made it through the whole tape on a single listen. Something about this record is so dreamy and hypnotic. (Nitzer Ebb: not so much)

My favorite tracks: “She Sells Sanctuary” (of course), “Big Neon Glitter” and “Love.” Now go, enjoy and spread some Cult love.

The post The Cult “LOVE” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

I am pretty sure I picked up this copy sometime during 1986 and it is a re-release of the UK original because “How Soon Is Now,” the B-side to the single “William It Was Really Nothing,” appears on my copy. Warner Brothers added “How Soon Is Now” to its North American market after “Meat Is Murder” gained chart success in the US and Canada, but interestingly the listing for “How Soon Is Now” does not appear on the back cover but plays as the first track on Side 2.

Oh how I loved wallowing in the sadness, despair and longing of this record back in the teenage years of the 80’s! “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” gave words to the angst of (perceived) loneliness and isolation. (In hindsight I was neither lonely nor isolated, though I clearly remembering wandering the halls of high school listening to this on my Walkman feeling miserable.) The album also helped kickstart a lifelong flirtation with vegetarianism. Hurrah for Morrissey inspiring healthy eating habits!

The post The Smiths “Meat Is Murder” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.

“The Power of Love” reached #1 on the UK charts in December ‘84. A very new wave ballad, plenty of keyboards and echoey lyrics/spoken word. The video caused a bit of controversy with its depiction of Christian iconography but was not banned like some of the band’s earlier videos. The B-side, “The World Is My Oyster/Scrapped and Trapped/Holier Than Thou” has a cheekily spoken Christmas message from Holly Johnson, “I would like to give all you punters a lovely Christmas message but I’m too blathered to get it together…Hope you got lots of toys and eat lots of Christmas puds and  Christmas turkey…I hope you choke on the turkey and the puddin’!” It also has some banter by the band members, including Peter Gill reciting a mildly naughty Christmas poem that he penned.

I saw Frankie Goes to Hollywood perform in July 1985 in Irvine, CA. My dad and I traveled to Los Angeles that summer for a family reunion and somehow got us hooked up with really great seats for this concert. FGTH were massively popular in ’85 and at the time were my second-favorite band (behind Duran Duran of course). Being only 13 almost 14 years old at the time, I had very little clue as to the context of most of FGTH’s lyrics and their stage performance. In retrospect I can only imagine my father’s discomfort at taking his teenage daughter to this show.

The post Frankie Goes To Hollywood “The Power of Love” appeared first on Vinyl From The Vault.