DeBarge! 1983 Hit "Time Will Reveal!"

Back in the late 70s and 80s, we had our version of Walmart in Corpus Christi.

It was called Kroger’s.

We could get all of our shopping done in one fell swoop. Groceries AND clothes.  Only problem? There was only one brand of pants. Dickies!

Awwww No!  They couldn’t have the Levi’s brand like all my other friends had.

So there I am.  Trying to be stylish in Dickies! Cheap copycat version of Corduroys and jeans. They had generic Hush Puppy shoes and thinly made turtle necks. Oh well. Looking back, at least I had clothes, huh.  :)

The thing I remember the most though was being able to buy individual hard copy 45 records for under a dollar. Ahhhhhh, vinyl.  I’d always run over to select the latest releases. It’s funny now that you don’t even have to leave your house to spend money on a song. You just download it off of iTunes. You don’t even get to hold the song.....sniff sniff. 

Or better yet, you can just go to YouTube! For free!

 I can quickly bring up tunes like DeBarge’s 1983 smash hit, "Time Will Reveal".  A song which was written and produced by El DeBarge and his sister Bunny.

Brings back soooo many memories.

One wish? Would love to have my record player back to play this 45 for old memories sake.

Spandau Ballet! "True!"

One of my all time favorite ballads! I can say that now, but back in the day? I can remember there was a brief period back in the 80’s, when I'd be cruising in my car with my crazy metal head friends listening to nothing but heavy rock music. But, when it came time at the end of the night to drop them all off at home, and I was all alone in my car driving back home…..you guessed it. My secret is revealed! I would quickly change the radio dial to the Easy Listening Slow Jam Station where I would get my fill of smooth ballads and would always catch this awesome tune by Spandau Ballet. At the time, I wouldn’t have been caught DEAD listening to this kind of music with my buddies. 

“True" is the title track from Spandau Ballet's 1983 album True, originally recorded at Compass Point Studios, Bahamas. It was composed by the group leader, Gary Kemp, and is a six-minute (in its original album version) slow pop-ballad love song that in part pays tribute to the Motown artist Marvin Gaye and the sound he helped to establish. The song was recorded before Gaye's murder a year later.

The song was a huge worldwide hit. It’s Spandau Ballet's biggest hit and their most remembered song in the U.S. You might remember hearing it in the 1984 film Sixteen Candles.

They were called 'The Makers' in the early years, but changed their name after a friend of the band, journalist and DJ Robert Elms, saw the name scrawled on a the wall of an establishment during a visit to Berlin along the lines of "Rudolf Hess, all alone, dancing the Spandau Ballet" (Rudolf Hess was the sole inmate at Germany's Spandau Prison).

So, if this song is one of your guilty pleasures, be loud and proud and enjoy one of the greatest songs of the decade!!

Men at Work! "Overkill!"

“Overkill” was one of my favorite songs from the group Men at Work! This was one of those songs where for years I would sing the wrong lyrics before someone said….”What are you singing?” I would say, “Go Somewhere and Fade Away!” when the lyrics are actually “Ghosts Appear and Fade Away!” Don’t even ask me how many “Misquoted Lyrics” I’ve sung over the years!

Anyway, Men at Work was an Australian band that released their first album, Business as Usual in 1981 and capitalized on it until 1983 when they won a Grammy Award for best New Artist for 1983. This album had a string of hits like, "Who Can It Be Now?", “Down Under" and "Be Good Johnny." Then, the band released their second album Cargo. It had actually been finished in the summer of 1982, but held for release in 1983 due to the phenomenal success of the band's debut. The new album produced three chart singles in the U.S. including "It's a Mistake", "Dr. Heckyll and Mr. Jive" and of course this hit….”Overkill!”

Ahhhhhh.....I miss the 80’s!