One of the greatest things about the 80s is the slew of music videos that came from MTV. The majority of the videos had simple premises, but some of the videos needed that extra pull... a celebrity actor maybe?
Here's a list of five videos with celebrity actors who were brave enough to put their face on a music video.
5- Ratt's "Round and Round", starring Milton Berle
A small trend in 80s rock music included misspelling your bands name. Stryker and Motley Crue come to mind but many have forgotten another misspelled hair band called Ratt. Ratt had a hit with "Round and Round" which reached number twelve on the charts and boasted a famous video with comic legend Milton Berle.
Playing with familiar territory Milton plays both the husband and the wife who owns a mansion that is hosting a dinner party, which is interrupted by a raucous band in the attic. Ratt's manager was the real life nephew of Berle and decided to place him in the video because obviously nothing compliments sexual undertones better than an elderly forgotten comic.
The guitar solo saves the video with the guitarists grand entrance, which is almost equaled by the drummers intensity when he hits a symbol and then mutes it his bare hand! If you cant guess what the guests are having for dinner you should be hit with a hammer.
4- Pat Benetar's "Shadows of the Night", starring Bill Paxton and Judge Reinhold.
Before "Twisted" and "Beethoven's 3rd" was Pat Benetar's "Shadows of the Night". One of the most redeeming things about Pat Benetar videos is that sometimes there is a plot involved. Her most famous video tells the troubling story of a young woman who turns to prostitution after she runs away from home. Now Pat is battling Nazis in the "Shadows of the Night", which coincidently looks like southern California.
Bill Paxton plays one of the Nazis and Judge Reinhold plays the wingman in Pats World War II fighter plane. Pat's platoon goes "Dirty Dozen" style and sneaks into a Nazi mansion and places a bomb inside the building. Judge and Bill have already placed their name in the 80s film legend with "Fast Times" and "Weird Science" but now their legend has been carved in stone with this classic.
3- Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al", starring Chevy Chase
Reaching a career peak with "Fletch", Chevys turn towards cinematic hell began in the mid eighties and bottomed out with "Cops and Robersons". One of the stops on the long road near the bottom was filming this little ditty by Paul Simon. If you are one of the ten people in the eighties who didnt buy Graceland, than be prepared for a catchy little stream of thought record.
The two originally met on NBCs Saturday Night Live, so I guess that Paul Simon forgot to shoot a video in time and pulled Chevy in for a favor. Theres really no flair to this video except the unconventional move to let Chevy sing the song and make Paul just play the instruments. This was a radical style in the new music video market.
2- Bobby McFerrin's "Dont Worry Be Happy", starring Robin Williams and Bill Irwin.
Before it was slapped onto half of the television ads in the known world after 1988, Bobby McFerrin's "Dont Worry Be Happy" as a number one hit and its video was popular as well. Its simple marketing really: You need something funny? Is it 1988? Put Robin Williams in it. Dogs like Robin Williams. This was probably the easiest video to shoot out of the entire list, because its just Robin Williams after a pound of coke, just be sure the camera is on. In case you were wondering the other guy in the video is a vaudeville star and just won a Tony in 2005. I still dont think he puts this video on his resume.
1- Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom", starring Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines
Shortly after the advent of music videos, Hollywood studio executives began seeing MTV as a new platform to highlight their latest films. So execs got a popular song, placed it in the film , and then made a music video with the artist and usually some clips from the movie spliced into the performance.
This video however takes it a step beyond and is able to put the actors into the video! Michael McDonald is staying at a getaway resort and wishes that the characters from "Running Scared" (the crappy 80's comedy, not the awful '06 action flick) were there to visit him., Then through a series of film clips and performance pieces the gang shows up and has one hell of a time!
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Comments
Wow Chevy Chase.
I can't believe you didn't include Bruce Springsteen's "Dancin' in the Dark", that featured Courtney Cox from "Friends" fame getting invited onstage at the end of the video to dance the most 80's-looking jig ever seen on TV.
check out my friend's band Myliye. www.myliye.com
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