Selection A20: Wall of Voodoo -- Mexican Radio

This is another song I heard on MTV, but not on radio.  It made it to number 58 here in the states, but had some success in Canada (18), New Zealand (21), and Austtralia (33).  They are from Los Angeles, and this is their only successful song anywhere.

Change of direction

Lately, I haven't posted much here.  I don't think it's for lack of desire to write, I just haven't cared much to write about the Dream Jukebox.  It's something I do want to finish, but for now, I want to expand the focus.

I love music.  I look for good music in all sorts of places.  I listen to NPO (Dutch PBS/NPR) Radio 2. They play all sorts of music there, I swear you could hear the Eagles one minute, dubstep the next, and country the next.  Mostly, it's a Jack FM station with live announcers who are unfortunately for me speaking Dutch.

I look at the European charts.  I knew about a few of the more popular songs in the US this summer back when they were popular in the spring in Europe.  One song spent 9 weeks at number one in a two month span starting May 1st.  It's currently sitting at number 12 and poised to make the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It's a song I like a lot and will probably write about soon.

So, different focus.  Look for more articles about different music in the near future.

Selection A19: Joe Jackson -- Steppin' Out

When Joe Jackson divorced his wife, he moved to New York, and started working on a new album.  That work would become Night and Day.  They were still on vinyl back then, and still two sided.  So it was meant to be split in two, the A side being day, and the B side being night.  This track wound up being the last song on the first side, preparing to step out for a night on the town.

The song has heavy piano feel, with electronic drums.  Seems like it should be a juxtaposition of sound, but it worked, and worked well.  The only other instruments I hear are a good bass, and a toy piano.  It's minimalist new wave at its best.

It did well on the charts both here in the states, and in the UK.  This was his biggest hit in the US, going to number 6.  It also went to number 6 in the UK, although his 1980 song, It's Different For Girls was a bigger hit, going to number 5 in the UK.

Selection B19 is Another World.  Not a terrible song, but it's not something I'll be listening to much.

Selection A18: Paul Young -- I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down

While I like a lot of what Paul Young has done, I absolutely loved the album, The Secret of Association.  And this song, brought out in 1984/85 is sonically brilliant.  How many songs do you know that can pull off having the bass be the lead instrument?

But Paul is not the first artist to have this as a hit song.  That would go to Ann Peebles and her 1973 version:

While the Ann Peebles version is soulful, it doesn't hold a candle to the Paul Young version.  She didn't make the pop charts with it, although she did hit number 31 on the soul chart.  Her most popular song, I Can't Stand The Rain, hit number 6 soul, and 38 on the pop charts, her only top 40 hit.  That song was also covered, in 1978 by a band called Eruption, and it also bested Ann's chart success reaching number 18 pop.

But in 1984, it didn't look like Paul Young's version of this song was going to chart at all in the US.  He had some success with Come Back and Stay, and Love of the Common People from his album No Parlez, hitting at 22 and 45 respectively on the US pop charts.  And while Playhouse did well in the UK, hitting number 9 there, it didn't even break the hot 100 here.

Then, Paul's remake of Hall and Oates' Everytime You Go Away hit number one in the states, and Playhouse got re-released.  It hit number 13 in 1985.  Paul would only have one more top 10, with the 1990 hit Oh, Girl going to number 8, and another top 40 song in 1992 with What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, which hit number 22.

Selection B18 is One Step Forward, a haunting ballad that actually makes bongos sound sad.  Worth at least one listen, but probably won't do much in this jukebox.

Selection A17: Rob Jungklas -- Boystown

WARNING!

This video, like Wang Chung's Everybody Have Fun Tonight, may be seizure educing.  It jumps between different shots every frame.  Viewer discretion is advised.  

See video here, embedding is not working

Rob Jungklas is from Memphis.  He had a moderate hit in 1986 called Make it Mean Something.  It made it all the way to number 86 on the hot 100 charts.  The album it came from, Closer to the Flame, made it to 102.  This song?  It didn't even hit the charts.  Rob made one more album that didn't sell before calling it quits on the music business.  He married, went to college, got job teaching English and science in a Memphis school.  In 2001, he got the itch to record again, and since has put out 4 more albums.  

This song follows the pattern of many in the jukebox.  I heard it on MTV, because it didn't hit the charts.  I first saw this video on a Sunday night/Monday morning, just after midnight.  How do I know this? Because it aired on a show called 120 Minutes.  It came on right after airings of the crass British sit-com, The Young Ones.  And since I was recording the whole series of The Young Ones to my VCR for later viewing, and I liked the video so much, I kept it on there.  And since I viewed that tape possibly hundreds of times, so too did I listen to the song hundreds of times. 

Years later, that song haunted me.  I remembered very little, outside the title and a couple lyrics.  But after some hard searching, both through my mind, and the Internet, I found it.  First, I found the video.  Oh, my.  What were Godley and Creme thinking?  I needed a good MP3 copy for my collection.  I wound up finding it at Rob's Bandcamp page.  You, too can download a copy there, for free of for whatever you feel the man deserves.   Either way, you will sign up for his email newsletter, but you can unsubscribe as soon as you want:

Boystown at Rob Jungklas' Bandcamp page

The song changes pace from verse to chorus and back.  I'm a big change of pace guy, and here it is put together well.  I've gone through twelve plays since I got this, and it still hasn't gotten old.  

Dizzy Blonde at Rob's Bandcamp page

Selection B17 has no video, so I am linking to Rob's Bandcamp page for your listening pleasure.  I like the song, but it may have to grow on me in order for me to play it more.