The Top 30 Music Videos Of All Time - Number 17 - "I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner

OK, full disclosure....my life has been very hectic lately.  Between work being extra busy, including an office relocation, and not being around much on the weekends, I've let this website slack worse than ever.  If there's one think I can't stand more than anything else...its slackers (Thank you Principal Strickland).  Anyway, my goal is to update the site at least 20 times a month.  I want to finish up the Top 30 Music Videos Of All Time, continue the A to Z Movie Reviews, and continue on with random things from the past. I'm loaded with ideas, I just have to put them on paper or in this case html web codex.  So without further ado...

"I Want To Know What Love Is" is a classic cheesy 1980's ballad by Foreigner.  Foreigner sort of gets lost in the annals of rock music.  They were sort of a bridge between Led Zeppelin and Def Leppard.  While they began in the late 1970's with some good rock songs like "Urgent", "Feels Like The First Time", and "Cold As Ice", they soon devolved into rock ballads including "I Don't Want To Live Without You" and my favorite Foreigner song and guilty pleasure "Waiting For A Girl Like You".

However, its "I Want To Know What Love Is" that makes the list today.  Its probably Foreigner's only video with any kind of budget.  The video only really has a two things that makes it stand out among its peer at the time and what they are...is simply AWESOME.  The two things are slow motion and looks of angst and sadness among the band members faces.  Let's take a look shall we?



0:00-0:12 Damn, do those keyboards and open cymbal crash hit you right away.  Anyway, we get our first look at Lou Graham, the lead singer of Foreigner.  He seems troubled by something and takes a very long blink.

0:13 - The guy in the blue shirt is Foreigner's other key member, Mick Jones.  He seems to be yelling at the engineer in the studio over something.

0:25 - I love how there are blinds in the studio.  But then its revealed that Mick is looking outside from a tall office building...now what recording studio is located 30 floors up in a major building?

0:34 - Mick looks fatigued.

0:43 - Love that dark chord over Lou's wail of a vocal...good stuff here.

0:50 - Like the imagery of the worker walking in slow motion with a beem on his shoulder.  Not sure what it means but Lou sings about the world being on his shoulder so who knows...

1:10 - As Lou sings about heartache and pain, we see this nice looking woman wake up and take a nice slow motion shower.  Sometimes, I wish I could shower in slow motion and enjoy it even more.

1:40 - Now we see a black lady working in a steamy area and walking down the street.  What is she up to?

1:56 - Uh-oh...Lou is PISSED.  Look at him on the phone.  The woman he's talking to doesn't seem to happy either.  Arguing in slow motion isn't fun either.

2:09 - Its the Foreigner bass player!  With an awesome slow motion bass face!

2:19 - Lou is in a car heading somewhere...pondering life's mysteries.

2:44 - Someone on a bus is excited about Foreigner playing somewhere.  I wouldn't think they had an urban following but good for them.  Actually it seems everyone on the bus is happy about Foreigner.  I think I know where this is all heading.

2:54 - I love this shot...its the band coming together in slow motion getting ready to record.  And there's the bus...the people on it are the choir.  And listen to their glorious voices!

3:06-3:07 - Either Lou Graham is nicest guy in the world or he's the biggest phony.  I love that expression on his face shaking hands.

3:14 - Mick Jones is thinking "DAMN, I didn't know we were going to have that many people here!"

3:16 - Lots of shaking hands.

3:26 - Uh-oh, here comes our shower girl wearing a nice beret.  Pretty soon she's running in slow motion.

3:45 - Its Foreigner featuring a choir.  Another great shot here.  Lou is great at really being able to open his mouth when he sings.

4:08 - Mick is pleased.

4:16 - There she is!  She made it....aww, Lou is looking up singing to her.

4:36 - Now that's a note.

4:42 - I love how she stumbles into the recording of the song.  If they could show Mick Jones here, he'd be SCREAMING at her for messing up the perfect vocal take.

4:45 - Awww, and they lived happily ever after.  Love the freeze frame the end.

I want to go out and give someone a hug right now...just look at the gambit of emotions in this video...

Top 30 Music Vidoes of all Time - Number 21 - "Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison

When the Beatles met the 1980's...

This video was great for the 10 year old kid like I was when this came out (back in 1987). At the time, I loved whatever pop music was on the radio. I hadn't gotten into bands or buying cassette tapes yet (though I did get Hall and Oates "Big Bam Boom" and Huey Lewis and The News "Fore" as Christmas presents in the years prior). I certainly hadn't heard of the Beatles and this song, along with Paul McCartney's "Say Say Say" were my first exposure to Beatles music of any kind.

Anyway, up pops this video featuring an old guy in a grey sweater just sitting in a chair strumming his guitar in what looks like an old cabin somewhere. Little did I know at the time that this was George Harrison, a member of the Beatles, and he was having his first major hit in quite some time. To the 10 year old me, it was an old crazy man sitting in his house as wild things were going on around him. Let's take a look...



0:00-0:08 - This has to be one of my favorite drumbeats. It's very similar to the beginning of the band White Lion's version of the "Transformers Theme Song" from Transformers The Movie. There's a nugget for you the next time you're at a cocktail party.

0:18-0:28 - Ah yes, the immortal George Harrison...I like his look here. He reminds me of a the disheveled wacky uncle that everyone has. That sweater looks to be very worn too.

0:32-0:50 This is where things start to happen in the room...first the clock, then the swords, then some kind of statue behind George, and then the book.

1:02-1:05 Love this guy...that little Cockatoo can work it. Though I'm sure someone was behind the cage prodding him with something dangerous to make him move like that.

1:21-1:29 - Another of my favorites...love that moose and warthog. Someone must have watched this video and said "hey, let's make a restaurant off the concept of this video" and a few years later the first Rain Forest Cafe opened up.

1:32 - Not sure if George knew he was about to get blasted by pieces of paper but I like the raised eyebrow he gives here.

1:56-2:13 As a kid, this amazed me that a man that old could dance and flip around like this....but if you look closely (or really not closely at all) its a stunt double that looks like Bob Geldof.

2:29 - 2:32 - Not sure who George is looking at off camera here but it looks like he's trying to hold back a laugh.

2:40 - Have give some props to the special effects here in a pre-CGI era. Though its pretty straightforward, its neat that they had so many things moving around.

3:12 - My favorite sequence...again, I love the moose and warthog and then you get that squirrel to just blow on that peace pipe.

3:35 - Yeesh, that was a little frightening to me. I never did like bear-skinned rugs.

This whole video probably inspired Pee Wee's Playhouse...

Completely Biased List of The Top 30 Music Videos Of All Time - Number 28 - Tell Her About It by Billy Joel

It's Friday and if you're Rebecca Black then you know what that means..."fun fun fun".

Anyway, Friday's tend to be more of an upbeat day so to fit that theme I give you the top 28 music video of all time, Billy Joel's immortal classic "Tell Her About It".

Billy's career can be broken up into two parts...1.) the serious songwriter piano based songs of the 1970's and 2.) the more poppy upbeat music of the 1980's and early 90's. I'm sort of split down the middle in terms of which I like more but his most "pop" 80's album has to be his "Innocent Man" album, where this song originates from. This album had a lot of great corny 80's videos like "Uptown Girl", "The Longest Time", and "Keeping The Faith" but I'm going to go with this one here. I love the look of early television so to see an homage of this puts it over the top for me. Let's take a look...



0:00-0:18 - We begin during the summer of 1963. I guess Beatlemania hadn't broken out yet here in the States so perhaps Billy was trying to imagine what it would it be like if he started some kind of Long Island Revolution? Anyway, we get a look at a terrible Ed Sullivan impersonator who all he does to look like him is purse his lips together.

0:20 - 0:42 Ah yes, there's the pride of Long Island Billy Joel in all his glory. It's funny, he had a terrible haircut in the 70's with his hair blown out but it took until his 30's to realize that the shorter hair look was the way to go. I also dig the sunglasses and goofy hand gestures while dancing in place.

0:43 - 0:46 - Looks like these two are having an affair.
0:54 - 0:55 - Yes these two will be banging shortly.

0:57 - 0:58 - It's Rodney Dangerfield!

1:00 - 1:04 - Ed impersonator rocking it out...in a terrible acting sort of way.

1:05 - 1:11 - More Billy and I'm thinking he's the only white guy who can pull off the white jacket, black shirt, and red tie look.

1:33 - This is just a cool looking shot. It looks like it was filmed at a real concert because they're the only people in the video that look like they're dressed from the early 80's.

1:50 - Is this the bar from Animal House?

2:00 - Little kids might look cool dancing in front of the TV...grown adults look stupid.

2:01-2:14 Strange sequence here. The guy who just got dissed by the girl seems to come up with an idea to get her back. Meanwhile Billy strut dances into the screen along with a mixed bag of people dressed from the 50's.

2:28 - 2:37 Billy's fantasy...that women in their 20's dress up in their nighties and watch him on TV. Then again, his last wife and most recent girlfriend were in their twenties so maybe this Billy is from 30 years into the future?

2:48 - Billy shows up at the party delivering pizza's. Smooth move. Future porn directors come up with ideas for future movies.

2:57 - Some of the WORST acting you'll ever see in a video. I catch this part every time...first the awkward slightly out of sync head bobbing...then Billy appears to "surprise everybody"...then more slightly awkward head bobbing..and finally a terrible cut to a guy who has the worst "stunned acting" look on his face.

3:19-3:23 - The guy in the blue sweater dances like I used to in college. I never could get my feet off the ground. I haven't improved much since then.

3:26 - Pillow fight!

3:49 - 4:20 - I remember Rodney Dangerfield's "get no respect" act as a kid but I'm not sure when it was at his peak. Caddyshack was 1980-81 and Back To School was 1986 so this falls right in the middle. Rodney was flying high here at this point in is career...if you can call being in a Billy Joel video as high point. I love the bear by the way.

Have a great weekend...

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The countdown so far (see sidebar for links)...

Number 30: Winonna's Big Brown Beaver - Primus
Number 29: Drive - The Cars

Top 30 Videos Of All Time - Number 30 - "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver"

I'm back...for now.

Growing up in the 1980's and 1990's, I watched a lot of MTV and then a lot of VH1. Whether it was just a mish mash of videos or in VH1's case, Sex Symbols, I think I've seen nearly every video made between 1981 and 1995 at least once. When I went away to college, MTV became a lot more teeny bopperish and VH1 became reality TV central though they did have those juicy "Behind The Music" specials on just about every relevant band from the 70's and 80's.

Anyway, I have started a ritual where I escape into the past every couple weeks or so by watching old videos on Youtube or even ordering video collections on Amazon.com. Each video takes me back to a time in my youth where either the song or the video brings back memories. This top 30 is going to be made up on the fly. Though I already know what my top 3 will be, the other 27 pretty much fall into a tie. Each video has something special, whether its over the top acting, a group dancing sequence, or just bizarre occurrences.

The first video is definitely one of the more bizarre ones...Primus's Wynona's Big Brown Beaver. This came out my senior year of high school and it pretty much blew my mind. Based on those weird Duracell battery commercials around the same time, it shows Primus dressed up in oversized plastic(?) cowboy outfits. The song is a good song made better by the video...



Some of my favorite personal highlights...

0:17 - had I been 7 years old and not 17 at the time this video came out, this part would have given my nightmares.

0:24 - Something about them walking makes me laugh everytime.

0:45- If not for the cue cards, I'd have no idea what this song is about. I still really don't know what this song is about and yes, I'm aware of the sexual connotations of a "beaver".

1:20-1:23 - One of my all time famous bass fills

2:24 - I will learn this dance move to use at a wedding at some point.

After going through the video, there are a lot of highlights. Les Claypool is one hell of a bass player...love the riffing at the end. The rest of the video is mainly full of a lot of absurdity but then again absudity is in my DNA.