The home of 152 videos from the early 1980s running a total of 10.1 hours!

From 1983-86, I regularly watched MTV: this was the dawn of the music video era, when innovative techniques and great special effects

were first coming into vogue. I decided to tape my favorites for posterity, because I suspected they would quickly recede into history and I

wouldn’t be able to easily find them after a few months. How right I was: by the late 1980s MTV had transmuted into a channel for teen tastes,

with reality TV shows, rap music videos and absolutely none of the pure enjoyment of music which was its singular distinction in those halcyon

early days.

For those who might be too young to remember, before TiVo, DVRs and digital video cameras, there were VHS tapes. They were bigger than a

paperback book and cost $20 each in the early 1980s. At normal recording speed, a tape held two hours of video; but at “extra play” speed, a tape

might hold 3-4 hours of recorded video. Because the blank tapes were so expensive, I opted to record my video music collection in the slowest

mode possible, and ultimately ended up with over 12 hours of music videos (mostly as shown on MTV). Not exactly the highest quality archive, but

certainly lots of quantity.

I’m very pleased with the outcome: for me, this collection represents the golden era of music videos (albeit based on my eclectic and peculiar personal

tastes). Those very personal tastes also influenced the rating system, which has just three tiers: excellent concert videos (one star); videos

that are funny, campy or very eclectic (two stars); and videos that are artistically outstanding and/or a real gem for that era (three stars).

So click back and enjoy!

* * * * * *

Copyright Notice

The streaming videos on this website are copyrighted by the respective owners, and are made available on this site purely under the “fair use”

doctrine for personal enjoyment. By viewing any of these videos, you agree to adhere to this principle, and to not download, distribute, link or make

available on a widespread basis to others (including through a peer-to-peer network), or charge compensation for, any of such copyrighted materials

without first obtaining the express written permission from the copyright owner. In other words, view and enjoy, but don’t spoil it for others.

Software Requirement

In order to automatically view these videos in streaming mode (e.g., without having to wait for the entire file to download), please use Microsoft’s

Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. Most clips are 10MB or greater in size, so this is the most practical way to view them.

If you use Mozilla Firefox as your browser but cannot get the videos to play, you’ll have to download an extension called IE view, then go to

Tools | Always View This Page in Internet Explorer and activate that choice. Otherwise, chances are that you’ll get an error message each time you

try to access a video clip; or worse, be forced to wait several minutes while the file downloads in its entirety before it can be played.

Linux users are on their own, but they already knew that....

* * * * * *

A B C | D E F | G H I | J K L | M N O | P Q R | S T U | V W X Y Z

Rating System: * Excellent concert footage

** Funny, campy or very eclectic

*** Artistically outstanding: a real gem for that era

* * * * * *

	Recording
Primary Group/Artist	Artist (if different)	Rating	Song Title	Time
Adam Ant		**	Goody Two Shoes	3.15
a-ha		***	Take on Me	3.58
Bananarama		**	Cruel Summer	3.37
Pat Benatar		**	Love is a Battlefield	5.02
			Promises in the Dark	4.50
The Beatles		*	Get Back	2.85
David Bowie		**	China Girl	3.47
		***	Jazzin' for Blue Jean	3.02
			Modern Love	3.22
		*	Ziggy Stardust Changes	2.90
	Peter Schilling	**	Major Tom	3.93
Jackson Browne		**	Lawyers in Love	4.22
Laura Branigan			Self Control	4.62
The Cars			Drive	3.83
		**	Hello Again	3.83
			Tonight She Comes	3.65
		**	Shake It Up	3.32
			Why Can't I Have You	3.62
		***	You Might Think	2.95
Cheap Trick			I Want You to Want Me	3.38
			Up the Creek	4.35
Chicago		**	Stay the Night	4.33
Elvis Costello		**	Everyday I Write the Book	3.70
			Peace Love and Understanding	3.20
		**	The Only Flame in Town	3.82
Culture Club		***	Do You Really Want to Hurt Me	3.57
			I'll Tumble 4 Ya	2.47
			It's A Miracle	3.02
			Karma Chameleon	3.65
Dire Straits		***	Skateaway	6.03
Duran Duran			The Reflex	4.23
Eagles	Don Henley	***	Boys of Summer	4.53
	Glen Fry		The Heat is On	3.73
Sheena Easton			Strut	3.63
Eurythmics		***	Sweet Dreams	3.03
			Who's That Girl	3.52
Flashdance	Michael Sembello		Maniac	4.00
Fleetwood Mac	Lindsey Buckingham	***	Go Insane	2.95
Foreigner			I Want to Know What Love Is	4.67
Genesis		**	Illegal Alien	4.45
			That's All	3.98
	Phil Collins		Easy Lover	4.62
	Phil Collins		In the Air Tonight	4.20
	Phil Collins	**	Take Me Home	6.02
Go Gos		***	Vacation	2.80
Golden Earring			Twilight Zone	4.48
Hall & Oates		**	Family Man	5.33
Hooters			And We Danced	4.17
			Day by Day	3.13
Whitney Houston		**	How Will I Know	4.35
Billy Idol			Eyes Without A Face	4.50
		*	Rebel Yell	4.70
Industry		**	State of the Nation	3.13
INXS			Don't Change	4.12
Jacksons	Jermaine Jackson	**	Dynamite	4.28
	Michael Jackson	***	Beat It	4.75
	Michael Jackson	***	Billie Jean	4.82
	Michael Jackson	***	Thriller	13.55
			Torture	5.45
	Weird Al Yankovic	***	Eat It	3.50
Jefferson Starship			No Way Out	4.93
JoBoxer			Just Got Lucky	3.42
Billy Joel			Pressure	4.57
		*	Tell Her About It	4.17
		***	Uptown Girl	3.40
Elton John			Empty Garden	4.50
		**	I'm Still Standing	2.87
Journey			Send Her My Love	3.17
		***	Separate Ways	4.32
Greg Kihn			Jeopardy	4.42
	Weird Al Yankovic	**	I Lost on Jeopardy	3.62
Cyndi Lauper		***	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	4.15
		*	Money Changes Everything	6.60
		**	She Bop	4.57
			Time After Time	4.68
Huey Lewis & the News		**	I Want a New Drug	3.17
			If This Is It	4.52
Madonna		***	Like a Virgin	3.63
	Weird Al Yankovic	**	Like a Surgeon	4.10
Meatloaf		*	Bat Out of Hell	8.52
		***	Paradise by the Dashboard Light	8.95
John C. Mellencamp			Authority Song	3.18
Men at Work		***	Down Under	3.15
			Its a Mistake	4.38
Mike & the Mechanics			Silent Running	4.52
Modern English			I Melt With You	3.33
Mr. Mister			Kyrie	4.10
MTV Promo Clip			MTV news promotion	0.50
			MTV promotion 1	0.17
			MTV promotion 2	0.38
		***	MTV promotion 3	0.50
Nena			99-Luft Balloons	3.75
Randy Newman		**	I Love LA Nike Commercial	0.98
Billy Ocean			Carribean Queen	3.50
		*	When the Going Gets Tough	4.47
The Alan Parsons Project			Prime Time	4.23
Robert Plant		***	Big Log	5.37
Pointer Sisters			Dare Me	3.75
		*	I'm So Excited	3.52
The Police			Don't Stand So Close	3.55
		***	Every Breath You Take	3.63
		***	Invisible Sun	3.83
			Synchronicity II	4.22
	Sting		Fortress Around Your Heart	4.50
The Pretenders			Back on the Chain Gang	3.42
		*	Middle of the Road	4.28
Queen			Bicycle Race	3.00
		***	Bohemian Rhapsody	5.90
		**	Crazy Little Thing Called Love	2.40
		**	I Want to Break Free	4.35
		*	Killer Queen	2.83
			Save Me	3.75
	With David Bowie	***	Under Pressure	3.68
Rockwell		**	Somebody's Watching Me	3.25
Rolling Stones		**	She Was Hot	4.78
	Bette Midler	**	Beast of Burden	3.73
	Mick Jagger	*	Just Another Night	5.30
Diana Ross		*	Missing You	3.58
Roxy Music			More than This	4.07
Santana		***	Hold On	3.78
Simple Minds			Don't You Forget About Me	4.15
Bruce Springsteen		*	Dancing in the Dark	3.68
		***	I'm On Fire	3.50
		*	Rosalita	9.35
Billy Squire			Rock Me Tonight	4.83
Stray Cats		***	Sexy & 17	3.32
		***	Stray Cat Strut	2.32
Barbara Streisand		**	Emotion	4.90
			Left in the Dark	5.80
Talking Heads		***	Burning Down the House	2.77
		*	Girlfriend is Better	5.05
		*	Once in a Lifetime	4.13
			This Must Be the Place	3.00
.38 Special			Back Where You Belong	4.25
			If I'd Been the One	3.15
Thompson Twins		**	Hold Me Now	4.38
Tina Turner		*	Better Be Good To Me	6.82
		*	Let's Stay Together	3.35
			What's Love Got to Do With It	2.95
Tommy TuTone		**	867-5309 / Jennie Jennie	3.57
U2		*	New Year's Day	3.88
		*	Sunday Bloody Sunday	5.20
Tracey Ullman		***	Breakaway	2.40
USA for Africa		*	We Are the World	6.92
John Waite			Missing You	3.90
Wham			Careless Whisper	4.12
		**	Freedom	5.10
The Who		*	Eminence Front	5.13
	Pete Townsend		Rough Boys	3.83
Stevie Wonder		*	I Just Called to Say I Love You	4.18
ZZ Top		***	Sharp Dressed Man	4.13

Send me your comments by email

Copyright 2005 by Ilan Reich