TapeHeads: 80's Music and Beyond

This is one of the biggest songs of all time, as well as the best and most distinctive videos. We do a deep dive into both. Our movie this time is the unique "My Dinner With Andre", starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory. It's a movie about two estranged friends having dinner together, and much, much more. RELATED LINKS Our Take On Me playlist, on Spotify a-ha, on

The Church are an Australian band, probably most well known for thier 1988 hit "Under the Milky Way," a beautiful song that is the subject of this episode. Three O'Clock High is a 1987 movie about a mild-mannered high school student who ruffles the feathers of the school's newly-arrived bully, and the hijinks ensue. RELATED LINKS: Our Under the Milky Way playlist

In our favorite musical year of 1984, after many years of creating a multitude of hits separately, two musical giants came together at the top of their game to collaborate on one of the best songs of the 80's, "Easy Lover," by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. We'll delve into the supremely interesting story of how this incredible song came to be. Fun fact: it was u

This episode is a bit different than our others so far. We'd actually been talking about doing a World Party episode recently, when Karl Wallinger suddenly died a week or so before this, which added some gravitas and urgency, so we decided to move him to the front of the line. Great musician and songwriter. He will be missed by us and by many others of you around the world. RIP

Dexys Midnight Runners are a one-hit wonder band (actually with TWO number-one hits) whose 1982 song "Come On, Eileen" is one of the most catchy and unusual songs of the 80's, and the band's story is one of the most interesting we've come across so far. You'll love it. The World War III story Red Dawn, from 1984, holds the distinction of being the first mo

In the spring of 1988, George Harrison recruited his friends Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jim Keltner to collaborate on a song. The result was so stunningly good that they decided to do an entire album together, thereby creating the biggest supergroup of all time. And yes, we do discuss some of those other ones as well. Better Off Dead is a classic dark comedy

This episode is devoted to Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist Jane Child. She's our first one-hit wonder, and she's possibly the last big one-hit wonder of the 80's. This episode is being released on February 15, which--coincidentally enough--is also Jane's birthday, so we're wishing her a happy one. Our 'movie' this time is actually a TV show we

In this 'very special' episode, Blaine kept the subject a secret from Todd until we recorded it. New Edition and all of the tentacles of their related bands (Bobby Brown, New Kids on the Block, and even Whitney Houston) is a supremely interesting story, and we're sure you'll agree. This one's by request. RELATED LINKS: New Edition, on Spotify Bobby Brown, on Sp

The Bangles were arguably the biggest all-female band of the 80's, and we both totally love them. We explore their early career and their big hits, as well as the issues that arose within the band as one of the members' star rose. Our movie this time is "The All-Nighter (1987)", which starred Susanna Hoffs, Joan Cusack, and Pam Grier, and was co-written/produced/d

U2's album "The Joshua Tree" is one of the biggest and most influential of all time, and it's the subject of this, our first episode of 2024. We mostly focus in on the song "Where The Streets Have No Name," but discuss other songs too, as well as the making of the video and the band's later involvement with author and filmmaker Bill Carter during the