In the mid 80's I didn't have MTV so I relied upon two programs: California Music Channel (CMC) and NBC's Friday Night Videos. CMC was hosted by Rick, a curly haired pleasant guy who played A-Ha's "Take On Me" for months before it was popular and then played it nonstop after it hit. Friday Night Videos was the program I really liked, in fact it's a little sad that I couldn't find the title animation where the record spindle shatters through a record and spins around with the show title.
Friday Night Videos was my main video outlet, where I would see Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart" or Billy Joel's "Keeping the Faith" over and over again. They would have these video voteoffs where say Def Leppard's "Foolin'" would go up against Big Country's "In A Big Country" and you had to phone in to declare a winner. Best of all is that it was on this program I saw my all time favorite video: "Queen of the Broken Hearts" by Loverboy.
The video is the stuff dreams are made of. A rock band in vaguely Mad Max gear runs through the desert for no apparent reason. They come across a group of beautiful women who happen to match the number of men in the band. When a meeting like this happens, there can be only one result - rock out in a desert sandstorm!
The video was really well shot and edited to make the band look as cool as possible for 1983. The opening includes a contest winner who won a spot in the video through MTV. The winner was a woman who didn't care for Loverboy but entered because her son was a fan. This video blew me away by showing someone speaking in a vocoder voice (Look! He sounds like a Commodore 64 when he sings!). To top things off, the band reportedly mimed to the song in the middle of a real sandstorm and not wind machines. Impressive!
But what really stands out to me is that my friend that I taped records from loathed Loverboy because his older brother told him they suck. My friend went out of his way to put down Loverboy until he read a record review in Circus magazine that said the ballad "It's Never Easy" sounded like Todd Rundgren. He then borrowed my Loverboy tape for a month. Nah, I'm not bitter about it.
Loverboy really hit big at the time because they were able to combine new wave keyboards with a mainstream rock sound. I saw them perform in '86 and was amazed at how good a show it was, they played with energy and professionalism. At the show I turned down drugs (Nancy Reagan would have been proud) and saw live nudity for the first time I can remember (a girl popped up through the sunroof of a limo and flashed the crowd as they left the show).
These days Loverboy is still touring. Lead singer Mike Reno is remarkably larger than in his prime but still wears the tightest leather pants in the biz. I guess it wasn't hard to figure any band with the word Boy or Girl in it's title wouldn't age well. He can still sing his ass off from what I've heard on You Tube. Go Mike Reno! Lovin...Every...Minute...Of It. My favorite video of all time merits the ultimate Flashback!
Loverboy - "Queen of the Broken Hearts"
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