Happy Music Monday! Scott’s rested after his vacation and he’s ready to take the long, hard trip back to the 1980s, where he can collect some ballads. Join him, won’t you?
The 1980s were a great time for the bombastic power ballad. Be it the first dance at the prom or a gloomy dream-sequence beside a Christmas tree, the ballad was there! And Heart was super-good at using the ballad to create the perfect atmosphere for all situations. Singing alone in the car? Works! Dreaming about a lost love? Works! Trying to win over someone at karaoke? Works!
The ‘80s ballads are only gettin’ better. See you after the jump!
As an added bonus, this video includes two other very ‘80s features. The “plot with nothing to do with the song” and the “guy comes in late to rehearsal which we are watching” are absolute classics! As is this song. Sade grew to be even better than this, but it’s still a lovely ballad.
New Edition - Can You Stand The Rain
This particular ballad was more aimed at teens than adults, but it’s still so very lovely in that special ‘80s way. Take that, Frank Ocean.
Proof that lighting can strike once, T’Pau had this amazing radio smash! And then… Well, at least they did their part to blur the lines between ballad and serious rock song. That mix of angel voice and slammin’ drums would have been enough to challenge Heart for the ballad title - if only T’Pau had been able to pull it off twice. And no, China In Your Hand does NOT count as a smash hit.
Cyndi Lauper - I Drove All Night
I have nothing to add. What else is there to add? This song is pretty much what ‘80s ballads were building to from the start. It’s got the strings, it’s got the synth, it’s got the Fairlight, and you could play it “unplugged” if you wanted to be relevant to the 1990s. The perfect ‘80s ballad. The end.
Let us also just remind you: some images come from the corresponding Wikipedia page and are here under fair use. See you next week.