Nic and Vince are hitting the 80's with Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer and Paul Simon's Call Me Al. Plus a little one hit wonder by Right Said Fred. Plus we talk about the history of these songs and how they made us feel when they came out and also now plus our experience with them when we Karaoke sing them. Find us on: Instagram : @nostalgicjukeboxpodcast https://www.instagram.com/nostalgicjukeboxpodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA04mfG6q-kOj0o7aWvZhIg Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1W5xn11CxwCZDG32GCf6II Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nostalgic-jukebox-podcast/id1661588683
Nic and Vince are hitting the 80's with Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer and Paul Simon's Call Me Al. Plus a little one hit wonder by Right Said Fred. Plus we talk about the history of these songs and how they made us feel when they came out and also now plus our experience with them when we Karaoke sing them.
Find us on:
Instagram : @nostalgicjukeboxpodcast https://www.instagram.com/nostalgicjukeboxpodcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA04mfG6q-kOj0o7aWvZhIg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1W5xn11CxwCZDG32GCf6II
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nostalgic-jukebox-podcast/id1661588683
Nic (00:04):
Welcome back, everybody to the Nostalgic Jukebox Podcast, episode three. We're going to go to the eighties, somewhere in there.
Vince (00:12):
Oh yeah, mid eighties. Yeah, I'll give you that. It was a good time for me. That was my heyday. Yeah,
Nic (00:17):
We definitely got a couple favorites of ours that bring back some fun memories. Most of these are from memories of my dad, because this is considered to be his yacht. Rock of the Day is what he would drive to school or drive me to school listening to and I hated every minute of it.
Vince (00:37):
I'll disregard the dad term or, yeah, this is my heyday, this is my high school or late junior high, high school days and fun memories for myself. But yet, yes, my dad was also a big fan of a couple of these songs we're going to be talking about
Nic (00:52):
Today, what we got going on right now. Oh, very iconic.
Vince (01:01):
Oh, personal
Nic (01:02):
Favor. Yeah. Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer, which, geez, talk about a very iconic song. If you think about the early days of M T V, this, I think this has to be one of those songs that you got to remember from vh1, like popup music videos and the, was it Claymation and Stop Motion animation that was used
Vince (01:25):
On this? Oh yeah, it was great video. I'm sure everyone's seen it. For the youngins out there who've never heard of the song or have never seen the video, do yourself a favor and check it out. But yeah, it's this synonymous with the song. The video won nine M t V awards back in its heyday, and it won the most awards ever by video.
Nic (01:46):
So as most people don't know, so this came out in 1986, so I was five
Vince (01:53):
Nic (01:54):
This song came out. So definitely when I was going to school later on and middle school, high school, this has, obviously, I'd been out for seven or eight years and definitely my dad shout out to dad. You like to listen to the same stuff over and over. So he still listens to some of this stuff now. And so yeah, it's very easy to understand that even though it was 10 years old, he was still rocking it. It just came out and so definitely was it played in the car while we were driving to school quite often. But yeah, number one on the billboard, top 100 charts in the United States, number four in the UK music video just crushed it because it was way different than everybody else's using a ton of different animation types techniques. Right. And the different techniques. Some of the same techniques that we used by the Talking Heads. And then he also used it for big time later on.
Vince (02:45):
Yeah, it was what was that? It was his lead single off his fifth album. So again, one of the best videos ever. I mean, on a bunch of lists, it's in the top five, no doubt. I just like it because it's, it's got a funky kind of poppy dance, even a little rock in there with a little blue hide sold boot. It's just it. It's got everything from me. And then you throw in those lyrics too. And yeah, when I was 15, when I first heard this, didn't really make too much sense about the lyrics, but as I got older and I started karaoke it and read the lyrics, I was like, oh, all right. I get what he's talking about here.
Nic (03:29):
Yeah, this is definitely one of the ones that Vince is comfortable karaoke singing. He's done it. I have not, this song is, I just, there's can't even wrap my brain around it. I'm just not really in the Peter Gabriel mindset to sing. I don't think I could ever get there, but it definitely is probably one of the ones that, Vince is probably the only one that I've ever heard sing any Peter Gabriel song.
Vince (03:54):
Oh, come on. Now we, we've heard in Your Eyes before, not done well. But
Nic (04:00):
Yeah, I mean I guess I blocked that out cause I don't remember that. So it must have been fantastic. And I just moved on from that
Vince (04:08):
In Your Eyes, which is another song that I thought would've been a number one hit for him. But surprisingly, this was his only number one us hit. I was surprised to find that out doing a little research. But fun fact, sledgehammer knocked out Invisible Touch by Genesis, which was his former band, knocked it out of the number one spot in 86 and Invisible Touch was Genesis's, only number one hit in the US also. So, fun fact. Yeah,
Nic (04:38):
I kind of like, it's fun them battling the top of the charts, the old band member versus the old band and stuff.
Vince (04:46):
And at the time, I don't think they were on talking terms or they were a little pissy at each other at the time. I think they're good now with one another, but back then things were a little sketchy.
Nic (04:56):
I would hope so. But also there's a dance remix to Sledgehammer,
Vince (05:00):
Which
Nic (05:02):
If you want to not be happy, you should listen to the dance re
Vince (05:05):
Mix.
Nic (05:18):
Old school dance remix is way different than today's, the skill level that they have and all the technology to make all the beats and the vocal tracks and all that stuff is just way better. So you can listen to it, do good, hit it up on Spotify, but don't be impressed.
Vince (05:40):
And just going back to the lyrics again, Noah song, until you've tried to sing it and you actually read the lyrics and sledgehammer Steam trains, big dippers bumper cars. He even mentions fruit cages a couple times, let me get in your fruit cage. Yeah. I mean it's homage to a lot of the sixties soul that he grew up with which inspired him to be a musician to begin with. I read. So I mean, wonderful song. It never gets old for me.
Nic (06:10):
Yeah, definitely. And with that and with Genesis, I mean even the same time period of having Genesis, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel all at the same time is obviously a very good music era during the late, mid to late eighties going into the nineties, they were just really pumping out some good jams.
Vince (06:33):
And I also just side note Harry Styles of One Direction fame. I'm sure a lot of people know his name. He did a great rendition of this on the Howard Stern show a while back. If you haven't seen that, it's on YouTube. Yeah, he did a great job with it. So just watch that the other day.
Nic (06:54):
Yeah, I mean it's nostalgic for sure. So people obviously pulling out the old stuff and trying to remake, but alright, so you ready to move on and check out what we got now?
Vince (07:07):
Let's do it another classic.
Nic (07:19):
Yeah. Paul Simon, you can call me Al. Yeah. The intro to that, and even throughout the whole thing, the horn section, just the beginning of that song when the horns come on, it's very iconic and very similar to how we talked about Garth Brooks is friends in Low Places. When the first instrumental hits, you just instantly know what song it is. And that's kind of how Paul Simons is. And again, another one that came out mid 1986 and I was five but this one again, still was being played by my dad on the way to school and didn't again, and I didn't appreciate these songs until far into college. But yeah, I wasn't really a fan of it when I was younger.
Vince (08:05):
Oh, well, yeah, they weren't cool to how old you say you were five? Five? Yeah, I was 15, so I thought it was pretty cool. I never let on school that I thought I was cool because then I'd probably get made fun of. But I digress. This was his lead single off his seventh album, Graceland. And it initially didn't do too well when it was released but after the album took home, the Grammy for Best album of the year, it had a resurgence and made its way all the way up to number 23.
Nic (08:40):
Yeah, it is interesting that he released Graceland after this one. So Graceland that covers track to that album wasn't the first single, you know, can Call me out. It's the first single and then obviously the music video Iconic with Chevy Chases in it saw a lot of people when they saw the music video, people thought Chevy Chase was Paul Simon. It was pretty funny. People nobody knew who actually wrote the song. Cause Paul Simon's kind of in it, but it's really, Chevy Chase is the main star of the music video and he's playing instruments and stuff. So it was just a really fun, fun video that shows just how you can have two guys in a room with some instruments, and that's a music video compared to Peter Gabriel's sledgehammer that had all these animations, these tricks, tricks to get through and using symbology and everything to get make it. And
Vince (09:35):
Paul and Chevy just pretty much hamming it up. And I love the video too because it just kind of reminds me of I, I'm going to date myself here, but of some old school comedy duos, kind of like Laurel and Hardy or Costello, hell, Lenny and Squigy The Legends. And for the young ands listening, Google, you won't be sorry. Yeah, just lip syncing to the song, playing different instruments and just having a good old time. And the height difference between the two in the video is significant. I think there's a foot and a couple inches between the two
Nic (10:10):
Vince (10:19):
Yeah. Vertically challenged, vertically challeng vertically challenged. But it made for a great video and great visuals on the video.
Nic (10:26):
So I guess you can call me out, became Paul Simon's one of his biggest solo hits reaching top five and seven countries. So it started off slow gain momentum, and it's a great song mean just with the instrumentals and was it horn section and everything. The
Vince (10:40):
Horn was great, the horn section and the flutes. I did a lot of research on this and some of the instruments he used, apparently this was the lead single off of Graceland. And he wrote the album after he did some soul searching in South Africa and he came back and wrote this whole album. And there's a lot of musical instruments he uses that you really never heard of or heard from before on his album, A great album. But he just used a lot of different cultures experiences with them for inspiration on writing the album. Yeah.
Nic (11:14):
Don't see. So I've sang this song a handful of times and yes, it's fun. I don't do well because it's
Vince (11:23):
Oh, you do, fine.
Nic (11:25):
Yeah. It's not necessarily my cup of tea for singing it but it's just definitely a fun song that you can sing with a smile on your face. And if people are in that genre, obviously heard the song and they'll sing with you. It's a long song, it's four minutes and 40 seconds. So it definitely gets there towards, I think the happy medium is somewhere in the two minutes to three minute section for karaoke songs, get
Vince (11:51):
In and get out.
Nic (11:52):
Anything more than that, people start losing interest, especially even the singer, they call me out, there's so many verses and then the chorus comes in a couple different times and at the end, I mean, three minutes into it, you're kind of just ready just to go home. But it's definitely a very fun song easy to read the lyrics and get through it. A lot of the lyrics are very different from, I think what I've envisioned when I was listening to the song with my dad and you know, kind of hear it and you remember it and then when you read it you're like, oh, I didn't really, is that what he said? So it's kind of fun afterwards to read the lyrics and get a different understanding. But I still just say what I think he was saying instead of trying to correct myself because it's more fun.
Vince (12:35):
Well now hearing it at our ages, let's just put it that way. I mean, it's a song about a midlife crisis. I mean, if you listen to the lyrics, he's asking himself questions and how did I get here? And who's my role model now? And just, yeah, it's a good song. But I mean, when you do read the lyrics you're like, oh, he's just talking about himself and going through something in his life. And by the end of the song he's kind of figured out what he's going to do or which path I guess he's going to travel down.
Nic (13:10):
It's a personal autobiographical, but just journey he was going on, which it's his journey to South Africa, which inspired the whole album, right. Was just, he definitely had moments where he had to interpersonal retrospective and he made a fantastic album. Looked at Graceland as an album in general, was tons of great songs on there. And yeah, 86 again, 86 with Sledgehammer, with Genesis, everybody was just fighting. I mean, you're talking, these are award-winning songs that span the charts for many, many, many years. And they all came out relatively close to each other, which is fantastic. Yeah.
Vince (13:48):
Oh, Dan Genesis a little bit. Just a side note, I wasn't too familiar at the time that Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel were actually on Genesis at the same time. For some reason I thought Phil Collins replaced him, but they were actually on the band together. And Genesis has some great karaoke songs too. I mean, that's Can't Dance Land A Confusion, great Hard Rock version by a Disturbed is on my FA list. And again, invisible Touch is a great song. And that was their only us number one hit, which still kind of blows my mind for Genesis.
Nic (14:26):
Yeah, I think singing Paul Simon Genesis or Peter Gabriel is a certain demographic or audience type that is going to be in that audience. Yes. That does not go over well in the younger crowd because they look at you, you're crazy because they have no idea what that song is. Well,
Vince (14:45):
That's why karaoke, you just got to read the crowd sometimes. And yes, sometimes you score and sometimes you take a hit. But yeah, I've been wanting to try some actual Phil Collins songs too, but I get a little worried with his solo stuff because I don't want to train Wreck some of his classics against All Odds and his slower stuff.
Nic (15:07):
Oh Jesus. Against All Odds.
Vince (15:09):
One more Night Too Hard. They're all a little slow, but
Nic (15:12):
They're like mood songs. They're very sad songs. They are in the air tonight. Well,
Vince (15:21):
In the air tonight. I mean, you can get people going with that one. But yeah, I'm still a big fan of all his music, but just for sure. Yeah, karaoke and just still not there yet,
Nic (15:32):
Which I didn't know that You can call me out. The saxophones are synthesized. They're not real saxophones.
Vince (15:41):
Yeah.
Nic (15:43):
But they add, when they remastered it, they added real saxophones in there. But also all the horns and stuff that's all synthesized.
Vince (15:51):
Oh, synthesizers were big back in the eighties, man. They were using those for everything. And apparently the bass solo was is mm-hmm. Played forward and then played backwards in the song for part of the song. Yeah, it's just a lot of stuff. You do a deep dive into some of these songs and you find out some cool stuff.
Nic (16:10):
Yeah. All right. What do you think about this song?
Music (16:14):
I'm 2 64, my Love 2 64, my Love, love Going to Leave
Nic (16:22):
The classic. Right Said Fred, I'm too sexy.
Vince (16:25):
Alright. One hit Wonder for the
Nic (16:27):
Week. Yeah, one hit Wonder for the Week.
Vince (16:28):
Well, for us anyway.
Nic (16:29):
Yeah. Geez. Yeah, this one was, I don't think I've seen this one a few times and I don't think I've ever really thought about singing it that much until one day. A
Vince (16:42):
Few times. A few times Let's just a few times a
Nic (16:45):
Lot. It's definitely not my, it's def not I'm going to go-to, but it's a fun song and it has a dance beat to it. And I think if you have a deep voice, you can do it justice
Vince (16:58):
And you have the voice for it and you have hit on the majority of times when you have done this song. There's only been maybe a couple times where it hasn't really gone over well, but the crowd loves this song.
Nic (17:15):
Yeah. Because a lot of people remember this song because it came out in 1989. Oh no, it came 89, it was a hit in 91. It was like their number one hit in 70 countries. So basically just did number one everywhere and it was such a fun song. But a lot of people remember the Dance Rift of it is great. The whole vibe of the song is just ridiculous. And the music video is him, this bald guy.
Vince (17:40):
When you see the
Nic (17:41):
Guy just you see him and you're going like, ah, I'm like, that guy's not too sexy about anything. That is just a basic guy. But he's wearing that with a fishnet shirt walking down the street. He's trying to be that macho body builder type type guy.
Vince (17:55):
They were working that sexy vibe in that whole video. So give it to him, man, because they were working it.
Nic (18:01):
But definitely a very fun song which I didn't know that. They basically have over a hundred million plays on Spotify and they have writing credits with Taylor Swift look at what You Made me Do. And Soy Tucker's Bat Shit. And their songs have been over. So they're like, I guess a one hit wonder in the sense that mainstream wise, but they have done a lot of stuff afterwards and they've have tons of albums. They just haven't really had as big of a success as I'm Too
Vince (18:34):
Sexy. That was their big hit. And it's been played numerous times on TV shows. In movies mean these are one of the hits that artists, they at least want to have one of these because this is going to set them up for life pretty much
Nic (19:08):
So they borrowed the Rift from a Jimmy Hendrick song, third Stone from the Sun, which is very interesting.
Vince (19:16):
Did not know that.
Nic (19:17):
And if you play this song for karaoke, it's two ins and 50 seconds. So it's right in that sweet spot of you Get In, you Get Out. But this one definitely, once everybody realizes what song it is, and then the dance kick because it's fun to you kick it in with just vocals and it's really fun cause it's like deep vocals and then the beat kicks in and then most people will realize it and we'll start like a catwalk. They'll start a strut which is always pretty fun. Yeah,
Vince (19:47):
The lyrics, you can't help but to sing along and laugh to because I, and then for those who remember the video, you kind of remember what they're doing while they're singing it and yeah, it's a fun song.
Nic (20:00):
Yeah. I've been provoked to do this song in a karaoke place in Hawaii shirtless. And that added to the fun. So yeah, if you want to spice it up a little bit, I think shirts are optional for this song for sure. And
Vince (20:17):
That's a story for a different,
Nic (20:18):
That's another story. But yeah. Anyway, we hope you liked everything we talked about. It was a fun episode. We talked about Sledgehammer Peter Gabriel, and you can call me out by Paul Simon and then I'm Too Sexy, which is like little one hit wonder by right set Fred.
Vince (20:32):
And we're doing a little genesis in there too. So Phil Collins and some of our
Nic (20:37):
Fans. And then we'll catch us next week, every Monday. We'll see you guys next time.
Vince (20:40):
See you.
Nic (20:43):
Thanks for tuning in and as always, new episodes every Monday, follow us on Instagram, YouTube, hit the likes with all the buttons, hit all the follows, do all the things you need to do, and we'll see you next week.