'80s Summer Songs: Beach Boys Redux

In 1985, David Lee Roth did a classic '80s remake of a classic '60s original from the Beach Boys. Roth's "California Girls" featured Beach Boy Carl Wilson and '80s singer Christopher Cross as background vocalists, and appeared in Roth's 1985 EP Crazy From the Heat.

What could be more summery than the sun, the beach, and the classic summer soundtrack of Beach Boys music?

Speaking of the Beach Boys, they has an enormous hit in 1988 with "Kokomo," a song which appeared on the soundtrack of the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail.

'80s Summer Songs: Cruel Summer

I was thinking about popular '80s summer songs, by which I mean songs that have the word "summer" in them, deal with summer and its varied activities, or deal with various aspects of summer. 

The very first song that came to mind was "Cruel Summer," by Bananarama. The 1983 song was a worldwide hit, and featured on an '80s movie classic, The Karate Kid.

1986 World's Fair

Of course, after my posts on the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee and the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana, I just have to mention that there was a 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Looked like fun. I'm getting to be quite a World's Fair connoisseur.

1984 World's Fair

Recently I posted about the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. I would be failing in my duties to fail to mention that there was another World's Fair in 1984, this one in New Orleans. Alas, my family did not visit this one, although I would have loved to have seen it. Above is a video introduction to the fair presented by Hilton Hotels.

The 1984 World's Fair was in the news at the time due to its financial difficulties, but notwithstanding that, it sure looked like fun.  The comments section at Youtube suggests that a lot of people had a blast at the fair, and the video provides evidence that the New Orleans fair had some of it's host city's party style to it.

Sally Ride (1951-2012)

Here's to a ground breaker from the 1980's: astronaut Sally Ride, who in 1983 became America's first woman in space.

Below is a video feature about her mission.

1982 World's Fair

In 1982, the city of Knoxville, Tennessee hosted the 1982 World's Fair.

The theme of the fair was "Energy Turns the World," with the focus of the fair being largely that of energy,  the use of resources, and innovative ways of creating power.

But the fair was so much more than that, and I have fond memories of my family's visit to it.

Here's a commercial about the fair. I remember that the 1982 World's Fair was being talked about in the news, and I remember listening to a radio program that was going on about it. It really heightened my anticipation of going to see it.

My family did a road trip to the fair, staying overnight in Knoxville. The Holiday Inn where we stayed was next door to the fair itself, and gave us a wonderful view of it even before we got it. It all looked so wonderfully exciting and modern (circa 1982). 

The most recognizable structure of the fair was the Sunsphere, a tower with a golden glass-enclosed top, which housed a restaurant and an observation deck. We got the chance to go up, and to get a bird's eye view of the whole fair. The entire architecture and style of the fair was modern, and oriented toward showing what the future would bring.

Here's an video overview of the fair, which gives you a general idea of what it was like. 

The fair featured pavilions from many countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States, and  West Germany.

I remember that the United States' pavilion, pictured above, was huge, and focused strongly on the energy theme of the fair. It displayed various innovative sources of energy, such and wind-power windmills.

However, not all of the pavilions were oriented around that theme. I remember that the pavilions of Peru and Egypt contained displays of ancient artifacts. Peru's exhibit derived from the ancient native cultures of Peru, and Egypt's from that of ancient Egypt.

Hungary, the country from came Rubik's cube, notably had a huge, rotating, automated Rubik's cube on display.

At around the same time, McDonald's was featuring these commemorative World's Fair glasses. Of course, we had to get some, which we still have.

In a way, the 1982 World's fair was one of the things that I remember as starting the optimism and vibrancy that marked the '80s. It was, along with the first launch of the space shuttle in 1981, the release of the hostages that same year, and the launching of MTV around the same time, part of what kicked off a time that I still remember as colorful, hopeful, and positive.

Bowie and Jagger: Dancing In The Street

Here's one last post to end my recent series about Live Aid. David Bowie and Mick Jagger teamed up to create this song and video, which was played at the Live Aid concert. Its a re-make of the classic '60s song by Martha and the Vandellas. According to Wikipedia:

The video was shown twice at the Live Aid event. Soon 

afterwards the track was issued as a single, with all 

profits going to the charity. "Dancing in the Street" topped the 

UK charts for four weeks, and reached number seven in 

the United States. Bowie and Jagger would perform the song 

once more, at the Prince's Trust Concert on June 20, 1986. 

This Bowie-Jagger collaboration also fits well with comments made in one of my prior posts about the unique duets which were responsible for the song "State of Shock," which was originally meant to be a duet between Michael Jackson and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, but then became a Jackson-Jagger duet, and was performed by Jagger and Tina Turner at Live Aid. Jagger appears to have been quite busy in '85.