Ahh the glory years of music videos … remember when “Friday Night Videos” premiered in 1983?

Many teenagers planned the start of their weekend around this. At the time, it was the only time and place to catch the newest videos and see your favourites as this was a little bit before YouTube, lyric videos, cat videos and FailArmy. Hail Fail Army!

Friday nights were wasted meeting your friends after school, shoulder tapping, grabbing snacks, finding an old VHS tape that wasn’t labelled “Family Ties Episodes – DO NOT TAPE OVER” and watching Friday Night Videos before heading out to the arcade to drop some quarters in Q-Bert and Star Wars.

We miss those days so we thought we’d go back and revisit our Top 6 music videos. In no particular order.

 

1. A-ha – TAKE ON ME

Let’s start with the first video, the OG if you will. Artwork came to life in this classic, and it still has us singing the high notes… poor neighbourhood dogs.

 

2. Peter Gabriel – SLEDGEHAMMER

Amazing stop-motion animation still has us amazed, do not readjust your set, this video is not buffering

 

3. Michael Jackson – THRILLER

This one changed the game entirely. You could go to your local video store and rent the VHS of just this video and watch it over and over and over again. Anyone still get ebbie-jeebies watching this?

4. Foo Fighters – LEARN TO FLY

An absolute classic. A cameo by Tenacious D, Dave Grohl as a Flight Attendant, Dave Grohl as a pilot, Dave Grohl with pig-tails, and of course Dave Grohl rocking the Ross Gellar haircut! How do we get a ticket on this flight? It’s the closest we’ll get to the Mile High Club with Dave Grohl. Please make sure your carry on items are stowed away securely before you watch this video.

5. Guns ‘N’ Roses – NOVEMBER RAIN

It was the most expensive video at the time at $1.5 MILLION dollars! It was often the last dance of the night when this came on, so grab that someone special and dance for the next 9:16.

 

6. Cyndi Lauper – GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

Cyndi sure looks like she’s having fun dancing around in this video. It even features a cameo from Cpt. Lou Albano. Shortly after this was released, Cyndi Lauper made an appearance at the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden in the corner of Wendi Richter (who made this her theme song).

 

BONUS Entry: Huey Lewis & The News – POWER OF LOVE

We LOVE Back To The Future! This video features a great cameo not only by Doc. Brown but the Delorean as well as Doc has to figure out where he is. The performance part of the video feels authentic, with Huey speaking to the crowd first in a room full of fans hearing the song for the first time. It’s the perfect soundtrack to one of our favourite movies of all-time. Everything about the 6:27 spent watching this video is amazing.

 

Honorable mentions:
Weezer – Buddy Holly – Classic video set in Archie’s on the set of Happy Days. Includes a great appearance from The Fonz!
Everybody Hurts – REM
Bon Jovi – Wanted Dead Or Alive
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Fatboy Slim – Praise You – This might be the first ‘viral’ video. Filmed completely guerilla style out front of a movie theatre in 1999, the choreography is second to none, someone even comes up at one point and turns off the CD player, Fatboy Slim actually has to skip to the track and fast-forward back to the part they were at. He comes back in hot after getting the party restarted. Long before social media, this was the first viral video.

 

How did we do? Did your favourite make the list?

Filed under: friday-night-videos, music-videos