Here’s what I remembered about “Electric Blue” twenty years later: 1. It was cowritten by John Oates of Hall and Oates, presumably in an effort to keep up with Daryl Hall’s songwriting credits; Hall had a solo hit with “Dreamtime” in 1986. (Actually, a fair number of Hall and Oates’ song catalog was written by […]

posted 9 September 2008 in 1988. 7 comments

More snark from Kevin Seal, who waves his hands insincerely to connote his great excitement with the countdown. Seal talks about Henry Lee Summer denying that he sounds like John Cougar Mellencamp: “He’s a very modest fellow, especially when it comes to the women who fall all over him in this video,” says Seal. Cut […]

posted 29 July 2008 in 1988. 6 comments

Back from the commercial break, we are joined again by Kevin Seal, wearing a black jacket over a black t-shirt. “This is the top funky one hundred of 1988,” he says, and then hypes the “Big Bang ’89” New Year’s Eve event later that night on MTV: “We’ll count down the minutes to midnight, in […]

posted 17 July 2008 in 1988. 2 comments