The Ben Maynard Program
"Tell Your Story". Everyone has a story. Not just the famous. This is a guest driven program but when we are "guest free", It's just YOU and ME! I love music and we will talk a lot about it. Enjoy the ride!
#podcast #benmaynardprogram #music #tellyourstory #music #spotify #maynard #videopodcast #thebenmaynardprogram@buzzsprout.com #socialmedia #journey
The Ben Maynard Program
EP. 110 A Friday Night With Ben: From Malört Mayhem To Music History
The phones won’t stop ringing, the Malört keeps pouring, and somehow we still manage to time-travel back to the moment music met television and everything changed. We kick off with the Malört Challenge and a flurry of live calls, then pivot to a genuine, grounded tribute to veterans as we gear up for a special in-studio conversation with Vietnam veteran and author Mel Borden. Along the way, we share a programming note about country artist Olivia Harms, because good stories and great songs are always on deck here.
The heart of the episode is a spirited countdown of MTV’s first 25 videos from August 1, 1981. Expect a mix of nostalgia and fresh insight: Phil Collins’ shadow-soaked In the Air Tonight, Pretenders’ sly and scripted Brass in Pocket, REO Speedwagon’s arena-ready anthems, Iron Maiden’s early punch, and the lesser-known gems that filled those early rotations when labels were still experimenting with the format. We correct last week’s Pat Benatar mix-up and land on the most fitting opener in TV music history: The Buggles’ Video Killed the Radio Star. From there, we honor the original VJs—JJ Jackson, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, and Martha Quinn—whose voices guided a generation through a new way to hear and see music.
It’s messy, it’s warm, and it’s real: community-driven radio energy blended with a love letter to the birth of music video culture. If you remember racing home to catch a premiere, this will feel like a mixtape made just for you. If you didn’t live through it, you’ll hear why MTV’s early days still ripple through playlists and platforms today. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves 80s music history, and drop your favorite launch-day video in the comments—we’ll shout out the best picks on the next show.
Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram
and subscribe to my YouTube channel: THE BEN MAYNARD PROGRAM
I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com
Hey there everyone. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. It's Friday night. You know what that means. We are live. Yes, we are. Here in studio on a Friday night. It is date night with me. What a better way to spend a Friday night. There is no better way. That's for sure. All right. So we're gonna have some fun, maybe some giggles. I don't know. We'll see what happens. But before we get into it, let me do this here really quick. Let's do this. And then I like looking at myself, so let's make me larger. Yes! All right. Uh so before we get into any fun and frivolity, how about if we cover this? You guys know that this program is available wherever you stream your podcast. Just search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there. Go with it. All right. But please subscribe to it. No matter what streaming service you're using, subscribe to it, all right? Um, and then download it. Downloads are really important. So download it, share it with all your people, okay? And then you can also leave me a five-star review. How's that? Because come on, I think I deserve it. Uh, next, if you're watching this right here, because you can't resist it, and the only place you're gonna get it is on YouTube because it's Friday Night Live. All right, that's the only place you're gonna get it right now. So listen, uh uh if that's the case, then thank you. Subscribe to the channel, all right? And hold on. I'm getting phone calls, can't believe this. No, they're gonna have to hold on. It's just the way it is. Subscribe to the channel, give me a thumbs up, and the reason why you subscribe is because anytime a new episode drops, you get notification, right? Yes, you do. So um subscribe to the channel, give me a thumbs up, and leave a comment because I reply to all your comments. I I I gotta get this. This is insane. Okay. Uh oh, okay. Um I'm in the cold, I'm in the opening of the I'm in the I'm in the opening of the program. No, you're gonna have to hold on. Hang on. It's my daughter. It's my daughter. I'm in the opening of the program right here. So subscribe to the channel, get notifications every time a new episode drops. Give me a thumbs up, all right? Leave a comment because I deserve the comments, and I reply to all your comments. Then you have to tell, wow, it's a lot of noise right there. Hang on. Hold on, hold on. Then you got to tell a thousand of your family and friends, all right, and share it with your people. Okay, share it, share it with all your people, all right. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram, simply Ben Maynard program, all one word. Or you can follow me on the TikTok at the Ben Maynard program. So plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. And it is Friday night. I'm being bombarded by phone calls already. Okay. I I already did. What are you talking about? I mentioned it. See, I'm being I have a producer on the phone right now. Yes, hold on, hold on a second here, young lady. Hang on. Let me turn this volume up. Hold on. There we go.
SPEAKER_01:See you taking a shot on the law.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Yeah, well, you know, when you call during the opening of the program, it's very uh disruptive. Okay, it's very disruptive. If you can hear people, this is Tess, my daughter. She's at the Nickelback show. She's at Nickelback in Phoenix. And what? Oh, oh, okay. The rodeo. All right, whatever. That's fine. So he's there to see Nickelback with her girlfriends, Maddie and Lauren. And now that Michael has uh phone that we're watching your oh, you're watching, oh, and Michael, Michael, that's Lauren's Michael. That's Lauren's fiance.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So listen, uh uh, okay. Lauren laughed at an image. All right. So now the deal is, people, before we get into anything, the deal is if you call into the program, I have to take a shot of this malort right here. It's what we call the Malort Challenge. The Melort Melort is like the nastiest liquor out there. And so I gotta take a drink of that. Not just can you hold on? Is it I'm trying to do a show here in my Mr. Spock shot glass that has that that has all the dust and everything in it from the uh from the studio, and the I've got my black jelly belly in it. Okay, all right. Let let me let me get to the Melort, okay? Let me get to the Melort. Hold on. Man, you guys. You guys. So see if you call in, I gotta take a drink. So they called in just Jeez Louise. Man. There's like no professionalism at all. Okay, so cheers to you. Here we go. Down the hat.
SPEAKER_03:That was bad.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, cheers. That's nasty. Raul is calling in too. Ladies, listen. Go in, go enjoy the show, and I'll talk to you later, okay? Bye. Love you.
SPEAKER_01:Bye. Okay. Oh. Raul, you're gonna have to call back.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, and there he is. There he is. Okay. Uh, what do we got? There we go. Okay, there you are.
SPEAKER_04:Hi, Raul.
unknown:Shot time. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Now, before I do this, I have to ask you a question because I'm holding up the I'm holding the speaker phone right to the microphone. I don't know if you can really hear it coming through your through your television.
SPEAKER_00:I'm holding the speakerphone.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm hearing me a second time, too.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know if you can really hear it coming through your television. I can.
SPEAKER_04:You can? Yes. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. All right. So uh cameras take a shot. All right. Hold on. Jeez. We have a we have another we have another show producer right here. We haven't even gotten started. I haven't even gotten started here. Yeah, but how about if we let the show begin first? Man. Tell you what. This is that looks a little light. That looks a little light, but a little bold is a little light? Any higher, and it's gonna be overflowing. Yeah, any higher, it'll be overflowing.
unknown:So good.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. All right. So here we go. All right, a deal's a deal. Down the hat.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:So here we go. Oh, that's bad. Okay. The the the black bean boozle, the black bean boozle beans in the bottom of the glass. So let me let me take that too. Hang on.
SPEAKER_00:Oh boy. Oh black bean boozle beans in the bottom of the glass. Oh let me let me take that.
SPEAKER_04:Ooh, whatever it is, it's bad. Ooh. I don't know if it's like skunk spray or if it's like like stink bug or something. Oh no good. All right.
SPEAKER_00:Get to work.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, can I yeah, can I go back to work, please?
SPEAKER_00:Get to work.
SPEAKER_04:Thanks.
SPEAKER_03:See ya.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my goodness. I don't know if we've ever started off a Friday Night Live in that fashion.
SPEAKER_03:Ma'am.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. I didn't even get to tell you all about that. All right. So look. The Malort Challenge is it's just a thing to get you, the home and car listener, to engage in the program. So I say if you guys call in, then I gotta take a shot. Or we also play a little stump the chump, which is our music trivia uh segment of the program. And so if you call in with your music trivia and you stump me, then I also have to take a shot. This is not a drinking show, okay, for all the newbies out there. It's not really, because I'm not really much of a drinker, and this is really bad stuff. So it's not a drinking show, but these are incentives for uh to get you out there to engage with me. All right, simple as that. All right, before we get into some stuff tonight, I wanted to let you guys know. You see, I'm wearing my U.S. Navy shirt tonight because next Tuesday, November the 11th, is Veterans Day. And I celebrate all of our veterans right here on the Ben Maynard program. I love our veterans to pieces. Can't thank them enough for the the sacrifices that they make and have made in the past. And so uh this is a little bit of celebration for that. Also, letting you guys know tomorrow, tomorrow, right here in studio, we have a Vietnam War veteran, Mel Borden. He'll be here, and uh, he's written a book, and we're gonna talk about him and his service and his book, and we're gonna get into a lot of good stuff, and I'm so very much looking forward to uh just shaking his hand and thanking him for everything that he's given to this country. So that's tomorrow. So be on the lookout for your notifications uh as uh as to when that program is available. Again, you get those notifications by subscribing to this channel, or you can subscribe to whatever um streaming service you're using for the audio version of this podcast. Okay, so there you go. Then another programming note next Saturday, that would be November the 15th. Country music artist Olivia Harms will also be on the program. We will be streaming her in. She is in Northern California. Her music is wonderful. I've I've been listening to her stuff. She is wonderful, and I'm very much looking forward to having her on just to get her story and um and bring it to you guys. Yeah. So really, really good stuff. So just a couple of things, a couple of shows to to make yourself aware of, mark your calendars, all that good stuff. There is only good stuff coming from the Ben Maynard program. Why? Because it's so good. Yeah, there you go. All right. Let's get into a little bit of fun here. As we usually start off every, let's turn the microphone just to scoche. As we usually start off every Friday night live, it's it's not with shots of Malort, I can tell you that. Uh, let me see. So the national day is it well today, today, uh uh November 7th, is National Hug a Bear Day. I'm I I wonder if that means like hug a real bear, like a big giant grizzly bear or a big giant black bear, or maybe even a polar bear if you're up in the uh up in Alaska or in the the Arctic Circle. I don't know. But uh, or maybe maybe just a teddy bear. Maybe a teddy bear counts. Okay, so hug a bear day and relive some wonderful childhood memories. How's that? Uh it's also national bittersweet chocolate and almond day. Hmm. Okay. I like a little dark chocolate and and and almonds. Yeah, that that's a good mix. That's a good combination. Dark chocolate and and caramel, also, that's really good stuff. Really, really good stuff. Okay. Oh, come back. Where'd you go? There you are. So uh I don't like to necessarily call it celebrity birthdays, but you know, people of notoriety that were born on this day. How about in 1918? Influential Southern Baptist minister who launched a global ministry through televised crusades and advised many presidents. That was Mr. Billy Graham, born on this day, 1918. Let's see, French author who explored uh existential existential existentialism and absurdity in novels such as The Stranger and the Plague. Albert Camus was born in 1913. I'm getting another phone call. Another phone call. Well, uh hello. Uh yeah, yeah, I guess so, huh?
unknown:Bye.
SPEAKER_04:Bye.
SPEAKER_00:Jeez.
SPEAKER_04:Uh this is just it's almost unfair. It's almost unfair. I mean, kind of like in the middle of my stuff here, trying to bring you some some good, you know, like uh some some good knowledge, some history. All right, here we go. Thanks for this, Margaret. I appreciate it. Yeah. All right, so I spilled some on my fingers. All right, cheers.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, let me take these off. Cheers.
SPEAKER_04:Ooh. Yeah, oh wow. Yeah, three down. That does not oh, it does not get any better.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, that's terrible.
SPEAKER_04:All right, our last okay, our last birthday for tonight. Born on this day in 1943, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, whose 70s albums Blue and Court and Spark boasted poetic lyrics and unique blends of pop folk and jazz. So a happy birthday to everyone, except of course Albert and Billy, because they have passed away. Joni, she's still with us, but you know, happy birthday to you all anyway. Let's see. Uh, so a little of this day in history. Let's go. Oh, wait, we need to go back, not forward. Okay. So let's let's oh well, we got that already. We covered that. Oh, yeah, yeah, not good. This day in 1944, Soviet master spy is hanged by the Japanese on November 7th, 1944. Richard Sorge, a half Russian, half German Soviet spy who had used the cover of a German journalist to report on Germany and Japan for the Soviet Union, is hanged by his Japanese captors. You know. Look, I try to tell you people, this is not a drinking show.
SPEAKER_00:Hello.
SPEAKER_04:Wait, okay. Okay, listen, Raul. Because you call from someone else's phone.
SPEAKER_00:This is a wall.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, uh oh, okay. You sound like your dad, Nick.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, no. This is a his son. No, no, I'm not my dad. My dad's in his office, but I'm at my house. I just he told me to call. Just letting me know you're gonna take a shot.
SPEAKER_04:Are you watching the program tonight?
SPEAKER_00:No, I'm not. He just called me when I'm eating my dinner right now.
SPEAKER_04:I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, Nick. Okay. Um, I'm I'm gonna pour that shot, but I'm not taking it until you text me back and you say, okay, I got it on television, I got it on YouTube, and then I'll take it. But you gotta text me back and let me know.
SPEAKER_00:Well, send send me the link. He didn't send me the link, he all he told me was to call in.
SPEAKER_04:So all you have to do, you don't even need a link. Just you have YouTube, right? Yes, just go on YouTube and type in the Ben Maynard program, and it'll pop up.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, for sure. I'll do that right now.
SPEAKER_04:All right. You text me. All right, Nick. Let's see ya. Look at this. Can you hey, hey, knock it off over there. I know what you guys are trying to do. I have to get up really early in the morning, okay? I have a workout really early, and then I'm going to get this mop cut. So you guys knock it off. I know what you're up to. Trying to get us through this day in history. Okay. Um, yeah, so sorry to uh Richard Sorge. Sorry he got hanged. Oh, but in 1966, on this day in 1966, the uh the Beatles walk into London's Indica Gallery, where avant-garde Japanese artist Yoko Ono is preparing for the opening of her solo exhibit. John Lennon and Yoko Ono, they meet when he asks her about her intriguing art piece. I believe it was like a ladder. Um, something, I don't remember, but I think John was holding or eating an apple at the time. He took a bite out of it, climbed up the ladder, and put the apple on top of the ladder. I think that's what it was. And then he said, now it's now it's complete. It was something like that. Probably sounds like something John would do, right? Uh, let's see. Oh, this day in 1980, the king of cool Steve McQueen died. Yeah. I think his very last movie, he was the star of the uh The Great Escape. Remember that one? Um he was so young though. He was like 50 years old. He had cancer and he died of cancer. Um just so young. I think his what was his last movie? I think it was called The Hunter, and he was a um he was a um a bounty hunter. Good one. I'm checking. I just got a text so I can get my proof here that Friday Night Live is being watched. Oh there it is. Screenshot, screenshot, okay. There it is. All right, Nick. The deal's a deal. You guys all better knock this stuff off right quick.
SPEAKER_03:All right, there we go. There we go. So not fair. All right.
SPEAKER_01:Cheers. Oh, that's bad. Oh.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's terrible.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, that's bad. Okay. Last one. Last one on this date in history, and then we're gonna get right into it, okay? Uh, on this day in the year 2000, it was a pivotal moment in U.S. history, as the presidential election results in a statistical tie between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, the results in Florida were unclear by the end of election night and uh and resulted in a recount and a Supreme Court case, which was Bush versus Gore. And we know how that one, we know how that one ended because we had President George W. Bush for the next eight years. All right. So we're done with that one. I don't know if I can take any more. All right, so um last last week's episode, uh, I had talked about um what was it? Um oh, yeah, we were I was covering the uh Billboard Top 40 uh for November the first, 1981. And I had actually kind of gone back and I mentioned MTV and how MTV had launched three months earlier. And um so uh in the course of that, I I brought up a song that uh I brought up a song from Pat Benatar that was that was in the top 40 that that particular week. And it was um what was it? Uh shoot. Wait, I think I have the song written down. Let me check my notes from last week because I forgot. And there's a there's a reason why I'm doing this. Oh, yes, promises in the dark. That's right. It was promises in the dark, and I had made mention that that particular video was one of the first videos shown on MTV on their first day in August of 1981. Well, it's funny because a couple of days later I get this thing on my Facebook feed that um it was a list of the um the first 25 videos that were shown on MTV on their first day. And I'm sure 25 videos, they probably didn't have anything else besides that for the first who knows, 24, 48 hours. So they probably just ran the same same uh uh videos over and over on a loop. Well, there was a Pat Benatar that was one of the first videos shown, and it wasn't Promises in the Dark. I messed that one up, so I got corrected, and it was you better run. And so, like I said, I got this thing on my feed, and it's the first 25 videos, so I thought, man, no better time than to talk about a little, you know, 80s music uh than on Friday Night Live, and we'll cover the top 25 videos that were shown on MTV on August the 1st, 1981. Why not? Let's have some fun. And look, you guys love it as much as I do taking a stroll down memory lane. You guys do. So let's do it together. So the the 25th. Now, I did scan through this a little bit, and some of these songs I'm not familiar with. There's some of these videos, videos, songs, whatever, it's all the same to me. Um, yeah, some of these I'm not actually familiar with. Maybe if I were to see the video or hear the song. Uh let me see. What do we got here? Number 25. And we did talk about this one because this song was still on the Billboard uh top 40 chart in November of 1981. And it's Stop Dragging My Heart Around by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. And it's a cool little video, it's really nothing special, nothing, nothing uh high-tech. It's just a performance video. Uh it looks like they're all standing in a room. If I remember correctly, it might have been like an all-white room, if I if I remember. I haven't seen that video in forever. Sorry, I have to take a sip of water. I gotta try to wash some of this malort taste out of my mouth. Ugh. Uh, the number 24 video is Too Late by Shoes. I I'm not familiar with that one. That one I'm not familiar with. Um, yeah. Can't help you with that one. And I can't help you with this next one either. At number 23. That's looking for clues by Robert Palmer.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you know what? Hang on a second here.
SPEAKER_04:Let me do something.
SPEAKER_02:We got some more. Yeah, we got all kinds of comments. This is wrong.
SPEAKER_04:This is wrong. Yeah. See, they're supposed to show up when I put them on the, but not like that.
SPEAKER_03:See?
SPEAKER_04:Nice.
SPEAKER_03:You like that, Raul? You like that? Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Uh wait, let's go there and let's hang on. I gotta get rid of I gotta get rid of your comment, Raul. Let's oh, hide it.
SPEAKER_03:There we go. Good. All right.
SPEAKER_04:Uh, making myself look larger on the screen. I love it. So, where do we leave off? 23. The 23rd video, and yes, I'm working them all the way up to number one. Is Looking for Clues by Robert Palmer. I I would have to hear that one. I'm not obviously I'm familiar with Robert Palmer, but I'm not familiar with that particular song. Number 22, yeah, big one. Huge, huge song, still to this day. In the air tonight by Phil Collins. Everyone knows that song. Even if you don't even, if you don't know who Phil Collins is, you know In the Air Tonight. And uh kind of an ominous video. It's just it's just uh Phil's face on a I think it's black and white, too. I think it's black and white video, Phil's face uh in front of a like a black screen or something. That's about it. Um, I don't want to say creepy, but just like ominous. Number 21, Double Life from the Cars. Uh 81. That must be from the Shake It Up album. Uh, let's see. Uh number 20, Mr. Briefcase by Lee Rittenauer. Now, I don't know that particular song, but Lee Rittenauer is a renowned jazz guitarist. Um I mean, like in I don't even want to say in the in the in the jazz world because it's not just in the jazz world. He's done a lot of studio work as well. And uh he doesn't sing on his songs. It wouldn't, he's had a couple, excuse me, he's had a couple of songs that were on the top 40 chart. Um, shoot, I'm trying to think of the big one. That was also in 1981. Darn it, why can't I think of it right now? But he didn't sing it. He obviously played on it. Uh it's and it was on his album. Kind of like um, who else does that too? Um, well, there was a big song in 80 or 81 from Grover Washington Jr., jazz musician, releases that song, Just the Two of Us, but he's not singing on it. That was Bill Withers, who was doing the vocals. Kind of like um Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones would put out albums under his name, but he wasn't singing on them. He was producing them, and he was out there finding the musicians and the and the performers and the singers and that kind of stuff. But uh they were his projects, so they went under his name. All right, and and this is the almost knocked this one over. Okay. Um so number, oh, number number 19, message of love from the pretenders. Um let me try to remember how that one goes. Uh is that the one where she's talking about oh shoot.
SPEAKER_02:Something about his, I don't know, something about underwear, like in his doggone it.
SPEAKER_04:I can't remember. I know the song just can't, it's not coming to me right now. Look, I didn't pre I didn't I didn't pre work this list or anything like that looking for it, trying to listen to songs and music clips or anything like that. So uh this is very, very raw. Yeah. Uh At number 18, number 18 is Bluer Than Blue by Michael Johnson. That's definitely I'm definitely no, no, no idea what that one is or who that is. But I do at number 17, because it's not only a huge song, it's by a very big band. It's off of an enormous album, the biggest album in the band's catalog. And this song actually went to number one on the Billboard Top 40. And it's Keep on Loving You by Ario Speedwagon, right? Great song. Great song. Great, great, great song. I I don't remember that video, but that was probably more of a performance video, if memory serves correctly. Because remember, this is MTV's debut. This is August 1st, 1981. Music video videos were not a big thing at the time. Bands would put out videos to serve as promotional material for an album or maybe a tour, generally, you know, uh trying to sell an album. Um and and then sometimes those videos would air on particular programs like maybe Don Kirschner's Rock Concert or The Midnight Special, those type of things. Most of these videos were performance videos. And when I say performance, some of them actually would could have been shot live at a concert, and then they they overdub the studio version of the song onto that uh live footage. Or uh performance could mean it's just a band standing on a stage, standing in a room or in a studio, just performing the song and miming to the to the song, lip syncing to the song itself. Most of these videos did not have um like a script or a theme to them, as we knew our videos for that much later on um in the history of MTV. So now some some of them, yes, a little bit, but not all of them. I mean so just uh just a little bit of something for you. That's all. At number 16, this is I when I saw this one, I was like, yo, no way. The song Iron Maiden from Iron Maiden. Now, this one comes off of uh their I think it's off their debut album, which is uh self-titled. I'm I'm not a big Iron Maiden guy. If you're new to the program, uh the heavy metal stuff is not my jam. Um, but uh I certainly I'm familiar with so many of these bands and and and artists and all that. But um yeah, I can't even say I've heard the song Iron Maiden Iron Maiden, but I'm shocked that Iron Maiden was on here on this list. But again, remember MTV was looking for anything they could get their hands on when it came to music videos because they've got this platform now that they're presenting to people, and um, you know, they've got 24 hours is a long time to fill uh fill with with programming. So uh number 15 is sailing by Rod Stewart. I'm not familiar with that one, and I know a lot of Rod Stewart, and I'm not familiar with that one. Which is which is weird because a lot of these songs are were not even um hit songs, they were not even hit songs on the radio. In fact, some of these were not even released as singles by these artists, but yet they had music videos for them in one form or fashion. Uh now this one here, again, a performance video, and I am familiar with this song, and it's a really good song. At number 14, just between you and me by April Wine, Canadian, uh, Canadian band uh had a couple of um a couple of top 40 hits, a little bit. It had a little bit of uh uh run in America, especially in the early 80s. You know, being in high school, you see guys uh walking around with their uh April Wine t-shirts or have April wine stickers on their peachy folders or whatever stuff like that. So they got some run in the in in the United States in the early 80s. Um that's a good song, and I do remember that video. That is a performance video. Uh number 13, one of the biggest songs in this band's history, and um one of their first um top 40 songs is Hold on Loosely by 38 Special. 38 Special, a band still going strong today, uh, still performing, performing live, making good music. They just released an album not too long ago, a couple months ago, I think it was. They just released a new album, first one in 20, 20, 20 something years. Um, so and hold on, Lucy. Great song. It's a really, really good song. I wasn't familiar with that song in '81. I didn't become familiar with that song until later, after um 38 Special had released um what was the name of the album? Dog on it. I just had it and I lost it. Um, but it was the album they released in 1982, summer of 1982, and it had the big song, their biggest top 40 single, which was Caught Up in You. And then that's when I found out about Hold On Loosely, but it's a good song and a song that is co-written by I I believe we talked about this not too long ago, uh, co-founder of the band Survivor, Jim Peterick. Yeah, just a little knowledge for you folks. And for you kind of new wave uh cats out there at number 12, history never repeats itself from split ends. I I don't I don't know, I mean I know of split ends, but I don't know their music. There was there's a big station in Southern California, Los Angeles area called K Rock. And over the years they've they've they've done a mix of things, but certainly in the in the early 80s, maybe all the way into the late 80s, maybe even beyond there, they were like new wave, punk, um, all that stuff. They were playing all of that. That was like a rotation um on that station. Let's see. Uh at number 11. Again, I don't know this one. I should look up all these videos and just play them and watch them. That's what I need to do. Number 11, when things go wrong by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters. Have you guys heard of Robin Lane and the Chartbusters? I haven't. But you can let me know. Um, let's see. What do we oh, see, another big song. And I don't remember if this one made it to number one, but I do know it was top five for sure. Most definitely, another huge song off of another or the same huge album, and that's Take It on the Run from Ario Speedwagon. This is song five. It's the fifth track on side one of High Infidelity. Don't ask me how I remember that. I don't know. Just do. Uh, what do we have at number eight? Time Heals by Todd Runggren. I I don't go deep into Todd Rundgren, so I don't think I'm familiar with that song. I obviously I do know Todd Rundgren. I still have that nasty Malort taste in my mouth. Oh, it's bad. Uh, then at number seven, great song. Now, this one was not a performance video. This one was a scripted video from the Pretenders, Brass and Pocket. And uh if you guys remember the video, uh Chrissy Hine is uh I believe she's a waitress in a diner, and she's waiting on the I think the various members of the band. I haven't seen the video in forever. But what a really, really good song. And a really, really good band, too. Pretenders come on. They're so good. And they were they were, I believe this was their debut album, but man, they had such a great run in the 80s. Um, obviously, they're still active and they're still out there, but as far as like their heyday, that was you know, the 80s, and and they were so good. Uh, number six, I am familiar with this song, and I'm familiar with the artist, and that's We Don't Talk Anymore from Cliff Richard. And some of you are going, who is Cliff Richard? Well, Cliff Richard was an artist primarily in the late 50s, 60s, 70s, and he was really uh his his career was he was really on the back of an end of his career in the early 80s, but he's a British artist. And let's put it this way in the UK, he has sold more albums than Elvis Presley. Okay. That's how big Cliff Richards was in the UK. I think he even sold more albums than the Beatles in the UK. You know, he had a few hits in the late 70s and in the early 80s, you know, we don't talk anymore. Uh, there was another one. Um Devil Woman. Um trying to think of there was another one that he had in the early part of 1981, also. Shoot. Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. Can't recall what it was. Good song, though. Good song. Uh, you know, good stuff. Oh, and he did a he had a he had a duet with Olivia Newton John also. That was off the Xanadu uh soundtrack. That's right, that's right. Yeah. So that's We Don't Talk Anymore from Cliff Richard. That was actually the sixth video shown on MTV, August the 1st, 1981. Then uh what do we have? Number five. Oh, yeah. See, I know this song too, and I didn't know this version. Uh, it is Little Susie's on the Up by PHD. Now I've seen this video maybe two times. And it's um uh I don't recall much about it. It's black and white, um, from what I remember. Nothing much to it. Um, but the version that on this song that I know and know really well is from the band out of Sacramento, California, Tesla. They did a version of this song, I don't know '87, '88, and their version's way better. It's a little more uh rocked up version, but it's way better. And Tesla is a fabulous band anyway. They're so good, so good, and still active to this day. And still playing it all live, all real, no computers, no faking it, nothing. All good stuff. Uh oh, yeah. The number four video to be shown on August the first, 1981, on MTV is You Better You Bet from the Who. Uh, what was the what was that album? What was that one from? It also had Eminence Front.
SPEAKER_02:Uh what else did it have on there? I think it had did it have Athena? I think it had Athena on there. Did it? And uh what else? There's another song I'm thinking of.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know. I don't know, it'll come to me. But um, yeah, oh, what a good song, though. Such a good song. Your dog keeps licking my nose and chewing up all those letters saying you better. Come on. You better, you better, you bet. Uh number three, the video at number three. Sorry about like the long pauses or whatever. And I I'm not familiar with this one either. She won't dance with me from Rod Stewart. I couldn't even tell you what album that song's off of. Couldn't even tell you that. Uh, but here we go. Here we go. This is why we're doing this particular subject tonight, because of this song right here. I said it was in the top five videos last week, and I was right, I didn't have the number correct. It's number two, I had the song wrong. I did have the artist right. And it's You Better Run by Pat Benetar, the number two video on August 1st, 1981, the day that MTV made its debut. And then it just changed our it changed our lives. If you were around, if you were anywhere between the ages of like 10 and 18 years old, MTV, that was it. It was all over but the shock. It was it was just something that we had never ever experienced before. And that's turning on the television, turning to a particular channel, uh, whatever uh uh uh cable outlet we were using at the time or we had at the time, and there wasn't very many to choose from. Um and the channel was so small that not all the markets even had MTV for the first year to year and a half of its existence. But the thing just from day one, it I mean, it just like was like this big steamroller or almost like a snowball rolling downhill. It just gets bigger and bigger and bigger as it gets closer to the bottom. Man, it was just a big, giant tidal wave of videos, uh, and we couldn't get out of the way of it. Turn that on, and you could just sit there all day and get lost in watching the radio on television. How awesome! How awesome. And and you know, I know for those of us who who have very fond memories of MTV, who are old enough to have those fond memories, before all these stupid, you know, reality shows that made MTV completely irrelevant and and uh I don't want to say non-existent, but but irrelevant and well, non-existent in in our lives, because MTV is music television, not you know, pregnant teenagers television or whatever shows they were doing, you know, dumb stuff. Um man, so good. It's just so, so good. Um all right. So that takes us up to the number one video. Come on, hold on, hold on a second. I'm going to I'm gonna reduce my screen so I can see the comments. Okay. And um let's see.
SPEAKER_02:There was another one here for us. So Foolish medicine.
SPEAKER_04:No, I think you'd stump me on anything. Okay. You guys are gonna have like 10 seconds, maybe not even that, because you guys are gonna be able to like get on the Google and look it up and all that. So it's kind of cheating, but got 10 seconds. I'm gonna set a timer right here. Let's get a timer set. Um timer 10. Oh, that says 10 minutes. No, I don't want that. I want zero on that and ten right there. You guys have 10 seconds. Somebody put it in the comments. What was the first video shown on MTV? Um eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Okay, time's up. Ha ha. I I just I did stop you already. Okay, there you go. It was from a little old band, probably the only, I don't even know if they had a top 40 hit. I don't think they did. One of the members of the band, his name is Trevor Horn. He went on to uh be a part of Yes a couple of different one or two different times, did production work for Yes as well. And uh that little old band, the first video, rightfully, was called Video Killed the Radio Star. And I mean, it's kind of kind of fitting, kind of fitting that that was the first video. And I obviously look, it doesn't take a genius uh to figure out that that was the whole purpose of MTV showing that video first, because this was a whole new medium for taking in music. And MTV was so influential in so many different ways. Um they broke new artists, they introduced new songs, songs that maybe weren't being serviced to radio, but then through MTV and the videos being shown ended up, you know, getting on the play, the playlists of of uh radio stations. Um you know, the the the the first uh the original, the original VJs from MTV, that would be uh JJ Jackson, who is sadly no longer with us. Uh Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood, and Martha Quinn. Those five right there. Those are the original MTV VJs. It's not it's not too much to say that those five should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They haven't been on a ballot, but they should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame simply because of the influence they had on the music world. You know, just tremendous stuff. And uh yeah, I MTV, right? I want my MTV. Good, good stuff, and I liked doing that. I like doing it. I hope you guys liked it as well. And uh, you know, just some fun on a Friday night, nothing too serious, right? I forgot to put my glasses away. I gotta break them out because we're not quite done yet. We are wrapping it up here, though. Uh, but before we wrap it up, before I cut you loose, I do want to remind you tomorrow is our Veterans Day special. That is with my guest, Mel Borden. He'll be in studio. We'll have a lot of fun with Mel. He'll be talking about his book, telling his story, and uh just some good stuff. So I know you guys will enjoy that. So be looking for your notifications when that episode drops, okay? And then next Saturday, which is the 15th, November the 15th, I want you to mark your calendars for that one as well. That would be country music artist Olivia Harms. She'll be on the program too. And we're gonna get to know her and get to know about her music and uh all that good stuff, and where where you can go see her in the future. All right. So, some good things coming up. Uh taking a step back to veterans and our Veterans Day special, let me remind you that it is on Tuesday the 11th. But you know something? We don't need to make Veterans Day all about just one day. We should make it honestly every day. We should make Veterans Day every day. Um the men and women that have sacrificed so much, whether it's just stepping up, signing on the dotted line, and giving of themselves that way to serve for our country, or going in and doing time in battle, combat, giving of themselves that way. Some have disabilities due to it, some have lost limbs due to it, and ultimately some have lost their lives and sacrificed for serving our country so that someone like me can just do the a little podcast like this. Something so simple as this. All right. There aren't a lot of people, not everyone around the world has the same freedom to do this and say some of the things that I say on this particular podcast. Okay. But thank you to our veterans. Thank you to our current members still serving this country. If you see a veteran somewhere in the coffee shop, you see him at Coffee Bean, you see him at Starbucks, whatever, you know what? Buy him a cup of coffee. Buy him a cup of coffee, buy him a Danish, uh a breakfast sandwich, whatever. You know, you see him in your fake your favorite diner or whatever, you know, pay the 10 or 12 bucks for their breakfast one time, you know. You see them take care of that tab for them. It's that little bit right there that says so much. And if you do that one time and I do that one time, and somebody else does that one time, gosh, can you imagine what that what that gets done? Can you imagine how we're gonna make our service men and women feel? Our veterans, our veterans, especially our veterans. Um and you know, having Mel on tomorrow, you know, having him, he you know, he served in Vietnam. I'll just let you guys know that in case I hadn't mentioned it yet, but he served in Vietnam. And if you're old enough to remember when the men came back from Vietnam, they didn't come back to they didn't come back home with open arms. They came back home being called baby killers, being spit on, had things thrown at them, just being berated, and guys were, you know, not only did they have to deal with the trauma of war and combat, but then they had to deal with a country that so many people didn't even want them home. And how do you like, how do you, how do you, how do you reconcile that? Um it's taken a long time. It's taken a long time for society here at home to uh to realize that wasn't the right approach. Um and we really do need to appreciate our men and women in service and those veterans that have served and given everything that they had. So I want to thank all of our veterans, all of our veterans, all of our service men and women, police, firefighters, first responders, all you gang out there. Thank you so much for all that you do for our country. And uh yeah, we'll end it right here, okay? You guys have a great one. Make sure you tune in tomorrow to uh what is going to be a wonderful conversation, all right? I promise you that. So I'll talk to you guys later. All right. Enjoy. Thanks for having uh date night with Ben Maynard. Yeah, with me. All right. I'll see you guys soon. This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.