Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
Numerous covers of rock ‘n’ roll hits were revived eighties style. New bands used covers to introduce themselves to a wide audience. These remakes introduced Generation X to hits their parents favored. The remakes brought back memories to baby boomers, and also may have brought sentiments that the original version is better than the 1980s reboot.
Bow Wow Wow amped up The Strrangeloves I Want Candy.
Becoming unchained to Van Halen, David Lee Roth’s first solo recording Crazy from the Heat included a cover of the Beach Boy’s California Girls.
Billy Idol covered Tommy James and the Shondells Mony Mony.
Soft Cell went techno with Tainted Love,
a song originally recorded by Gloria Jones, and in the extended play of the song sing The Supremes’s Where Did Our Love Go.
Eddie Money’s hit Take Me Home Tonight
features Ronnie Spector of The Ronettes singing her trademark line Be my little baby.
Self-depreciating comedian Rodney Dangerfield covered Twist and Shout
during his movie Back to School. The Isley Brothers and The Beatles made the song popular during the 1960s. Unlike other eighties oldies covers, Phil Collin's cover of The Supremes’s You Can’t Hurry Love,
albeit lacking The Supremes’s vocals, retains the musical feel of the original.
©2021 Tim Sheehan