On this day in 1975, Sony released the Betamax, the first video recorder and player for home use. Within ten years, it was overwhelmed by the VHS format, but into the ’90’s prerecorded Betamax tapes were available in video stores. Nevertheless, the VCR revolutionized home entertainment, and it all started 46 years ago today. To celebrate, I as the "guest conductor" chose to assign the task of selecting songs from movies of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Note that, since I don’t pay WordPress enough to be able to embed Javascript into my blog posts, I’m unable to display the Linky here, but you should be able to see it on the blogs of the four hosts of this blog hop. They’re listed at the end of this post.

1. Ray Parker Jr., "Ghostbusters" (Ghostbusters, 1984): We all remember this one, with Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Dan Aykroyd as a team of parapsychologists who run a ghost-catching business in New York. Also featured were Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis. They used Huey Lewis’s "I Want A New Drug" as a placeholder duing the montage until they could come up with a new song, and Ray Parker Jr. wrote it with a similar tempo and feel. The song reached #1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks, and Lewis sued Parker, eventually receiving a settlement.
2. Phil Collins, "Against All Odds" (Against All Odds, 1984): This was Phil Collins’s first #1 hit in the US and the first of seven in a row at the start of his solo career.
3. Harold Faltermeyer, "Axel F" (Beverly Hills Cop, 1984): Faltermeyer did all the synthesizer and drum parts and reached #3 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Ac chart, #2 in the UK, #2 in Canada (where it also reached #1 on the AC chart), and was a Top Ten hit nearly everywhere else.
4. Jeff Healey, "Roadhouse Blues" (Road House, 1989): The blind guitarist and his band covered The Doors’ song from 1970’s Morrison Hotel. It wasn’t released as a single, but was a pretty good highlight.
5. Madonna, "Crazy For You" (Vision Quest, 1985): Crazy For You was the name of this movie in the UK and Australia. Madonna had a small part in it as a singer (of course) and did this and "Gambler." It was her second #1 single and did well in Canada and the UK as well. I really enjoyed the movie, by the way.
6. Madonna, "This Used To Be My Playground" (A League Of Their Own, 1992): I know, two Madonna songs in a row; you got a problem with that? Madonna was one of the stars of the movie and contributed this to the soundtrack, though it didn’t apear on the soundtrack album, for contractual reasons. Regardless, she had another #1 in the US and Canada and a Top Ten hit elsewhere.
7. Whitney Houston, "I Will Always Love You" (The Bodyguard, 1992): Dolly Parton wrote this for Porter Wagoner when she was about to go out on her own, and it adapted well to the movie starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. Whitney’s recording of the song spent 14 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100.
8. Eric Clapton, "Change The World" (Phenomenon, 1996): Written by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy, and Wayne Kirkpatrick for the movie, and Eric Clapton recorded it for the soundtrack. As a single it reached #5 on the Hot 100 but #1 on the AC chart in the US and in Canada.
9. Elton John, "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" (The Lion King, 1994): The song that plays while Simba and Nala have some adult fun… Sir Elton wrote it with Tim Rice and had a chart hit in the US (#4), the UK (#14), Canada (#1) and France (#1). Oh, and it won the Oscar for Best Original Song and Elton won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
10. Elliott Smith, "Miss Misery" (Good Will Hunting, 1992): This played at the end of the movie over the credits, and was nominated for Best Original Song, losing out to "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for May 10, 2021.