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.

I was so busy with A to Z last month that I decided to use my entries for that as my entries for Monday’s Music Moves Me. In doing so, I blew off Driller, who was last month’s guest conductor, who asked for rain songs on the 12th and artists who were born in April on the 26th. As to the latter, most of my Song of the Day entries for April were a way to showcase artists on their birthdays, so I won’t go back through them.

Which left the rain songs. Now, I have a playlist that I built years ago (in the very early days of the blog), and when I re-ran that entry a few years later, my brother Kip came up with another one. So for this list, I decided to go with all new entries, some of which I wasn’t familiar until building the list. Hope you like it.

1. Roy Orbison, "Blue Rain": A song from Roy’s 1973 album Milestones. It was released as a single, but failed to chart.

2. Eric Clapton, "Let It Rain": From his eponymous studio 1970 studio album, written by Slowhand and Bonnie Bramlett. It reached #48 in the US and #42 in Canada, but got a lot of FM airplay, as I recall.

3. SWV, "Rain": I never knew about these three ladies until today, but evidently they were a very popular singing group in the 1990’s and have reunited. "Rain" was released in 1997 and reached #7 on the R&B chart, #15 on the Adult R&B chart, and #25 on the Hot 100.

4. The Cowsills, "The Rain, The Park, And Other Things": From 1967, this was a Top Ten hit in the US (#2 Hot 100, #1 Cash Box), Canada (#1), Australia (#4), and New Zealand (#2).

5. Neil Sedaka, "Laughter In The Rain": Neil’s 1974 return to the Top 40 chart, reaching #1 on the Billboard and Cash Box charts for one week and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks.

6. Simply Three, "Rain": Don’t know much about these three string players, but it is a lovely song.

7. Gene Kelly, "Singin’ In The Rain": Birgit asked for this on the first two lists, and I had to include it on this one. Plus, it’s a great song and a tremendous performance by Gene Kelly.

8. Gary Allan, "Songs About Rain": I wasn’t familiar with Gary, but I liked the song when I heard it. It reached #12 on the Country chart, #71 on the Hot 100, and #10 on the Canadian Country, and was certified Gold. It mentions some of my favorite songs about rain, so when I do Part IV I have a good start.

9. Ruth Lorenzo, "Dancing In The Rain": Spain’s entry into the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, where it came in 10th.

10. Yiruma, "Kiss The Rain": Some lovely New Age piano by South Korean Lee Ru-Ma, who goes by the stage name Yiruma. It reached #9 in South Korea with sales of over 550 thousand.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for May 3, 2021. Alana and Stacy have the Linky list with all the participants listed.

Happy birthday to Marie’s mom! Marie chose as today’s theme songs by her Mom’s three favorite artists: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Glenn Miller. Here are four of each.

1. Frank Sinatra, "My Kind Of Town (Chicago Is)": From the 1964 movie Robin and the 7 Hoods, which starred Frank, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Bing Crosby, a song by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn (two of Frank’s favorite songwriters).

2. Frank Sinatra, "I’ve Got You Under My Skin": A song by Cole Porter that was introduced by Virginia Bruce in the 1936 Eleanor Powell film Born To Dance. This became one of Frank’s signature songs.

3. Frank Sinatra, "The Coffee Song": A novelty song written by Bob Hilliard and Dick Miles and first recorded by Frank in 1946. The song is about Brazil’s coffee surplus, and jokes that there are no other drinks than coffee there.

4. Frank Sinatra, "New York, New York": From the 1977 movie of the same name that starred Liza Minnelli and Robert DeNiro. It was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb, and also became a signature song for Frank.

5. Dean Martin, "Sway (¿Quién será?)": Written by Pablo Beltrán Ruiz as "¿Quién será?" for Pedro Infante, who recorded it in 1954. Norman Gimbel wrote the English lyrics as "Sway" and Dean was the first person to record it, also in 1954. His was the most successful.

6. Dean Martin, "Volare": Written as "Nel blu, dipinto di blu" by the Italian composer Domenico Modugno, the original won the Sanremo Music Festival and placed third in the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest. Dean’s version reached #15 on the Hot 100 and #2 in the UK.

7. Dean Martin, "Return To Me": Written by Carmen Lombardo and Danny Di Minno, it reached #4 in the US, #5 in Canada, and #2 in the UK in 1958. Dean also recorded this for his 1961 album Dino: Italian Love Songs.

8. Dean Martin, "Everybody Loves Somebody": Written by Sam Coslow, Irving Taylor, and Ken Lane in 1947, it was the title song from Dean’s 1964 album. It was a #1 single, his first since 1958.

9. Glenn Miller, "In The Mood": A song written by Wingy Manone as "Tar Paper Stomp." Joe Garland wrote the arrangement that Miller used on his 1939 release, and lyrics were added later by Andy Razaf. This was the best-selling Swing instrumental.

10. Glenn Miller, "String Of Pearls": Written by Jerry Gray and Eddie DeLange. Miller recorded it in 1941 and became a #1 hit.

11. Glenn Miller, "Stardust": The Hoagy Carmichael song from 1927. Glenn and his orchestra recorded it in 1940.

12. Glenn Miller, "Moonlight Serenade": Glenn wrote this, with lyrics added by Mitchell Parrish later. The 1939 recording spent 15 weeks on the charts, peaking at #3.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for March 29, 2021.

I get in ruts musically, and find it useful to listen to one of the daily playlists Spotify makes for me. Recently I found that you can create a new playlist based on either the artist or song you’re listening to. This time, I chose a song from one of the playlists and had Spotify build a playlist off of that, and used shuffle play to further randomize the songs. The result was a selection of songs that provided for an afternoon’s entertainment. Here’s a chunk of that playlist.

1. Pat Metheny Group, "Are You Going With Me?": Some jazz fusion from their third album, 1982’s Offramp. It was written by Metheny and his keyboardist Lyle Mays.

2. Eagles, "One Of These Nights": Title track from their 1975 album. The song was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey and reached #1 on the Hot 100.

3. Talk Talk, "Happiness Is Easy": I hadn’t heard of this band nor had I heard of this song, even though it seems I should have. They were a British synthpop band from the early ’80’s who had some success in Europe but were basically unheard here in the US. "Happiness Is Easy" was the lead track on their third studio album, 1986’s The Colour Of Spring.

4. Gino Vannelli, "People Gotta Move": This was Gino’s first single to chart in the US (#22 Hot 100, #17 Adult Contemporary) and Canada (#21), in 1974. It was on his second studio album, 1974’s Powerful People.

5. Al Jarreau, "Mornin’": Lead track from his 1983 studio album Jarreau. It was written by Al, David Foster, and Jay Graydon and issued as a single that reached #2 on the US Adult Contemporary chart and #3 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart.

6. Deodato, "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)": Brazilian jazz fusion keyboard player Eumir Deodato had a bona fide hit in 1973 with his jazzy interpretation of Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, reaching #2 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the US, #3 in Canada, and #7 in the UK.

7. Joe Jackson, "You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)": From Joe’s 1984 album Body And Soul, this was the first single and reached #15 on the Hot 100, #13 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #12 on the Rock chart. One of those songs I remember hearing without knowing the name or the artist.

8. George Benson, "Give Me The Night": Title track from his 1980 album. It was produced by Quincy Jones, and Patti Austin provided background vocals and Lee Ritenour contributed some guitar. This was George’s first song to reach #1 on the R&B chart, and also reached #4 on the Hot 100.

9. Steve Winwood, "Night Train": From Steve’s 1980 album Arc Of A Diver, this was released as a single in 1981 and cam in at #104 on the Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart.

10. The Manhattan Transfer, "Soul Food To Go": From their 1987 album Brasil, the song reached #25 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The video was made by Will Vinton Studios.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for March 22, 2021.