1985 (song)
"1985" is a
song best known for its performance in
2004 by the
pop rock band
Bowling for Soup. Featured in their album
A Hangover You Don't Deserve, as well as the American
popular music compilation
Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 17, "1985" was originally written and recorded by the band
SR-71, led by
Mitch Allan.
According to
SR-71's website, Bowling for Soup's
Jaret Reddick (a friend of SR-71) heard the song and asked for and received permission to record a
cover version. However, according to
Bowling for Soup's website, it was Allan that called Reddick to suggest the possible cover. Either way, it was Bowling for Soup's version, with slightly reworked lyrics from the original, that has become familiar to most
United States radio listeners and topped the charts.
The song describes a woman, Debbie, who is
obsessed with the
pop culture of
1985 after her dreams of becoming an
actress and
celebrity as a twenty-something in the
1980s failed to materialize. (In the SR-71 version, the reason given is "the
rubber broke", implying an unplanned
pregnancy.) The song deals with themes like growth and maturity, lost dreams and changing pop culture via the passage of time. She has trouble dealing with her life and her
teenage children due to her preoccupation with the past. (According to Reddick, the song was originally about
1984, but "1985 rhymes better with "preoccupied". [
1])
The Bowling for Soup
music video parodies famous videos from early
MTV era, including
Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video,
George Michael's "Faith" video,
Whitesnake's "Is This Love" video, and directly parodies
Mötley Crüe, and
Poison (band).
The song has attracted a significant
pre-teen audience, even though no one in that group remembers the year
1985. A version with "children-rated" lyrics is played on
Radio Disney, where, for example, the line "one
Prozac a day" is replaced with "one workout a day." The edited version is produced by
Kidz Bop; however, it initially retained the line "Only been with one man; what happened to her plan?" (this has since been changed; now it says "Only loved just one man".)
The song and video are also popular with the generation of people currently in their 30s or early 40s as nostalgia for the pop culture of their youth, although the song makes no effort to imitate the style of the 1980s, with the exception of the line "on the radio", which resembles the
timbre of the voice singing the verses in the
Buggles' "
Video Killed the Radio Star", known for being the first video ever played on
MTV in
1981; this may or may not be intentional.
According to Bowling's Reddick, part of the song's cross-generational appeal comes from the fact that many of his band's fans are teenagers, and their parents shared many of the experiences "Debbie" has fixated on.
*
Matt Hodgson "That One Guy" has released a parody, "1955," based on
Back to the Future. The song became a hit on the
Dr. Demento Radio Show.
*
Johnny Crass has released another parody, "Being a Jedi," based on
Star Wars. This version relates the plot of
Revenge of the Sith, and compares the prequel trilogy unfavorably to the classic trilogy.
*There is a
1970s song by
Paul McCartney called "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five".
*"1985" is also a song on the
Manic Street Preachers'
2004 album
Lifeblood.
*Another song by the same name still is by
Roper on their album
Brace Yourself for the Mediocre.
*There is also a song by
The French Kicks entitled 1985 on their album
One Time Bells.
*Japanese punk rockers
The Blue Hearts also wrote and performed a song entitled 1985 during the year itself. In the song, the year is pronounced in the English manner,
nineteen eighty five, instead of in Japanese.
*
Lyrics to Bowling for Soup version*
Lyrics to SR-71 version*
Bowling for Soup Website*
SR-71 Website*
1985 Music Video
