I am obsessed with the Grey’s Anatomy 80’s music covers. So much so that I watch a scene over and over again, the first time for the music, the second time for the soapy plot that I still find entertaining. I built my career upon that music when it was new music, when MTV was all the rage and music videos were broadcast 24 hours a day.
One of the covers they have used twice was a pretty good go-to song in sports television. But I found out the version I used then, and that you are most familiar with, is a cover itself. “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell is what is most famous. But did you know Gloria Jones first performed it in 1964? Yep, no typo.. 1964. If it weren’t for the fine music research conducted by the great team at Grey’s Anatomy, I would never have looked it up. That version was used for an episode back in March. On May 8th, another cover, this one by Claire Guerreso, caught my ear.
Another one of my 80’s favorites (and baseball fans may recall this) was the Human Leagues’ “Don’t You Want Me?” It was used in the open of The NBC Game Of The Week pregame show almost every week back when it was the ONLY baseball game you could tune in to on a Saturday afternoon.
Around Spring Training, I would head to a record store, ask the clerk for all the new releases, put on headphones and find tunes that I couldn’t get out of my head. I guess I was looking for an “earworm” although the word didn’t exist. Once found, I would ask the clerk if there was an extended play version because I always needed about a minutes worth of instrumental to cut the open. If we had a good 30 seconds, we would loop it. I needed music that had definitive beats my fine editors could have fun cutting to.. And build the drama of the game ahead.
“Don’t You Want Me”, by Young Summer was used on Grey’s Anatomy a couple of weeks ago, making me miss those fun edit sessions we would do on Friday mornings with Len Berman or Bob Costas or whoever our talent was for the pregame that weekend. Then we would hop on a plane, head to the ballpark for the Friday night game, watch five innings (a benchmark insisted upon by the great baseball director, Harry Coyle), and head to our dinner reservation.
I never stopped looking for good music for my tape stories through the decades and because of that, I’m sometimes more up on current music than my kind-of-retro kids. Hours were spent in record stores sampling soundtracks, popular music and stock music. But there were many times that I was frustrated, or under deadline, and would reach back to my music roots to find long-forgotten 80’s riffs, ones you could dance to, and cut to.
Here are the links to the Tainted Love and Don’t You Want Me songs so you can give them a listen. I own nothing, so I am just putting in the links. You may have to copy and paste.
Tainted Love by Gloria Jones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSehtaY6k1U&feature=kp
Tainted Love by Soft Cell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNaTwf63uqw&list=RDUNaTwf63uqw#t=12
Tainted Love by Claire Guerreso:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hezOmmt5vjk
Don't You Want Me by The Human League:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPudE8nDog0&list=RDuPudE8nDog0#t=14
Don't You Want Me by Young Summer:
http://youngsummermusic.com/dont-want-greys-anatomy-2/
Photo: Reggie Jackson NY Yankees Spring Training 1980 shooting b-roll on a probable TK-76.
