With just two weeks until our Sci-Fi weekender (“3 great films, 1 stellar weekend!”) we’ve riffled through the space junk of YouTube to bring our top ten future-shock pop videos.
Where better to start the countdown than with Europe’s Final Countdown from 1986? It’s a daft dollop of Eurotrash metal that’s been viewed a staggering 83,000,000+ times. To put it into perspective: that’s larger than the population of Germany, which means some of them must have watched it more than once.
Cue slo mo hair flicks and geetaaar noodling…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
At number 9 we have Doctorin’ the Tardis by The Timelords (1988). If you squint long enough the makeshift Daleks chasing the cop car look like cardboard boxes. It’s uncanny.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm16_PLSzJo?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
Number 8 warps in from an altogether different musical universe. Jeff Wayne’s space opera, based on H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, features two very catchy tunes: Eve of War and Forever Autumn. Here Jeff Wayne and Orchestra update the original recordings with a 2012 medley featuring the vocal talents of Liam Neeson and Gary Barlow. Talk about weird science.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvHIE9iKEIM?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
No space music countdown would be complete without some Bowie, and we have the first of his three entries at number 7, with Starman from 1972. Bowie’s career-making performance on Top of the Pops in July that year caused a sensation. All hail Ziggy Stardust.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S574TYMe_x0?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
At number 6 we have the Gallic charms of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygène IV (1976). Is it Sci-Fi? Heck yes- why not?
Look out for the mono-brow zoom shot…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRNnZuxTJI?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
Bowie crops up again at number 5 with Life on Mars from 1973 (personally, we like ours deep-fried).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5gCSkJmqa0?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Number 4 sees another entry from the 1970s, clearly the decade of choice for Sci-Fi inspired melody-making. Elton John released Rocket Man in 1972 and William Shatner brutally murdered it in 1978. Look on with Fear and Wonder:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW5EKDMElig?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0I?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
We couldn’t let the top 10 pass without a shameless plug for our charity family matinee performance of Mike Hodges’s Flash Gordon (1980). Queen provided the film’s soundtrack including this memorable title track at number 3:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfmrHTdXgK4?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
Here’s an oddity: Bowie’s Space Oddity to be precise, which features at number 2. We’ve scavenged two versions of the song: the superior 1969 rendition followed by the more familiar 1972 release.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D67kmFzSh_o?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYMCLz5PQVw?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
There was only ever one contender for the top slot. A track that is utterly unique in the annals of popular music, for all the wrong reasons: Star Trekkin’ by The Firm from 1988. We love it!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
