Great Songs from My Favorite Year in Music: 1985, Part 15

The Hooters - "And We Danced"



(Single Release: 1985)
I'll admit it, the Hooters have not held up as well as some of the bands and songs within this retrospective. Whereas say, Depeche Mode and the Cure have a cachet value that still carries on into the future, the Hooters seem helplessly stuck in 1985. Of course, their video for this song, which is really just a placeholder for any one of four singles from their album Nervous Night, as well as videos for those other singles don't exactly help matters. But, I can't help but still love this Philadelphia band. Main songwriters and vocalists Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman can craft a catchy tune for sure, and each ended up co-writing some of the biggest pop songs on the charts in Hyman's song for Cyndi Lauper, "Time after Time," and Bazilian's tune for Joan Osborne, "One of Us." Hearing these songs again doesn't have the same power over me that say, hearing the Chameleons, apb, or Nick Cave has, but instead is pure nostalgia. While I do see a danger in that, I also cherish these songs as a reminder of a time that was far more innocent. It would only be a few short months until I first got a girlfriend, had my first real kiss, and fell headlong into love. It also meant that my first heartbreak was yet to come. I was as yet unspoiled by bitterness and loss. The Hooters represent this innocence for me, with videos about drive-in movies, which even in 1985 were a throwback, with draping multicolored suits ("All You Zombies") and the meta aspect of being nostalgic about nostalgia ("And We Danced").