Tag Archives: Midnight Oil

Artists, Music, Remember That Song?

Remember That Song – 5/23/19

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Can you name the artist and song:

City nights
Summer breezes makes you feel all right
Neon-lights
Shining brightly make your brain ignite

Last Song: “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil from the album Diesel and Dust (1988)

Great job jennimarchand (@jennimarchand1), DavidPeterJaeger (@davidpjaeger), and Andy (@Torahpro)!!!

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore, east to Yuendemu
The Western Desert lives and breathes
In forty-five degrees

If you’d like to get this song from Amazon, you can click on the album cover below

1987, Artists, Guest Bloggers, Music, One-Hit Wonders

One Hit Wonders: Midnight Oil

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Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil

I am including this song despite it reaching only #17 on the AT40. Despite being monsters in their native Australia, this is their only song to make any sort of dent on the American charts. The lead singer, Peter Garrett, quickly, albeit temporarily, became the most recognizable part of this band short lived 1988 success. His large frame, bald head, and jerky dance moves helped this song remain in high rotation on MTV. The band shines lyrically. The have used their talents and this musical medium to make people aware of political and social issues in Australia. This song won several Australian music awards in 1988 and discusses the touchy subject of the Australian indigenous population. In a nutshell, Australia was colonized by British who moved (or were sent) to the continent, lived on the land using the resources, and displaced those that were there first – sounds somewhat similar to what happened in the United States with the Native American population. Midnight Oil makes their stance on this issue very clear, pulling no punches:

The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belong to them
Let’s give it back

In case this is not clear enough, listen to the chorus, “How can we dance when our world is turning? / How do we sleep when out beds are burning?” While I like this song, it has never been one of my favorites. I bought the album with one of my penny purchase from Columbia house. I did not like the album much, but at least I did not pay the full price. I do admire the way Midnight Oil uses the their music to do more than just set a beat. They understand the power the medium has to influence people and change minds.

1988, Artists, Music, Top 40

Top 40 Songs This Week – May 21, 1988: Songs 40-31

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Hi Everybody! At long last, we have a new Top 40 Countdown!!! This week, we will Return to 1988. This week in 1988, I was getting ready to graduate high school. Graduation was in early June, so we were probably getting ready for final exams. Also at this time, I managed to score a temporary full-time job at the U.S Post Office. They would hire people for 89 days. At 90 days you would get Federal benefits, so they only hired you for 89 days. Then you could get hired back for another 89 days if you wanted to go back. After a week of orientation, we were placed into different jobs – mainly some kind of mail sorting. I was already going to be making a lot more money than I ever had. But, I found out that you would make even more if you worked the overnight shift. Works for me! I worked the overnight shift, sorting mail from 11:00pm to 7:00am. Most times, I would sort mail while listening to my Walkman. After 89 days I didn’t return to that job. I was starting college, so I didn’t have time to both work full time, and fall flat on my face at college. I only had time to fll flat on my face at college. A lot of the songs on this week’s countdown really brings me back to those Post Office days. So, let’s Return to the week ending May 21, 1988, and begin the Countdown.

40. “Promise Me” by The Cover Girls


We’ll begin the countdown this week with a really good freestyle ballad. I was mainly into rock, but I always had a soft spot for freestyle music. I don’t remember this song, though. This song was off of The Cover Girls’ 1986 debut album, Show Me.

39. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard


If you don’t know this song, I have no idea why you’re on this web site – not that I’m complaining! This is Def Leppard’s signature song, and reached all the way up to #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It was kept out of the #1 spot by Richard Marx’s “Hold On to the Nights“. As often as “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, I still love this song each time I hear it. This is one of the rare heavily played songs that does not get old with me. Now, Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, Hey, hey!

38. “Beds Are Burning” by Midnight Oil

Two rock songs in a row! This one is by the Australian rock band, Midnight Oil. This was the signature hit in the U.S. I feel like I should like this song more than I actually do. I love how the song starts, but get bored about halfway through, even though it rocks.

37. “Nothin’ But a Good Time” by Poison


Three rock songs in a row!!! This is a fun one from Poison’s Open Up and Say… Ahh! album. At the beginning of the video, that is Poison performing the Kiss classic, “Rock and Roll All Nite“. The Poison version is on the Less Than Zero soundtrack.

36. “Nightime” by Pretty Poison

Back to some more freestyle! I had never heard this song before. I’m more familiar with Pretty Poison’s hit “Catch Me (I’m Falling)“. This isn’t bad, but I like Catch Me better.

35. “Da’Butt” by E.U.

Yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! I forgot about this one. Before Baby got back, we were doing Da’Butt. This was the biggest hit for Experience Unlimited (aka E.U.), peaking right here at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

34. “Get Out Of My Dreams, Get Into My Car” by Billy Ocean

This was a huge hit for Billy Ocean, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Black Singles chart. Ringo Starr’s “You’re Sixteen (You’re Beautiful You’re Mine)” was the inspiration for this song, which has the line “You walked out of my dreams, into my car”. Billy Ocean also had a knack for scoring big hits with long titles: “Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run),” “There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)“, and “When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going“, along with this song.

33. “The Flame” by Cheap Trick

This was a huge comeback hit for Cheap Trick. I still love this ballad so much. Although Cheap Trick had been around since the ’70s, this was the first song I heard by them. This was a song that constantly came on when I was working at the Post Office.

32. “Nite and Day” by Al B.Sure!

I had forgotten about this song. I like Al B. Sure!, but I don’t own anything by him. I’ll B Sure rectify that.

31. “I’m Still Searching” by Glass Tiger

When Glass Tiger released “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)“, I hope they weren’t talking about this song, because I did forget it. Well, maybe they thought that “Someday“, some goofy blogger would play this on his web site. I actually do like this – even if it does sound like something that would have been from the mid-to-late ’90s.

Well, that wraps up today’s list of songs. We’ll be back to continue the countdown tomorrow. What do you think so far? What are your memories from 1988. Any other members of the greatest class ever out there – the Class of ’88, Baby!!!!