Pullin’ ‘Tubes: The Trial of Who’s Johnny?
Scotty and I are a little busy with our day jobs and pressing HT issues at the moment, so it’s time to turn to the greatest song and video from the 1980s…
Shortly after Short Circuit debuted in 1986, America instantly grew infatuated with Who’s Johnny, which ostensibly became the movie’s theme song. Who’s Johnny shot up the pop charts that year, topping out at #3 and catapulting singer El Debarge to solo success after breaking free from his famous Grand Rapids family, DeBarge, which hit it big with Rhythm of the Night the previous year.
The ridiculousness of the song’s popularity notwithstanding, I’ve always enjoyed the video for its surreality and its, well, quintessential 80s-ness. The action takes place in a typical courtroom, where presumably the falsetto singer is the key witness in the trial of Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenburg’s cinematic characters (Sheedy stars in the video with El, while Guttenburg is represented by a cardboard cutout — not too far a stretch given his acting). It’s one part showcase for the movie via short entered-as-evidence clips, one part showcase for El’s rapidly shifting eyes and questionable haircut. Both parts, taken together, are simply delicious.
The last 40 seconds are simply brilliant, with the introduction of firefighters, the spontaneous combustion of the judge and the courtroom’s dancing madness. I guarantee you four awesome minutes if you take the Who’s Johnny plunge here.
Slade Sohmer
In 2006 Slade Sohmer founded Hidden Track along with current EiC Scott Bernstein. Slade ran the site until 2008, establishing a scope of coverage and level of professionalism that still exists today. In 2010 Sohmer founded HyperVocal with Lee Brenner and the "purveyors of the vital and viral" have gone on to create a network of highly acclaimed sites that includes Headlines That Suck, Weeping Elvis, Distriction and Spike The Water Cooler.
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i think debarge stole song from this guy….
http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=751
Interesting side note…the group DeBarge was discovered by Jermaine Jackson. James Debarge (El’s brother) eventually married Janet Jackson in 1984. Their marriage was annulled in 1985 after Jackson said she couldn’t live with his drug abuse.
Just some tidbits, free of charge.
I was perusing the wikipedia page for “Rhythm of the Night”… another inexplicable factoid: “Rhythm of the Night will be the theme song of Lowes Motor Speedway during the 2008 NASCAR season.”
Eh?
Whoever directed that video is purely a genius…or simply retarded. Thank god they got Ally Sheedy to be there, but too bad Stevie G could only make it in carboard-cutout form.
[...] the question on my mind all week: Who is Johnny? (she [...]