Night Tracks

Night Tracks was such a tradition at my & my friends' house on the weekends. It was a wonderful part of my childhood. The great thing about Night Tracks was that it was a great thing a kid could do in the safety of one's home on Friday & Saturday night. My friends & I would be anticipating each week's show, wondering if we would catch "Little Red Corvette" or "1999" by Prince. Back in those days nobody had VCR's, so we had to watch every move with full concentration to mimic the hot dance moves. Night Tracks videos were far superior to MTV due to the variety. It seemed that MTV had just changed to the AC/DC type videos & those were not very fun. Videos from that era were so original & creative. I used to audio tape Night Tracks by laying my recorder by the television! How primitive is that by today's standards? My cousin, who was in college, used to try to end his Friday Night dates by about 11 pm & he would drive over & watch the videos with my brother & I. It was a very happy era of my life, I guess that's why I enjoy videos from that era so much. There were many videos by bands such as the Time, Gap Band, & others that never saw the light of day on MTV back then. It was like seeing a whole other world. I wish WTBS would bring it back!

Night Tracks was a WTBS weekend show that featured the best in music videos. It began in the summer of 1983 & had quite a following for most everyone I knew at the time. This was the 80's at it's best. The show had lots of R&B, dance, new wave, & just a better selection that MTV offered at the time (or ever since for that matter). Heavy in rotation were Prince, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Kool & the Gang, Lionel Richie, the Police, David Bowie, Rick Springfield, Hall & Oates & of course Michael Jackson. It also specialized in showing lesser-known acts like Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Vanity 6, Shalamar, Squeeze, the Motels, & many others. It also featured the one-hit wonders we loved like Kajagoogoo, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Oran Juice Jones, Madness, & Musical Youth. The central advantage over MTV at the time was MUCH more R&B & far less of the heavy metal that was so "in" at the time. I had hoped that TBS would bring it back during the retro-80's hype lately but it was to no avail. The year of 2003 would have been perfect due to a twenty year anniversary theme but it never happened. As a child I looked forward to sleeping downstairs & staying up late on the weekends watching the videos. I rarely made it past 2 or 3 a.m. but it sure was fun trying!