My brother and I would come running to see Motley Crue’s Smokin’ In the Boys’ Room, or Ozzy’s Shot in the Dark, or Ratt’s Round and Round, or…well, pretty much all of it back in those days.
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
Tawni Kitaen wet and rolling all over a car by White Snake.
Cry by Godley and Creme
Two Tribes by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
What I remember (from visiting my grandparents who had cable and we didn’t, so I only saw about 10 hour of MTV the first few years it was running … but I digress), was a full-length Ozzy Osbourne concert, with Randy Rhodes, shot on video … he had the blue tights and the not-quite finished tattoos a-rockin’.
… I’d never seen anything quite like it. I don’t even think I’d been to an actual concert myself at the time.
(actually, I can’t remember if Rhodes played or not, but I think he did … when did he snuff it again?)
Not my favourite, I really have no love for her music at all, but I always associate that early 80’s MTV stuff with Madonna’s “Lucky Star”.
Oh, yeah!
In a similar vein (and maybe NSFW):
I think I’ll go with “Sledgehammer”.
Not really a favorite, but a video that stands out in my memory is the Genesis - Land of Confusion video with the Spitting Image puppets.
With extra bonus points for making Jon Anderson look something like a badass.
Golden Earring’s Twilight Zone was awesome. (When the Lady Smiles was better, but I think the video’s subject matter prevented it from getting much airplay).
Thriller was the video we all ran to the TV to watch whenever it came on.
As a kid who wasn’t particularly familiar with Elton John at the time, I’m Still Standing really jumped out at me, even among the other strangeness of early videos.
And Road Warrior Sting was really cool in Synchronicity II
Now I have to watch that again. I only remember seeing it once, but don’t recall anything too salacious about it (at least compared to, say, David Lee Roth’s “California Girls”.
I have now watched When the Lady Smilesagain.
It seems I was rather oblivious when I was 14.
Even though I didn’t like *Synchronicity *a tenth as much as I liked all their previous albums, I do have a soft-spot in my heart for all those goofy Police videos … expecially the one for “Synchonicity II.”
True Faith by New Order. I had heard of surrealism. That was the first time I had seen it. It came out in '87 so it is a bitter younger than most of the others mentioned, but still from the ‘golden’ age of videos.
Love is A Stranger is still one of my favorite videos. Actually there are very few videos by Annie and Dave I don’t like. And she is still sexy as hell.
When I was a wee lad of 8, my family finally got cable television, and one of the first channels I checked out was MTV. First video I ever saw was Genesis’ “That’s All.”
Some videos that hold a special place in my heart, for various reasons:
*Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself.”
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Dr Dre ft Snoop Doggy Dogg’s “Dre Day.”
Paul Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble.”
George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You.”
*George Michael’s “Freedom 90.”
- I was 15/16 when these songs came out, so my fondness for these videos should be somewhat apparent.
Concur.
You’re not the only one 
I always preferred the original music video for this song. I was flabbergasted a couple of years ago when someone pointed out that the guy in the video is a very young Alexis Denisof (of BtVS and Angel fame).
Call Me Al and Me and Julio by Paul Simon.