Good call on the spoilered video.
After first few seconds I thought “Huh, EJ driving a classic car in the south of france, actually seems like a fairly restrained video for the time…”
Then the rest is about as long as I’ve ever held my face in a wincing expression.
*Last Dance with Mary Jane *by Tom Petty- I have to say, I never thought of the videos scenario when I was listening but now that I have seen it, the song seems kinda weird and sick.
That was Skylab. Pete Conrad doing his Dave Bowman impersonation.
And that is a stupid video from the era of stupid videos. Read “I Want My MTV” for a good idea of the “thought” that went into making videos. For every “Boys of Summer” there are 10 "Rock me Tonight"s and at least one “Total Eclipse of the Heart”.
13 years later, my answer hasn’t changed: Pat Benatar’s Shadow of the Night* & Co.
- Dang, can’t fix the typo in my earlier post. 13 years is just a mere blip of time. Gotta lobby for increasing the edit window.
Shut your dirty mouth on this one. Shadows of the Night has it all: P51 Mustangs, Judge Reinhold, Bill Paxton, a daring commando raid on a Jerry chalet, and a Nazi with a ponytail.
***Total Eclipse of the Heart *** - I have no idea what’s going on in that video. Vampire kids, playing indoor football? Honourable mention to Love is a Battlefield and it’s weird dance-off battle with some gold-toothed pimp.
The literal version makes much more sense.
Krokus - Screaming in the Night. One of the worst of the theatrical apocalyptic heavy metal videos.
Aldo Nova - Fantasy. This touched every bad 80’s cool trope possible. Uzis, lasers, helicopters, sunglasses at night. But it’s the leopard-print jumpsuit and cowboy boot pairing that makes me slink away from the TV.
Nothing can ruin Everlong. Too much awesome.
Huh. I kinda liked it. 
Those ain’t no Mustangs!
Those planes were acting!
[Master Thespian Voice] Brilliant! Thank you! [/Master Thespian Voice]
If you leave this house!! You can forget about coming back!!
always remember that stupid video… lol!! i guess 'She works hard for the money" that stupid dance off in the streets of Hollywood… I concur with a point Tom Petty made recently (RIP) he said “dont come around here no more” was ruined for him… because everyone associated it with Alice and Wonderland… and he didnt … he had no intention of that… I would add any RUSH video…man… those guys were not photogenic nor charismatic… when I showed my kids they laughed and laughed
It’s literally the mad tea party. He was there. How could he possibly not expect that?
Yeah, color me confused, as well.
To this I add: Power And The Glory by Saxon. Cool song, but the video is… ugh. I can’t get over the ridiculously colored suits those guys are wearing while running around the castle. And what the hell is the lead singer wearing? Long underwear?
But the song itself has nothing to do with Lewis Carroll. It’s a straightforward song about a romantic breakup in which one partner is desperately hoping for a reunion that isn’t going to happen.
Thanks to the video, people associate the song with Alice, Something Petty never intended.
Hey, that’s one of my favoritie 80s viodeos/songs!
–kiz, longtime EJ fan
Damn, missed the edit window.
I was going to add that there was a rumor going around that Sacha Baron Cohen was one of the dancers in that EJ video but I can’t proof of it right now.
I don’t know how anyone can look at Helena Christensen in that video and not fall in love.
I believe the point is, Petty was there during the filming. If he didn’t want it associated with AiW, he could have, I dunno, not filmed it that way?
The labels had a lot of power in making videos, but Petty wasn’t some 18 year old with no experience or power. He could have changed it.