Hopefully this week’s earworm doesn’t blind you…
It’s time to put away all of those hideous green clothes you wouldn’t wear any other time of the year, and properly dispose of all of that sickly looking green beer. But don’t worry, you’ve still got the luck of a leprechaun as today is Monday, and that’s the day The Nest searches for that lost pot of gold at the end of that neon rainbow of yesterday’s music we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy staggered into work this morning with a hangover and half of her mane still green, while the Sponkies are busy pinching each other because they need another shot of Ritalin. Speaking of which…..
Let’s play a little word association game. When I say “Thomas Dolby,” what’s the first thing that comes into your mind?
Correct! Any other answer is wrong…
Dolby is a one hit wonder who, at least in the US, can actually truthfully lay claim to that title of ignominy. His 1982 hit “She Blinded Me With Science” is still played on variety and “oldies” stations to this day… and of course, that familiar exclamation that is made often in the song by Magnus Pyke, which he was never able to live down. I guess there’s worse things in life to be associated with than the guy who goes around randomly yelling “SCIENCE!”
Hey, it’s Randy the Dandruff Sufferer!
Everyone knows “She Blinded Me With Science”…. but unless you grew up in the MTV era, and in particular watched the channel a lot in 1984 like I did, you may not be aware that Dolby actually had another semi-hit…. or even wrote another song for that matter. And while this one isn’t quite as catchy as “Science,” the song and most certainly the video for it are just as if not even more weird…
Believe it or not, I actually knew “Hyperactive” before I’d ever heard of “Science” because it was getting a lot of airplay on MTV when my family first got cable in 1984 and I watched the hell out of videos. The song only hit #64 in the US and was forgotten about as soon as it slipped from MTV’s rotation…
My Dad always told me (And I don’t know now if he really believed it himself or was just being funny) that Thomas Dolby was the genius behind that Dolby Sound credit you always saw at the end of movies. Dolby’s real name is actually Thomas Robertson, and he use Dolby as his stage name because his constant tinkering with sound equipment earned him the nickname. While the founder of Dolby labs actually does have a son named Thomas, Thomas the singer has nothing at all to do with the company. Once Dolby became famous, the corporate Dolby sued to try and get the science Dolby to drop the made up surname. That lawsuit was not successful…
Not quite as catchy as “Science!” but still fun to randomly shout.
Come back next Monday for another lost hit presented in crystal clear Dolby Digital Surround Sound…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
your dad was right… it was the furst thing I had in my mind as I read your post ;O)
It was a long time before I found out Thomas Dolby wasn’t THAT Dolby…
Ditto here……Dolby means sound to me so if your Dad was kidding, a whole lot of us were “kidded” as well. Not familiar with Hyperactive but certainly remember Science….still hear that often on the oldies radio.
Pam
I don’t even really like that song, but the yelling “Science!” part is definitely catchy…
Yup, I remember this one, the ear worm that refused to go away easily or quickly. Come to think of it, so was Science. I’m gonna have to plug into my music library to find more palatable ear worms. I’m thinking maybe Killer Queen would be a good place to start. Or Radio Gaga. Just thinking out loud here. Happy Monday.
Radio Gaga is another video from the time I first got MTV… and is the first Queen song I ever knew. I wouldn’t find out until Freddie Mercury died in the 90’s that they had a whole slew of songs from the 70’s I didn’t know about…
Exactly! The powers to be in the US market weren’t particularly kind to Queen and I too missed out on some incredible music which luckily, can be rectified now. 🎸Their catalog has loads of stuff I love but rarely heard played. Instead we got Journey and other big hair groups. We was robbed!
Huh? This one is new to me, which doesn’t mean that I like it, just that I’ve never heard it before. It’s… unique…
You literally had to be there for this one… in 1984 and watching MTV. This song didn’t have quite the shelf life that Blinded Me With Science did…
Hyperactive sounds vaguely familiar… the old file cabinet drawers in my brain are kind of rusty this morning so I can’t quite say. That aside, this was hecka fun. It made me think of my childhood – you know, the hyperactive part. I think everyone was hyperactive back then except one girl named Debbie who was always perfect. Thanks to massive amounts of plastic surgery she is still perfect. I love the 80’s videos. So everybody dance. I’m off to blind someone with science.
Ah, the days when a kid could be a kid and nobody thought anything was wrong with them for it. I can’t imagine all of the medications and diagnoses my odd behavior would have gotten me labeled with had I been born a decade later…
I’ve thought the same thing about myself.
I have to admit I watched endless MTV and miss music videos. Not that one in particular… but still.
😉
I remember liking this goofy thing as a kid. I still like the video, though the song itself really isn’t as good as I’d remembered it…
Nope. Totally passed me by. I was away, far away on another continent …
I think this video came from far away on another planet…
No, I can’t listen to any more of that. How did he never make it big? That question now answered. I think I must have made it through the 80s by listening to 70s music.
That’s funny, because that’s how I made it through the 90’s. I couldn’t stand most 90’s music at the time, but we had a great 70’s radio station and I learned about a whole decade in music I’d missed before…