Keep your hands to yourself, prevert!
The Nest is throwing out all the rules and regulations when it comes to our Monday Muzak playlist, and we’re queuing up whatever the hell we wanna listen to! And we’re doing it countdown style right through next April! It’s time for the next entry in my Top 30 Songs We Just Feel Like Playing countdown! The Countdown of Whatever is back in the 80’s this week, with a kickass song about a time when bad girls liked bad boys…
#24. “Naughty Naughty” – John Parr
In an age of a thousand generic solo musicians who managed to stumble across a golden hit or two that sealed their legacy, British rocker John Parr is really only remembered for two things. The first and foremost is for writing and performing the theme song to the 1985 movie St. Elmo’s Fire…. a song which only really references the movie in its title. Parr’s actual inspiration for the song was Canadian athlete Rick Hansen, who was wheelchair bound and campaigning to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries. Hansen’s “Man in Motion Tour” is why that phrase is mentioned in the song, and is even its subtitle. Parr didn’t give a shit less about a bunch of overgrown celebrity brats when he wrote that iconic song…
Dude, did this guy, like, say something?
“St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” reached #1, and still gets a sickening amount of airplay on the radio almost 35 years later. I don’t care for it, and I hate that song even more because it’s completely overshadowed Parr’s magnum opus that he released a year earlier. In 1984, Parr first made a name for himself by telling us what it was like to be “Naughty Naughty”…
I don’t normally post the music videos for songs that contain a lot of other sounds being overdubbed over the music, but I made an exception for “Naughty” because I’ve always loved this video! The song only hit #23 on the Hot 100 charts, but it was a Mainstream Rock #1 and rode heavy MTV airplay to become a well known hit. That first screeching tire sound in the video right after the song starts was dubbed in. But the four squeals after the bridge… yep, those are in the actual song and only make a great tune even better!
Now would not be a good time to burn some rubber…
Parr’s grayish undertones make him look the part of creepy old man in this video, even though he was just 32 at the time (Today is Parr’s 67th birthday!). And no, that isn’t Pat Benatar getting pawed at by Old Man Parr at the beginning of the video. That’s Lisa Rinna, who later went on to fame in Melrose Place and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. We’ll assume she did so without the totally 80’s Benatar hair…
Don’t hate on the radical hair, dweeb!
The Countdown of Whatever will live up to its name next week, as the next song isn’t just older than me…. it’s older than my parents!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
love it… I anyway like john parr.. but omg this hairstyle… what have we done to our hair ‘ma? …oh wait different song, different time ;O)
The 60’s taught us to grow our hair long. The 80’s taught us to make our hair as big as possible. The 2000’s taught us just how stoned we were in the 60’s and 80’s…
That’s a fun video and gosh that song was played and played and played some more. I didn’t mind………always liked it. Hadn’t seen the video before though so thanks for that!
Pam
The video’s great! I just don’t understand what all those girls see in John Parr, though…. he looks icky. Snuggle Bear icky!
I don’t remember ever hearing that song. I think I would have liked it better without the video. I agree with your above comment – John Parr looks kind of icky! And you can tell by the sneer in a few scenes that he thinks he’s quite the opposite.
Just imagine if John Parr had Kip Winger’s ultra bright teeth flashing through that sneer? It might be the creepiest video ever…
This video always makes me think that John Parr was thinking he’s a Las Vegas lounge singer. lol
Well, he certainly seems to think he’s Elvis! Or at least has duped all those girls into thinking he is…
Yup, Vegas lounge singer seems about right.
LOL!
Ohhhh I can smell the chemicals from the perms. This was fun.
The 80’s lingers on…… and on…….. and on……
That’s 80s hair and no mistake… oh, the song? Yep, not bad.
If this were a fashion countdown, this song might not have made it….
Is it just me or does John Parr look like a close relative of Jay Leno? Haven’t heard this song in YEARS! Fun. Mona
I’ve heard this song before. I thought he sounded a bit like Robert Palmer crossed with Huey Louis.
I liked the cars in the video, though.
Ironic, most guys never notice her hair, it’s the lips they only see. Great rockin’ tune!