"Where The Streets Have No Name," U2

By 1987, U2 was quickly establishing itself as the biggest rock band in the world.  The Joshua Tree had risen to the top of the charts along with the album’s first two singles, “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

No surprise then that the band would want to emulate The Beatles – the biggest band in the world ever – for the album’s third single, “Where The Streets Have No Name.”

The video features the band performing the song on top of a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles.  The hype is almost as great as the song’s legendary introduction, as the video begins with radio reports estimating that 30,000 people are expected to show up for the performance.  The reality, of course, was much less – but it was enough to draw the ire of the Los Angeles Police Department. 

Indeed, much of the video focuses heavily on the tension between the police and the band’s crew and makes U2 look like a bunch of rock and roll renegades.  In actuality, the group followed police orders to shut down the video – and the recording that is heard on the video comes from the album, not the actual Los Angeles performance.

It does seem fitting, however, that the group chose a concert-like setting for the video, as “Where The Streets Has No Name” has become arguably its most popular song in concert.  Even as the band went through sound and image changes, “Where The Streets Have No Name” always remained true to the original.  Some would even say it sounds better live, as shown in the below clip from a 2001 Boston concert:

Though it’s been years since the glory days of The Joshua Tree, U2 remains the biggest touring band in the world and has the revenues to prove it.  The group will celebrate 20 years of its other landmark album – Achtung Baby – with a box set due for release later this year. 

Want more U2? Check out our throwback on “Discothèque.”

"I Want You Back," 'N Sync

I bet ‘N Sync wishes it could take back this video:

Released fifteen (!) years ago, “I Want You Back” was the American boyband’s first single and music video.  And what a video it was–the special effects are cheap, the plot unclear, and the dancing is just, well, out-of-sync.  The title harkened back to the iconic Jackson 5 hit, but fortunately for everyone involved, the similarities between the two songs stopped there.  If anything, “I Want You Back” echoed the sound and look of the Backstreet Boys, with whom ‘N Sync shared a manager, producers, and a creepy svengali named Lou Pearlman. 

Despite the video’s low production quality, “I Want You Back” was nonetheless a success in many European countries, particularly in Germany, where the group had signed its first record deal.  A couple years later, the group would return to its native country and filmed a new video for the song.  With more touring experience and a bigger budget a its disposal, ‘N Sync comes across much better in this later video:

“I Want You Back” reached number 2 on the Canadian charts and number 13 on the U.S. charts, providing just a hint of the group’s later success.  The group’s 2000 album, No Strings Attached, would become the fastest-selling album of all time, selling 2.4 million copies in the U.S. in its first week.  ‘N Sync would break up just two years later with its biggest star, Justin Timberlake, pursuing a highly successful music career and a (mildly) successful acting career. 

Click here for our throwback on Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River."  For more 90s boy bands, check out our throwbacks on Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" and Take That's "Back for Good."   

"I Want It That Way," Backstreet Boys

No matter how hard I tried, I could not escape the Backstreet Boys (BSB) as a teenager.  They were all over MTV, all over the radio, and all over the other girls’ lockers at school.  I kept predicting that, at any moment, their popularity would go away – just like so many teen idols before them. 

And then this happened:

Ah, yes. “I Want It That Way” was like a boy-band version of Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)”.  No one exactly knew what “it” or “that way” was – but it didn’t seem to matter to your sister, mother, or grandmother.  Everyone loved this song. It was more ubiquitous than all the previous BSB hits combined. 

In hindsight, it’s rather funny that the video takes place in an airport – because that’s probably the only place you'll hear the song these days.  The band performs the song in the terminal and in front of their very own plane. Then, out of nowhere, a bunch of girls scream, cry, and cheer for them as they continue singing.  (I’m sure they would’ve jumped them too had bodyguards not been present.)  Sure, these scenes have absolutely nothing to do with the song, but it accurately captures all the mania that surrounded BSB at the time.

While rival boy band N’ Sync would eventually eclipse BSB’s popularity, they still remain popular among those who grew up with them.  Now performing as a quartet, they are currently on tour with their 80s counterparts, New Kids on the Block, selling out arenas around the world.  And now that they’re not everywhere, even I can tolerate BSB’s music a lot more than I used to.  Just as long as I never have to deal with their (screaming) fans again.    


For more boy band throwbacks, check out Take That's "Back For Good" and New Kids on the Block's "Tonight."  

"Cherry Pie," Warrant

Hair metal was many things, but subtle it was not – it was sex, drugs, and pounds of makeup cranked up to 11.  The music videos were a mere tribute to the lifestyle hair metal bands were living as the then-kings of the music industry in the late 80s and (very) early 90s. 

Rewatching Warrant’s “Cherry Pie,” one of the era’s most popular anthems, is like digging up a time capsule from a long-forgotten era – one that was all about partying, looking good, and scoring with as many chicks as possible.  If you were looking for deep, philosophical lyrics, or complex chord structures, you weren’t going to find it here.

The video “Cherry Pie” was criticized for its overt sexuality and sexist tone. Even today, there’s no doubting what all the imagery surrounding the band and model Bobbie Brown is all about. The overall style recalls Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and Aerosmith’s raunchier tunes in the 1980s, a similarity that is more than just a coincidence.  Lead singer Jani Lane reportedly wrote the song at the request of Warrant’s record label, who wanted a hit single in the style of “Dude Looks Like A Lady” for their second album.  Lane wrote “Cherry Pie” in response and crafted the lyrics on a pizza box in just 15 minutes. 

Though Warrant had other hits both before and after “Cherry Pie,” the song became their most recognized tune.  Lane himself expressed a love-hate relationship with “Cherry Pie” in interviews, as it brought Warrant great commercial success but much critical disdain.

Warrant never had the chance to prove itself after "Cherry Pie," as its popularity quickly plummeted just a year later as grunge began to take over the airwaves.  The band nonetheless continued on and still performs today.  Lane would split with the band several times and left Warrant for good in 2008.   

On August 11, Lane was found dead in a hotel room in California.  He was 47 years old. 


For more hair metal, check out our throwbacks on Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again" and Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn."

"Everything Is Automatic," Matthew Good Band

In the 1990s, Canada had no shortage of alternative rock bands.  While they were not as successful as their pop contemporaries outside of Canada, they found much success at home, paving the way for artists such as Arcade Fire, Metric, and Nickelback.  (Yes, believe it or not, they were once considered an “independent” rock group.)

The Matthew Good Band (MGB), one of the most critically lauded groups of the era, hailed from British Columbia (Canada’s West Coast).  They were an anomaly in a scene dominated by Ontario-based groups – yet they managed to find commercial success with their second album, Underdogs, and its lead single, “Everything is Automatic.” 

“Everything is Automatic” perfectly encapsulates what made MGB great.  Their sound was pop-perfected punk; their lyrics were dark, political, and often very personal.  The video reflects that well – interspersing scenes of a unpolished rock band performing with billboards on the streets of Vancouver that sarcastically highlight modern life’s more shallow aspects.  Though the billboard scenes seem clichéd now, there’s no doubt that the song’s energy is still as palpable as Matt Good’s sneer.   

The band produced two more albums ­including Beautiful Midnight and The Audio of Being ­– before breaking up in 2002.  Good himself has gone on to a solo career and recently released Lights of Endangered Species, his fifth studio album of new material.  

"Inevitable," Shakira

Before she became an international pop star, Shakira was a Spanish-language rock star who melded confessional-style lyrics with arena-ready hooks.  At just 21, she released what would become her most critically acclaimed album, Dónde Están Los Ladrones?, spawning eight singles and estimated worldwide sales of ten million units.  Though it was not the album’s most popular single at the time, “Inevitable” has become the signature song of Shakira’s earlier career.

Rewatching the video now, well, it almost doesn’t look like the Shakira of today.  Clad in a modest, all-black outfit, Shakira’s look recalls Alanis Morissette in “You Learn.”  The concert crowd holds up their lighters (because people once did that, remember?) as Shakira performs in the round (or, as I see it, a toned-down version of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”).  The dancing that helped make Shakira a star is kept to a minimum.  Instead, she channels her inner headbanger, hiding her face behind brunette braids.  All the hiding contrasts with the song’s stark lyrics, detailing lost love and the resulting fallout of a breakup.  (It’s also a far cry from “Hips Don’t Lie,” her biggest selling single.)      

To capitalize on the “Latin Explosion” of the late 1990s, Shakira also recorded an English version of “Inevitable,” but it failed to find the same success as the original.  It would, however, set the stage for Shakira’s first English-language album, Laundry Service, which would mark a great sonic and visual departure from Los Ladrones. 

In support of her latest album, Shakira has performed throughout the world on The Sun Comes Out tour, which will close with a performance in Puerto Rico on October 14^th.  

"Jump," Van Halen

It’s easy to forget how much fun Van Halen once was.  They were, after all, the unofficial ambassadors of rock debauchery and excess in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

By the time of its sixth album, 1984, Van Halen was ready to cross over from hard rock to a more commercial sound that featured the much-feared synthesizer.  Though some did not like the band’s change in direction (including frontman David Lee Roth), the new sound would ultimately generate the band’s biggest sales, including its only number one hit, “Jump.”

Rewatching the video now, “Jump” still straddles the line between ridiculous and ridiculously awesome. Roth is at his prime here, wearing a series of absurd outfits that only he could get away with – all the while channeling his inner aerobics instructor. When he’s not strutting like Jagger, Roth hams it up for the camera with the rest of his bandmates, using the same antics hair metal bands would copy move-for-move later in the decade. 

What makes “Jump” classic, though, is the song itself – it’s just a great, upbeat rock song.  Even the synthesizer hook has aged well, providing the perfect foil for Eddie Van Halen’s guitar work.  Van Halen himself seems genuinely seems enthusiastic about playing the song, a feeling that was sorely lacking from the band’s later work.

Following the success of “Jump” and 1984, Roth would leave Van Halen to pursue a solo career.  Numerous lineup changes would follow over the next two decades, creating enough drama to fuel a Behind The Music marathon.  

Van Halen – with Roth back on vocals – will headline Soundwave Revolution Festival in Australia in the fall.  The group is also reportedly working on a new album, which would be the group’s first in nearly 15 years.