Please leave all your musical taste at the door before entering this article.
Okay, it’s gone? Good, let’s get started.
Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight” is just about the perfect encapsulation of how awesome 80s pop music was. Better than either Rick, Sirs Astley, and Springfield, this song has all the right parts in all the right places. Amazing guest vocal? Check. Bitchin’ sax solo? Check. Great vocal hook? It has two. The guest is Ronnie Spector, singing her hook from “Be My Baby.” Sure, it’s kind of gimmicky, but you have to admire the way she is able to sing the same hook, in the same way, and make it sound different in spite of that.
The video is basically Patton Oswalt’s bit about 80s music videos come to life — I’ll provide a dramatic retelling if I may:
Money is on the stage alone, with just an inexplicably placed ladder for company. Meanwhile Spector is in a completely random different place. They’re never on screen at the same time. She’s always apart from him, always unattainable. The final piece is the sax, just sitting there on stage. It’s a monument to Eddie’s powers, but when will we hear it’s sweet song? You know he’s going to use it, but when dammit! The tension is indescribable; your whole reality would be shattered if you weren’t rewarded with that brass catharsis. Finally, at just the right moment, Eddie grabs it and lets loose, blaring his way into the dreams and nightmares of children everywhere. The solo is so profound that finally Ronnie Spector appears and dances her way to him. All is now right in the world. The balance has been restored.
So check the video out, we won’t judge you.
Eddie Money, TMT approved.
