"Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles - February 13th 80's Quest Song/Band of the Day

A fun song, by a short lived futuristic/technological sounding band, The Buggles.  The song is most famous for being the very first video to be shown on MTV in the United States on August 1, 1981.  The Buggles are Trevor Horn (vocals, bass guitar, guitar) and Geoff Downes (keyboards, drums and percussion) and Bruce Woolley.

Horn and Downes met in the 1970's when they were both playing in the backing band for English singer Tina Charles.  Later Horn was playing bass in the house band for the Hammersmith Odeon (a concert venue in London) and met Bruce Woolley.  Horn longed to be a record producer but couldn't find the ideal band to work with, so he Downes and Woolley began writing their own music.

"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first result of their efforts.  Tina Charles funded the project and sang on the demo of the song.  They submitted it to Island Records in 1979 and were signed immediately.  The song became a #1 single in 16 countries.

Beyond "Video Killed the Radio Star", The Buggles did not have a whole album's worth of songs, so they wrote the other songs on their 1980 album The Age of Plastic while they were travelling around Europe promoting "Video Killed the Radio Star".  The band itself did not tour, although they did make some appearances on English music television program Top of the Pops.  They are considered to be largely a studio band.

Later that year Horn and Downes began working on their second album.  They were in the studio next door to the band, Yes.  Horn was a big fan.  Yes had just lost vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman, so bassist Chris Squire invited Horn and Downes to join Yes.  They accepted and recorded the 1980 Yes album Drama.  The record, and the new line-up of Yes were well received, but Yes temporarily disbanded in 1981 shortly after the Drama tour ended. 

Horn and Downes went back to work on The Buggles second album, Adventures in Modern Recording, again.  During the recording, Downes left the band due to musical differences and joined the super group Asia (with Steve Howe of Yes, John Wetton of King Crimson, and Carl Palmer of Emerson Lake and Palmer - - see the 80's Quest post for January 13th for more on Asia).  Horn completed the album with other songwriters and musicians, and it was released in 1981.  Five singles were released, but they did not fare as well on the charts as their original hit.

Next Horn concentrated his efforts on music production and achieved a lot of success doing the production work for bands such as ABC (see Jan. 1 80's Quest post), Frankie Goes to Hollywood (see 80's Quest April 21 post), The Art of Noise (see 80's Quest January 12th post), Seal, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Cher, Simple Minds (see 80's Quest post), Belle and Sebastian, t.A.T.u,Charlotte Church, and The Pet Shop Boys (see 80's Quest post).

In 2004 The Buggles reunited and performed "Video Killed the Radio Star"  and "Living in the Plastic Age" at Wembly Arena in England as part of a Prince's Trust charity honoring Horn's work as a producer.  Horn, Downes and Woolley also reunited for a 2010 event that became known as "The Lost Gig" at the Ladbroke Grove's Supperclub in London at a fund raiser for the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability.

In 2011 Horn produced Yes's Fly From Here album which contains a bevy of Buggles material from the 80's.  Horn insisted that Downes play the keyboards on this particular album, and Horn sang backing vocals.


Lyrics:

I heard you on the wireless back in Fifty Two
Lying awake intent at tuning in on you.
If I was young it didn't stop you coming through.
Oh-a oh

They took the credit for your second symphony.
Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now I understand the problems you can see.

Oh-a oh
I met your children
Oh-a oh
What did you tell them?

Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
Pictures came and broke your heart.

Oh-a-a-a oh

And now we meet in an abandoned studio.
We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.
And you remember the jingles used to go.

Oh-a oh
You were the first one.
Oh-a oh
You were the last one.

Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far
Oh-a-aho oh,
Oh-a-aho oh

Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.

In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone to far.
Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on VTR.

You are a radio star.
You are a radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.
Video killed the radio star.