Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles

On Facebook last week a friend of mine asked the question “what is your first musical memory?”. I immediately flashed back to being a child and dancing around my grandmother’s kitchen to Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles.

Obviously there are other musical memories from my childhood given the fact that my father and step-father are musicians and I spent a lot of my childhood on the road, in recording studios, and sitting on the side of the stage while my Dad did a gig. However I think VKTRS is the first song I loved wholeheartedly, the first song that was mine! I would hide inside the kitchen cupboards for the beginning of the song and then when the girl’s vocal came in I would burst out of the cupboard, pretend microphone in hand, and sing along. I had a sense of showmanship, even at four years old, no doubt inherited from my Dad!

I think the song still stands up as a great pop song and it has a special place in history as it was the first video to be played on MTV when it launched in 1981. I’m so very glad I have never heard a house remix of this song – it doesn’t need it! It’s perfect as as it is. Check out the cheesy yet somehow timeless video below.