Sunday Night Video Flashback Pt. 56!!!

Another week…managed to get this one done at a reasonable time. hehe

Bang a Gong (Get It On) – T. Rex

“Get It On” (retitled “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” in the U.S.) was the second UK number one song for the British rock group T.Rex. It was released in 1971 from their best-known album, Electric Warrior. The retitling of the song in the U.S. was to avoid confusion with a song by the same name by the group Chase. It is arguably the group’s best-known song, and one of the songs most closely associated with the era.

Bolan claims to have written the song out of his desire to record Chuck Berry’s “Little Queenie”, and says that the riff is taken from the Berry song. In fact, a line (And meanwhile, I’m still thinking) of “Little Queenie” is said at the fade of “Get It On”.

At concerts (notably at the famous Empire Pool gig in 1972) singer Marc Bolan would rub a tambourine up and down the fretboard of his white Fender Stratocaster during the song’s climax.

In March 2005, Q magazine placed “Get It On” at number 36 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.

While it only spent four weeks at the top in the UK, starting 24 July 1971 (“Hot Love” was number one for six weeks from March to May), it was the group’s biggest hit overall, selling nearly a million copies in the UK. It peaked on the U.S. Billboard Pop Singles chart at number ten in January 1972, becoming the band’s only major U.S. hit. The song reached #12 in Canada in March 1972.

“Get It On” was covered by the Power Station in 1985. Their version was released as their second single from their debut album. The track was a hit in both the UK, reaching number 22 on the UK Singles Chart, and the U.S., where the song peaked at number nine (one place higher than the original) on the Billboard Hot 100. When Robert Palmer heard that the other Power Station members had recorded demos for “Bang a Gong”, he asked to try out vocals for it. Before long, the band had decided to record the entire album with Palmer. This single, along with “Some Like It Hot”, became the Power Stations’ signature songs.

The song was performed live on the Miami Vice episode “Whatever Works”, with Michael Des Barres on vocals, where all of the then-touring group had cameos.

Smokin’ In the Boys Room – Brownsville Station

“Smokin’ In the Boys Room” is a song originally recorded by Brownsville Station in 1973 on their album Yeah!, reaching #3 on the U.S. charts, and later covered in 1985 by Mötley Crüe, with the Crüe’s version accompanied by a conceptual music video featuring Michael Berryman as the school principal. The song was also translated to Hebrew and covered by the T-Slam.

The song was featured in the 1979 movie Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

Released as a single in 1985, “Smokin’ In the Boys Room” reached #16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and became Mötley Crüe’s first Top 40 hit.

Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas

“Kung Fu Fighting” is a song written and performed by Carl Douglas and Vivian Hawke. It was released as a single in 1974, at the cusp of a chopsocky film craze, and quickly rose to the top of British and American charts. “Kung Fu Fighting” was also number one on the soul singles chart for one week. The song also is famous for its use of the quintessential Oriental Riff, a short musical phrase that is used to signify Chinese culture.

It originally was meant to be a B-side to I Want to Give You My Everything by Brooklyn songwriter Larry Weiss, and was recorded in the last ten minutes of his studio time. This song has been featured prominently in pop culture including Mott’s Clamato advertisements.

Douglas states that his inspiration to write the song was affected by three factors: he had seen a kung fu movie, later visited a jazz concert by Oscar Peterson, and was suffering from side-effects of pain killers (Douglas had injured his foot playing football).[4] Another account gives his inspiration simply as seeing two kids in London doing kung fu moves.

Kung Fu Fighting was rated #100 in VH1’s “100 Greatest one-hit wonders, and number 1 in the UK Channel 4’s Top 10 One Hit Wonders list in 2000, the same channel’s 50 Greatest One Hit Wonders poll in 2006 and Bring Back … the one-hit Wonders, for which Carl Douglas performed the song in a live concert.

Patti Rothberg covered the song for the Beverly Hills Ninja soundtrack in 1997.

British dance act Bus Stop reached #8 on the U.K. charts with their 1998 remix single of “Kung Fu Fighting”, which sampled the original vocals by Carl Douglas and added rap verses. Iconic DJ Fatboy Slim is sometimes mistakenly credited for this remix.

The song was very popular in Jamaica, and there were several cover versions by reggae artists including Lloyd Parks, The Maroons, The Cimarons, and Pluto Shervington.

Jerry Lo (DJ Jerry, Taiwan) also produced a remake of the song .

There’s also a finnish version of this song. It’s sung by Frederik (Ilkka Sysimetsä). And its finnish name is Kung Fu Taistelee.

The song was used as the title song in the german version of the TV series Kung Fu. It has been used in several movies since 1990 where there is a light-hearted spirit to the martial arts, including Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Shaolin Soccer, Little Manhattan, Epic Movie, City of God, Beverly Hills Ninja, Sin noticias de Dios, Scrubs, Bowfinger, Kung Fu Panda, Rush Hour 3. It also has been used in trailers for the films Kung Fu Panda, Disney’s Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, & Kung Fu Hustle, and a cover by Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black is used over the end credits of Kung Fu Panda. This version has partially rewritten lyrics more in keeping with the film’s themes. This song has also been confirmed for use in the upcoming game Lego Rock Band.

The Bus Stop version has appeared in the video game Dance Dance Revolution, and the original version appeared in Dancing Stage MAX.

I’ve Been Thinking About You – London Beat

“I’ve Been Thinking about You” is a song recorded by Londonbeat. It was released as a single in the last months of 1990 in many countries.

It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 13, 1991, having hit number two in the United Kingdom the previous year. The song also topped the singles charts in Spain, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, The Netherlands and Australia.

Part of the song was sampled and prominently featured in the song “Physical” recorded by Alcazar.

Sunday Night Video Flashback Pt. 55!!!

oh wow…I had to search high and low and this is late.

I did find some and I hope it works. Keep them coming and keep me in check.

Gold – Spanadau Ballet

I couldn’t find more info than this:

“Gold” is a 1983 single by the British new wave band Spandau Ballet from their flagship third album True.

It peaked at #2 in the UK and is to date one of the band’s most famous songs. A music video was created for the single.

Where The Streets Have No name – U2

“Where the Streets Have No Name” was conceived prior to one of the Joshua Tree recording sessions by guitarist The Edge. While recording the song as a band, however, they ran into difficulty. The song’s frequent chord and time changes caused problems in playing the song correctly; the difficulty was so great that producer Brian Eno attempted to erase the track.[ Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. later said of the song, "It took so long to get that song right, it was difficult for us to make any sense of it. It only became a truly great song through playing live. On the record, musically, it's not half the song it is live."[Originally, the third single from The Joshua Tree was meant to be the song "Red Hill Mining Town", but "Where the Streets Have No Name" was released instead.}

The song is interpreted in different ways; a common interpretation of the lyrics is that it refers to the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, where a person's religion is evident by the street they live on. In a 1987 interview, Bono said of the song:

"Where the Streets Have No Name is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch - I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down. An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they’re making - literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become. You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name.

He also alluded to this in a 2000 interview, saying in response to the question of what place he was referring to in the song's lyrics, "I'm not sure, really, about that. I used to think it was Belfast, you know, 'cos in Belfast you can tell somebody's religion, you know, from what street they live on. You just have to say where you're born and everybody knows if you're a Catholic or a Protestant and... I think that might have been where "Where The Streets Have No Name" started from as an idea."He said later in the same interview that the song was about "Transcendence, elevation, whatever you want to call it."

This video was directed by Meiert Avis. The song was performed to playback on the rooftop of the Republic Liquor Store at East 7th Street and South Main Street in Los Angeles on 27 March 1987. The scenes including the police shutting the video down due to safety concerns are real. In 1988, the music video won a Grammy Award for "Best Performance Music Video". At the beginning of the video, a radio broadcast of the band's song "Bullet the Blue Sky" can be heard.

Now it's time for me to have fun..i'm sure i don't have all the details but hold on....

Kiss You Back - Digital Underground

Digital Underground was an alternative rap group from Oakland, California. They could also have been accurately defined as a "project" or "music family" rather than a group as their personnel consistently changed and rotated with each new album & tour.

The crew's leader was Greg “Shock G” Jacobs (also known as Humpty Hump), who originally formed the group in 1987 with Jimi Dright of Berkeley, California (also known as Chopmaster J), and Tampa Hip-Hop radio deejay Kenneth Waters (also known as Kenny-K)

Jacobs spent most of his youth in New York City and central Florida. Heavily influenced by the various Funk bands of the 1970s, Digital Underground sampled their music frequently, which quickly became a defining element of West Coast rap. Their ‘alternative’ status owes much to their unabashedly comical and often spaced-out image, which lay in contrast to the gangster rap that most west coast acts focused on. In the very beginning, the group's image was more militant, and was intended to be a tribute to social activists The Black Panthers, but when Public Enemy became a prominent band, Jacobs chose to take the image in a more whimsical direction; that of an updated Parliament-Funkadelic for the hip-hop audience. Jacobs designed detailed album covers and cartoon-laced liner notes, in homage to Parliament-Funkadelic album designs. Digital Underground is also notable for launching the career of member Tupac Shakur, as well as spinning off many side projects and solo acts, including Raw Fusion, Saafir, and female artist Mystic.

The group appeared "live band style" in the movie Nothing but Trouble, directed by Dan Aykroyd.

Following the release of Doowutchyalike in 1989, Digital Underground toured every single year for 20 years straight, thousands of live shows, including Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada, and a near non-stop U.S. schedule. While the group's origins lay mostly in Oakland and Berkeley, various characters & voices from around the U.S. graced the albums over the years, with Shock G, Money-B, and Humpty Hump being the only names to appear on every album. Other recurring key contributors were David Elliot (DJ Fuze), and deejay/producer Jeremy Jackson (J-Beats, formally DJ-JZ), who both assisted Jacobs in developing the sound.

After twenty years of tour dates, Shock G announced that the group would officially disband in March 2008. Shortly after that announcement was made, the group also confirmed that their May 2008 album ..Cuz A d.u. Party Don't Stop! would be their last studio effort.

"Me And My Uncle" = Joni Mitchell (Anderson)

Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter.

Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Western Canada and then busking on the streets of Toronto. In the mid-1960s she left for New York City and its rich folk music scene, recording her debut album in 1968 and achieving fame first as a songwriter ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides Now", "Woodstock") and then as a singer in her own right. Finally settling in Southern California, Mitchell played a key part in the folk rock movement then sweeping the musical landscape. Blue, her starkly personal 1971 album, is regarded as one of the strongest and most influential records of the time. Mitchell also had pop hits such as "Big Yellow Taxi", "Free Man in Paris", and "Help Me", the last two from 1974's best-selling Court and Spark.

Mitchell's soprano vocals, distinctive harmonic guitar style, and piano arrangements all grew more complex through the 1970s as she was deeply influenced by jazz, melding it with pop, folk and rock on experimental albums like 1976's Hejira. She worked closely with jazz greats including Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, and on a 1979 record released after his death, Charles Mingus.[5] From the 1980s on, Mitchell reduced her recording and touring schedule but turned again toward pop, making greater use of synthesizers and direct political protest in her lyrics, which often tackled social and environmental themes alongside romantic and emotional ones.

Mitchell’s work is highly respected both by critics and fellow musicians. Rolling Stone magazine called her “one of the greatest songwriters ever,” While Allmusic said, “When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century.” By the end of the century, Mitchell had a profound influence on artists in genres ranging from R&B to alternative rock to jazz. Mitchell is also a visual artist. She made the artwork for each of her albums, and in 2000 described herself as a “painter derailed by circumstance.” A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell had stopped recording over the last several years, focusing more attention on painting, but in 2007 she released Shine, her first album of new songs in nine years.

Sunday Night Video Flashback Pt. 54!!!

Another week!!!

Pictures of You – The Cure

“Pictures of You” is the fourth and final single from The Cure’s 1989 album Disintegration.

The single version is shorter than the album version, which is 7:24 minutes long rather than 4:48 minutes. There are also 2 different extended versions on the 2 UK 12″ singles, one of which is the ‘Strange Mix’ that later appeared on Mixed Up. The other is similar to the album version.

According to interviews, the inspiration of the song came when a fire broke loose in Robert Smith’s home. After that day, Robert was going through the remains and came across his wallet which had pictures of his wife, Mary. The cover of the single is one of the pictures. The same picture was used as the cover of the “Charlotte Sometimes” single, but this version was heavily warped and distorted.

In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #278 on the list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Pictures of You was used as theme of a HP commercial called ‘You’ in 2004.

The song was also covered by the rock band Lit on their eponymous 2004 album.

Life In One Day – Howard Jones

The third single from Howard Jones’ 1985 album Dream Into Action, “Life in One Day” was another uptempo number, which lyrically warned against wishing one’s life away. It reached number 14 in the UK Singles Chart, and number 19 on the United States Billboard Hot 100.

The 12″ version featured a pair of remixes of the lead track which were more obviously different in structure from the original than was the norm on Jones’ previous releases. Part One was a vocal mix, and Part Two a largely instrumental dub mix.

The UK B side, “Boom Bap Respite”, a piano instrumental, was not included in the US release. Instead the song was coupled with “Learning How to Love”, a song previously available the UK on the single “Look Mama”.

How Soon Is Now? – The Smiths

“How Soon Is Now?” is a song by the British alternative rock band The Smiths. Written by Smiths singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, it was originally a B-side of the 1984 single “William, It Was Really Nothing”. “How Soon Is Now?” was subsequently featured on the compilation album Hatful of Hollow and on American, Australian and Warner UK editions of the group’s second album Meat Is Murder (1985). It was belatedly released as a single in the UK in 1985, where it reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.

Sire Records chief Seymour Stein called it “the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ of the Eighties”, while co-writer Johnny Marr described it as “possibly our most enduring record. It’s most people’s favourite, I think.” Despite its prominent place in The Smiths’ repertoire, however, it is not generally considered to be representative of the band’s style. Although a club favourite, “How Soon Is Now?” did not chart as well as writers Morrissey and Marr had expected. Most commentators put this down to the fact that the song had been out on vinyl in a number of forms before being released as a single in its own right. The original track ran for nearly seven minutes; however, the 7″ single edit cut the length down to under four minutes. The complete version is generally used on compilations.

A cover of the song by Love Spit Love was used in the soundtrack for the 1996 film The Craft, and later appeared as the theme song of the television series Charmed for all eight of its seasons. It has since been voted one of the top ten television theme songs of all time.

Aldo Nova – Fantasy

“Fantasy” is a hit single by the Canadian rock musician, Aldo Nova, and is regarded as his most popular work to date. Released on his eponymous debut album in 1982, the song climbed to #3 on the Mainstream rock chart, and #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The song was featured in a flashback sequence in the final episode of the popular television series, Rob & Big. A cover version of the song, performed by Steel Panther, is the current theme song for the MTV show Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory.

Aldo Nova (born Aldo Caporuscio on November 13, 1956, in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian guitarist, keyboardist, vocalist and producer, Nova gained fame with his self-titled debut album Aldo Nova in 1981, and its accompanying single “Fantasy”, which climbed to #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Signing with Portrait Records, Nova released a self-produced album, Aldo Nova, in 1981. It had two singles: “Fantasy” and “Foolin’ Yourself”. “Fantasy” made him what some would call a one hit wonder. His next album, Subject…Aldo Nova had a minor hit with “Monkey on Your Back,” but his solo career flagged and he became a player and songwriter for other bands. He worked with Jon Bon Jovi in both the early and late 1980s and produced some early Céline Dion albums. Nova co-wrote the hit song “A New Day Has Come” (among others) for Dion and has been featured playing guitar, synthesizer, and percussion on her records. He helped write and produce parts of Chantal Condor’s 1989 album, Chantal. In 1991, Nova sought the help of Bon Jovi to revive his solo career on his release Blood on the Bricks, but it still only managed to chart at number 124.

As a songwriter, Nova’s recent hits include Clay Aiken’s “This is the Night” (co-written with Chris Braide and Gary Burr), which in the US was a number one hit and the best selling single of 2003.

Sunday Night Video Flashback Pt. 53!!!

Starting off this week with two requests from Twitter user @iMacMe.

Ask and you shall receive!!!

Being Boring – Pet Shop Boys

“Being Boring” is a single by the British pop group Pet Shop Boys.

As the second single from the 1990 album Behaviour, after “So Hard” which was released before the album, “Being Boring” was not particularly successful upon release, only reaching number twenty in the UK singles chart and being the first single released by the group not to get into the Top 10 since “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)” four years previously.

The song is concerned with the idea of growing up and how people’s perceptions and values change as they grow older. The title apparently materialised after someone in Japan accused the duo of being boring. The title is also derived from a Zelda Fitzgerald quotation, “she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring”.

The track was originally pieced together in a studio in West Glasgow, where the music for “My October Symphony,” “The End Of The World” and the unreleased “Love And War” were also done.

In spite of the track’s moderate commercial success, “Being Boring” has been a regularly-played song at concerts and is widely considered amongst the greatest, most beautiful Pet Shop Boys songs by fans. Ironically, due to various factors (including it being hard to sing), initially it wasn’t performed on 1991’s Performance Tour; this led to many fans, including Axl Rose, complaining of its omission. It was however added as an encore late in the tour with the band commenting that it “invariably got the best reception of the night”

The video, the first by fashion-photographer Bruce Weber, totally in black and white, shows a house party and begins with a nude swimmer and a message: “I came from Newcastle in the North of England. We used to have lots of parties where everyone got dressed up and on one party invitation was the quote ’she was never bored because she was never boring’. The song is about growing up – the ideals that you have when you’re young and how they turn out”.

Australian singer Merril Bainbridge included a cover of the song on her 1995 debut album The Garden.
Swedish Pet Shop Boys tribute synthpop duo West End Girls recorded a cover for their 2006 album Goes Petshopping.

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel

“Sledgehammer” is a hit song by Peter Gabriel from his 1986 album So. It peaked at number one in Canada for four weeks on 21 July 1986, number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States on 26 July 1986, and number four in the UK singles chart, thanks in part to a popular and influential music video. It was his biggest hit in North America and ties with “Games Without Frontiers” as his biggest hit in the United Kingdom.

The song was influenced by 1960s soul music, as evident by the use of horns and a general Stax sound. The distinctive Horn section was provided by the Memphis Horns, the house musicians for Stax records. The song also features a synthesized shakuhachi flute.

The lyrics include references such as a steam train, bumper cars, a Big Dipper (roller coaster) and a fruit cage. It also includes references to the reproduction of plants, mentioning pollination, fruit and bees.

“Sledgehammer” was Peter Gabriel’s first and, to this date, only number-one hit in the United States. It replaced “Invisible Touch” by his former band Genesis, which had its only number-one U.S. hit the previous week. “Sledgehammer” also achieved chart success on other Billboard charts in 1986, spanning the range between Album Rock Tracks (two weeks at the summit in May and June) and Hot Dance Club Play (one week atop this chart in July). (Original Length: 5:09) The single release also included a previously unreleased track called “Don’t Break This Rhythm” and an “‘85 Remix” of his 1982 single “I Have the Touch.” U.S. versions of the single contained an extended dance remix of “Sledgehammer.” It was among the first singles released on compact disc.

The TV series Sledge Hammer! was also popular when the song was released, although the two are not related.

In 1991, rappers 3rd Bass borrowed the Tony Levin bass line from the song for their hit “Pop Goes the Weasel.” The 1993 Naughty By Nature song “Hip Hop Hooray” also samples the shakuhachi intro. In 2000, the song was sampled for “I’ve Got to Have It” by Jermaine Dupri, Monica and Nas, which appeared on the soundtrack for the motion picture Big Momma’s House. The instrumental of such song is used by independent wrestler Claudio Castagnoli as an entrance theme.

In 1993, the song appeared on a British television commercial for the Vauxhall Cavalier, followed by the guitar riff from Eric Clapton’s “Layla.”

In 2007, Finnish Symphonic Epic Metal Northern Kings featuring Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto from Charon covered the song on their album Reborn.

In 2008, R&B singer Maiysha did a sensual rendition of “Sledgehammer” for her album “This Much Is True”

Dave Matthews Band began covering this song during the 2008 tour.

“Sledgehammer” spawned a widely popular and influential music video directed by Stephen R. Johnson. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation, and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. The video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them: Gabriel’s daughters Anna and Melanie, the animators themselves, and director Stephen Johnson’s girlfriend. Also included were six women who posed as the back-up singers of the song. Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time.

In 1987, it won nine MTV Video Music Awards, a record which still stands as of 2008. It ranked at number four on MTV’s 100 Greatest Music Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that “Sledgehammer” is the most played music video in the history of the station. “Sledgehammer” has also been declared to be MTV’s number one animated video of all time.

The video was also voted number seven on TMF’s Ultimate 50 Videos You Must See – first aired 24 June 2006. It ranked at number 2 on VH1’s “Top 20 Videos of the 80’s” as well as being named the #1 “Amazing Moment in Music” on the Australian TV show 20 to 1 in 2007.

The portion of the song featuring the synthesized flute solo was realized in the video by first one and then two oven-ready chickens, headless and featherless, animated using stop-motion. These were animated by Nick Park (of Wallace and Gromit fame) who, at that time was refining his work in plasticine animation.

The video won Best British Video at the 1987 Brit Awards.

Conga – Miami Sound Machine

“Conga” is the first single released by the American band Miami Sound Machine led by Gloria Estefan on their second English language album, and ninth overall, Primitive Love.

The single was released worldwide in 1985 (see 1985 in music) and became a smash success around the world, providing the band worldwide mainstream popularity, reaching #10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and winning the Grand Prize at the 15th annual “Tokyo Music Festival” in Japan.

The single was certified Gold by the RIAA in the U.S. for sales of 500,000 copies..

“Conga” was re-recorded and mashed-up with “Dr. Beat” in a new re-mix in 2001, which was released on Estefan’s third compilation album. This new song was released as a promo single in Spain and titled “Y-Tu-Conga”.

“Conga” became a worldwide success and is recognized as the signature song of the band and Gloria Estefan. The song reached the Top Ten in various countries, including the United States and the Netherlands. The song was a minor hit in the United Kingdom, while the attention was based more on the single “Bad Boy”. In Billboard magazine’s year-end chart in 1986, “Conga” finished at #40.

Living In America – James Brown

“Living in America” is a 1985 song performed by James Brown. It was prominently featured in the film Rocky IV. In the film, Brown sings the song before Apollo Creed enters the boxing ring, in reference to the character’s patriotism.

“Living in America” was released as a single in 1985 and reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also became a top five hit for Brown in the United Kingdom, peaking at number five on the UK Singles Chart; this was his only top 10 single in the UK. It appeared on the Rocky IV soundtrack album. The full version of the song (nearly six minutes long) was also included on Brown’s 1986 album, Gravity, and on various compilations throughout the 1990s.

In 1986, “Living in America” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, and James Brown won a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

“Weird Al” Yankovic parodied “Living in America” on his 1986 album Polka Party! in a song entitled “Living with a Hernia”, describing various kinds of hernias where Brown originally listed several American cities.

Paul Shanklin also parodied “Living in America” on his 1999 album “Bill Clinton: The Comeback Kid Tour” in a song entitled “Sneaking in America”, as a reference to illegal immigration to America.

The song was also parodied in TV advertisements for the TV series Daisy Does America, substituting the show’s title for the song’s.