Ever since the dawn of MTV and Friday Night Videos, the music video has significantly impacted musical tastes and pop culture. It might not be as extreme as when the Buggles declared that "Video Killed the Radio Star", but there is no arguing that the music video certainly could make or break a song's popularity. So this regular Flashback Video feature will serve to remember some of the music videos from the great '80s decade that made an impact on me in one way or another.
This issue we will cover "Separate Lives" by Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin. “Separate Lives” was part of the soundtrack for the 1985 film White Nights and was actually written by Stephen Bishop. He wrote the song about his breakup with actress Karen Allen who he met when they were both in Animal House (1978). The duet is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time and became a worldwide success. "Separate Lives" was released in September of 1985 a couple months before the movie and went on to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November of that year. It also received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song losing that award to Lionel Richie’s “Say You, Say Me” from the same film.
The music video for "Separate Livess" was directed by Jim Yukich who was prolific music video director in the '80s. His work includes Kenny Rogers/Sheena Easton "We Got Tonight", David Bowie "Modern Love", Bruce Willis "Respect Yourself", Cheap Trick "The Flame", Eric Carmen "Make Me Lose Control", REO Speedwagon "Here With Me", Miami Sound Machine "1-2-3", Debbie Gibson "Lost In Your Eyes", Michael Jackson "Liberian Girl", Richard Marx "Right Here Waiting", Gloria Estefan "Don't Wanna Lose You" and many more. In addition to "Easy Lover", Yukich directed most of the Genesis and Phil Collins videos from the decade including "That's All", "Easy Lover", "One More Night", "Sussudio", "Don't Lose My Number", "Invisible Touch", "In Too Deep", "Throwing It All Away", "Land of Confusion", "Take Me Home", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", "A Groovy Kind of Love", "Two Hearts" and "Another Day in Paradise". He went on to direct and/or produce over 500 Music Videos, Concerts, Comedy Specials, Commercials, TV shows and even a couple films. He has won 3 ACE Awards, has been nominated for 15 MTV Awards and won 2 of the 5 Grammy Awards he has been nominated for.
For the video for "Separate Lives", Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin sing their duet in a studio while Collins plays the piano. Clips from White Nights starring Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov were shown throughout. The video was edited to make it appear that Collins and Martin were in the same building as the movie's stars, but in a separate studio. Here is the music video for "Separate Lives" by Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin...
I had the pleasure of an interview with Marilyn Martin and here is what she said when I asked her about working with Phil Collins:
Phil is perfection! I was around him for a long period of time when we filmed the video and he was very kind and extremely focused. When I began work on my album he sent a cassette of some songs that he thought I might like to record… so thoughtful!
Click on that link to read more from my interview with Marilyn Martin.
Hope you enjoyed another trip back to the '80s thanks to Flashback Video!
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