Holy Saxophone!

Ever sit and contemplate the importance of the saxophone in 80's pop music? Well guess what, I have! I consider myself to be pretty well rounded in my knowledge of different musical genres, and one of my favorites is music from the 1980's. Why the 80's? It's the catchy pop tunes, the awkward neon fashions, the heavy synth sounds, the Aqua Net-ravaged hairstyles...and of course, the saxophone! You simply can't get through many 80's hits without a saxophone solo ostentatiously tugging at your heartstrings! I remember even as a kid, listening to my sister's tapes, I knew all the words to every song AND the melifluous sax riffs. I used to think it was sort of weird how songs would just stop to entertain the sax for awhile, but as I grew older I learned to appreciate the sax as a symbol of good old fashioned 80's melodrama. Here are a few songs that I most remember featuring a prominent sax solo. Enjoy.

True, Spandau Ballet: 35 seconds of gloriously embellished elevator music. Though I knew this song before the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer came out, I still associate it with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore's happy ending. I knoooooow this! muuuuuuch is! TRUE!


Careless Whisper, Wham!: The definitive sax intro. A desperate, penitent sax opens the first 30 seconds of the tune, and returns for a second round mid-way through. You have to wonder if the lyrics complimentthe sax, instead of the sax complimenting the lyrics...


Maneater, Hall and Oates: The sultry sax in this tune just teases us for about 20 seconds in the beginning, but doesn't disappoint when it returns for a 40 second solo. It continues to weave between the singers' voices for the remainder of the song.


Hands to Heaven, Breathe: Ok, this song was on one of my many mixed tapes from middle school. Yeah yeah, I know I went to middle school in the late 90's, but a good song's a good song no matter what decade you're in! Now this sax solo gently eases its way in and then just renders you helpless, getting you lost in its moving, over-the-top glory! The last full minute of the song is pure saxophone, baby! Sappy sax at its finest!

Never Tear Us Apart, INXS: Um, one of the greatest ballads of the 80's! A string quartet, Michael Hutchence wandering around in Prague, lines like "we all have wings but some of us don't know why", and a moody 15 sec. sax solo....what more could you ASK for??!

Rio, Duran Duran: This song is pretty awesome all on its own. In fact, the sax doesn't make its appearance until about 3 minutes into the song, but for the next 40 seconds it makes itself pretty well known! This is raunchy, gritty sax here.

Urgent, Foreigner: I had this obsession with Foreigner when I was about 12 years old. While this one's not really one of my favs, the 40-some-odd seconds of grunting, wailing sax makes the song pretty happenin'! I need me some more sax! Urgently!

And last but not least, I will leave you with some shamelessly in-your-face saxophone courtesy of Tim Capello, iconic pop saxophonist. The following link is a clip from the movie The Lost Boys. The scene: sweaty buff guy in chains playing the sax. Classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIU52Yeogdk