Significant Songs (208)

~ beetleypete

Hey Mickey

There is nothing at all musically significant about this song. But when it was released by Toni Basil in 1981, it became part of the ‘pop video’ craze, started by MTV.

In England, we didn’t have cheerleaders, and hardly anyone had heard of the choreographer who had decided to release her own record. As well as that, she was 38 years old, rather late to make an entry into the mainstream music market at that time.

But it was a massive hit all over the world, including the UK, where it reached number two in 1982. The song was written by Chapman and Chinn, Australian and British songwriters known for coming up with massive chart hits. Toni’s version was a cover of an original 1979 release under the title ‘Hey Kitty’. She changed the name to ‘Mickey’, and choreographed a dance accompaniment that included ‘normal’ women backing her, unlike the usual sex kittens that featured in most pop videos then.

The result was a forgettable pop song that turned out to be unforgettable, because of the accompanying video.

It was played to death on every radio station, and featured heavily on TV music shows.

Toni jumped on the video bandwagon, and brainwashed us all into the bargain.

Here is the official release of that video.

28 thoughts on “Significant Songs (208)”

  4. You surprised me with this post, Pete. I remember this song well, and it rode the MTV wave in the United States. I don’t know if Toni Basil is a one-hit-wonder or not, although I can’t name one other song of hers.

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    1. I like to surprise people when I can, Pete. 🙂 As far as the UK was concerned, this was a one-hit-wonder. She did release other records here, but they made no impact.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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