Posted on 10/27/2020 3:14:57 PM PDT by simpson96
Michael Sembello - "Maniac" (1983)
Maniac · Michael Sembello
Flashdance
Released on: 1983-04-11
Producer: Phil Ramone Producer, Associated Performer, Guitar, Synth Bass: Michael Sembello Composer Lyricist: Dennis Joseph Matkosky Composer Lyricist: Michael Sembello
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
*music ping*
One of the most overplayed songs on the radio in 1983. I get it... she’s a maniac. Scores high on both axes in the HOT/CRAZY index.
Why is she flushing a toilet onto herself?
I love the 1980’s for movies. Flashdance is a guilty pleasure, and Footloose is a regular in our Bluray player around here.
I probably saw that movie at least 10 times that summer.
You might ask why but this was 29 Palms in the middle of summer. It got up to 120 degrees outside on a regular basis. The barracks had these inefficient "swamp coolers" that maybe got the temperature down to 85-90 degrees inside. Our only real escape was the movie theater and the E-club.
So whatever was playing at the theater, we went and saw it. Then we'd hit the E-Club after and drink $2 pitchers of watered down 3.2 beer. There was also a swimming pool outside the theater that we made good use of - once the sun went down.
Anyway, those were my memories of this song and of "Flashdance" and Jennifer Beals in general, who was quite a hot young woman at the time. She was in great shape too.
Not too much that could be improved about her, that's for sure.
This song takes me back to my tenth grade summer, and it was a great one. I was (and still am, although woefully out of shape) a pretty shredding little guitarist back then (a rarity for a girl back then.) I LOVED the solo in this. SO much great music back then.
A dancer named Marine Jahan did all the dancing. She went totally uncredited, which is the story I read in a “Shape” magazine in the mid 80’s.
Possibly the worst movie I ever saw. It was a free show my freshman year in college, and I went because my roommates were going. That was a couple of hours I could have better spent staring at my dorm-room ceiling.
Great song! Great decade!!
A true ‘80s staple. I particularly like the synthesized riff of “crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy”...
Beals was dedicated enough that she actually learned how to weld for her role. She described later how she kept getting into arguments with the director about the lack of (literal) sparks in her welding scenes, trying to explain “that’s not how it’s done”.
Jennifer Beals was in the last episode of the popular “Frasier” series. Not until the show ended did I realize she had been prominently seen, unrecognizable from the movie itself. Flash Dance over Foot Loose and Saturday Night Fever, even though Flash Dance male lead was somewhat insipid.
Thanks! Simpson 96.
“...and Footloose is a regular...”
Agreed. Still like that movie.
John Lithgow’s role as the church pastor was really good.
More recently, The Internship with Vince Vaughn
Marine Jahan does the strip tease scenes, but I’m pretty sure the finale is performed by a man.
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