Dead or Alive's 1985 music video was a melodramatic love letter to hairspray, ribbons, fans and silk ... everything!
The '80s were a weird time in pop culture and nowhere was it more weird than in the heyday of MTV when music videos ruled the airwaves. And yet, Paul Rudd and Jimmy Fallon managed to make it look even more ridiculous.
The "Avengers: Endgame" star joined forces with "The Tonight Show" host for a painstaking shot-for-shot remake of Dead or Alive's music video for "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)." Most music fans today are familiar with the song and probably bop along to its synthesized rhythms.
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View StoryIt's a catchy song and one might even argue an '80s classic. But how many people have actually gone back and watched the music video that accompanied it. With enough hairspray to withstand a Category 5 hurricane and oversized silk suits galore, it is a pastiche of excess and melodrama.
That it's nothing more than the band-members standing around and singing the song directly into the camera is a testament to the power of its ridiculousness. It's a ridiculousness that Rudd and Fallon captured perfectly with their earnest performances.
Every bizarre hand gesture and eye roll was recreated to sheer perfection. The only time the homage fell short was when multiple members of Dead or Alive were on-screen at the same time. The band had four members while Fallon and Rudd were only two men.
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View StoryWhere's Higgins and Questlove when you need them? Tariq? Fallon has enough supporting players to have fleshed this out and really made it a flawless love letter to one of the '80s most ridiculous videos.
Or was it? In all honesty, "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" was more representative of its era than it might seem from a 2019 lens. This was the early days of music videos so they didn't hold the budget of modern epics. But what they lacked in CGI effects and storytelling they more than made up for in fans and ribbons.
Check out the original video below and see if you can spot the (very few) subtle differences:
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