"Never" by Moving Pictures

Hailing from down under, Moving Pictures is known as a one-hit wonder in the US thanks to their ballad, "What About Me." The song charted twice, reaching #29 in 1982 and #46 in 1989.

You may recognize "Never" as the song Kevin Bacon danced to in the barn in the hit movie Footloose. It was also used in a 2007 movie called Hot Rod. This excellent slice of AOR should have seen some chart action. After they broke up, guitarist Garry Frost went on to form another terrific yet underrated band called 1927.

1927 “…ish”

A number of Aussie bands from “down under” managed to hit it big in the US in the 80s, such as INXS and Men At Work. 1927 is another Australian band that deserved better than to have their sublime single “That’s When I Think Of You” just barely scratch the Billboard Top 100 (peaking at #100).

The debut album from the band 1927 entitled, "...ish".

This entire record is filled with fantastic 80s melodic pop with exceptional lyrics, but I’ll highlight just two tracks I consider to be among the best: 1) “You’ll Never Know” and 2) “Propaganda Machine”, arguably the catchiest song ever written about politics!

If you long for the days of synth-driven pop rock the likes of Icehouse, Toto, and A-ha, do yourself a favor and track down “…ish” from 1927. Their follow-up record, “The Other Side” is also good, but not as masterful as their debut.

Some trivia:  Remember the 1981 hit “What About Me?” by Moving Pictures? That song was co-written by Garry Frost when he was in that band. Later on, he became a member of 1927 with his brother Bill, and wrote a number of their songs.