Saturday, December 18, 2010

#35 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown: "Working For the Weekend" by Loverboy (1981)

And #35 of the Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown is.....Working For the Weekend, by 80's Canadian rock band Loverboy! Loverboy was formed in Calgary, Alberta Canada back in the year 1980, and it consisted of members  Mike Reno (lead vocalist), Paul Dean (lead guitar), Scott Smith (bass guitar), Doug Johnson (keyboards), and Matt Frenette (drums). The band is currently based out of Vancouver, B.C. in Canada, and have since picked up member Ken "Spider" Sinnaeve. Loverboy has quite a classic 80's rock sound, and they are best known for this Working For the Weekend single and their Turn Me Loose (also 1981) single. Throughout the years Loverboy has produced 4 albums that have achieved multi-platinum status, thus selling millions of albums since their early days in the 1980's. Working For the Weekend comes off of their October 1981, 2nd studio release album titled Get Lucky.  The song peaked at #2 on the US Mainstream Rock chart and at #29 on the Pop Singles chart. The Get Lucky album itself would attain the peak spot at #7 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums chart, and would remain listed on the Hot 200 chart for over 2 years and sell around 4 million copies in the USA alone. This album was later remastered and re-release in 2006 with 4 bonus tracks of previously unreleased demo songs. Now, many of you will probably recognize this song from the coal-mining scene in the 2001 hit Ben Stiller comedy film Zoolander. I must say that is the scene that comes to mind when I hear this song, which also makes this the second 80's dance hit off of this Top 100 Countdown that was on the Zoolander Soundtrack, whoever produced that soundtrack sure knew their 80's music! This song was also featured in the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, an episode of the television series Scrubs, as well as an episode of Saturday Night Live in the famous Chippendale's audition skit with Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze (RIP to them both).  I would also add that Working For the Weekend was ranked at #100 on VH1's 100 greatest songs of the 80's, so I am not the only one including it on a Top 100 80's list aye!  ;-D

No comments: