Ever since the dawn of MTV and Friday Night Videos, the music video has significantly impacted musical tastes and pop culture. It might not be as extreme as when the Buggles declared that "Video Killed the Radio Star", but there is no arguing that the music video certainly could make or break a song's popularity. So this regular Flashback Video feature will serve to remember some of the music videos from the great '80s decade that made an impact on me in one way or another.
This issue we will cover "Foolish Beat" by Debbie Gibson. This was the fifth single released from her Out of the Blue album in April 1988. "Foolish Beat" hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June and gave Gibson, just 17 years old at the time, the record for the youngest person to write, produce, and perform a #1 single entirely on her own. Like many boys my age at the time, I had a crush on Debbie and thus enjoyed watching her music videos.
The music video for "Foolish Beat" was directed by Nick Willing. He had previously directed the video for Swing Out Sister's "Breakout" as well as Debbie Gibson's "Out of the Blue". He directed a few more music videos after, but moved more into writing and directing mostly for television after that. Some scenes for the "Foolish Beat" video were shot at South Street Seaport in New York City during St. Patrick's Day in March 1988. The music video begins with shots of the city as Debbie sits alone at a table in a coffee shop singing directly to the camera. In the video, she recently broke up with her boyfriend and seemingly regrets jilting him wanting to make amends. The guy is hesitant and the video ends with him debating about seeing her show having brought a bouquet of flowers for her, but he drops the flowers in a trash can deciding that it wasn't worth getting hurt again before he walks off into the distance. Here is the music video for "Foolish Beat" by Debbie Gibson...
It is not necessarily one of my very favorites by her, but it really demonstrates that Gibson was a legitimate artist at a very young age writing many of her own songs and even producing some of them (not to mention she was a total cutie as well). For several reasons, I will always be a big fan of Debbie Gibson.
Hope you enjoyed another trip back to the '80s thanks to Flashback Video!