National Lampoon’s Vacation (soundtrack)

Welcome to another edition of Soundtrack Sunday.

This week marks the thirtieth anniversary of the release of the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, the hilarious cross-country family road trip tale that introduced us to the Griswold family. Written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis, it starred Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Dana Barron, Randy Quaid, and Imogene Coca. Also making appearances were John Candy, Jane Krakowski and super-model Christie Brinkley.

The Time - What Time Is It?

Today (August 25) marks the thirtieth anniversary of What Time Is It?, the second studio album by the Minneapolis R&B and funk group known at the Time.

Building off the momentum from their self-titled debut a year prior, the group’s 1982 effort climbed up to number 26 on the US Billboard Hot 200 and number 2 on the Billboard R&B Album chart. This release too followed the format laid down by their debut, placing six songs total across two sides with a mix of dance jams and ballads. Prince once more had his hand in writing all of the tracks and performing on most of the instruments.

Vanity 6 - Vanity 6 (30th anniversary)

Today, August 11th, marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the self-titled debut album Vanity 6.

For my review of this album, please click here.

It's time to jam. This one is going on my list to listen to again today.

Prince - Girl 6 (soundtrack)

Welcome to another edition of Soundtrack Sunday.

In 1996, American film director Spike Lee released Girl 6, the comedic story of an African-American phone sex operator. The film starred Teherasa Randle, Spike Lee and a cast of cameos including Madonna, Richard Belzer, Coati Mundi, Naomi Campbell and Quentin Tarantino.

For the soundtrack album, Spike Lee tapped Prince for contributions. What resulted was a mix of previously released material from the Prince family of stars as well as a few original tracks. Unless otherwise mentioned, the tracks were performed by Prince.

Vanity 6 - Vanity 6

Sex sells.

As Prince’s career was taking off in the early 80’s, he certainly had that old axiom in mind when put together a girl-group to sing songs about sex and fantasy while dressed in lingerie. The final line-up with the trio of Vanity (Denise Matthews), Brenda Bennett and Susan Moonsie certainly looked the part. Together they would be known as Vanity 6, the number referring to the total count of certain female anatomy of the trio.