The Rave Ups
Positively Lost me
Note: Today is the 5th annual Make Music Winter Celebration. Events to mark the occasion will be taking place in all corners of the country. If you’ve never checked one out, today is a good day to change that.
To see if there’s an event happening near you, click here.
Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Positively Lost me” by The Rave Ups
John Hughes' films hold a special place in your heart if you're a certain age. They are almost their own genre. The characters are iconic. The plots are relatable. The dialogue… at times, was questionable when viewed through a 2022 lens.
We loved Ferris. We empathized with Claire. We rooted for Duckie.
But Hughes's films we more than just the movies themselves. Perhaps more than any other filmmaker at the time, his soundtracks were like nothing else. Hughes was a Boomer and always included a little 50-60s rock or soul in the mix. But his tastes skewed more toward British & new wave. In many ways, these films served as music discovery vehicles. Hughes wasn't just a director; he was your older brother bringing cool music home from the dormsThe tracks he picked added texture and context to what was happening on screen and permanently attached them to specific moments.
Don't believe me? Try playing Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" without imagining Bender punching the air.
Like "Don't You Forget About Me in the Breakfast Club, OMD's "If You Leave," became a smash- forever attached to the ending scene in Pretty In Pink.
Both movies-and both of these scenes are timeless.
But another band plays before Andie chooses between Duckie and Blaine at the prom. And not at the dance, but at the CATS club. When Andie brings Blaine in, The Rave-Ups are on stage. The song they're playing? "Positively Lost Me."
The song was left off the movie's official soundtrack, and the band's "Town and Country" record was out of print for years before being resurrected by iTunes. It was finally re-released on CD in 2016. In 2022 it sounds as good as ever.
Hughes, of course, is no longer with us. Nor is the theater where I used to see most of these films. Gone too is the Tower Records that was just down the street, where I did most of my music shopping. But the films are. And so is the music.
As for the band? After 30+ years, they put out a record earlier this year.
1985. 2022. Timeless.
On Repeat is made possible by support from readers like you. If you find value in this work, please become a subscriber today!
More:
I must have studied those scenes about 100 times before it dawned on me that Molly has a band name written on her notebook in Sixteen Candles — and so I wondered if it was the same band. Once I was old enough to escape from the ’burbs via a friend’s car or a ride from someone who could drive, I hit up the Tower Records in Seattle to see if they had any Rave-Ups CDs. Sadly, the “Rave-Ups” card slot was always blank, and it never occurred to me to ask if I could order a disc (I mean, except for the Columbia Record Club, which I obviously belonged to).
Read more about one fan’s quest to find Town & Country here.
The number one way my newsletter finds new readers is when people share it. So, feel free to spam share it with everyone.
Listen:
“Positively Lost me” by The Rave-Ups| Town + Country, 1985
Click the record to listen on your platform of choice.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
P.S. Lively up your inbox! Every day The Sample forwards you a newsletter to discover. The more you use it, the better it gets at delivering what you want.
Have you seen/heard about “Life Moves Pretty Fast: The John Hughes Mixtapes”? It’s a 4-CD set that came out this year and it’s really great. The Rave Ups song is on it.