A double dose of the 80’s: Christopher Cross [I Heart Music]

The early eighties were definitely a weird and wonderful time, and I grew up around some amazing music. There was punk, new wave, metal, electronic music, Hip Hop, Rap, etc. Hell, there were even catchy country songs coming out then—Eddie Rabbit, anyone? . It’s almost as if the musical black hole of the seventies disco scene somehow created an explosion of great music and talent in the early eighties.

Amid all of this was Christopher Cross. Though he didn’t invent light rock, he basically took the genre into the stratosphere. He was basically the James Taylor of the eighties, and he may be the only light rock artist that I can honestly say that I like. I think my testosterone just dropped a few points having said that.

As a bonus, he created one of the most unforgettable themes for a movie, when he wrote Arthur’s Theme. Arthur wasn’t a bad movie, if you don’t mind a little Liza Minelli. Of course, this is when she was still in shape and relatively sane. Dudley Moore played the role he was destined to play—rich and drunk all the time. The ending was pretty damn  predictable, but this is supposed to be one of those give-up-all-your-money-for-the-poor-girl sort of chick movies, so no big surprises here.

The best part of the whole movie was Arthur’s theme, however. Not only did Arthur’s Theme top off the movie, that song is like 1981 distilled. It’s a piano-based ballad, with a freakin’ saxophone solo and a typical 80’s drum part with lots of tom-drum fills.  While some songs from the 80’s are truly timeless because they were ahead of their time, Arthur’s Theme is special because it manages to take the year 1981, put it in a blender, and squeeze out a glass of sweet, sweet, early eighties goodness. When you hear this song, you instantly know when it was written and what was happening when it came out.