Tina Yothers, you are the spawn of Satan

Here are Stuck in the '80s headquarters, we're hard at work on a new podcast featuring the best and worst tunes from actors-turned-musicians from the '80s.

Sure, there are a lot of obvious songs you remember. She's Like The Wind by Patrick Swayze. Heartbeat by Don Johnson. Even Party All The Time by the once-great Eddie Murphy.

But don't forget that for ever Eddie, there's a Tina Yothers. The deadpanning Family Ties sibling cranked out a few truly evil tunes back in the '80s, including Baby I'm Back In Love Again, which was reportedly featured on the TV show long after I gave up on Alex P. Keaton and company. Click here to give it a listen.

Drop us a comment with your picks for best and worst actor-turned-musician songs of the '80s, and then tune into the podcast this weekend for the horrific ranking.

Comments

[Bassnote]

Respect Yourself - Bruce Willis (heck, anything Bruce recorded)

[Sherrie]

My favorite actor-turned-singer of the 80's is Bruce Willis. He wasn't going for an operatic achievement award with his singing, rather, he had a straight up whiskey tinged bar band sound and he reveled in it. I had 45's of "Respect Yourself" and "Under the Boardwalk" that I just wore out, those were some great songs. For that matter, his wailing commercial cry of "Seagrams/Golden Wine coolers..." probably drove me to my first drink back in the day with it's siren song of sweet wine mixers. Oh Bruno, how we miss you (and those wine coolers, which are now called "malt beverages"- it just doesn't sound nearly as melodious!)

[Bassnote]

Barroom Buddies - Clint Eastwood duet with Merle Haggard

[Sherrie]

Sorry Bassnote, didn't mean to repeat your Bruno shoutout- we must have been typing near simultaneously!

[Bassnote]

I just discovered a "Dukes Od Hazzard" Soundtrack from 1981 on iTunes. It features songs sung by Tom Wopat, John Schneider, and Catherine Bach. The Catherine Bach song, "Down Home American Girl" is truly awful.

[Bassnote]

Dukes Of Hazzard... stupid typing.

[Michelle]

When did Steven Seagal get into music? I was to say it was the '90s...

[Michelle]

Ooooh, the obvious choice of David Hasselhoff-the one, the only, the European sensation know as the Hoff.

[Dominic]

Would novelty songs sung in character count? Neil from "The Young Ones" had a tune called "Hole In My Shoe." It was kinda bad.

[Dominic]

Philip Michael Thomas from "Miami Vice" had a god-awful record out at one point. Check out this horrible, narcissistic video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv2iLzhS-Sg

[Sherrie]

Two baddies that come to mind I actually purchased in the 80's. "All I Need" was blandly milquetoast, but when it's sung by triple threat Jack Wagner (bad singer/amateur golfer/soap opera heart throb), it was a required purchase for every female between 12 and 16 circa '84/'85. It's Frisco Jones from General Hospital, for goodness sake!
"In the Thicke of the Night" by Alan Thicke...this is genuinely bad, and I went to so far as to special order the picture sleeve 45 at Peaches in Clearwater. Thank goodness the clerk was a kind soul and didn't laugh me out of the store. It's a genuine contender for worst song by an actor turned singer, just plain bad.

[Miguel]

Party all the Time by Eddie Murphy is an horrible tune.I remember seeing Tina Yothers singing on Family Ties,but i don´t know if it was that song.

[Lee]

How about soap actor Jack Wagner's 'All I Need' from the mid-80s.

[funkymono]

Another soaper-turned-singer was Michael Damian. When his cover of "Rock On" hit he did an appearance at Hills department store in my hometown (Kingsport, TN). The place was packed with screaming, foaming-at-the-mouth middle-aged women.

[Miguel]

Unrelated,but i was just taking a look at this Family Ties reunion on Today Show and there are interesting questions.Could the show be aired today,why there are not tv theme songs anymore.Interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8HPfJizdKY&feature=related

[funkymono]

By the way, that's the first I've heard of Tina Yothers' stab at '80s popdom, and that song truly sucks.

[dougal chestnutt]

At the risk of scorn of the 80's Nation i give you the duet of Ray Charles And Clint Eastwood "Beers To You" from the film Any Which Way You Can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dI9onIlCR

[Jeff in Cuba]

My favorite entry in the Eddie Murphy songbook:

"Boogie In Your Butt"

(Not to be confused with the Keats poem of the same name)

[CHAD]

i actually had the return of bruno, as well. it wasn't a great cd, but the video mocumentary is friggin hilarious. didn't scott baio do some singing of his own? don't remember if it was 80s or 70s. but, during this period, there was a lot of this going on.

[angie]

Now I've got Party All The Time going 'round my head. GRRR!!!

[Ray]

Not sure if this one counts, since Joan Jett did most of the work...

"Light of Day" -- Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox

... or Gimmick Songs like ...

"Born in East L.A." -- Cheech
"Rappin Rodney" -- Rodney Dangerfield
"You Look Marvelous" -- Billy Crystal

[Tim F.]

It really doesn't get much worse than Larry Hagman's "My Favorite Sins", which just barely qualifies for our favorite decade, being released in 1980. Maybe a little too obscure? But truly, truly bad.

Shatner also did a recording of some Beatles music, but not sure if that was in the 80's and I'm too lazy to google it right now!

[Ellie]

Not only do I have The Return of Bruno on CD, but I have the VHS of the Mockumentary to go with it. I transferred it to DVD personally a while ago - how sad is that?

Less good actors here, but anyone remember Mr. T's rap song? I'm sure it's on YouTube. I also remember watching Corey Haim's rubbish video diary thing and him getting into "his music" saying he's into Japanese Techno Funk and just banging away on a keyboard for 10 seconds. High as a kite the whole time of course.

And but of course, comedy writer/actor of the 2000s Ricky Gervais was the lead singer of a New Romantic group in the early 80s called Seona Dancing.

[ARod]

Does Rick Springfield count? I know Jessie's Girl goes back to 1981 but so does his days as Dr. Noah Drake in General Hospital.

[CHAD]

i wouldn't count rick springfield in this particular list. remember, he was firstly a singer/songwriter. he only took up acting because his musical career wasn't doing too well. it's funny though, as soon as he got on general hospital, it took off. besides, this list is primarily about bad music, rick's was some of the best of the decade.

[don in tulsa]

while tina yothers song is pretty bad i wouldn't say it's much worse than say tiffany or a lot of other pop crap that was foisted on we the listeners. however when she performed the song on "family ties"(yes that is the song she performed on the show) we were forced to watch her "band" pretend to play instruments and that was downright horrendous. that's also on youtube if you dare to watch it.

for some reason i am remembering that someone bad a beef with jack wagner over a woman (actress, former girlfriend) at the time his crapy song came out and threatened him. nikki sixx comes to mind or perhaps it was tommy lee? i can't quite fully remember right now. oh well.

[don in tulsa]

how about a show on the worst playing fake bands on tv?

The album put out by William Shatner was pretty bad...

[JohnnyVinyl]

Kylie Minogue was a famous soap actress in Australia when she had her first s/hit record with a cover of 'Locomotion'. She then went to the UK to work with Stock,Aitken and Waterman, producers of Rick Astley, Mel and Kim, Bananarama and later Dead or Alive.
S.A.W. were also responsible for recording and writing songs for almost every other Aussie soap actor after they hit pay dirt with Ms Minogue.
This was a trend that is still popular today. Evrytime an Australian Soap is successful in the UK, Aussie actors try to cash in by releasing some sort of europop single.

[JohnnyVinyl]

Kylie Minogue was a famous soap actress in Australia when she had her first s/hit record with a cover of 'Locomotion'. She then went to the UK to work with Stock,Aitken and Waterman, producers of Rick Astley, Mel and Kim, Bananarama and later Dead or Alive.
S.A.W. were also responsible for recording and writing songs for almost every other Aussie soap actor after they hit pay dirt with Ms Minogue.
This was a trend that is still popular today. Evrytime an Australian Soap is successful in the UK, Aussie actors try to cash in by releasing some sort of europop single.

[Bassnote]

How about Sam Kinison and his version of Wild Thing, or Rodney dangerfield and his terrible Rappin' Rodney?

[Bassnote]

Sorry Ray, I didn't see your post.

[Douglas Arthur]

Ellie, I was going to bring up Mr. T, but you beat me to it. However, I can add this:

"Honor thy mother and father
the Bible makes it clear
If you break this rule
God help you fool
you've got Mr. T to fear"

For something so bad, I have to give it credit for me remembering the lyrics some 25+ years later...and I only heard it twice. There was a great DJ on WQBK here in Albany back in the early 80's named Lin Braymer (not sure of the spelling, its been a while) and every Wednesday night at 9pm was the Hump Day Unusual Moment, where he played the weirdest songs he could find. Some of it was stuff that Dr. Demento wouldn't touch. Ogden Edsl's Kinko The Clown, The Waitresses' I Know What Boys Like, and a strange version of Psycho Killer called Psycho Chicken, which used a clucking chicken for the bassline, are a few memorable tunes i recall from that era. He played the Mr. T Rap one night and it lodged in my cranium like a big shard of glass. Back when radio was fun...not like today, sadly.

A year or so before I graduated from high school Lin was gone from Albany radio, and I think I had heard he was in Chicago, but I always wondered whatever became of him. He was one cool DJ.

[Douglas Arthur]

Just a thought though, if you were going to do the reverse and do a show on Musicians Turned Actor..David Bowie would have to be at the top of the list, I would think...

Chad mentioned this was only bad songs, but not so, please re-read the blog post. Steve wants BEST AND WORST...I think there are more worst songs than best, and that is what's coming out in our comments, but there has to be some good too!

[Bassnote]

Lea Thompson singing in the movie Howard The Duck, under the band name The Cherry Bombs. Even Thomas Dolby writing the music could not save that movie. Dennis Quaid sings the song "Closer To You" in the movie The Big Easy.

[Bassnote]

Michael J. Fox had a song of his own on the Light Of Day soundtrack called "You Got No Place To Go."

[CHAD]

like, kevin costner, quaid is also in a band. i think most actors wanna be musicians, and most musicians wanna be actors.

[Jeff]

This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3c-WBn5cCg

It may have delayed my pubescence by seven years.

[DJ Wave]

More singers turned actor...Rupert Everett had a great 80s tune called "Generation Of Loneliness"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxPwmjt7hRs

You also have Ricky Gervis who was in a band called Seona Dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G9uGPQsVNk

[Kevy Metal]

Madonna has always been an actress. Her whole career she has been playing the role of a pop star. And she's a pretty bad singer.

[Roy, UK]

Woah hold it! My Internet breaks down and THIS happens in the SIT80s nation? You include Don Johnson in a list of bad singers?!?!?!

DJ's voice is brilliant. I saw him in a London West End production of 'Guys and Dolls' (I called it my girlfriend's birthday present- aren't i great?) last March and he was amazing as Nathan Detroit

His greatest hits album, The Essential, also has some classics on it, such as 'Your Love Is Safe With Me', 'Other People's Lives' and the forgotten single 'Heartbreak Away', not to mention his opus magnam 'Heartbeat'.

Thankfully noone's hasselling the Hoff, whose hit in 1989 'Looking For Freedom' hit the number one spot in the German speaking countries. I'm working very hard to get my department to let me do my dissertation with the title "The David Hasselhoff Effect on the Reunification of Germany". I'll tell you how i got on...

[Banglijk]

Has Kevin Costner ever made a record? If so, he has my vote as the absolute worst.

[Bassnote]

He and his band just released an album this year.

[Annastacia]

I may be revealing too much about my soap opera addictions in the 80's.... but here's some of the soap opera actors that had "hit" songs
Michael Damian - Rock On
Rick Springfield - Jesse's Girl
Jack Wagner - All I need
Gloria Loring - Friends and Lovers (total trivia - Loring also wrote/sang the theme songs to Facts of Life and Different Strokes)

[Jen]

How about some more comedian love?Steve Martin released King Tut, and went on to a side career as a banjo player. He even has a grammy. Tracy Ullman had a long music career in the UK, her only US hit was "They Don't Know".

[Bassnote]

The song that Jessica Rabbit sings in the Ink & Paint Club, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, was sung by actress Amy Irving.

[Karen]

for the BEST list:
Patrick Swayze did a credible job singing "She's Like the Wind" in Dirty Dancing. Also hionorable mention for Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn, then she went on to record a country and western album which had a hit single, "I'm lonely but only for you"

[jay]

Didn't Peter Weller have a band?

[Jeff in Cuba]

Jay,

I assume you mean other than the Hong Kong Caveliers?