sweet freedom

There are some songs from certain time periods that say a ton of about a decade. Sweet Freedom by Michael McDonald is one of them.

This song is from the soundtrack to the movie Running Scared from 1986. This song is also Michael McDonald's last top 10 hit he ever penned.

The video for this song (at right) is from a bygone era where video production could be silly and still work. The video features McDonald himself and Blily Crystal and Gregory Hines from the movie. This was considered a big deal because the video had to be shot completely outside of the film. The actors probably agreed to be in the video without being paid, because back then music videos were still very new (only 5 years old) and people at the time thought they were nothing but a fad that would die out quickly. They obviously didn't.

When I recently rediscovered this song, I COULD NOT STOP LISTENING TO IT. I literally listened to the song at least 5 or 10 times in a row because it's just so frickin' catchy. I mean, yeah, it's very electronic in its sound, but what a sound it is. There's just something about it that hooks you right in and keeps you there.

The funny part is that Sweet Freedom sounds like a ton of other songs that were around at the time. I'm not sure of the synth that was used (probably a Korg?), but there were a lot of similar-sounding songs on the charts - especially in movie soundtracks.

I was 11 years old in 1986, and I remember when this song hit the charts and seemed to just stay there forever. The song sticks in my mind just that much.

Another funny thing is that I've never seen Running Scared.

Yeah, I'm going to watch it just because of Sweet Freedom. 🙂

Published 2012 Sep 4