Cher’s single, I Found Someone would be yet another time that Virginia Madsen found herself in a Music Video. This time she plays Cher’s Love Rival for the “someone” in her life.
There were two versions of the video made, one taken from concert footage and the other a full on production. The video was noted at the time as it was the debut of her then boyfriend (and funnily enough, want to be actor), Rob Camilletti who was eighteen years younger.
Rob would go on to “star” in a few more of Chers videos after this one but his career would never properly take off aside from a few films here and there.
Then again, Virginia Madsen herself only appears for brief moments, not exactly a starring role for her either. But, I always say “A little bit of Virginia Madsen is better than no Virginia Madsen”.
Well, no I don’t say that – ever. I just made it up. ANYWAYS…
Availability:
YouTube is your friend, as always with this kind of thing.
If, like me, you *have* to own it then it can be found on the Cher’s Greatest HIts DVD.
Virginia Madsen would make a return back to Music Videos in 2015 for The Lone Bellows (brilliant) Fake Roses.
I actually found out about this one by complete accident. I’m a big fan of The National with who Aaron Dressner plays, I was down a wikihole one day and clicking around the bands other projects. I knew Aaron was involved in producing a fair bit so I was checking some of those bands out. One of the albums he would produce is Then Came the Morning from which Fake Roses comes. Imagine my surprise once I started listening to the album on YouTube and this video started playing. The Lone Bellow are a band from New York, they’re an Indie Folk type of band and have been active since 2011, the song Fakes Roses was recorded at Dreamland Studios. It’s a song dedicated to the lead singers (Zach WIlliams) Mother-In-Law, Edna after she helped deal with the trauma of lost her daughter and his wife, Stacy.
“Edna was so strong in the hospital. I would just watch her because if she had ever gotten scared, then I would have really gotten scared. When the doctor told me, ‘Your wife isn’t going to move from the neck down again, you need to ready yourself for this lifestyle,” Edna told me it was way too early for him to make that conclusion. She just always kept it together. I found out later that she would go cry in the ladies room and then put her make up before coming back to the room.” He goes onto explain how Virginia became involved with the project;
“Now we only know a couple people in the movie/TV world, and one of them is this lady Sophia Bush. A few years ago I played a show at her house and Virginia Madsen was there. So when I was thinking for this video, I was like, ‘Sophia knows Virginia, I’m going to see how this goes.’ So I called her and told her that we basically didn’t have a budget but would she mind giving us three days and doing this. Immediately, she said yes.”
And, I think it shows. I mean, obviously Virginia has no speaking part in the video but the emotion she conveys throughout the whole thing can’t be in any doubt.
Bit of a cheat this one. Virginia Madsen does feature in the Depeche Mode video for But Not Tonight, but only just. I guess.
The single, not featuring on any album would be released along with Stripped, in the UK Stripped would be the A side and But Not Tonight on the B side, in the US it would be reversed.
But also. it’s not really a proper Virginia Madsen thing, hence the cheat part.
But Not Tonight was released as one of the main songs for the film Modern Girls, as such she appears in snippets from the film and in the background while Dave Gahan does his stuff. The double single would release number 15 in the UK Charts and I actually couldn’t find anything for the US so I’m guessing it didn’t make the Top 100?
Dropping back into the world of Music Videos we see Virginia Madsen dropping, briefly, in to the music video for Michael Jackson‘s Liberian Girl.
Michael Jackson isn’t a favourite singer of mine by any stretch of the imagination, I do appreciate that he was amazing at what he did and very few could touch him at the top of his game. And, I am partial to a song or two of his. Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal both stand out as two songs I’d turn up if they came on the radio.
Liberian Girl was the 9th (!!) single from the stupidly popular Bad album released in 1987. It reached Number 1 in just one country, Ireland but it was widely regarded as a hit around the world.
The Music video featured a who’s who of, well, everyone with many a famous face featuring in the 5 minutes or so of the songs running time. It was filmed in 1989 over two days in Los Angeles in April. The premise being that all these famous people show up to make the video but Michael himself is nowhere to be found, only for the big reveal at the end to be that he was actually shooting them the whole time.
I’m Free (Heaven Helps The Man), henceforth referred to as just “I’m Free”, is a 1984 song by Kenny Loggins. The song is most notably known for its appearance in the original Footloose soundtrack for the movie of the same name by those of a certain age.
And, for those lucky enough not to be of a certain age then it would also appear in a little game called Grand Theft Auto V, if you’ve ever heard of it. The song would play as part of the Los Santos Rock Radio station playlist, which also featured Kenny as a DJ.
Although the song was featured on the Footloose soundtrack, the video for the song has very little to do with the film. Which is a bit weird, especially for songs of that time.
The video has Loggins breaking out of prison, he quickly acquires a car and is seen making his getaway with it while looking down at the picture of his (presumed) girlfriend. The lady in the picture is of course one of our very own Virginia Madsen. Or, “Woman” as she is named on the iMDB listing for the music video.
Some daftness occurs in a garage where he is seemingly looking for the object of his affection,the local gang seem to know her location but aren’t keen on giving her up. He finally learns of her location from a rather scrawny looking gentleman, your typical “80’s Geek” who looks somewhat out of place from the rest of the gang members.
Kenny finds the light of his life and we see him sneaking into her bedroom to watch her while he sleeps.Thankfully, on waking she seems happy to see old Kenny and gives him a quick hug before they flee from the police who have somehow managed to work out where he is.
And yeah, the young lovers do their thing – Running across bridges with the sunset behind them, through a town centre holding hands. They briefly pass a cinema which is playing the Footloose film. Kenny seems keen to enter. Virginia, not so much. Again, weird for a song from the soundtrack.
All the while the Prison guards have noticed his daring escape and chaos in the jail ensues. Parents look angry with their daughter, the Police get closer to catching them as they run through buildings onto rooftops. The “80’s Geek” is there again for some reason, people jump off rooftops and escapes are made.
It’s all very 80’s rock pop music video. Which isn’t a bad thing as such.
In hindsight, it’s also very “Fire with Fire”, a film in which Virginia Madsen would star in a few years later.
But, I always say “A little bit of Virginia Madsen is better than no Virginia Madsen”.
ANYWAYS…
