Elvis Costello & The Attractions:  ”I Wanna Be Loved”

This was a song that I hated when I first heard it— too 80s, too saxophone-y, too maudlin. But even Costello himself (who basically trashes the album it comes from, 1984’s Goodbye Cruel World, every chance he gets) thinks the music video is so good that it redeems the recording of this song.

I agree. I like it now. I am particularly fond of music videos where the vocals are entirely new— Costello here is singing a new, sadder vocal OVER the recorded vocals, a trick he would later repeat on the video for the much bigger hit single, “Veronica.”

U2 would later pay homage to (ie “rip off”) this video on two different occasions. And Bruce Springsteen did that “singing a new vocal over the backing track” thing on the video for “Brilliant Disguise.”