The Toy Box

Retro Spins: The Rolling Stones - Undercover

Times were changing when The Rolling Stones entered the studio to record what would become their 1983 album, Undercover. While Mick Jagger was keenly aware of these new styles, and was eager to keep adapting, in turn keeping the band relevant in the changing landscape of music. However, Keith Richards wasn't so much on board, wanting instead to focus on traditional rock and rhythm and blues. This would lead to a lot of turmoil in the studio between the two and laid the foundation for what would become the infamous Jagger / Richard's feud which lasted all the way through May 1989, necessitating a formal piece talk before heading into the studio for their final album of the decade.

Upon its release, the album would underperform, breaking the consecutive streak of number ones in the USA when it peaked at number four. Despite falling a bit from grace, it did spawn two hits, the first being the title track, which peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. This was followed by the minor hit, She Was Hot, which landed at number forty-four.

An interesting aspect of Undercover is that the cassette, and forthcoming CD version featured a different mix of the song Wanna Hold You. These versions included the verse, "You sure look good to me, so what's it gonna be, it's up to you to choose, I'll make you an offer you can't refuse," which of course also alters the runtime of the track.

Beyond that though, there's not much to say. So, let's get into it.

It starts off with the aforementioned hits, which are okay, but certainly nothing amazing. Personally, I don't see how the title track made it so high up the charts. Take a look at the top twenty from this week above. In comparison to other tunes on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time, I don't see it as all that comparable.

I did, however, really enjoy Too Much Blood, Too Tough, and All The Way Down. These were surprising hidden gems, especially since they were tucked near the end, and by this point I had reserved myself to receiving yet another generic Stones album.

Still, I wouldn't say I'm necessarily becoming a fan. Rather, I'm seeing the potential, not that my opinion impacts their legacy in any way. While it does intrigue me to dig into their next album, technically, I'm skipping over 1986's Dirty Work because I've already played through it. Instead, I'll be going to the end of the Jagger / Richards feud and finishing off their 80's discography with 1989's Steel Wheels.

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Disclaimer: They Toy Box does not endorse or contribute to piracy. Retro Spins posts are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. None of the music discussed here is available for sale, downloading or distribution.

Retro Spins: The Rolling Stones - Tattoo You

Today, I'm continuing my way through the Stone's 80's discography. As I sit here thinking about it, I can't honestly pinpoint the first time I heard one of their songs. What keeps popping into my head is a high school buddy I hung out with a lot after we graduated. Between him and his brother, they pretty much had everything The Rolling Stones (and Led Zeppelin) released. It may have been from him, but at the same time, I don't recall ever listening to any of their music with him. So, back to square one of I don't know.

Regardless, here we are today, picking up with 1981's Tattoo You. When The Rolling Stones began work on what would become 1980's Emotional Rescue, Richards and Jagger would have so much material leftover that tracks would spill into what would become this record.

Much like their preceding albums, it would perform incredibly well, becoming their eighth consecutive release to peak at number one in the USA. Critics would generally be favorable of it, stating it was a return to form for the band, and ranking it among their finest work. Though that opinion didn't necessarily translate across the board, as some critics called it sexually vulgar, and mean spirited in its lyrics.

The album would spawn the band's first Grammy Award for Best Album Package. Unfortunately, this would also come with some faults. It would be the last album to peak at number one in the USA, and the last to have a single that would chart as high as number two on the Billboard Hot 100. On the horizon was also the infamous Jagger / Richards feud, a falling out that would last almost the entire decade and risked destroying a legacy built over the past fifteen years. However, that starts taking us a bit to far ahead. For now, let us pause, and hear today's Retro Spin.

This one hit my want list for the tune, Start Me Up, which happens to be the (appropriate) opening track on the album. From there, things fall, for me, into that "standard" Stones category. Basically, it sounds like what I would expect from the band, and nothing more (or less).

What threw me for a loop in yesterday's post, and what continued to do so with Tattoo You, was the songs where Jagger digs deep into a falsetto style. It just doesn't work for me.

I am really surprised that for a band as touted as the Stones that their albums aren't better. Candidly, I'm not seeing where all the hype is coming from. It feels like they're a band that's built a legacy around longevity versus actual material worth getting excited about. I still have two more albums to get through, and maybe that perspective will change, but for now, I'm not really into it.

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Retro Spins: The Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue

It's ironic, yet timely that I would be starting a series of Rolling Stones playthrough leading up to my birthday. This is because I actually got several of these albums from my brother for my birthday several years ago. It has taken me this long to get to them.

As a band that's been around since 1962, there's a lot of history to go through, and candidly, I'm probably not the best person for that task. I mildly know of the band, and to date have only listened to their 1964 self-titled debut, and 1986's Dirty Work. Further, to go back through a sixty-four-year legacy would take well me time and posts than I'm going to dedicate to it. So instead, I'll just make up my own version based on my 80's child self-who's knowledge was limited to the then and now as it happened, or the rumors on the playground.

Michael Jackson was introduced to an already aged Mick Jagger through his friend, Freddie Mercury. The Queen lead singer let the guy crash at his house periodically, often times using him as an errand boy. It was at a recording session for the track State Of Shock, which would be included on The Jackson's 1984 Victory album, that the two would send Jagger out for sandwiches. However, two events would unfold from this seemingly every ordinary lunch run. The first is that the chicken salad sandwich which Mercury ate would see him in the bathroom the rest of the day with rolling pains and other unwanted side effects. This would lead to Jagger racing out of the studio to find more toilet paper, only to bang his toe on the doorframe. The bellowing howl he gave immediately caught the attention of Jackson, who put him in front of a microphone.

While conducting a wellness check on his friend later that week, David Bowie would get the opportunity to meet Jagger, who was also at Mercury's home, and once again serving chicken salad sandwiches. In a bizarre history repeating itself moment, the Queen singer would once again fall ill. Directed again to obtain more toilet paper, Jagger would head out, but Bowie would offer to accompany him. Rather than take a car, the two instead began skipping down the road, and dancing in the streets.

Across the road at the Twin Pines Mall was a young Marty McFly, who had come out in the night to meet his friend, Doc Brown. He happened to have a video camera with him, and when he saw the two, became fixated on them, filming the whole event. Angered by the unwanted voyeur, they would grab him and attempt to strongarm the cassette from him. It was only from a passing van of concerned Libyan nationalists who called the police that the cops arrived on-site, and the video footage eventually shared with the local news.

Despite the events, Doc Brown would take a keen interest in Jagger, taking him back in time to 1685, where they meet a young pirate named Keith Richards. They'd bring him back to 1980, form a band, and release their debut, Emotional Rescue. To ensure its success, after recording tracks, they'd travel ahead in time, confirm that the album was well received or not, make tweaks back in 1980, and craft the perfect record which would reach number one in the UK, Canada, USA, and other countries. Thus, The Rolling Stones were born!

It's ironic how I can know little to nothing about the band, yet at the same time, playing through 1980's Emotional Rescue, it sounds exactly as I would have expected. Heavily rhythm and blues influenced, with straight up rock and roll weaved in.

On one hand, the music is generic, and kind of uninspiring. At the same time, you still want or perhaps must respect it because it's The Rolling Stones. It puts one in quite the conundrum and honestly makes it difficult to differentiate between what the good songs are, and what really aren't, but that you'll never admit lest the mob come for you.

Instead, I'll turn to the critics and let them take the flak. It turns out, in comparison, I'm not alone in my initial thoughts of the album. Ariel Swartley of Rolling Stone, the magazine, would call it formulaic, and that there was hardly a melody you hadn't already heard from them. Others would simply label it just another ordinary album from The Rolling Stones and even go so far as to say it was comprised of nothing but filler tracks. But ultimately it sold and performed well, going back to what I said earlier. It's generic, but at the same time you must respect if for who it came from.

With that said, there was actually a song on the album that prompted me wanting it. This wasn't just a checklist want. That tune was She's So Cold. I will also be flat out blunt about the title track. It's horrendous. I don't know if Jagger is channeling his inner Prince with his high falsetto vocals, but it's awful. Like actually had to skip it awful.

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Retro Spins: Bonnie Tyler - Hide Your Heart (AKA Notes From America)

Today wraps up my listening sessions of Bonnie Tyler's 80's discography. What constitutes as an icon and / or legacy artist? The industry would have you believe that Tyler qualifies for these titles, yet when you stand back and look at her career as a whole, she only had one number one Billboard Hot 100 hit, Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Her remaining singles from the 80's peaked between thirty-three and seventy-seven. I don't know. I hate to be so mean, especially on the heels of her unfortunate passing, but that just doesn't scream iconic to me.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Ace Of Base popularized the song, Don't Turn Around in the 90's, but it was originally recorded as a B-side by Tina Turner for her single, Typical Male in 1986. Bonnie Tyler would then record her own version of the song in 1988 for her studio album, Hide Your Heart. That album would be retitled to Notes From America when released in the USA. It turns out that Tina would in turn borrow from Bonnie, as this album would include Tyler's original recording of The Best, which Turner would then use for her 1989 record, Foreign Affair.

In addition to this, Bonnie would also record the Paul Stanley / Holly Knight written, Hide Your Heart, which Kiss would later use on their Hot In The Shade album the following year. Lastly, she would also record a cover of the Bee-Gee's 1967 second single, To Love Somebody.

Things start off with the roar of a live audience, giving the impression that you've been bamboozled into listening to a concert album, versus studio. However, as the song picks up, the crowd fades out, and the crisp studio recording takes over. Opening track, Notes From America is decent, but definitely nothing worth jumping up and down for.

Her version of Hide Your Heart was decent, but in retrospect, I dig Kiss's version more. This isn't surprising since it's not only the version I heard first, but it would make sense that the artist who wrote it would be able to produce the better rendition. This is my same impression of her cover of the Bee-Gee's tune, To Love Somebody, which honestly just feels unnecessary. Bonnie adds her own flourish to it, but frankly, it's just not good. She's literally just yelling through it.

Having heard it first is also the problem I have with tracks Don't Turn Around, and The Best. I'm sorry to say that Ace Of Bass does the first better, and Tina Turner owns The Best at this point. One I've yet to mention yet is her cover of Big Brother And The Holding Company's Turtle Blues. Tyler can definitely match the vocals of Janis Joplin, but does she achieve a better song in the long run? No, not really. Janis nails the rhythm and blues sound of the original, and it just fist more, time period wise with its 1968 roots.

USA album cover and title

Michael Bolton and Desmond Child contribute the song, Take Another Look At Your Heart, and you can definitely tell in listening to it that it's a Bolton song. It has his signature style to the lyrics. The unfortunate part for Bonnie, is that it prompted me to look if he ever recorded his own version of it, and sadly, he did not. I'd much prefer to hear him sing it.

Okay, so let me try and say something positive. I suppose the opening track was decent, and Shy With You is a poppy treat. They're about the only two tracks that really stood out in a good way among the rest. But, overall, the album just feels like a series of throw away tracks.

Columbia Records ended up dropping Bonnie from their roster when her contract expired, and while she would go on to release eleven more albums through 2021, it would be for a series of varying labels. She would also experience an uptick in sales in the 90's, with her three albums released between 1991 and 1993 going platinum on the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Specifically, the Norwegian branch. However, her days on the Billboard Hot 100, and charting in the USA in general, were long over by this point.

Still, Bonnie Tyler remained highly popular around the world, and anyone who tells you otherwise is flat out lying or trying to fool themselves. She remained incredibly active through 2026, performing her last live show on March 19, 2026, in London. Had it not been for a tear in her bowel, which put her in the hospital, she would have been back on the road in May. Unfortunately, her health took an unexpected turn, leading to her sadly passing away on July 8, 2026, just one month to the day after her birthday.

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Christmas Catalogs - JCPenny 1975

Hey! You want to spend the next two years looking at the fantastic Christmas catalogs produced by Sears, JCPenny, and Montgomery Ward? Cause I do! Yeah, I said two years, cause that's a lot of catalogs! Join me on most Monday's each month as I post up one of those fabulous books starting with 1970, and ending with 1989.

Look through every page, feeling every bit of nostalgia. Chuckle at the look and style of the wardrobes those zanny past decade people wore. Gawk at the toys you used to have, but long since parted ways with. Bring back all those memories of hours spent laying on the floor, combing every inch as your young mind pined over everything you wanted. Reminisce over the Christmas that followed as you unwrapped those lucky few that you got.

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