Geffen Vintage 80s [1995-1998]

After co-founding and quickly building Asylum Records into a folk/pop powerhouse in the early Seventies with acts like Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Linda Ronstadt, David Geffen stepped out of the music business and into the motion picture industry. After retiring from Warner Brothers Pictures in 1978, he served as an advisor to Warner Brothers Records before launching another label, Geffen Records, in 1980. It seems more than two dozen record labels launched that year, yet Geffen Records is one of the Freshmen I recall, along with Mirage Records, Qwest Records, Boardwalk Records and Dreamland Records. I should do a feature on the first ten 45s from each label; that could be cool. Here are the first ten singles on Geffen:

	matrix	date		title	artist
	49563	9/80		The Wanderer	Donna Summer
	49604	10/24/80		(Just Like) Starting Over	John Lennon
	49634	11/80		Cold Love	Donna Summer
	49644	1/12/81		Woman	John Lennon
	49664	2/81		Who Do You Think You're Foolin'	Donna Summer
	49683	2/81		Walking On Thin Ice	Yoko Ono
	49695	3/13/81		Watching The Wheels	John Lennon
	49722	4/81		Nobody Wins	Elton John
	49788	7/81		Chloe	Elton John
	49802	9/81		No No No	Yoko Ono

Geffen's apparent strategy for his new label was to sign iconic superstar acts, beginning with the label's first signing, Donna Summer. Hers were the first single and album released by the new label in September and October 1980, respectively, and I scooped up both, blissfully unaware of her label switch from Casablanca to Geffen until seeing the labels on the records.

Subsequent signings to Geffen Records included (the ill-fated and all-too-brief comeback of) John Lennon, Elton John, Cher, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Don Henley and Joni Mitchell, with the latter two having existing relationships with Geffen himself from their days at Asylum. New acts began appearing on Geffen Records as well, including Asia, Quarterflash, Wang Chung, Berlin and Planet P Project. Geffen also began releasing Broadway cast albums, movie soundtracks, and records by stand-up comedians. As the first decade of Geffen Records came to a close, it had a phenomenal series of hard rock and heavy metal successes with Whitesnake, Aerosmith, and Guns N' Roses. Probably the last Geffen album I bought before the end of the Eighties was the thirty-one track, double-disc Greenpeace charity compilation, Rainbow Warriors.

In 1995, Geffen Records released the first collection of the label's singles from the Eighties titled Geffen Vintage 80s, Vol. I. It features fourteen tracks and is an alternate trip through the decade with many songs not featured on the average Hey! It's The Eighties compilations. I enjoy the opening Wang Chung song but usually skip the closing one though I do enjoy both Berlin tracks. And the whole time I'm listening, conscious that it is a Geffen comp, I'm thinking where's the Lennon, Henley, Guns, Aerosmith, Whitesnake, Hagar, Summer, Gabriel, Tesla, and Elton freakin' John tracks?

time	title	artist	Hot 100	AC	Rock	Cash Box
3:58	Dance Hall Days	Wang Chung	16		24	17
5:12	French Kissin	Debbie Harry	57			51
4:17	Riding With The King	John Hiatt
5:05	Sex (I'm A...)	Berlin	62		10	57
4:42	Goin' Southbound	Stan Ridgway			8
3:26	Ways To Be Wicked	Lone Justice	71		29	59
3:05	Knocked Down, Made Small (Treated Like A Rubber Ball)	Was (Not Was)	109
3:21	Our House	Madness	7		9	5
3:50	No More Words	Berlin	23		25	16
3:34	A Million Miles Away	The Plimsouls	82		11
3:30	Take Me To Heart	Quarterflash	14	28	6	15
4:41	Emotion In Motion	Ric Ocasek	15	8	1	18
3:17	Desire	Gene Loves Jezebel
4:47	Everybody Have Fun Tonight	Wang Chung	2		25	1

A music video collection with the same title was also released on VHS and LaserDisc featuring eleven of the album's songs as music videos. Missing from the video compilation are the Debbie Harry, John Hiatt, and Gene Loves Jezebel tracks. (Click on song titles above to view videos.) The Hiatt track was later covered by Eric Clapton and B.B. King in 2000.

time	title	artist	Hot 100	AC	Rock	Cash Box
3:50	Heat Of The Moment	Asia	4		1	6
3:51	Harden My Heart	Quarterflash	3	41	1	4
3:34	I Look For Love	John Hiatt
4:30	In Love With Love (London Mix Edit)	Debbie Harry	70			74
2:56	Whirly Girl	Oxo	28			29
4:11	Take My Breath Away	Berlin	1	3		1
3:30	Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy	Sammy Hagar	13		3	25
4:42	Is This Love	Whitesnake	2	38	13	2
4:16	If I Could Turn Back Time	Cher	10	33		14
3:24	It Must Be Love	Madness	33			33
4:30	Let's Go	Wang Chung	9			10
4:54	What I Am	Edie Brickell & New Bohemians	7	30	4	6
3:34	Out Of Mind Out Of Sight	The Models	37		22	33
4:05	Why Me?	Planet P Project	64		4	51

Geffen Vintage 80s, Vol. II, another fourteen track compilation, followed in 1997 though, much to the disappointment of a new breed of collectors, no further multi-artist video collections were released. My Hagar/Cher/Whitesnake itch was indeed scratched a bit with the second volume and I had all but forgotten that Asia and Brickell were on Geffen so those two songs were a pleasant surprise. Still, I wanted more. (Two budget-priced Geffen Goldline compilations of rock and metal from 1998 bearing the Geffen Vintage 80s banner, Rock It! and It Rocks!, are lame and should only be sought for their appalling David McMacken artwork.) Inspired by finding the ad featured at the top of this post in an old issue of ICE (as originally featured HERE), I began to make a make a playlist of my favorite songs on Geffen that were somehow overlooked or otherwise not included for whatever reason$ on those first two compilations. I ended up with several fourteen-song playlists below featuring just about all the artists and songs I remember doing time on Geffen in the Eighties. Your Geffen memories may vary and I encourage you to share in the Comments down below but these are mine. Somebody else is gonna have to do a Geffen Vintage Nineties series, though. I'm out.

Volume III


Volume IV

Volume V

Volume 6

or ALL 6 Volumes in one six hour playlist!