“I’m so happy the band’s doing well. By the way, what’s with the hair? Is that part of the new image?”
If you recognize those lines, you’ve no doubt seen the classic video for ‘Til Tuesday’s hit 1985 song “Voices Carry,” which won the New Wave group an award for Best New Artist at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards and launched lead singer Aimee Mann to stardom.
Now 27 years removed from the iconic clip, Mann has decided to revisit it in the brand-new music video for “Labrador,” a track off her forthcoming eighth studio album “Charmer.” And by “revisit,” we of course mean “create a shot-for-shot remake.”
So who can we thank for directing this self-aware bit of music video nostalgia? If you said “‘Mad Men’ star Jon Hamm as a skeezy-hack-filmmaker-version of radio personality/comedy writer/director Tom Scharpling,” you’re sorta on the right track.
Ok, so the real Scharpling (who also directed Mann’s recent “Charmer” video) was actually the one responsible for this, a fun bit of pop-cultural reminiscence that co-stars Scharpling’s comedy partner Jon Wurster in the role of Mann’s masochistic, wife-beater-loving boyfriend. Also, did I mention Jon Hamm is in it?
My grade for the video: A. After checking it out below, be sure and rate it for yourself at top left (you can also compare it with the “Voices Carry” video I’ve embedded further down).
“Charmer” is available in stores now.
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