This track was long overdue for my OHWW. It was recorded in 1979 by a couple pioneers of the music scene - Trevor Horne and Geoff Downe - and it was the very first video aired on MTV at 12:01 am on August 1, 1981. The video was shot by one of the most in demand directors of the decade, Russell Mulcahy, who is also responsible for some of Duran Duran's most iconic videos (including Planet Earth, Hungry Like the Wolf and Rio). While undeniably catchy, Video Killed The Radio Star never broke the top 40 on the Billboard charts in the U.S., even though it reached #1 on the charts in 16 other countries. That didn't stop it from being an omen of things to come by introducing musical irony and the heavy synth-pop sound to the 80s repertoire. Videos didn't really succeed in killing the radio stars, but it could be argued that when MTV moved away from it's all video format in 1987 (and spawned VH-1 to satisfy us video junkies who used to sit glued to the television for hours on end waiting for "that" video to play) that the network ended up killing the video star it had itself created. Hey, you can't blame everything on the VCR...