Dirk Diggler did NOT have The Touch

I decided to play a little game the other day: I put Stan Bush into Pandora just to see what would happen.  The results blew me away.

So here is a little post about it.

In case you don’t actually know, Stan Bush was an artist prominently featured on the soundtrack to Transformers: The Movie.  He sang some incredibly appropriate tunes titled The Touch, his own rendition of The Transformers Theme, and my personal favorite, Dare.

I had the fortune of attending Botcon 2007 in Rhode Island where Stan Bush took the stage for the second time at a Botcon festival and boy was it memorable for a variety of reasons which are not the point of this post.

But the truly greatest moment?  When I realized the man himself was standing behind me in the refreshments line with his wife prior to viewing the 2007 Transformers Live Action Movie, before the rest of the world!  When I realized it was him, I thought it might be fun to offer to buy him popcorn.  He respectfully declined, as Stan Bush is a man of class.

Stan Bush as he is meant to be!

Stupid anecdotes aside, I wanted to see just how closely an artist like Stan Bush can be pinpointed by the Pandora engine so I plugged his name in during an afternoon of work and the play list really surprised me. Pretty much every song was from the 1980’s and included that signature sound of the era, super synth.

Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl – The breakdown in this has a synth riff that sounds almost exactly like some of Vince DiCola’s score when the Junkions are rebuilding Ultra Magnus.

Journey – Wow, what can paint a better picture of the scene Stan Bush was probably surrounded by than some of the soft tunes of Journey?  From tracks like Send Here my Love, Frontiers and Lights, fans of Journey in the 80’s didn’t know what they were missing by not rocking out to the slightly lesser-known Stan Bush!

Too cool for old school

Corey Hart – Sunglasses At Night – Seriously, some of the synth going on in this song is so definitive of the 80’s that I can’t hear it without laughing.  This is a super-classic song of the time.  I actually give Mr. Bush a lot more credit than Corey Hart.

Robert Tepper – No Easy Way Out – This song came up 3 out of 3 times I played the Stan Bush / Pandora game.  First off, I was not familiar with this song at all.  When I first heard the opening line, I thought this was some joke song performed by the creators of South Park (no seriously it sounds like an outtake from Team America).  Apparently there is some tie to Stan Bush; my only guess would be that this song is tied to a movie and much of what Stan Bush’s music is remembered for is being tied to a movie as well.

Kenny Loggins – Playing with the Boys – Danger Zone – Footloose – Ah, the king of the 80’s soundtrack.  Mr. Loggins has a catalog of work that no caucasian wedding could live without.  Somehow I don’t find it hard to believe that Stan the man was perhaps stuck in the shadow on this guy back in the midst of 1984 when Loggins was rocking his way to the bank.

Bon Jovi – You Give Love A Bad Name – If I were Stan Bush, I’d be pretty stoaked with some of my Pandora results.  You Give Love A Bad Name is one of the most recognizable songs from this bygone era ever, plus one of Bon Jovi’s biggest hits. I’ve heard countless band try to cover this (what were you thinking Atreyu?) and no one can match the hair and glamour of the original version by Mr. Jovi himself.  I’ll be if you asked Stan Bush, he’d have to admit to covering this song at least once or twice in his life.

Stratovarius – Eagleheart – Who the heck is Stratovarius?  This song came up 3 out of 3 times and it sounds like a song from some bastardized Pokemon movie.  What does this have to do with Stan Bush or the 80’s?  I guess I ought to look into it but I can’t stand the horrible vocals and stupid lyrics of this song.  You might find this band playing the afterpart of your local Magic: The Gathering tournament.  Ok there is some bitching guitar solos in this, but that’s about all I can give it.

Sennen – Falling For You – Wow, where did this gem come from?  This is about as far away from Stan Bush as I think one could get.  This is a contemporary shoe-gaze song that could’ve been a b-side for the Rentals or Silversun Pickups.  I actually loved this!

It literally took me three iterations of going through the Stan Bush / Pandora game before I actually heard some songs by Stan Bush himself!  They were his biggest hits, Dare and The Touch, but at least we can rest assured that Stan Bush will be remembered once the machines destroy us and all that is left is the Pandora.com archive of music to prove man was ever here at all.

A good vinyl or the best vinyl?