Like, Ohmigawd!

Moon Unit Zappa turns 40 today.



After this song hit the charts in the Spring of 1982, my classmates in Singapore went from ridiculing my "California Speak" (I was from NorCal, which is a different sort of Val-talk, but I was fond of "bitchen","gnarly", and "bogus") to saying "grody to the max", "gag me with a spoon" and the rest. The whole Valley Girl phenomenon lasted less than one year, and had pretty much passed by the time the movie was released in 1983.

I didn't get around to watching Valley Girl until a few years later when it was a mainstay on HBO, and I was surprised at how good it was. The casting of Nick Cage as Randy, the "bad boy" from Hollywood, and Deborah Foremen as Julie the valley girl was inspired, and the soundtrack was great. It was such a low budget movie that they didn't release a soundtrack album, but Rhino licensed all the songs for an ex post facto soundtrack in the early 90s.

A few songs that appear on that soundtrack are still not available elsewhere on CD (like "Girls Like Me" by Bonnie Hayes from the opening credits), a few are "80s staples" like "I Melt With You" and "A Million Miles Away", and the live sequence with the Plimsouls is one of my favorite live sequences from a movie, like ever.

For Moon's 40th birthday, here are a few songs from the Valley Girl soundtrack. I tried to focus on songs by girls, but the Sparks contribution is one of my favorites by them, and largely unknown outside of their hardcore fanbase.

Songs from Valley Girl:

1. Bonnie Hayes & the Wild Combo - Girls Like Me
2. The Flirts - Jukebox (Don't Put Another Dime)
3. Josie Cotton - Johnny Are You Queer?
4. Sparks - Eaten By The Monster of Love