Friday Night Videos: Missing Persons - Destination Unknown

Good evening wavers! It's time once again for our retro 80s music video showcase named after the popular Friday Night Videos program that had us all up late, mostly without our parents permission.

Let's soak up some early 80s rock and roll philosophy:

Life is so strange when you don't know
How can you tell where you're going to
You can't be sure of any situation
Something could change and then you won't know

Ask yourself
Where do we go from here
It seems so all to near
Just as far beyond as I can see
I still don't know what this all means to me

Tell yourself
I have nowhere to go
I don't know what to do
And I don't even know the time of day
I guess it doesn't matter any way

All so true.

Even though a lot of people never showed it, we were all scared idiots during our teenage years. I myself was an awkward geeky kind of guy who could have used a ample dose of self confidence. I guess that's why I latched on to Missing Person's album Spring Session M. The record was loaded with tracks about being kinda different and the struggles of trying to pin down just who you are and how you fit in.

Check out more Missing Persons music and much more in our Cafe 80s It's Electric playlist on Spotify.

Tonight's track Destination Unknown exemplifies all of these awkward teenage feelings that followed most people right into adulthood.

Who the heck am I and where the heck am I going.


Here is some history:

"Destination Unknown" is a song by American band Missing Persons. It was written by Dale Bozzio, Terry Bozzio, and Warren Cuccurullo with production by Ken Scott. Originally released on the band's self-titled EP (1980), the song was released as a single in September 1982 and appeared on their debut studio album Spring Session M (1982).

 In the United States, it was a minor hit spending 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, narrowly missing the Top 40 by peaking at #42 in November 1982.

Here is your bonus video for the song Words:




In 1980 the band was a trio consisting of Bozzio, Bozzio and Cuccurullo. Augmented by session musicians, the group made its first record, a 4-song EP entitled Missing Persons, in Zappa's brand-new Utility Muffin Research Kitchen studios; the recording was financed by Cuccurullo's father. The band toured, promoted the EP, appeared in the movie Lunch Wagon (1981), and became a must-see band among the Los Angeles live music crowd. "Mental Hopscotch" was a No. 1 record on local radio station KROQ-FM, and the self-promoted EP sold 7,000 copies. 

 Two years of hard work led up to a signing with Capitol Records in 1982. With label support, the re-released 4-song EP—with the song "Words" replacing the Doors cover "Hello, I Love You"—sold another 250,000 units. The band also added Wild and O'Hearn to the line up, and recorded a new full-length album Spring Session M (1982), the title of which was an anagram of 'Missing Persons'. The album included both "Words" and "Destination Unknown" from the initial EP, and went gold. 

 Spring Session M spun off four singles: "Destination Unknown", "Words", "Walking in L.A.", and "Windows", all of which made the Billboard Hot 100, although none charted higher than #42. The band did experience considerable success in the local markets of Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. As well, the visual effects used in the music video for "Words" were unusual for the time, making it popular on the fledgling cable TV channel MTV. 

 Missing Persons appeared at a three-day Southern California concert known as the US Festival, in 1983, along with David Bowie, the Pretenders, U2 and Stevie Nicks.

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