Young Turks Tribute to 80s MTV Style 🎶

Young Turks Rod Stewart
A tribute video to the early 80's MTV music videos like Rod Stewart's "Young Turks."
Made by 8th graders that called their band The Surfin' Dudes, even though they lived in Seattle
and never surfed.
©Hunts Point Films

"Young Turks" is a song by Rod Stewart that first appeared in 1981 on his album Tonight I'm Yours. The track presented Stewart backed by a new synthpop and new wave sound, in part influenced by acts like Devo. The term young Turk, which originates from the early 20th-century secular nationalist reform party of the same name, is slang for a rebellious youth who acts contrary to what is deemed normal by society. The actual phrase "young Turks" is in fact never heard in the song, the chorus instead centering on the phrase "young hearts, be free, tonight", leading to the song frequently being misidentified as "Young Hearts" or "Young Hearts Be Free".

The music for the song was composed by Carmine Appice, Duane Hitchings, and Kevin Savigar, with lyrics written by Stewart. The song, which was released as the first US single (second in the UK) from Tonight I’m Yours, was produced with synthesizers and a hi-hat played over a drum machine. On the Billboard Hot 100, "Young Turks" debuted at No. 61 on 17 October 1981 and peaked at No. 5 on 19 December 1981 – 9 January 1982. The song peaked at No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and also was a Top 5 hit in Australia, Belgium, Israel (No. 1) and Canada. Released a few months after MTV went on the air, it was the first video containing breakdancing to be played by that station.

Rod Stewart – lead and backing vocals
Jim Cregan – lead guitar and backing vocals
Jay Davis – bass
Kevin Savigar – synthesizers, clavinet
Duane Hitchings – synthesizers, electric piano
Carmine Appice – drums (hi-hat), Oberheim DMX programming and backing vocals
Linda Lewis - backing vocals

The video, directed by Russell Mulcahy and choreographed by Kenny Ortega, was filmed in the central downtown area of Los Angeles in the summer of 1981. The runaway couple ("Billy", played by Dale Pauley, and "Patti", played by Elizabeth Daily) mentioned in the song is juxtaposed by a group of dancers who seemingly intermix with them throughout the video. About 14 seconds after the start of the video, Billy emerges from one floor above the now long abandoned Licha's Santa Fe Grill, in reality at the northwest corner of 7th and Santa Fe Streets in Los Angeles, and descends a ladder before dropping the last few feet down to the street. A little more than one-third of the way through the song, Billy and Patti are shoved toward the entrance of the Hotel Hayward, in reality at the west corner of 6th and Spring Streets, again in Los Angeles, between a mile and a half and two miles to the northwest. The dancers eventually end up in a railway yard just to the east of the grill, to where the couple has returned and Rod Stewart is singing the last half of the song.

Stewart's videotaped rooftop performance of the song in Los Angeles (different from the aforementioned music video) appeared about one-third of the way through Dick Clark's three-hour American Bandstand 30th Anniversary Special Episode on 30 October 1981

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ41hqlV0Kk