Best Music Movies of 1985

Filmed and recorded towards the tail end of 'The World Slavery Tour' over a record breaking four sold out nights at Los Angeles' 13,200 capacity Long Beach Arena. Featuring tracks from their first five albums.

Live Aid was held on 13 July 1985, simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, and the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, United States. It was one of the largest scale satellite link-ups and television broadcasts of all time: watched live by an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion, across 150 nations. "It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for Live Aid...!"

Janey is new in town, and soon meets Lynne, who shares her passion for dancing in general, and "Dance TV" in particular. When a competition is announced to find a new Dance TV regular couple, Janey and Lynne are determined to audition. The only problem is that Janey's father doesn't approve of that kind of thing.

1. First and Last and Always 2. Body and Soul 3. Marian 4. No Time to Cry 5. Walk Away 6. Possession 7. Emma 8. Amphetamine Logic 9. A Rock and a hard Place 10. Floorshow 11. Alice 12. Fix 13. Knocking on Heaven's Door

“Prince and the Revolution: Live” is a legendary concert filmed toward the end of Prince's “Purple Rain” tour in Syracuse, NY on March 30, 1985. The performance has Prince at the height of his powers, backed by the classic Revolution lineup of Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Matt Fink, Mark Brown, Eric Leeds, and Bobby Z. The 20-song set features: Let's Go Crazy, Delirious, 1999, Little Red Corvette, Take Me With U, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Do Me Baby, Irresistible Bitch, Possessed, How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore, Let's Pretend We Are Married, International Lover, God, Computer Blue, Darling Nikki, The Beautiful Ones, When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm A Star, and Purple Rain.

This classic concert show featuring Carl Perkins, the godfather of rock 'n' roll, with a superstar cast recorded at London's Limehouse Studios in 1985. Guitar, vocals - Carl Perkins, Eric Clapton, George Harrison / Drums, vocals - Ringo Starr / Bass - Greg Perkins, John David / Double Bass - Lee Rocker / Drums - Dave Charles, Slim Jim Ghost / Guitar - Earl Slick, Mickey Gee / Guitar, Vocal, Producer [Music], Directed by - Dave Edmunds / Piano - Gearing Watkins / Singing - Rosanne Cash

A documentary which shows, in great detail, the making of the 1985 Bernstein-conducted recording of the entire score of "West Side Story", featuring operatic stars.

British rock's greatest entertainers play to more than 300,000 people in Rio, Brazil, headlining the first Rock in Rio festival in January 1985.

A documentary film about dancing on the screen, from it's orgins after the invention of the movie camera, over the movie musical from the late 20s, 30s, 40s 50s and 60s up to the break dance and the music videos from the 80s.

The story of Patsy Cline, the velvet-voiced country music singer who died in a tragic plane crash at the height of her fame.

A short documentary about B.B. King and his time working on the score for the 1985 movie "Into the Night" starring Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer.

We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song is a documentary which examines how the song was written, how producer Quincy Jones and songwriters Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie persuaded some of the most popular performers in America to donate their services to the project, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the marathon recording session that produced the single.

First video release by Depeche Mode, featuring almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour, in Hamburg, Germany on December 14, 1984.

Queen rock the National Yoyogi Stadium in this 1985 performance. 1. Opening 2. Tear It Up 3. Tie Your Mother Down 4. Under Pressure 5. Somebody To Love - Medley Killer Queen - Seven Seas Of Rhye - Keep Yourself Alive - Liar - Vocal Solo 6. It's A Hard Life 7. Now I'm Here 8. Is This The World We Created? 9. Love Of My Life 10. Another One Bites The Dust 11.Hammer To Fall 12. Crazy Little Thing Called Love 13. Bohemian Rhapsody 14. Radio Ga Ga 15. I Want To Break Free 16. Jailhouse Rock 17. We Will Rock You 18. We Are The Champions 19. God Save The Queen

Big Bird is sent to live far from Sesame Street by a pesky social worker. Unhappy, Big Bird runs away from his foster home, prompting the rest of the Sesame Street gang to go on a cross-country journey to find him.

Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour contains the concert footage from The Virgin Tour, filmed at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on May 25, 1985. Madonna launched her first major concert tour in support of her album Like a Virgin, and this video captures the Material Girl on-stage, baring her famous tummy and dancing up a storm as she belts out a set of hits from her first two albums.

Crumb director Terry Zwigoff’s first film is a true treat: a documentary about the obscure country-blues musician and idiosyncratic visual artist Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, member of the last known black string band in America. As beguiling a raconteur as he is a performer, Louie makes for a wildly entertaining movie subject, and Zwigoff honors him with an unsentimental but endlessly affectionate tribute. Full of infectious music and comedy, Louie Bluie is a humane evocation of the kind of pop-cultural marginalia that Zwigoff would continue to excavate in the coming years.

Russell Walker is a young, successful manager of rap performers, handling acts for the Krush Groove label, including Run-DMC and The Fat Boys. When Run-D.M.C. has a hit record and Russell needs more money to press more copies, he borrows it from a street hustler and soon regrets his decision.

Call my name, and I'll be there. Dr. Duran Duran escapes the punishment of the Matmos at the height of British rock group Duran Duran's 1980s popularity. Mistaking the cries of teenage girls at crowded concerts for devotees screaming his name, the Doctor makes his way to Earth so he can lead his faithful masses. Once he discovers the kids don't want an evil Doctor, he goes about trying to destroy the source of the real desires a rock concert taking place at the Oakland (Calif.) Colesium.

Bring on the Night is a 1985 documentary film, that focuses on the jazz-inspired project and band led by the British musician Sting during the early stages of his solo career. Some of the songs, whose recording sessions are featured in the film, appeared on his debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Each musician in the band through the course of the film is interviewed.

A biography of the American rock band The Beach Boys, with interviews, concert footage and clips from movies and television shows they appeared in.

This in-depth examination of the life and career of clarinetist and bandleader Artie Shaw cuts between archival footage, location shots, and an interview with Shaw himself. Berman illustrates the tumultuous, complicated, and remarkable legacy of a man who brought numerous innovations to jazz and swing music during the big-band era.

Ronnie Scott’s opened in 1959 to provide a place where British Jazz musicians could jam. Eventually, American music musicians such as Johnny Griffin, Roland Kirk, Al Cohn, Stan Getz, Sony Stitt, Benny Golson, Donald Byrd, and Ben Webster played at the club making it the legendary Jazz club it is today. Today, the club still books the greatest Jazz acts in the world, but also plays host to such diverse musicians as the talented Nina Simone. This film features Nina Simone (vocals, piano) delivering an intense emotional performance at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s in Soho, London on November 17, 1985. Simone is an eclectic musician, who adds a soulful mystique to whatever material she interprets. This brilliant performance at Ronnie Scott’s is testament to this fact.

Oakland bluesman Sonny Rhodes sings “Cigarette Blues”: a musical warning that compares cigarette smoking with playing with a loaded gun.

He soared to the heights of stardom in the '80s as a teen idol, a soap star on "General Hospital," and a platinum-selling, Grammy-Award winning music artist. This concert event showcases the energy and vitality that propelled Springfield to the top of the pop charts, filled with spectacular live footage, giant projection screens, integrated music videos, and thousands of adoring fans. It's an unforgettable evening with one of the hottest performers of the '80s! Songs: Don't Walk Away, Alyson, Living in Oz, Affair of the Heart, Celebrate Youth, Human Touch, My Father's Chair, Jessie's Girl, State of the Heart, Bop 'Til You Drop, Don't Talk to Strangers, Love Somebody, Souls, Dance This World Away, Stand Up.

Get back to the Boogie-Woogie/R&B roots with the boys performing classic cover tunes such as "Poor Boy Boogie," "Saturday Night," "Let's Talk It Over," "All Night Long," "Baby Please Don't Go," "Chicken Shack Boogie," and "You Never Can Tell." Also included: a 30-minute documentary, The Making of 'Willie and The Poor Boys'.

Recorded live at the Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, Japan on October 17, 1984. Lineup: Vocals/Guitar: Robert Smith. Keyboard/Guitar/Sax: Porl Thompson. Keyboard: Laurence Tolhurst. Bass: Phil Thornalley. Drums: Andy Anderson.

Salsa singer screws over everybody on his way to the top; when his latest record flops, his career starts doing downhill.

This very special program-hosted by Judy's daughter, Lorna Luft-is a loving tribute to the life and timeless popularity of superstar Judy Garland, who began as a small-time vaudeville act and grew up to be one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Featuring the fond reminiscences of many family and friends, this show is filled with some of Judy's finest filmed performances. Includes the legendary performer singing-on her own and with stars such as Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, Liza Minnelli, and Tony Bennett-several of her greatest songs such as The Man That Got Away, Swanee, San Francisco. Chicago, Over the Rainbow, and many more.

Get Out of My Room, was a mockumentary in the style of This Is Spinal Tap, written and directed by Cheech Marin. In the film, he and Tommy Chong are shown attempting to finish a "video album" for their novelty record Get Out of My Room.

A mockumentary that depicts the final concert of Yosh and Stan Shmenge aka the Happy Wanderers.

Experimental short film starring Lung Leg and a worm.

Night Magic, a musical fantasy, is set on earth but it is also about the heavens. At the centre of it all is Michael, a music hall artist, who finds Judy, an angel that epitomizes the woman of his dreams at the System Theatre where he is about to open his new show. For Michael it is just another show along the road but once inside something happens. The night is full of possibilities- full of love and romance, jealousy and infidelity, music and dance, even good and evil. Most of all it is full of magic.

It's just a simple stretch of interviews and images capturing the people who camp out, dope up, drink up, sometimes get naked, and jump into a nearby waterfall, whilst listening to musicians like Daniel Johnston.

Eight young people from Ohio who are dancers, come to New York, to compete in a major talent competition. But when they get there, they learn that they have to wait some time before they take part in it. So they try to do their best to survive in the Big Apple before competition, and get some lessons about the real World.

Cocky cockney snooker player Billy Kid accepts the challenge of a grudge match from Maxwell Randall (the Green Baize Vampire), six times world champion; the loser will never play professional snooker again.

Sometimes she's too big. Or much too small. Sometimes things are backwards. And there's always too much pepper in the soup! Nothing is quite right since Alice chased a very unusual White Rabbit and stumbled into an adventure that grows curiouser and curiouser. One of the greatest childhood fantasies is captured in Irwin Allen's colorful production adapted from Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." The stellar cast features dozens of Hollywood's and Broadway's biggest names. Originally aired over two nights in 1985 on CBS.

A hard rock band travels to the tiny and remote town of Grand Guignol to perform. Peopled by hicks, rubes, werewolves, murderous dwarves, sex perverts, and Hitler, the town is a strange place but that doesn't stop the band's lead singer from falling in love with a local girl named Cassie. After Nazi sex perverts kill the band to satisfy their lusts, Cassie calls the rockers back from the grave to save her, the town, and maybe the world.

A husband and wife living in a village on the eastern most part of Iceland visit their actor friends.

An ex-con and break-dancer helps save a neighborhood from a greedy developer while trying to win a rap contest.

A musical oddessy through the heart of Africa in search of the roots of Rock & Roll.

This 58 minute DVD video is one of the Dead Kennedy's last ever live concerts, captured on film just months before their breakup in 1984. This 14-song performance at San Francisco's On Broadway catches Jello and company at the height of their punk powers.

Royal Command performance, recorded live November 4, 1985. Songs include Burn For You, Kiss The Dirt, Dancing On The Jetty, The One Thing, This Time, Shine Like It Does, Listen Like Thieves, What You Need, One By One, Original Sin, and Don't Change.

A film about the joys, affection and rivalry in a childrens' singing camp.

This intimate portrait of the legendary conductor Seiji Ozawa focuses on the Japanese master and teacher's career, his advocacy of modern composers and the behind-the-scenes world of the symphony orchestra.

In 1985, Bo Diddley put together a band that included Ron Wood, John Mayall, Mick Fleetwood, Kenny Jones, Carmine Appice, John Lodge, Ronnie Lane, Carl Wilson, and members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Chicago, Quiet Riot, and Three Dog Night. He cooked them all a barbecue dinner, and then they put on a show. It's a 55-minute Rand B jamfest.

This incredibly rare concert has only ever been released in Japan, making this collection a must-have for Sinatra fans. Entering his 70th year, Ol' Blue Eyes never sounded better.

A 5 song concert filmed at Budokan Hall on December 15th, 1975.

Amir, shot during the height of the Afghan civil war in the 1980s, investigates and portrays the life of Afghan refugees living in and around the city of Peshawar in northern Pakistan through the experiences of the musician Amir. The aspirations of Afghan refugees are expressed through their political songs dealing with the civil war in Afghanistan, with exile, with Afghan nationalism and with the Islamic revolution. In highly charged and tragic circumstances, music can be used in very direct ways, both to promote solidarity and as an agent of catharsis.