Since our look at the best songs about motorcycles we’ve been wondering about the best appearances of motorcycles in music videos.
Because we like nothing better than providing you with the most comprehensive information about The Best Form Of Transport Ever Invented, we’ve trawled the web to seek out the best, the worst and the weirdest motorcycles in music promos.
Join us as we consider what happens when musicians make mini motorcycle movies. Here are our first 10 choices, but we’ve got plenty more lined up that we’ll share in the coming weeks.
1. Musical Motorcycles – Cachito Cha Cha Cha
While it’s difficult to be entirely sure, this is a pretty good candidate for being the first use of motorcycles in a musical film, kinda.
It was produced for the Scopitone film jukebox system, which was pretty popular in the country of its birth, France, but never entirely took off here.
This was mostly down to its irredeemably naff roster of music, at a time when groovy young things were wigging out to the fab and gear sounds of acts like Freddie and the Dreamers, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Titch and Cilla Black. Nonetheless, this is a pretty sweet clip for lovers of classic bikes.
2. Meatloaf – Bat out of Hell
Obviously this is a key entry in the grand canon of motorcycle songs, and the cover of the album it comes from is also insanely iconic, with its depiction of a barbarian-like figure straddling a motorcycle as it bursts out of the grave in a flash of light.
It’s no surprise that they tried to recreate this image when they shot the promo film to accompany the song, but the problem of trying to bring something so epic to life is you need a blockbuster movie budget.
So what starts off as Conan dry-humping Satan’s chopper becomes some dude gingerly wobbling through some gravestones. Still, nice try!
3. Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
In 1974, Queen helped kickstart the music video revolution with their promo for Bohemian Rhapsody.
In 1980, just before the video craze went mainstream with the launch of MTV, they continued their groundbreaking streak by including a motorcycle in the clip for Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Admittedly it doesn’t do much, but it’s the thought that counts.
4. Motörhead – Killed by Death
This is more like it. This is the good stuff, right here. Motörhead are a biker’s band to their core, and Killed By Death is one of the crown jewels of motorcycle videos.
Not only does it feature Lemmy driving a motorcycle through a wall to steal your sexy daughter, it also sees him escaping death itself by bursting out of a grave on his motorcycle.
In your face, Meatloaf! The video was directed by Ron Swenson, manager of cult punk band the Plasmatics, and ended up being banned by MTV because of its “excessive violence”. What a bunch of lamewads.
5. Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Tears for Fears were part of the second wave of synthpop that transformed the charts in the early 1980s.
One of the least bike friendly genres in the world, it’s no surprise that it didn’t provide us with many great motorcycle videos.
This is about as good as it gets, with singer/bassist Curt driving around Southern California.
As it’s pretty much the spiritual home of engine culture it’d be surprising if motorcycles weren’t featured, and indeed they’re there.
It’s just a few quick shots of people driving around the California desert, with a very On any Sunday vibe, but it’s still pretty cool.
6. Judas Priest – Turbo Lover
Judas Priest are one of the most motorcycling-est bands in the world, with singer Rob Halford often riding a motorcycle on stage at the climax of their gigs (he’s had two accidents doing that down the years, so he doesn’t do it all the time).
But in video terms, they motorcycle game weak. 1985’s Turbo Lover is probably their bikingest video, as well as being one of the most 80s things ever committed to videotape.
Eye-searing video effects, clumsy stop-motion animation, mullets and shoulder pads you could land a Chinook on.
Possibly the best Judas Priest/motorcycle video wasn’t even made by the band, but by fan and biker Bob Goldman, and his buddies, back in 1984.
Lots of people who’d just got video cameras were doing stuff like this back in the day, but it’s still a surprise when they turn up in our strange futuristic hellscape.
7. Michael Jackson – Speed Demon
1988 was probably the height of Michael Jackson’s popularity. Bad, a 10-track album, had been released the previous year and would go on to have nine of its songs issued as singles.
His videos were – are, still – some of the best ever made, so it’s no surprise that he tried to make the move into the world of cinema.
Of course Moonwalker, the resulting film, was pretty terrible and, with hindsight, somewhat creepy. It’s essentially a selection of long-form music videos with a very slight plot holding it all together.
In the mid-late 80s people were going nuts for claymation, so it was inevitable that the king of pop jumped on this trend, hiring the guy behind the California Raisins to animate Speed Demon, which was the only song on Bad not to be released separately.
In this segment, MJ escapes from clay paparazzi by dressing as a rabbit and skedaddling on a motorcycle, before having a dance-off with the animated rabbit costume.
It also features claymation versions of the McCrary Twins, known to most as those fat lads on the mopeds.
It’s not as good as the bit where he turns into a car, which itself pales in comparison with the bit where he turns into a robot which turns into a spaceship, but at least he was trying.
8. Mötley Crüe – Girls Girls Girls
While we’re talking about the weird excesses of the eighties, here’s Mötley Crüe.
The band that decided they deserved not one but two umlauts in their name would have written the book on excess, but they were far too busy having a good time.
Girls Girls Girls is, as the name suggests, a thoughtful meditation on the successes and failures of second-wave feminism.
The video features the Crüe driving from strip club to strip club on their motorcycles, being obnoxious.
9. Salad – Motorbike to Heaven
The nineties! Britpop! Parklife! Marvellous, wasn’t it? Yeah, it was alright. Not big ones for motorcycles in videos though, the Britpoppers.
Kind of a surprising turn of events, considering how much of the Mod’s style they were biting. One exception to this were early runners Salad.
Their single Motorbike to Heaven features frontwoman Marijne van der Vlugt riding a lovely Norton while wearing a lovely vinyl catsuit.
It also has plenty of shots filmed in a motorway cafe, if you want to see what they looked like in the 90s. And why wouldn’t you? No seriously why wouldn’t you. Answer me.
10. Fugees – Ready or Not
While the UK was wearing Adidas sportwear and pretending to be Cockneys, America was having fun with grunge and hip hop.
The Fugees’ Ready or Not has one of the most impressive and expensive videos of the era, costing a cool $1.3 million.
It’s a stunt-filled epic, featuring helicopters, underwater filming and a long motorcycle chase. It’s still impressive to this day, and really demonstrates the kind of money the record industry could throw around back in the 90s.
What have we missed? Make some suggestions and we’ll look to include them in future posts.
