Buggles* ‎– Video Killed The Radio Star

Electronic, Pop

Synth-pop

1979

Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. The female 'ooah-ooah' vocals were originally performed by a friend of the Buggles named Tina Charles. (Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes met while playing as auxiliary musicians in her self named band in the mid-1970's.) The tape was messed up during production of the Age of Plastic LP and Ms. Charles was not available for redubbing at the time. Rachel Fury (fairly well known for her work with Pink Floyd) was contacted instead and she performed the vocals for the LP. The women in the video were just stand in actresses, according to Geoff Downes. The drums on the A-side were actually played by Warren Cann, the drummer from 'Ultravox'.

The original single mix is the same as on the Age of Plastic album, but as the main song fades out on the album, a coda fades in, adding 40 seconds to the total duration. A different version of the single mix appears on numerous releases since as early as 1987, and has two main differences from the original: the female vocal "you are the radio star" about ¾ of the way of the way through the song is dry (no reverb), and there is no electric guitar during the fade-out.