AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Animotion

Artist:Animotion
Song:Obsession
Album:20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of Animotion




You probably all remember Obsession when it was a top ten hit in 1984. The video was all over MTV. But you probably don't know anything about Animotion. They had a second top ten hit with a completely different lineup. Animotion was formed in Los Angeles. Most of the group was in the band Red Zone. That band was Astrid Plane on lead vocals, Paul Antonelli on keyboards, Charles Ottavio on bass and David "Frenchy" O'Brien on drums. Red Zone was an attempt at space rock. When that didn't work out, Animotion was formed with the addition of lead singer Bill Wadhams and guitarist Don Kirkpatrick. Antonelli wanted to record synth pop which was becoming popular. They signed with Mercury Records and released their 1984 album Animotion. The album was produced by John Ryan who had produced Styx among others. Obsession reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though Wadhams wrote most of the songs on the album, Obsession was a cover. It was written and recorded by Holly Knight and Michael Des Barres for the 1983 film A Night In Heaven. Holly was lead singer of Spider. But she has had a lot of success as a songwriter usually with veteran producer Mike Chapman. Her hits include Love Is A Battlefield and Warrior. Des Barres started out as lead singer of the 70s group Detective and he replaced Robert Palmer in the Duran Duran spinoff group Power Station. But he would go on to have success as an actor especially as Murdoc in the series McGyver. A second single Let Him Go reached the top 40. Antonelli and O'Brien left and were replaced by Greg Smith and Jim Blair for the 1986 album Strange Behavior. When the album didn't do well, Animotion split up. Wadhams left because PolyGram wouldn't let him write songs anymore. Ottavio and Plane had married and they left. That left Kirkpatrick and Smith. Actress Cynthia Rhodes was brought in. She was in Dirty Dancing. Paul Engemann who was lead singer of Holly Knight's band Device was also brought in. When the single Room To Move from the 1989 film My Stepmother Was An Alien reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, Animotion recorded an album produced mostly by Steve Barri. Then Animotion split up. You can get all their hits on this comp. Plane, Wadhams, Smith and Kirkpatrick reformed Animotion in 2001. They continue to tour and an album was released last year. Here's the video for Obsession by Animotion.