Today’s classic early MTV song of the day is “Mickey” by Toni Basil, the one with the sing-song cheerleader chant “Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey!” “Mickey” was released as a single in January of 1982, just a few months after the August 1981 launch of the MTV channel, and the accompanying video got a ton of MTV airplay. The single itself rocketed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Cash Box Top 100. The song also topped the charts in Canada and Australia.
“Mickey” was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who produced a string of hit singles in the ’70s and early ’80s for artists like Sweet, Suzi Quattro, and Huey Lewis & the News. The song was originally recorded (under the title “Kitty”) by a British group called Racey. Ms. Basil picked it up for the first single from her debut album, Word of Mouth, and added the “Oh Mickey you’re so fine” chant that made the song.
The song itself is a perfect early-80s mix of power pop and New Wave, with copious amounts of Farfisa combo organ. It’s catchy as hell; bet you can’t get it out of your head today, can you?
The video starred and was choreographed by Toni Basil herself. The cheerleaders in the video were from Dorsey High in Los Angeles; Ms. Basil wore her own own head cheerleader uniform from her alma mater, Las Vegas High School.
Before deciding to try her hand as a recording artist, Ms. Basil made her bones as a dancer and choreographer on Shindig! and other TV shows, as well as movies like Pajama Party and Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas. Later in her career she served as choreographer on Peggy Sue Got Married, Legally Blonde, and one of my favorite films, That Thing You Do!
For all the attention and success, “Mickey” was a definite one-hit wonder; Ms. Basil only released one more album after Word of Mouth and it didn’t chart. Still, we’ll always have “Mickey” and the hundreds (if not thousands) of performances she choreographed. She’s still alive today, although probably not doing much dancing, at age 80.
