OK, "Come on, Get Happy" — otherwise known as the Partridge Family Theme Song — is from the '70s, not the '80s. But if you were listening to music in the 80s, you have to admit that a lot of it was up-tempo, pretty happy stuff. With that in mind, several months ago, the Stuck in the '80s blog asked readers to submit the happiest songs of the '80s. The readers submitted their suggestions and the site winnowed them down to the 80 happiest songs of the 1980s.

I was an adolescent in the '80s, so I'm reasonably familiar with the music of the decade. Consequently, some of the songs that made the list perplex me. For example, I certainly like No. 32 "Jenny 867-5309" (Tommy Tutone) but I don't know that I'd call this song about obsession with a stranger happy. And I probably wouldn't include Cheap Trick's similarly themed "She's Tight" (No. 25). I might be OK with the inclusion of Irene Cara's "What a Feeling" (No. 21) if I didn't associate it with my grandfather's death. But I definitely cannot see the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" in the top 10. I mean, it's a great song, but not the 10th happiest song of the 1980s.

Had I been compiling their list, I would have dictated some basic criteria for inclusion:

1. The lyrics need to be positive and upbeat.
2. The music needs to be light and up-tempo. It should probably make you want to dance.
3. The video (this was the decade of the music video) should reinforce the happiness inherent in the song.

Of course, after being critical, I had to compile my own mini-list of the happiest songs of the '80s. So here they are — in no particular order — starting with the ones the Stuck in the '80s blog got right:

"New Song" – Howard Jones

This was No. 1 on the Stuck in the '80s list, which is higher than I would have rated it. But there's no denying that it is a happy, upbeat, quintessentially '80s song. The video not only features classic '80s hair and clothes, but also includes a chained mime who seems awfully happy to be there.

"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" – Cyndi Lauper

Stuck in the '80s brings this one in at No. 5, and I definitely agree with it's inclusion in the top 10. This was Cyndi Lauper's first big hit, and its title spawned a happy movie with Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

And the video, featuring her real-life mother and wrestler, Captain Lou Albano, was a huge hit and a veritable happy-fest. The irreverence, the dancing, the big party … all of this screams HAPPY. … continue reading

My big regret of the summer Broadway season is that I did not see Xanadu when I had the opportunity to get cheap tickets. It wasn't because I didn't want to see it; it was simply bad timing. Now it's the surprise hit of the summer, selling almost 90 percent of the seats and breaking box office records at the Helen Hayes Theatre. A 2008 tour has just been planned and talks are in place to bring the show to London. So I'm not getting cheap tickets anytime soon.

I'm not entirely certain whether to be happy or sad about the show's success. As I've blogged previously, I want Broadway shows to be good. And, as a general rule, Broadway musical versions of '70s and '80s music-influenced movies are not good. I saw both Footloose and Urban Cowboy and will follow my mother's advice to remain quiet if I do not have anything nice to say. And Saturday Night Fever was reputed to be a train wreck. But Xanadu was so wonderfully bad that its sheer campiness gives it more potential.

The New York Times review opens with the question, "Can a musical be simultaneously indefensible and irresistible?" and then answers, "Why, yes it can." I guess that sums it up pretty well. It's a show that probably shouldn't exist but, given that it does, it redeems itself by being a great deal of fun.

Let's revisit the movie for a moment. … continue reading

TMZ.com isn't exactly known for appreciating older women (or women, period), but over the weekend its minions posted a gallery of stars who are "aged to perfection." It's pretty cool; in fact, it looks like the sort of thing we'd do here at AfterEllen.com. I can only assume there's some sort of weird astrological phenomenon at work. Rather than worry about that, I'll just gaze at the stunning photos — here's a sampling:

Diane Keaton

Angela Bassett (with hubby/date cut out by TMZ, ha ha) … continue reading