All the Way to Heaven - Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew (1986)

In 1986, Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew released their debut full-length album, Oh, My God!. It included such notable tracks as "Play This Only at Night" and this catchy number "All the Way to Heaven", and was critically hailed by Billboard and other similar media for incorporating elements of reggae and gospel music.

However, criticism was drawn amongst the rap community when this Doug E. Fresh video depicted his red Bally's shooting down a pair of black Adidas sneakers. If one recalls, Adidas was an iconic image of Run-DMC as Fresh labeled them in song (@ 0:28 sec.) "...a new corporation around the block, that didn't want the Get Fresh Crew to rock". Thankfully ...no casualties.

Rap in it's infancy stages, the video has plenty of entertaining elements, the beat-box master himself, scratching lp's, a pounding bass track, dancing girls (the one in white reminds me of my wife's business attire when she first started her job @ 2:28 sec) . But I can't understand why feature talk-show host Joe Franklin, one does wonder.

It's the authors opinion that rap music has started on the right track, with a bright future but somewhere along the line ...that train has derailed.

Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield (1968)

"Son of a Preacher Man" is a song, recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1968 and featured on the album, Dusty in Memphis. This song is about a young girl who sneaks away with her famly preacher's son every time they come to visit. Billy Ray, AKA The 'Son of a Preacher Man' woos her and teaches her about love. He is the only boy she has ever loved.

"Son of a Preacher Man" was originally offered to Aretha Franklin, who turned it down. It was only upon hearing Springfield's version that Franklin reconsidered and recorded the song herself. By that time, however, Springfield's version had already become a hit; thus, Franklin's version, included on her 1970 album, This Girl's In Love With You, charted only as a tag-along b-side of the single, "Call Me" .

"Son of a Preacher Man" was to be the last major chart hit for Dusty for almost 20 years until she teamed up with Pet Shop Boys for the single "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"

One has to admit, Dusty does a great job of performing this song live, as shown above.

Just Like Heaven - The Cure (1987)

"Just like Heaven" is a song by the British New Wave The Cure. The lyrics were written by the band's frontman Robert Smith who was later quoted,

"The song is about hyperventilating—kissing and fainting to the floor." The lyrics were inspired by a trip with his then-girlfriend (and later wife) Mary Poole to Beachy Head in southern England. Smith said the opening line of the song ("Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick") refers to his childhood memories of mastering magic tricks, but added "on another level, it's about a seduction trick, from much later in my life".

"Just like Heaven" was the third single released from the band's 1987 album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. The song became The Cure's first American hit, it has been highly praised by critics and covered by other artists as well; vocalist Smith has said he considers "Just like Heaven" to be the band's strongest song.

Dreamlover - Mariah Carey (1993)

"Dreamlover" is a song written (more like plagiarize) and produced by American singer Mariah Carey, Dave Hall and Walter Afanasieff, and is built around a sample of The Emotions' "Blind Alley". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exO0VaLWw0o

It was released as the first single from LP "Music Box" in 1993 and marked the start of a trend of Carey's to use samples of other talents recordings as backbones for lead singles for her studio albums.

"Dreamlover" became Carey's seventh number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 and was easily her biggest hit in the U.S. at the time.