Mar. 14: All I need

‘Member that scene from The Jerk? Suddenly bankrupt, Steve Martin’s character is depressed and leaving home:

Well I’m gonna go then. And I don’t need any of this. I don’t need this stuff, and I don’t need you. I don’t need anything except this.

[picks up an ashtray]

And that’s it and that’s the only thing I need, is this. I don’t need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that’s all I need. And this remote control. The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that’s all I need. And these matches. The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control and the paddle ball. And this lamp. The ashtray, this paddle game and the remote control and the lamp and that’s all I need. And that’s all I need too. I don’t need one other thing, not one—I need this. The paddle game, and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches, for sure. And this. And that’s all I need. The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, this magazine and the chair.

[walks outside]

And I don’t need one other thing, except my dog.

[dog barks]

I don’t need my dog.

Great scene.

A song popped into my head this morning, and suddenly it was all *I* needed. It was surprisingly easy to find the mp3, too, and I share it with you below, because I want you to take a trip down Memory Lane with me.

Journey back with me to 1985, when General Hospital was one of the hottest soaps on television, and Frisco Jones was the dreamboat that made it so. Oh, KNOCK IT OFF. I know you remember. If you’re anywhere close to my age, you watched it too. We all did. It was us who made Jack Wagner the one-hit wonder he became with “All I Need,” one of the hottest singles from that year.

 

Right-click to download ‘All I Need’—you know you want to

 

I started to tell Victor about how I had recorded “All I Need” off the radio and that’s the only way I ever heard it, but then I remembered that while I had taped it off the radio, eventually I bought the cassette of the entire album. Yep. I was one of those fans. I wasted $7.99 on that piece of crap tape for one song. At least it was a good song. Gotta love those big rock ballads.

I don’t recall which of my classmates I was pining away for at the time, but even though this is not a song about unrequited love, I somehow made it work. “All I Need” became my anthem for that year. Ah, the things a teen can do with love. Or, more specifically, “love.”

Kissing you is not what I had planned
And now I’m not so sure just where I stand
I wasn’t looking for true love
But now you’re looking at me
You’re the only one I can think of
You’re the only one I see

CHORUS:
All I need
Is just a little more time
To be sure what I feel
Isn’t all in my mind
‘Cause it seems so hard to believe
That you’re all I need

Yes, it’s true we’ve all been hurt before
But it doesn’t seem to matter anymore
It may be a chance we’re taking
But it always comes to this
If this isn’t love we’re making
Then I don’t know what it is

All I need
Is just a little more time
To be sure what I feel
Isn’t all in my mind
‘Cause it seems so hard to believe

No stars are out tonight
But we’re shining our own light
And it’s never felt so right
‘Cause girl, the way I’m feeling
It’s easy to believe
That you’re all I need

Ahhhh
You’re all I need
Oooooh ahhhh

And looky what I found! A video of Jack Wagner lip-syncing “All I Need” on Solid Gold in 1985:

Nice hair, huh?

Here’s a more recent video of Jack Wagner actually singing. The guy has aged pretty well, and I’m glad to see he got rid of the this-close-to-being-a-member-of-Flock-of-Seagulls hairstyle. In this video, he seems to be having fun and not taking himself too seriously—though the last few seconds are questionable.

 

OK, that’s it for my blast from the past. Now all I need is some brain bleach to get that 1985 hairstyle out of my head, as well as the pathetic memory of what an idiot I was. The song? It can stay.