Just a Gigolo

And no matter what, whether you liked his music or not, or his moves, or his whole attitude or anything like that, uh, he, he definitely had that thing about being a showman, and that's really the, the main thing that, uh, I think carried him, carried him through.

Um, and then he started doing stuff like Just a Gigolo, stuff like that, um, sort of solo and which was campy, you know, in, in many ways, and very much a departure from Van Halen.

Uh, but yeah, you share a birthday with David Lee Roth here on this October the 10th.

Also, uh, we got one more.

On January 28th, 1985, David Lee Roth put out a four-track EP of classic covers.

Crazy from the Heat included a seductive rendition of Easy Street, a flamboyant undertaking of Just a Gigolo, I Ain't Got Nobody, a swashbuckling take on California Girls, and an emotive effort of Coconut Grove.

None of the three other Van Halen members would appear on the compilation.

Which was noteworthy, considering the band had a policy that none of the members could produce work outside the confines of the VH insignia.

But Roth’s Crazy from the Heat was not offering a guitar bit as a favor.

This was a well-thought-out musical endeavor that allowed Diamond Dave to scratch an itch Van Halen never allowed him to reach.

The guys loved doing covers, don’t get me wrong, but Dave’s Just a Gigolo and California Girls sounded much different than Van Halen’s takes on The Kinks classics You Really Got Me and Where Have All the Good Times Gone? And another key difference was that Roth benefited from this cover catalog in more ways than one.

With his grinning mug plastered all over MTV without the opposing shadow of Eddie Van Halen blocking the spotlight, mind you, Roth’s star was shining brighter than ever.

Yep.

He did a video for California Girls and then Just a Gigolo as well.

Yeah, that's a pretty good video as well.

I actually like Coconut Grove as well.

Keeping in mind that he was generally pretty positive on Van Halen, although it was always like backhanded compliments.

Um, which to the, to this point, he starts crazy from the heat with, uh, since I'm a person of broader culture than the average Van Halen fan.

And he says, uh, anyway, so since I'm a, I'm a person of broader culture than the average Van Halen fan, it didn't smash my preconceptions to hear him cover the beach boys and the spoonful and Dan Hartman and just a gigolo.

It just irritated me.

Okay, I'm going to end on this track by Louis Prima.

This is just a gigolo.

This has been great.

Thank you very much.

Nice.

And they beat out The Eurythmics' Would I Lie to You, David Lee Ross' Just a Gigolo, Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark, and at least MTV had it right because they also beat out USA for Africa, We Are the World in that category.

Yeah.

Dancing in the dark is a pretty memorable music video.

All

anybody remembers is Goldfine doing Just a Gigolo as Borat.

Yes, correct.

By the way, I think that led to him getting set up with who he ended up being his future wife, because Michelle Katrick was like, I'm going to set him up, you know, after seeing him do that.