My 40 Favorite Videos From the First Day of MTV in 1981, Part 1

Featuring many legendary acts — and some you may have never heard of before

I’m writing this on August 1, 2023, which is the 42nd anniversary of the debut of the cable network MTV, which premiered on August 1, 1981.

I was a teenager then, so I was part of the target audience MTV was trying to reach. My local cable company didn’t have the new channel on its Premiere Day, but thankfully they started airing it within a month or so after it launched.

When they did, I was instantly hooked! I quickly became an ‘MTV junkie’ and I remained one until sometime in the mid-1990s, which is when they started moving away from showing music videos and instead began focusing on airing programs — many of which had nothing at all to do with music.

But it wasn’t like that in the early days. Back then they played nothing but music videos — all day long and all night long. For music lovers like me, it was wonderful!

When I was reminded this morning that today is the anniversary of MTV’s debut, I was inspired to look for a list of all the music videos they showed that day. I figured that if there were a dozen or so of them that I liked, I’d share them all in an article here.

A dozen or so, huh? Well, I was way off there!

From my research, I learned that MTV showed 91 different videos that first day. To my surprise, I found that I loved (or at least very strongly liked) close to half of them.

Because there are so many, I’ve decided to split this article into two parts. Many of the videos I’m sharing here are by bands or singers who are very famous but some are by acts you may never have heard of. Don’t let that stop you from watching them, though. They’re here because they’re very awesome!

The videos below are not ranked in order of my personal preferences of them. Instead, I went by the order that they were first shown on MTV.

Ready? Oh, good!

Here are the first 20 of my Top 40 favorites videos from Day 1 of MTV:

Video Killed The Radio Star — The Buggles

The very first video that was shown on MTV. Not long after this song was released, The Buggles (singer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes) briefly became members of the band Yes and recorded the fantastic Drama album with them. They then made one more album together as The Buggles before splitting up.

You Better Run — Pat Benatar

One of many hit songs from Pat Benatar’s legendary Crimes Of Passion album.

You Better You Bet — The Who

The first single from The Who’s album Face Dances, which was their first of two albums with drummer Kenney Jones.

Brass In Pocket —The Pretenders

Probably the first song I ever heard by The Pretenders. SPOILER: This won’t be the last time they show up here.

Take It On The Run — REO Speedwagon

From the band’s wonderful hit album Hi Infidelity. I love the lead guitar solo by Gary Richrath on this one.

History Never Repeats — Split Enz

For several years, Split Enz was much more famous in the UK than they were in the United States. Then MTV came around and gave them a kind of exposure here that they’d never had before. The network did that for many artists from outside of the U.S. and it was a fantastic thing for music lovers like myself here.

Hold On Loosely — 38 Special

I’m not the biggest fan of ‘Southern Rock,’ but I’ve always loved this track.

Keep On Loving You — REO Speedwagon

Hey, it’s REO Speedwagon again! This is one of their most famous ballads. It’s also a very entertaining video — and I’m not just saying that because of the beautiful woman shown frequently throughout it who I had a crush on back then.

Message Of Love — The Pretenders

Hey, it’s The Pretenders again! This is one of my favorites from their Pretenders II album. Each of the members of the band looked like they were having fun here. Plus, they were all incredibly cool-looking in this video — especially bassist Pete Farndon.

Looking For Clues — Robert Palmer

I think this was much more of an ‘MTV hit’ than a radio hit. It’s a very fun video.

Too Late — The Shoes

There’s a very good chance you’re unfamiliar with this great Power Pop band, who have never been quite as popular as they should be. A big part of that is due to problems with the record labels they’ve been on — but that’s too long and complicated of a story to get into here. Anyway, give this song a listen and then check out more by them. Truly a very talented band with a LOT of great songs!

Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around — Stevie Nicks (with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers)

Such a classic! I’ll never get tired of watching this or hearing it.

Lucille — Paul McCartney & Rockestra

This was part of the finale of a benefit concert in 1979 called The Concert for Kampuchea. Onstage with Paul McCartney here doing Little Richard’s classic song “Lucille” are many other well-known musicians, including Robert Plant and Pete Townshend. My favorite part is around 1:27 into it when Pete strolls over to Paul and stands next to him. The looks on Pete’s face are great.

Vengeance — Carly Simon

Not one of the artist’s biggest radio hits but this video used to get shown a lot on MTV. Carly Simon’s probably most famous for her ballads/slow songs, but “Vengeance” showed that she’s also a great rocker at times too.

I Wanna Be A Lifeguard — Blotto

This is another one you may not be familiar with if you weren’t watching MTV in the early 80s. It’s very silly — but it’s supposed to be. The members of Blotto all seemed to be having a lot of fun here. The video makes me smile every time I watch it.

Passion — Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart was the most-played artist on Day #1 of MTV. They showed 11 of his videos that day, including this awesome song from 1980.

Little Sister — Rockpile with Robert Plant

Another performance from The Concert For Kampuchea. Robert Plant and Rockpile sound great here doing Elvis Presley’s hit “Little Sister.”

Tusk — Fleetwood Mac

The title track from the band’s fantastic (and underrated, in my opinion) Tusk album from 1979. I wasn’t crazy about this song when it was first released, but over time it’s become one of my favorites by them.

He Can’t Love You — The Michael Stanley Band

Another song that was more of a hit on MTV than on radio stations — which is a shame, because it’s a great song. It’s also a very fun video! There’s an amusing little story that plays out in it in which the drummer appears to want to jeopardize the romantic relationship the singer has with a woman. He does so by trying to cause serious bodily harm to the singer.

Okay, yes, that’s not a very funny-sounding thing on the surface — -but just watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.

P.S. — My favorite part is probably when the lead guitarist (who is fun to watch throughout the entire video) and the saxophonist are each brought in wheelchairs into the singer’s hospital room and then they each perform their respective guitar and sax solos while in their wheelchairs.

Rapture — Blondie

One of the first mainstream hit songs to contain rapping. It’s a great song and a very cool video.

Part 2 contains another 20 music videos and is now available to read. It features music from David Bowie, The Cars, The Talking Heads, The Tubes, Nick Lowe, Ultravox, and several others. You can get to it by clicking here:

NOTE: To see a list of all the videos that aired during MTV’s first day, the order of how they were played, which ones repeated, etc., check out this very informative article on Wikipedia. Also, if you prefer listening over watching, here is a great Spotify playlist I discovered that contains all of the songs that were featured that day.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Threads, and Goodreads. I’m also the host of the Gotta Pop podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.