80’s Flashback

Thomas Dolby, Hyperactive, 1984. My favorite Dolby track, he originally wrote this for Michael Jackson, but recorded it himself when Jackson was unresponsive to the demo tape. Thanks perhaps to its very trippy video, Hyperactive was Dolby’s biggest hit in the UK, topping out at #17, at #62 here. Interestingly, that’s a reverse of what happened with She Blinded Me With Science, which was a #5 smash here, but only reached #49 in the UK. Hyperactive is from Dolby’s second album, The Flat Earth, which included a fantastic cover of Dan Hicks’, I Scare Myself. These days Dolby owns a successful ringtone company and is the musical director of the genius-heavy TED conferences.