Favorite 100 Songs of the 80s: (#78) Toni Basil – Mickey

That drum beat tho.

I don’t care how cheesy and overall meaningless “Mickey” by Toni Basil is. I loved it and its catchy chorus when it hit radio in 1982 as a 11-year old, and I still get down with it today.

I also cherished the music video, which likely was south of $300 to make. The video literally is about cheerleaders. I love cheerleaders. Who doesn’t love cheerleaders? As for the dancing and choreography— Elaine from Seinfeld would be proud.

Being a bit more serious, the chorus is one of the most recognizable of anything I remember from the 80s, and the “Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey” along with the drums was/is as popular as it gets.

Music fans often call tunes a one-hit wonder but more times than not a little research proves it to be not true. In Toni Basil’s case , “Mickey” is a legit-one hit wonder. Forget another hit—I’m not sure Basil ever recorded another song and if she did I never heard it.

Doesn’t matter. “Mickey” is the bomb.

Chart Success: The song was actually released a full year ahead of it becoming a hit in the United States, but once it caught steam it rose all the way to number-one on the Billboard Top 100, where it stayed on the charts for 27 weeks. It finished the year 36^th on the year-end Billboard Top 100.

Great Lyrics: Seriously? Just sing it over and over again for the remainder of eternity.

“Oh Mickey, you’re so fine
You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey,
Hey Mickey

Oh Mickey, you’re so fine
You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey,
Hey Mickey”

Fun Fact: Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn wrote this song. The combo have other 80s hits to their credit, including “Love is a Battlefield” (spoiler: you’ll be seeing that here down the road) and “Ballroom Blitz”. The song was actually recorded as “Kitty” by an unheralded group called Racey. Basil eventually got a hold a hold of the song and changed the title to “Mickey” so it could be about a boy—ironic because the majority of people I know named Mickey are actually female.