Solid Gold

Solid Gold, Filling up my life with music…

Solid Gold was a music and dance show that aired weekly on Saturday nights from 1980-1988. The show supposedly featured the dancers, but I watched to hear the music and to see the guest stars. I do remember making fun of the dancers and mimicking their silly dance moves. Weren’t they always wearing gaudy outfits?

Solid Gold was originally a two hour special in the beginning of 1980. It received such high ratings that it was turned into a weekly series later that year. It went through several different hosts and co-hosts during the eight seasons it was on.

The first host was Dionne Warwick (who is Whitney Houston’s aunt). After Dionne came Marilyn McCoo who I don’t really remember, but I think she was a nice lady. Andy Gibb was also a host but unfortunately this was during one of his worst periods of drug use. He would often show up late to tapings and sometimes not at all. A writer once joked that two shows had to be prepared each week – one if Andy actually showed up and one if he didn’t. Rex Smith was also a host. I believe he replaced Andy. Rex was cute and shot to fame in the coming of age movie Sooner or Later. Rick Dees was also a host. What? Disco, Disco Duck. Try your luck, don’t be a cluck, disco, disco….. I think Arsenio Hall was even a host late in the series.

Other Hosts

Other co-hosts or guests hosts included Glen Campbell, Debbie Harry, Oak Ridge Boys, Chuck Mangione, Ricky Nelson, Bill Cosby, Cliff Richard, Neil Sedaka, Toni Tennille, Bobby Vinton, The Commodores, Paul Anka, Shaun Cassidy, Scott Baio, Grant Goodeve, Air Supply, Tom Wopat, Jack Wagner, Mac Davis, Marie Osmond, John Schneider, David Hasselhoff, Julian Lennon, Latoya Jackson, Roy Clark, Lorenzo Lamas, Stevie Wonder, El DeBarge, Boy George, Alan Thicke, Lisa Hartman, and more.

The above list was just some of the many guest hosts and co-hosts. There were also a ton of musical guests each week. I won’t list those but know that I have a pinup of anyone and everyone in my eBay store.

I wish they had a modern version of Solid Gold. I know we have VH1 and MTV now (BTW, Solid Gold began before MTV), but it’s not the same. I really wish these episodes were out on DVD. What a goldmine that would be. I would love to see all the performances, even though I believe they were all lip synched. I don’t care. It would be a nice piece of memorabilia to own. It would also be cool if the show was on Hulu or Netflix or some other streaming service.

Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Please tune in next week for more of pop music’s biggest stars. Until then, goodnight.