70: Walking On the Water, Walking On the Air

70. "Heart and Soul" by T'Pau {#4; 5/87} [iTunes? Yes.] {Video: Heart and Soul. (The video is very important to the appeal of this song. I'll discuss it more below.)}

This song came out the last month or two that I was a Mormon missionary. The first memory I have of this song is at a Kmart in Fairmont, West Virginia, hometown of Mary Lou Retton. I'm guessing I saw an image of T'Pau lead singer Carol Decker from the video for this song on one of the televisions in the electronics department. Wow! (Do you remember where you were the first time you saw Carol Decker in the "Heart and Soul" video?)

A short time later I had full access to MTV at my brother's apartment back in Idaho, and I cherished every time they played the video.

That, my friends, is a beautiful woman!

Of course, at the time I thought the group T'Pau consisted of some random guys and two beautiful women, the gorgeous one (pictured above) who did the spoken word/rapping, and the not-quite-as-attractive tall-haired woman who did the singing.

Tall hair + big earrings = not quite as attractive.

It took me a while to realize that these two women were, in fact, the same person. (It's amazing what they could do with trick photography and video editing in 1987!) It was the close-ups of Rapping Carol Decker's face that had me mesmerized. 

Not only was she beautiful, but the way she pronounced words was hypnotic. "Walking on the water, walking on the air." I had never before heard anyone say the word "air" in such a way that it didn't seem to have an "r" in it. (The video ends with Carol asking "Must I beg you?" No, no you musn't, but I'd be fine if you did.)

Of course, the appeal of this song isn't solely that Carol Decker was an attractive woman. It was that she was an attractive woman who was actually a fan of Star Trek!!!

Yes, as we all know, the name of the group T'Pau was taken from a Vulcan high priestess from an episode of Star Trek. (Of course, the chances are that the group name was suggested by one of the nondescript, unimportant members of the band, and not by Carol Decker, but why spoil it with thoughts like that?)

T'Pau (I like the Carol Decker version better.)

Of course, any Star Trek fan worth his weight in tribbles is familiar with the episode featuring T'Pau. It involves Spock's seven-year sexual cycle, an arranged marriage, and a combat to the death between Spock and Captain Kirk. 

The subject of that arranged marriage was the beautiful but illogical T'Pring.

T'Pring! (I think that's the official name of my ring tone.)

For all their talk about logic, this whole episode makes the Vulcans seem pretty darn illogical and possibly downright zany. Spock ends up actually killing Captain Kirk, only for him to be brought back to life by some voodoo doctoring by Bones McCoy. The whole thing seemed a bit silly. The silliest part? That T'Pring would actually rather be with a doofus like Stonn instead of Spock. Highly illogical!

Even Stonn is questioning T'Pring's taste in men.

All that said, I think I prefer the earthbound, 1980s version of T'Pau:

Must I beg you?

COMING UP NEXT: It's Howdy Doody Time!