Rhino Factoids: Memories of Valley Girl

32 years ago today, a teen film hit theaters which on the surface seemed destined to be as quickly forgotten as any other motion picture inspired by a fleeting pop culture fad, but it has gone on to become one of the defining flicks of the 1980s, thanks in no small part of a truly wonderful soundtrack.

Directed by Martha Coolidge, Valley Girl was initially only seen by the studio as a way to make a quick buck off the then-current “valley girl” trend – see also Tracy Nelson’s character in the CBS sitcom Square Pegs – but between Coolidge’s devotion to the project and the chemistry between co-stars Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman (who ended up dating before the film was completed), it turned into a much more substantive cinematic experience than anyone anticipated. No, it’s neither a knee-slapping comedy extravaganza nor high drama, but it’s darned entertaining and…oh, right, the music is totally awesome.

We’ve put together a playlist which highlights songs which appeared in the film and on the collections Valley Girl: Music from the Soundtrack and Valley Girl: More Music from the Soundtrack. Sadly, neither of these collections are available digitally – you know it goes with this whole licensing thing – but just about everything from those sets is available on Spotify and on iTunes one way or the other. You’ll note, though, that we’ve kind of frontloaded the thing with Josie Cotton, but in addition to the fact that her catalog is on Rhino, she’s pretty prominent in the film, too: she plays at the prom.