Mark Ronson Unleashes the Summer's Hottest Video

Katy Perry's Candyland-inspired video for "California Gurls" and OK Go's stop-motion clip for "End Love" might be racking up clicks online, but there's a new contender for best video of the summer: Mark Ronson and the Business Intl.'s "Bang Bang Bang."

Bookended by two seemingly unrelated pieces of footage — a fictitious retro commercial for sandwich spread and a dramatic tennis match — "Bang Bang Bang" stars Ronson as the guest on an offbeat, '70s-style Japanese talk show. When he's asked to chat about his music, Ronson — the Grammy-winning mastermind behind Amy Winehouse's Back to Black — transforms into a smooth Bryan Ferry figure and hops behind a bank of synthesizers to perform his latest composition.

Newcomer MNDR provides the song's indelible French-laden hook, and a debonair Q-Tip absolutely slays on his verses, making it his best guest spot since "Groove Is in the Heart" (or at least Raphael Saadiq's "Get Involved"). The clip is equal parts American Bandstand and Tron — and the most effective time-capsule music video since Snoop Dogg resurrected the Rick James era with "Sexual Eruption."

"Bang Bang Bang" is the latest single off Ronson's September disc Record Collection, the follow-up to 2007's Version. The album, the first under the moniker Mark Ronson and the Business Intl., will also feature guest spots by D'Angelo, Ghostface, Boy George and Duran Duran's Simon le Bon.

"Bang Bang Bang" isn't the only cool and campy video for Record Collection: Watch Ronson's clip for "Circuit Breaker," which brings back the classic video game The Legend of Zelda:

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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