Leslie Gray Streeter

MTV: Leslie's video Hall of Fame

Back in the days where I watched MTV almost religiously, I used to get entirely too worked up and invested in those countdowns where they'd list the Top 100 Videos of All Time. At first, it was just the placement of the videos that sent me into an Breck-type lather. But as time went on and the original video generation was supplanted by those younger and hipper (sob), I began to notice something suspicious but hard to ignore - the listmakers were purposely including brand-new videos, and ranking them fairly high, so that the kiddies would keep watching.

Now I understand marketing and demographics and whatnot as much as the next media flunkie, but when you're ranking some newish, ordinary NSYNC or Offspring clip above Peter Gabriel's pioneering 'Sledgehammer,' you're just lying. Yes, I know these lists are all an opinion...the opinion of the same people who created "My Super Sweet 16." So forgive me if I don't take their word on the good stuff.

The following are my ten favorite videos, as they rank right now at this moment. These things are subjective. But understand that at least my opinions are not the result of any focus groups or corporate hoo-ha. Check 'em out yourself. Feel free to love them or hate them, and blame it all on me. I can take it.

1) Sabotage, Beastie Boys: For every kid who ever ran through a parking garage pretending to be Starsky. Or Hutch. I could never make up my mind.

2) Take On Me, a-ha: 21 years later, I still get choked up when pretty Morten Harkett tries to slap the cartoon out of himself and return to his non-comic love. Yes, I am a sucker.

3) One, Metallica: Set to scary, claustrophobic scenes of the movie Johnny Got His Gun, they were never more spare or more effective. Hetfield's hair is particularly disturbing here.

4) Love Will Never Do Without You, Janet Jackson: Two words - Djimon Honsou. Two more: Antonio Sabato, Jr...or is that two and a half?

5) Hazard, Richard Marx: Did the song's narrator kill his girl? Or are the cops just harassing him? And when did Richard Marx get so creepy?

6) Thriller, Michael Jackson: The real special effect was always Michael's dancing.

7) Save A Prayer, Duran Duran: The Fab Five at their dreamiest.

8) Freedom 90, George Michael: Using supermodels to lip-synch his treatise against empty instant fame, George both struck a stunning and deeply ironic chord, and employed Naomi Campbell in the days before she was slapping people with phones. Sorry...allegedly slapping people with phones.

9) Hey Ya!, OutKast: Look! It's a newish video that proves that it's still possible to wring some poignancy and fun out of a four-minute song. Lend me some sugar! I am your neighbor!

10) In Your Wildest Dreams, The Moody Blues: An unhappy 40-something woman speeds to find her long-ago love...only to completely miss him and be stuck again, alone with her disappointment. Nostalgia was never such a downer.