Retro Video of the Week: "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown

35 years ago today, the soundtrack for Ghostbusters II was released, four days ahead of the cinematic release of the film.  The soundtrack did pretty well, peaking at #14 on the Billboard album chart and eventually going gold in the U.S.  It featured songs by a pretty nice list of male musicians:  Run DMC, Elton John, New Edition, Glenn Frey, Bobby Brown, Oingo Boingo, Doug E. Fresh and The Get Fresh Crew, James "JT" Taylor (the former lead singer of Kool & The Gang, not the singer-songwriter), and Howard Huntsberry (who had played Jackie Wilson in the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba and covered Wilson's "Higher and Higher" for this soundtrack).

The biggest hit from the album was Bobby Brown's "On Our Own," which was written by Babyface, LA Reid, and Daryl Simmons.  Babyface and Reid also produced the song and respectively played keyboards and percussion on the song.  It's squarely new jack swing, which was burgeoning in popularity at that time, and Brown was one of the genre's biggest stars.  The first four songs off his 1988 album Don't Be Cruel had reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 (including three Top 5 songs and one #1), and "On Our Own" kept the momentum going.  Not only did it hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart, but internationally, it reached the Top 5 on the pop charts in Canada, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand (where it went to #1), and the UK.

As expected, the video has some clips from the movie, though generally, it's just lots of scenes from New York, with Brown on big screens on the sides of buildings.  There are a ton of celebrity cameos, including, but not limited to, Christopher Reeve, Joey and Marky Ramone, Rick Moranis, Iman, Doug E. Fresh, Jane Curtin, Victoria Jackson, and Donald Trump.