Show of hands-anyone remember the Black Gold Awards? Dick Clark productions’ soul music sister of the American Music Awards, the first BGA ceremony was in 1983, with the last show airing in 1987, at which point the Soul Train Music Awards appeared and knocked it out of the box.
I thought the show was so obscure that I wouldn’t be able to find any clips from it on YouTube (my measure of obscurity-the show doesn’t have a Wikipedia page). Guess I was wrong. There are a handful of BGA show moments uploaded to YouTube, including the gem that’s our feature presentation today.
New Edition (wearing horrid blue tuxes and at least one regrettably greasy Jehri curl-sorry, Ricky Bell) announces the nominees for Best Group. The nominees were Brit family outfit Five Star, Prince soundalikes Ready for the World and hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC (damn, who did Kool & the Gang and DeBarge piss off?). It should be obvious who wins this one, and the Hollis-related awesomeness is compounded when host Lou Rawls (who never passed up an emceeing gig) announces Daryl, Joe and Jay to perform. Good stuff, huh? Now I want a Run-DMC jacket.