mpvid

Missing Persons Videos

See Also: Albums * Singles * Collectibles

Shortform Videos
Click to download (hosted at Warren's site)

Mental Hopscotch (1981)
Words (1981)
Destination Unknown (1982)
Right Now (1984)
Give (1984)
Surrender Your Heart (1984)

On Vacation (Nov. 1980)
Capitol Records EPK (1986) MPG WMV
MP Reunion Rehearsal #1 (July 2001) MPG WMV
MP Reunion Rehearsal #2 (July 2001) MPG
Access Hollywood TV Performance (Nov. 2002)

Longform Videos/Movies:

Lunch Wagon (1981)
(Dale, Terry & Warren only) (catch this on late night cable or rent it). Media Home Entertainment M184, c. 1984 (VHS), 1982 (theatrical release). Rated R, 88 minutes, still occasionally shown on the USA Channel (photo contributed by Ramone Gonzalez)

Dale, Terry, and Warren play members of "Teddy and the Ruff Riders," a band. Patrick and Chuck do not appear in the movie. Band name at the time was "U.S. Drag," and that is how they are credited at the end (though on the box it says "Missing Persons."

Dale plays "Teddy" and gets a few scenes, and Terry & Warren also have a line or two. "Mental Hopscotch" is used as movie's theme song and both it and "I Like Boys" are lipsynched throughout the movie as the band soundchecks and performs at the club. Band is shown driving around, unloading equipment, performing, and sitting at tables watching other acts, and Teddy gets into a catfight.

The other two band members (bass & keyboards) and band manager are not actually MP members--they are actors who have bigger roles in the movie. The movie is a Playboy Playmate feature.

Missing Persons: Surrender Your Heart (1984)

4 videos. Sony/Capitol Records, 1984, color, VHS, 15 minutes. (Also available on laserdisc.) (photo at left: VHS Surrender Your Heart box, contributed by Mathew Herwig

Right Now (directed by Peter Heath) 1984; Give (directed by Peter Heath) 1984; Destination Unknown (directed by Simon Milne) (1982); Surrender Your Heart (visual imagery by Peter Max, photos: Helmut Newton) 1984

Photo at left: Surrender Your Heart Laser Disk music video (see listing #2 above), contributed by Mathew Herwig

Photos below:
1. Warren & the ice cream cone, from the "Right Now" video
2. Dale in the "Give" video, contributed by Ramone Gonzalez
3. Clip from "Surrender Your Heart," contributed by Ramone Gonzalez
4. Simon Simon picture sleeve, contributed by Ramone Gonzalez

1. MENTAL HOPSCOTCH 1981?

Filled with strange colors, shapes and effects, this is obviously a very early video, featuring the three founding members, Terry, Dale and Warren. Terry and Warren are dressed in tight leotard-looking outfits, and just giving it their all. There's a hopscotch grid drawn on the stage, and all of them are absolutely on top of their game, full of energy.

2. WORDS 1981 or 1982

This is the one most new fans have seen, as it is played on VH-1 whenever they decide to play Missing Persons. A blinding white background contrasts with the band's black outfits and Dale's stunning famous plastic outfit. Warren has his Vox Wah-wah pedal guitar here and puts it to great use. Terry is just wonderfully berzerk on the drums. The audio track is also different from the way the single sounds. This video mainly features just Terry, Dale and Warren.

3. NOTICEABLE ONE 1982

Another performance video, this one has new members Chuck and Patrick in it too. The audio track is jumping with energy, sounds *live* as opposed to the album version. Dale's in a tight silver suit, Terry's in a red sleeveless shirt, Warren's in a long tan & white striped jacket & leather pants, Patrick has a white shirt with red & black designs on it, and Chuck has a cream colored suit. Chuck in particular is very active in this one, the choreography looks natural, and it's absolutely a phenomenal experience to watch Warren play his guitar part in the chorus, not to mention watching him yell "Notice Me!' into the mike.

4. DESTINATION UNKNOWN 1982

The first really professionally done video by the band, this one has beauty, mystery and intrigue, perfectly fitting the lyrics. The viewer is taken into a surrealistic world of shadows and murky light. Dale sings into a mirror while she sprays her hair, goes to a cafe where Warren (with slicked back hair) is behind the counter and watches her. The band is shown in a car, and they stop driving, and Dale falls out of the car when the door is opened. She is carried to a chair and left there, and she wakes up and looks around. Then she gets up and goes to look for them, runs around down dark streets and through puddles, finally goes into a room with lots of broken glass and collapses on a bed. Terry puts some of the broken glass together and sees himself in it, descends the ladder and comes to sit on the bed next to Dale, touching her face gently as she sleeps.

5. L.A. IS MY LADY (FRANK SINATRA) 1984

A hilarious pastiche of L.A. scenes of strange places and strange people. How could Missing Persons be excluded? They wear white and dance, drive around in a jeep, play with toys, run around on a beach (Dale is carried by Terry and Warren on a surfboard), and stand in a line and kick. They are by no means the only L.A. people in this funny funny must-see video, which also includes footage of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra himself.

6. GIVE 1984

A futuristic hard-edged video. Its only flaw is the omission of the ripping second guitar solo by Warren, but that can be forgiven because we get to see the Missing Link guitar and what Warren can do with it. All of them are heavily made up, and Dale's hair is...well, something else (see photo at left). We also get to see Terry's compact electronic drum kit that he designed himself. Chuck's hair is very red in this one. Patrick's in a dark grey wool suit, and this is the first video in which he plays a "guitar" bass instead of a "keyboard: bass. Terry's in a grey suit and red crimped hair, Dale's in something that looks like it was made out of foil and then in a very pointy outfit, and Warren, well, it looks like Warren's the star of this video, 'cause he wears FOUR different outfits in it: a long white coat, a long black coat, a long sleeved black shirt, and a sleeveless vest with straps. All with leather pants of course. The video's dark moodiness captures the song perfectly.

Photos from Give, contributed by Ramone Gonzalez (from left: Patrick, Terry, Dale, Warren, Chuck)

7. RIGHT NOW 1984

Missing Persons goes to the beach...a brightly colored sandy beach with lots of toys, a funny little plane, and billowing black, plastic This one has all five of them pretty much featured equally. Chuck has thick, streaked, very straight multi-colored bangs and is dressed in white. Patrick and Warren are shown both dressed for the beach and also in bits fully dressed and playing bass and guitar respectively. Terry's hair is red and slicked back, and Dale is her beautiful, gregarious, and loud-looking self. She wears a long tan trench coat and then a black leather bikini outfit with fishnet hose & black heels, covered later with an immaculate white short jacket and Navy cap on her head. Warren wears a black bikini, gets to eat an ice cream cone, run around nearly nude, and then look through binoculars and be a lifeguard. Sounds like fun to me.

8. SURRENDER YOUR HEART 1984

Directed by Peter Max, this is mostly artistic effects and pretty colors that look like they were done by a Windows Paintbrush program, but we must remember this WAS 1984 years ago and probably was state of the art at the time. The effects pulsate and change to somewhat match the rhythm of the song, but the only footage of the band is some Dale footage from Right Now, and the Helmut Newton black and white Rhyme and Reason album photos of all five, with Peter Max's hand painting colors onto them. Could have been much better served with another Destination Unknown-like video, but that's just my opinion.

9. I CAN'T THINK ABOUT DANCING 1986

The last Missing Persons video, this is a performance video showing off the new look of the band. Chuck is gone, and so is the pink and blue from Dale's hair. Only, the camera does a never-ending pan right, and we see rows of Warren, rows of Terry, rows of Patrick, and rows of Dale, all performing, all slightly different, and very very cool...Patrick explained on MTV how it was done: there are 300 different edits in the 3 and 3/4 minute video, with the camera making several different passes, in 75 different sequences. Colored blobs are edited in to bounce around and be pretty. Look for Warren's guitar solo and the smile Terry gives Dale toward the end.

Dale Bozzio - SIMON SIMON 1988 (Dale Bozzio) This is the video for Dale's single "Simon Simon," which was a minor success on the Billboard Dance charts in 1988. We see Dale dressed up in many different outfits, with long curly blonde hair, working out, dancing, and lots of other things.

Terry Bozzio - Terry can be seen in the videos for "Throwaway" by Mick Jagger and several Andy Taylor videos, including "Take It Easy."

Patrick O'Hearn - Patrick can be seen in several Andy Taylor videos as well as any concerts from the 1987 tour and the MTV New Year's Eve 1987 Andy Taylor performance.

Warren Cuccurullo - please see his discography for details.

Missing Persons: On Vacation (1980)

Released exclusively through download, this live performance video was truly something amazing. The video is available on the enhanced CD Lost Tracks and also as a download from Warren's website (see above).

Missing Persons Web Site *