With \u201cAmerican Storm,\u201d Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band<\/strong><\/a> delivered one of their signature songs and one of the most inventive music videos of the 1980s. The video, featuring footage by acclaimed director Brian De Palma, has premiered on YouTube today, 40 years after originally hitting MTV.<\/p>\n Seger released \u201cAmerican Storm\u201d in 1986 as the lead single from his album Like A Rock<\/em>. Acclaimed at the time as a prime example of Seger\u2019s heartland rock style, the song was a No. 13 pop hit and climbed all the way to No. 2 on Billboard\u2019s Mainstream Rock chart. Years later, in his 2003 book Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Gold Rush: A Singles Un-cyclopedia<\/em>, Maury Dean called it \u201cone of the Top 38 Rock and Roll Songs of All Time,\u201d comparing Seger\u2019s vocal power to some of the greatest singers in rock history.<\/p>\n When it came time to create the \u201cAmerican Storm\u201d music video, Seger took an unconventional approach. In the mid-\u201980s, MTV was flooded with music videos promoting songs from movie soundtracks, which mostly adhered to a similar formula in which scenes from the movie are interspersed with performance footage of the band. Think Duran Duran\u2019s \u201cA View To A Kill,\u201d John Parr\u2019s \u201cSt. Elmo\u2019s Fire (Man In Motion),\u201d or Tina Turner\u2019s \u201cWe Don\u2019t Need Another Hero.\u201d The \u201cAmerican Storm\u201d video follows this formula, except it\u2019s not connected to a real movie.\n<\/p>\n Seger hired Brian De Palma, the acclaimed director behind films like Scarface<\/em> and Carrie<\/em>, to create scenes from a fictional thriller starring Scott Glenn, Lesley Ann Warren, James Woods, Morgan Brittany, and Randy Quaid. These clips were then threaded in alongside performance footage of the Silver Bullet Band directed by Jim Yukich. De Palma\u2019s footage does not skimp on Hollywood theatrics. There are explosions, gunshot wounds, and dramatic confrontations galore. The scenes were so believable as snippets from a new De Palma movie that many viewers assumed \u201cAmerican Storm\u201d really was part of a movie soundtrack.\n<\/p>\n All these years later, \u201cAmerican Storm\u201d video stands as \u201cboth a touchstone and highwater mark for soundtrack music videos even though it cannot accurately lay claim to such distinctions,\u201d according to a 2021 retrospective by University of Central Florida professor Ty Matejowsky. Now, fans without their own hard copy of the video can finally see it again.\n<\/p>\n Shop Bob Seger\u2019s music on vinyl and CD here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n