With a music video directed by David Fincher, Billy Idol’s “Cradle of Love” appeared on the soundtrack to the 1990 film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Starring Andrew Dice Clay, Ford Fairlane saw the Dice Man playing a vulgar PI investigating a missing groupie and uncovering a series of murders. “Cradle of Love” was written by rock singer David Werner, who used it as a demo, along with a few other tracks, to record labels. He was given the choice to sign a record deal with CBS Records or give “Cradle of Love” to Billy Idol for both the Ford Fairlane soundtrack and Idol’s album Charmed Life. Werner chose to pass the song to Idol, who received a co-writer credit after changing and adding some lyrics. For the music video, David Fincher chose to shoot Idol only from the waist up, as the rocker had been in a motorcycle accident and was unable to walk at the time of filming. The video also features actress Betsy Lynn George as Devon, who invites herself into her nerdy next-door neighbor’s (Joshua Townshend-Zellner) apartment and proceeds to dance and attempt to seduce him, much to his apparent horror. A version of the video featured Ford Fairlane clips, but Andrew Dice Clay was banned from appearing on MTV, so only shots from the movie that didn’t feature him could be featured. You can check out the non-Ford Fairlane version of the video below.
