The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video has an entire chapter dedicated to the making of the original Stand Back video. I read it in the late 80's and thought I'd never get to see the video. Sometime in the mid 90's I was at a record fair and found a bootleg VHS full of Stevie Rarities, it had the now infamous Wild Heart dressing room video, the bitchy purple velvet interview, and the original Stand Back video. I was in Stevie heaven! It think I still have the tape somewhere, but everything on it is now on YouTube.
Anyway, I don't have the book anymore, but you can get it used on Amazon pretty cheap (see the link below). I recall that the chapter on Stand Back was written by the director and he was really pissed that she yanked it. He did say that he showed her the rough cut and she yanked it because she looked to fat in a couple of scenes. So the version we've seen may have not been what the finished product would have looked like. It might have had a little more polish to it. But for a song that was so electronic I think the neon lights and dancers probably did wonders for making the song such a hit and the Civil War video wouldn't have helped it nearly as much. On the other hand, the video for No More Words by Berlin was a Bonnie & Clyde thing that was also a period piece and it did pretty well. I wonder if that was the same guys. Maybe if Stevie had kept the video we would have had a whole series of period piece 80's music videos.
The book also has a really nice chapter on the making of Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want To Have Fun video.
Here's the link to the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Rolling-stone-.../dp/0688039162
I always thought the real reason she pulled the video is because she looks really stoned in many of the scenes. Like in the bar where she saunters up to him and tries to put her arms around him. She kind of galumphs over and her eyes are half shut.