American Top 40: The 80s - September 24, 2011
This week’s presentation - September 27, 1987
Well, they seem to be doing repeats every other week. As I said recently, I think we’ll be hearing many more and more repeats as Premiere runs out of new shows. But I think that they’ll avoid the repeats whenever possible (and when they run them, they’re generally from 2007 - new to many people who didn’t get AT40: The 80s back then). Anyway, I’m glad that they re-ran this one, because the fall of 1987 was chock full of great songs, plus, I seem to recall that I fell asleep during the last hour when it was run in 2007 - speaking of which, a certain someone still has the last hour of my copy of the AT40: Flashback version of this show (so Aaron, if you could please return that to me when you get a chance...) Anyway, here is my commentary about this week’s show...
Droppers:
HEART AND SOUL - T’PAU (38) - No big loss at all, since I never liked this.
IT’S NOT OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER - STARSHIP (36) - Good song, but not quite my favorite by them. I preferred the song that came before this one (“Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”) as well as their next Top 40 hit after this (“It’s Not Enough”, from the fall of 1989).
LUKA - SUZANNE VEGA (34) - I’ll comment on this later, since it’s a Long Distance Dedication on this show.
I WANT YOUR SEX - GEORGE MICHAEL (32) - Thank God this piece of dreck falls out, as I never liked it at all. Oddly enough, I was disappointed that it didn’t hit #1 - simply because I wanted to see if U93, a station that edited this song out of the broadcast, would play it if it hit #1.
MARY’S PRAYER - DANNY WILSON (27) - Great song! Shame that we didn’t get to hear it this year, due to the long gap between 1987 shows.
LOVE POWER - DIONNE WARWICK & JEFFREY OSBOURNE (26) - Aww, we didn’t get to hear this one either. Too bad, as it’s one of my favorites by both artists.
40: DON’T LOOK DOWN – THE SEQUEL - GO WEST (debut) - Great song! Bad editing job, however - they combined the first and second chorus (which they sometimes do in order to edit out the second verse) but the same line (“Don’t Look Down, girl - you know you’re holding aces”) was repeated twice in a row. Not sure if that happened the last time they played this show (but I do remember the second verse was eliminated on this song).
39: DON’T WAIT ME WAIT FOR LOVE – KENNY G featuring LENNY WILLIAMS (debut) - Great song! They played the single version, which was far superior to the schmaltzed up album version - and they left the song intact.
38: ROCK STEADY – THE WHISPERS (24) - Great song!
37: IT’S A SIN – THE PET SHOP BOYS (debut) - Wow, the countdown kicks off with four great songs! This is possibly my favorite song by the Pet Shop Boys - sounds a little like “Wild World” by Cat Stevens.
36: SOMETHING REAL (INSIDE ME/INSIDE YOU) – MR. MISTER (37) - And the great song streak continues! This was probably my favorite song by them - it was indeed underrated, but Mr. Mister had clearly had their day in the sun and were already pretty much passe at this point.
35: DON’T MEAN NOTHING – RICHARD MARX (23) - Well, it’s not a “great” song (I do prefer others by him such as “Satisfied” and “Angelia”), but it is a good one.
34: WHO’S THAT GIRL - MADONNA (20) - Well, even if song #35 had been great, IMO, the streak would have ended here anyway, because I’m not a big fan of this song at all.
33: VICTIM OF LOVE – BRYAN ADAMS (35) - And let the great songs continue! This song didn’t get anywhere near as much exposure as it deserved. I do remember that this was a long-time winner on U93's battle of the hits (forget what they called them - the “Week Night Fights” or something like that), and I was thinking that this one would be another Top Ten for him but this one, in fact, didn’t even reach the Top 30.
32: MONY MONY – BILLY IDOL (debut) - Well, they played the live version (as they always did, while most radio stations played the studio version from the early-80s), so it was pretty good (I’m still burned out on the studio version).
31: IN MY DREAMS – REO SPEEDWAGON (39) - Wow, lots of great songs in the first hour, which was a bummer when this show was featured on the Flashback. But at least we get to hear them now. Anyway, I generally like their slow songs (except for “Time For Me To Fly”, but that one didn’t even hit the Top 40).
OPTIONAL EXTRA: HOLIDAY - THE OTHER ONES - Wow, that was an unexpected extra, since the song wasn’t a big chart hit, nor does it get any kind of recurrent airplay, they weren’t a big-name act, and the song didn’t make the highest debut on the chart. Don’t get me wrong, though, because I’m not complaining; it’s a great song!
30: BREAKOUT – SWING OUT SISTER (debut) - Good song, though I preferred their next release, “Twilight World”, as well as a few of their AC-only hits.
29: BAD – MICHAEL JACKSON (40) - Great song, although I think they released this one a little too soon, as they did so before the first song had even peaked, but I think radio stations were playing this as an album cut and it became so popular that they decided to release it as a single.
28: I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW - TIFFANY (debut) - Meh, next song, please... Although it was an interesting story about remakes of songs by the same artist - this was the first time that two such songs debuted the same week. Little did anyone know the other coincidences that would follow - they hit #1 back-to-back, and they almost fell out the same week, but “Mony Mony” went first (and just barely, falling to #41). And, on the year-end chart (which we just might be hearing in a few months), they ranked back-to-back.
27: NEVER LET ME DOWN – DAVID BOWIE (28) - Great song! Not sure if I prefer this or his other 1987 hit, “Day-In, Day-Out”.
26: YOU ARE THE GIRL – THE CARS (31) - Not a big fan of this one for some reason.
25: FAKE – ALEXANDER O’NEAL (30) - This one isn’t that great either, but it’s still more tolerable than song #26.
24: LITTLE LIES – FLEETWOOD MAC (29) - Wow, Hour 1 had mainly great songs, and this hour, not-so-great songs. Anyway, I never liked this song at all. I much preferred the preceding hit, “Seven Wonders”, which charted a few months before.
23: CAUSING A COMMOTION - MADONNA (33) - Good song - much better than her other song on the countdown.
22: LET ME BE THE ONE - EXPOSE (25) - Meh, I much preferred “Point Of No Return”. This is still better than “Come Go With Me”.
21: ONLY IN MY DREAMS – DEBBIE GIBSON (13) - Great song, although I prefer her slow songs. Still, this is much better than that teenybopper song “Shake Your Love”.
LDD: COMING AROUND AGAIN - CARLY SIMON - Great song! This song charted in early 1987, peaking at #18. It did much better at Adult Contemporary.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: HOURGLASS - SQUEEZE - Great song, with a very catchy chorus.
20: WHO FOUND WHO - JELLYBEAN featuring ELISA FIORELLO (16) - Great song! I easily prefer this over his other Top 40 hit, “Sidewalk Talk”, which featured Madonna on vocals. His follow-up to this, “The Real Thing” (featuring Steven Dante) was also a good one. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the Top 40.
19: JUMP START – NATALIE COLE (21) - This was her comeback song after her addiction to heroin and cocaine for much of the 1980s. It was a good one, but I preferred her ballads, with which she was generally most successful on the pop charts.
18: I NEED LOVE – L.L. COOL J (14) - Great song! The concept of a rap ballad was very fascinating to me.
17: CASANOVA - LEVERT (22) - Good song, but not quite my favorite on the chart.
16: ONE HEARTBEAT – SMOKEY ROBINSON (16) - Great song. I used to prefer this to “Just To See Her”, but I have a tape with this song that I listened to quite a lot a few years back, so I’m sort of tired of it (but it’s still great to hear), and now I actually do prefer “Just To See Her”. Well, until I put that on a compilation tape and play it ad nauseum.
15: CAN’T WE TRY – DAN HILL WITH VONDA SHEPARD (7) - Great song! I remember thinking that this song wouldn’t be very successful, since it started its climb quite slowly (moved up only one spot its second week on), but this managed to climb
14: PAPER IN FIRE – JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP (19) - Great song, though I do admit I prefer the other two singles from The Lonesome Jubilee, as well as the popular album cut “The Real Life”, which I think that they initially were going to release as a single, but went with “Cherry Bomb” instead. (Correct me if I’m wrong, reachinforthestars)
13: WHO WILL YOU RUN TO - HEART (18) - Great song! This was a brief return to the classic rock sound that they started out with, in the 1970s (as they evolved to a more poppy sound in the mid-80s).
12: WIPEOUT – THE FAT BOYS AND THE BEACH BOYS (12) - Meh, I just didn’t like the fact that they slowed down the tempo of the song just to add words. “Wipeout” is an instrumental surfing song. Kinda hard to surf to this.
11: DOING IT ALL FOR MY BABY – HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS (6) - Good song. Since the Fore! album had been out for nearly a year by the time that “I Know What I Like” debuted, I was thinking that maybe they wouldn’t release their prerequisite “doo wop” song, but they did decide go with it as the last single from Fore!
10: U GOT THE LOOK - PRINCE with SHEENA EASTON (15) - Great song! Actually, Sheena Easton doesn’t get any label credit, but she sure does deserve it, as she helped to make this a great song.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH - BELINDA CARLISLE - Great song, although I wasn’t a fan of it at all when it was on the charts, since it was played to death (and I didn’t really like it in the first place), but it’s one of those songs that gets better with age.
9: TOUCH OF GREY – THE GRATEFUL DEAD (10) - Great song! This was their only Top 40 songs, but they were more of a album rock and concert band (although I don’t think that they usually performed this one in concert).
8: LA BAMBA – LOS LOBOS (3) - Meh, not a fan of this one. I hope we hear a 1987 show in October or November, with “Come On Let’s Go” on the chart (although something tells me that we probably won’t hear another weekly 1987 show this year, especially if they go with the Top 100 of 1987, like many of us suspect).
7: CARRIE - EUROPE (11) - Great song! Definitely my favorite song by them (although I like “Rock The Night” a lot, too!)
LDD: LUKA – SUZANNE VEGA - Wow, what a intense dedication! Since this song is about child abuse, you can guess the subject matter. It focused on child abuse, as well as the repercussions and scars, which can last a lifetime.
6: WHEN SMOKEY SINGS - ABC (5) - Good tribute to Smokey Robinson, who would hit the Top Ten the following week - with this song still in the Top Ten to boot (and both songs would fall out of the Top Ten the same week).
5: LOST IN EMOTION – LISA LISA AND CULT JAM (9) - Good song, though I wasn’t a big fan of this song when it was on the charts.
4: I HEARD A RUMOUR - BANANARAMA (8) - Great song! This is my favorite song by them
3: I JUST CAN’T STOP LOVING YOU – MICHAEL JACKSON with SIEDAH GARRETT (1) - This song probably would have spent longer at #1 had they not rush-released “Bad” (but then again, that might have cut short the #1 hit streak of the artist at the top of this week’s chart). *Gag* - this song started with that embarrassing spoken word part - I’ll take that from Charlene’s “I’ve Never Been To Me” over that any day. Other than that, this is a great song - although it’s kinda hard to tell the difference between the two singers, since their voices sound so much alike.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: SHOULD'VE KNOWN BETTER - RICHARD MARX - I figured they'd play this one, seeing as it was the highest debut on the Hot 100 that week. As for my opinion of this song - it was a good one - I actually did prefer it to his song that was in the countdown this week.
2: HERE I GO AGAIN - WHITESNAKE (4) - Good song. Not sure which version of the song I prefer. I keep forgetting - which version is which? They played the version with all the instruments instead of just the synthesizer.
1: DIDN’T WE ALMOST HAVE IT ALL – WHITNEY HOUSTON (2) - Good song, although, as I said, it has that “rainy day” feel to it (which I guess is appropriate, as today is forecast to be a rainy day - and it’s overcast out there right now, although it is brightening up, so...)
Predictions for next week: While it’s true that they already did 1985 back in early September, they’re kind of hard-up for shows, since most of the others from early October have either already been done (in the case of 1980 and 1984), were guest-hosted (in the cases of 1982 and 1983), or have just recently been done (in the case of 1981, 1986 and 1987). So that leaves 1985. So my prediction for next week is October 5, 1985, with October 9, 1982 as my back-up prediction (just please don’t do the XM-overplayed October 4, 1986 show - I beg you!)