Post by Hervard on Jan 9, 2010 11:12:19 GMT -5
AT40: The 80s - January 9, 2010
This week’s presentation: January 19, 1980
For the past two years, the first show from 1980 was from February. This time, they decided to go with January - and the earliest possible show that the AT40: The 80s series could do (as the 1/5 show was a special countdown of the biggest hits of the 1970s and Mike Cleary hosted the show from 1/12). This show is a former AT40 Flashback show.
DROPPERS (BEAR WITH ME - IT’S A VERY LONG LIST HERE!):
TRAIN TRAIN - BLACKFOOT (39) - wtf did this sould like again?
I’D RATHER LEAVE WHILE I’M IN LOVE - RITA COOLIDGE (38) - Can’t say I’ve ever heard this one either, but it’s probably a good one, as I can’t think of a song by Rita Coolidge that I don’t like.
RAPPER’S DELIGHT - SUGAR HILL GANG (36) - The very first rap song to hit the countdown (little did we know that more music like this would abound in the last few years of the decade). As I recall, it was OK, but I’m generally not a fan of rap.
TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME - SUPERTRAMP (35) - Good song, though not quite their best. I liked pretty much the whole Breakfast In America album, except for one or two songs.
CHIQUITITA - ABBA (29) - Great song, pretty much your typical Abba song.
I WANT YOU TONIGHT - PABLO CRUISE (25) - wtf did this sound like again?
YOU’RE ONLY LONELY - J.D. SOUTHER (23) - Great song, shame to see it fall off.
LW#3: DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME - THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE
LW#2: ROCK WITH ME - MICHAEL JACKSON
LW#1: ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) - RUPERT HOLMES
Since, to my best of knowlege, those songs were still on this week’s chart, I’ll comment on them a little later.
40: DO YOU LOVE WHAT YOU FEEL - RUFUS & CHAKA KHAN (debut) - This was OK - your typical early-80s disco R&B song. It wasn’t really anything special.
39: SEPTEMBER MORN - NEIL DIAMOND (debut) - Good song, but not quite his best.
38: NO MORE TEARS (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH) - BARBRA STREISAND & DONNA SUMMER (24) - No. Just no.
37: VOICES - CHEAP TRICK (debut) - Great song! Easily one of their best! For quite awhile, it looked like this was going to be their only chart entry of the 80s, but they came back with a vengeance in the summer of 1988 with their biggest hit ever, the #1 hit “The Flame”. LDD: MAKIN' IT - DAVID NAUGHTON - Good song. I felt kinda sorry for the author of the LDD, to be made fun of by her own mother as well as her sisters for her dream of being a model, at which she succeeded. I wonder how her family likes that?
By the way, when AT40 Flashback ran this show, they included this dedication - sometime in the first hour, that is. Did they do that regularly?
36: YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU - SANTANA (debut) - Great song, and quite underrated, IMO.
35: LONGER - DAN FOGELBERG (debut) - Classic Dan Fogelberg here! I love the flugelhorn solo by Jerry Hey.
34: SAVANNAH NIGHTS - TOM JOHNSTON (34) - Good song. I liked the story about him
ARCHIVES: CAR WASH - ROSE ROYCE - Pretty good song. In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number One Hits, he writes that the song “begins much the way a car starts out on its way to getting cleaned”. And it indeed kind of does.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL - PINK FLOYD - Good song, but rather overplayed.
33: FOREVER MINE - O'JAYS (37) - I had to go clean my car off and move it back to my side of the street again, so I missed this one. I’ll have to break out my AT40 Flashback edition of this show a little later on to hear it. As I recall, it was pretty good.
32: WHY ME - STYX (debut) - Good song, but not really one of my favorites from them.
31: FOOL IN THE RAIN - LED ZEPPELIN (40) - Good song. I’m kind of surprised that this song didn’t at least hit the Top 20.
30: ROTATION - HERB ALPERT (32) - I have an idea or two what Bry has to say about this song, but, since I generally like smooth jazz instrumentals, I think it’s a good one, though I prefer a few others by Alpert.
29: AN AMERICAN DREAM - THE DIRT BAND (33) - Great song, one of their best. Linda Ronstadt does a great back-up vocal on this song.
28: DAYDREAM BELIEVER - ANNE MURRAY (debut) - Great song. I think I like this even better than the original by the Monkees (which is also great).
27: HEAD GAMES - FOREIGNER (18) - Great song, and quite underrated IMO.
EXTRA: I CAN’T HELP MYSELF (SUGAR PIE HONEY BUNCH) - FOUR TOPS - Classic song! One of 67 Top 40 songs produced by the successful Holland-Dozier-Holland team
26: THIRD TIME LUCKY (FIRST TIME I WAS A FOOL) - FOGHAT (26) - I’m generally not a big fan of them, but this one was pretty good.
25: ROMEO'S TUNE - STEVE FORBERT (31) - Great song! Too bad it was his only Top 40 hit.
24: YES, I'M READY - TERI DeSARIO W/ K.C. (28) - Good song (though I know Bry would disagree).
23: BABE - STYX (10) - Great song - easily my favorite of their two songs on the chart this week. Glad that it hit #1.
ARCHIVES: TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS - MARY McGREGOR - No. Just no.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: 99 - TOTO - Great song! Easily one of their best!
22: STILL - THE COMMODORES (6) - No. Just no. (At least it was the biggest dropper on this week’s show).
21: DEJA VU - DIONNE WARWICK (27) - Great song, one of my favorites by her!
20: DON'T LET GO - ISAAC HAYES (22) - Meh, not a big fan of this one.
19: WAIT FOR ME - DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES (21) - Great song - one of their most underrated songs ever!
18: CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE - QUEEN (30) - Pretty good song, reminiscent of Elvis Presley. Not quite my favorite song by them, but it is indeed better than their other big 1980 song.
LDD: SHORT PEOPLE - RANDY NEWMAN - Good song, and appropriate for the dedication.
17: DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS (19) - Great song, definitely one of their best.
16: THIS IS IT - KENNY LOGGINS (17) - Good song, but not my favorite by Loggins.
15: SARA - FLEETWOOD MAC (20) - Great song, easily one of my favorite from them.
14: JANE - JEFFERSON STARSHIP (15) - Good song, but I prefer many others by them.
13: I WANNA BE YOUR LOVER - PRINCE (16) - Good song, the one that started off his successful career (yes, I know he had a song called “Soft And Wet” about a year earlier, but seriously, who remembers that?)
12: BETTER LOVE NEXT TIME - DR. HOOK (14) - Great song, easily my favorite Dr. Hook song!
ARCHIVES: BLINDED BY THE LIGHT - MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND - Great song, one of my favorites by them.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU/FORGIVE ME GIRL - THE SPINNERS - Great song - worlds better than the original Four Seasons version.
11: THE LONG RUN - THE EAGLES (13) - OK song, but far from being my favorite Eagles song. IMO, The Long Run was, single-wise, one of their weaker albums (though “The Sad Café”, an album cut that got a little radio play and was one of my favorites from them)
10: COOL CHANGE - THE LITTLE RIVER BAND (11) - Great song! Ths was one of my favorites by them, right up there with “Lady” and “We Two”.
9: PLEASE DON'T GO - K.C. & THE SUNSHINE BAND (5) - No. Just no.
8: LADIES NIGHT - KOOL & THE GANG (8) - Good song, but I liked their next hit a lot better.
7: WE DON'T TALK ANYMORE - CLIFF RICHARD (9) - Good song - I like this a lot more than I used to.
6: CRUISIN' - SMOKEY ROBINSON - Good song, not sure if I prefer this or the remake by Huey Lewis & Gwyneth Paltrow about 20 years later.
5: SEND ONE YOUR LOVE - STEVIE WONDER (4) - Great song! Very hypnotic sounding.
4: COWARD OF THE COUNTY - KENNY ROGERS (7) - Great song! I liked the story in this song.
3: ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) - RUPERT HOLMES (1) - Good song, but I preferred his follow-up, as this one was overplayed. This song got a second wind the week before, as it reclaimed the Top spot a week after KC & The Sunshine Band had a week on top with their whinefest.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: HEARTBREAKER - PAT BENATAR - I’ll bet JessieLou was pleasantly surprised to hear this one! It’s OK, but one of my least favorites by her. I’m surprised that this wasn’t a Top Ten hit, given all the airplay it got back in 1980.
2: DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME - THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE (3) - Great song, possibly my favorite song by the two.
1: ROCK WITH YOU - MICHAEL JACKSON (2) - Classic MJ music here! This one was a good one. R.I.P. Michael
Predictions for next week: I’m hoping for 1988 next week, though not January 23, 1988, as they’ve done that one for the past two years. But they’ve been pretty good about not doing repeat shows (in fact the last one was way back in June of last year). I’m personally hoping for January 30, 1988, since, if my memory serves me correctly, that was the week that they played the original version of “Candle In The Wind” by Elton John instead of the live version. It’s also been quite awhile since the last 1983 show, but I’m hoping the next time they do that year, they do a show from February. But they haven’t yet done the January 22 show, so who knows, they might go with that one. 1984 isn’t exactly out of the question, either.
EDIT: I just updated my list of shows and noticed that they haven't done the show from January 29, 1983 either. I guess I got the Flashback series, which featured the 1/22 and 1/29 shows) confused with this one. Anyway, if they do something from 1983, I hope it's January 29, since that was a three-hour Flashback show.
This week’s presentation: January 19, 1980
For the past two years, the first show from 1980 was from February. This time, they decided to go with January - and the earliest possible show that the AT40: The 80s series could do (as the 1/5 show was a special countdown of the biggest hits of the 1970s and Mike Cleary hosted the show from 1/12). This show is a former AT40 Flashback show.
DROPPERS (BEAR WITH ME - IT’S A VERY LONG LIST HERE!):
TRAIN TRAIN - BLACKFOOT (39) - wtf did this sould like again?
I’D RATHER LEAVE WHILE I’M IN LOVE - RITA COOLIDGE (38) - Can’t say I’ve ever heard this one either, but it’s probably a good one, as I can’t think of a song by Rita Coolidge that I don’t like.
RAPPER’S DELIGHT - SUGAR HILL GANG (36) - The very first rap song to hit the countdown (little did we know that more music like this would abound in the last few years of the decade). As I recall, it was OK, but I’m generally not a fan of rap.
TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME - SUPERTRAMP (35) - Good song, though not quite their best. I liked pretty much the whole Breakfast In America album, except for one or two songs.
CHIQUITITA - ABBA (29) - Great song, pretty much your typical Abba song.
I WANT YOU TONIGHT - PABLO CRUISE (25) - wtf did this sound like again?
YOU’RE ONLY LONELY - J.D. SOUTHER (23) - Great song, shame to see it fall off.
LW#3: DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME - THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE
LW#2: ROCK WITH ME - MICHAEL JACKSON
LW#1: ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) - RUPERT HOLMES
Since, to my best of knowlege, those songs were still on this week’s chart, I’ll comment on them a little later.
40: DO YOU LOVE WHAT YOU FEEL - RUFUS & CHAKA KHAN (debut) - This was OK - your typical early-80s disco R&B song. It wasn’t really anything special.
39: SEPTEMBER MORN - NEIL DIAMOND (debut) - Good song, but not quite his best.
38: NO MORE TEARS (ENOUGH IS ENOUGH) - BARBRA STREISAND & DONNA SUMMER (24) - No. Just no.
37: VOICES - CHEAP TRICK (debut) - Great song! Easily one of their best! For quite awhile, it looked like this was going to be their only chart entry of the 80s, but they came back with a vengeance in the summer of 1988 with their biggest hit ever, the #1 hit “The Flame”. LDD: MAKIN' IT - DAVID NAUGHTON - Good song. I felt kinda sorry for the author of the LDD, to be made fun of by her own mother as well as her sisters for her dream of being a model, at which she succeeded. I wonder how her family likes that?
By the way, when AT40 Flashback ran this show, they included this dedication - sometime in the first hour, that is. Did they do that regularly?
36: YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU - SANTANA (debut) - Great song, and quite underrated, IMO.
35: LONGER - DAN FOGELBERG (debut) - Classic Dan Fogelberg here! I love the flugelhorn solo by Jerry Hey.
34: SAVANNAH NIGHTS - TOM JOHNSTON (34) - Good song. I liked the story about him
ARCHIVES: CAR WASH - ROSE ROYCE - Pretty good song. In Fred Bronson’s Billboard Book Of Number One Hits, he writes that the song “begins much the way a car starts out on its way to getting cleaned”. And it indeed kind of does.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL - PINK FLOYD - Good song, but rather overplayed.
33: FOREVER MINE - O'JAYS (37) - I had to go clean my car off and move it back to my side of the street again, so I missed this one. I’ll have to break out my AT40 Flashback edition of this show a little later on to hear it. As I recall, it was pretty good.
32: WHY ME - STYX (debut) - Good song, but not really one of my favorites from them.
31: FOOL IN THE RAIN - LED ZEPPELIN (40) - Good song. I’m kind of surprised that this song didn’t at least hit the Top 20.
30: ROTATION - HERB ALPERT (32) - I have an idea or two what Bry has to say about this song, but, since I generally like smooth jazz instrumentals, I think it’s a good one, though I prefer a few others by Alpert.
29: AN AMERICAN DREAM - THE DIRT BAND (33) - Great song, one of their best. Linda Ronstadt does a great back-up vocal on this song.
28: DAYDREAM BELIEVER - ANNE MURRAY (debut) - Great song. I think I like this even better than the original by the Monkees (which is also great).
27: HEAD GAMES - FOREIGNER (18) - Great song, and quite underrated IMO.
EXTRA: I CAN’T HELP MYSELF (SUGAR PIE HONEY BUNCH) - FOUR TOPS - Classic song! One of 67 Top 40 songs produced by the successful Holland-Dozier-Holland team
26: THIRD TIME LUCKY (FIRST TIME I WAS A FOOL) - FOGHAT (26) - I’m generally not a big fan of them, but this one was pretty good.
25: ROMEO'S TUNE - STEVE FORBERT (31) - Great song! Too bad it was his only Top 40 hit.
24: YES, I'M READY - TERI DeSARIO W/ K.C. (28) - Good song (though I know Bry would disagree).
23: BABE - STYX (10) - Great song - easily my favorite of their two songs on the chart this week. Glad that it hit #1.
ARCHIVES: TORN BETWEEN TWO LOVERS - MARY McGREGOR - No. Just no.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: 99 - TOTO - Great song! Easily one of their best!
22: STILL - THE COMMODORES (6) - No. Just no. (At least it was the biggest dropper on this week’s show).
21: DEJA VU - DIONNE WARWICK (27) - Great song, one of my favorites by her!
20: DON'T LET GO - ISAAC HAYES (22) - Meh, not a big fan of this one.
19: WAIT FOR ME - DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES (21) - Great song - one of their most underrated songs ever!
18: CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE - QUEEN (30) - Pretty good song, reminiscent of Elvis Presley. Not quite my favorite song by them, but it is indeed better than their other big 1980 song.
LDD: SHORT PEOPLE - RANDY NEWMAN - Good song, and appropriate for the dedication.
17: DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT - TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS (19) - Great song, definitely one of their best.
16: THIS IS IT - KENNY LOGGINS (17) - Good song, but not my favorite by Loggins.
15: SARA - FLEETWOOD MAC (20) - Great song, easily one of my favorite from them.
14: JANE - JEFFERSON STARSHIP (15) - Good song, but I prefer many others by them.
13: I WANNA BE YOUR LOVER - PRINCE (16) - Good song, the one that started off his successful career (yes, I know he had a song called “Soft And Wet” about a year earlier, but seriously, who remembers that?)
12: BETTER LOVE NEXT TIME - DR. HOOK (14) - Great song, easily my favorite Dr. Hook song!
ARCHIVES: BLINDED BY THE LIGHT - MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND - Great song, one of my favorites by them.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: WORKING MY WAY BACK TO YOU/FORGIVE ME GIRL - THE SPINNERS - Great song - worlds better than the original Four Seasons version.
11: THE LONG RUN - THE EAGLES (13) - OK song, but far from being my favorite Eagles song. IMO, The Long Run was, single-wise, one of their weaker albums (though “The Sad Café”, an album cut that got a little radio play and was one of my favorites from them)
10: COOL CHANGE - THE LITTLE RIVER BAND (11) - Great song! Ths was one of my favorites by them, right up there with “Lady” and “We Two”.
9: PLEASE DON'T GO - K.C. & THE SUNSHINE BAND (5) - No. Just no.
8: LADIES NIGHT - KOOL & THE GANG (8) - Good song, but I liked their next hit a lot better.
7: WE DON'T TALK ANYMORE - CLIFF RICHARD (9) - Good song - I like this a lot more than I used to.
6: CRUISIN' - SMOKEY ROBINSON - Good song, not sure if I prefer this or the remake by Huey Lewis & Gwyneth Paltrow about 20 years later.
5: SEND ONE YOUR LOVE - STEVIE WONDER (4) - Great song! Very hypnotic sounding.
4: COWARD OF THE COUNTY - KENNY ROGERS (7) - Great song! I liked the story in this song.
3: ESCAPE (THE PINA COLADA SONG) - RUPERT HOLMES (1) - Good song, but I preferred his follow-up, as this one was overplayed. This song got a second wind the week before, as it reclaimed the Top spot a week after KC & The Sunshine Band had a week on top with their whinefest.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: HEARTBREAKER - PAT BENATAR - I’ll bet JessieLou was pleasantly surprised to hear this one! It’s OK, but one of my least favorites by her. I’m surprised that this wasn’t a Top Ten hit, given all the airplay it got back in 1980.
2: DO THAT TO ME ONE MORE TIME - THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE (3) - Great song, possibly my favorite song by the two.
1: ROCK WITH YOU - MICHAEL JACKSON (2) - Classic MJ music here! This one was a good one. R.I.P. Michael
Predictions for next week: I’m hoping for 1988 next week, though not January 23, 1988, as they’ve done that one for the past two years. But they’ve been pretty good about not doing repeat shows (in fact the last one was way back in June of last year). I’m personally hoping for January 30, 1988, since, if my memory serves me correctly, that was the week that they played the original version of “Candle In The Wind” by Elton John instead of the live version. It’s also been quite awhile since the last 1983 show, but I’m hoping the next time they do that year, they do a show from February. But they haven’t yet done the January 22 show, so who knows, they might go with that one. 1984 isn’t exactly out of the question, either.
EDIT: I just updated my list of shows and noticed that they haven't done the show from January 29, 1983 either. I guess I got the Flashback series, which featured the 1/22 and 1/29 shows) confused with this one. Anyway, if they do something from 1983, I hope it's January 29, since that was a three-hour Flashback show.