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Post by 80sfreak on Mar 15, 2011 12:06:15 GMT -5
What about
Do They Know Its Christmas. Way better song than the American counterpart We Are The World
What About Me-Moving Pictures - I'm sure if this song would have been re-released it would have hit Top 10, maybe even #1 like Sheriff's When I'm With You did.
1999 - Prince : Only #12? Even Delirious peaked higher.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2011 12:13:36 GMT -5
Talking about songs like Do they know it´s Christmas or We are the World.
Sun City by Artist United Against Apartheid. A little bit noisy, but a good track.
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Post by pizzzzza on Mar 15, 2011 14:53:38 GMT -5
For new wave fans, such as me, 3 songs come to mind. "Change" by Tears For Fears only reached # 73, while "Pale Shelter" didn't even chart. And both Missing Persons songs "Words" and "Destination Unknown" missed the Top 40 by a whisker. What a shame. I'd also add, from 1982-83, Scandal's "Goodbye To You", which only got to #65 at the time but is much heard today (Premiere even included it as an optional extra in a recent AT40 broadcast), and Modern English's "I Melt With You", which peaked at #78 (and at #76 in remixed form in 1990), but has long outlasted its modest chart showing; nowadays I hear it in a TV commercial. When I think of these two great songs, I always think of the music videos on MTV. It's hard to believe these songs never cracked the AT 40 - unbelievable!
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Post by caseyfan100 on Mar 15, 2011 16:59:40 GMT -5
Probably the reason why "Do They Know It's Christmas" didn't chart as high was because of Christmas in the title as compared to "We Are The World" being more generic (so to say).
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Post by matt on Mar 15, 2011 17:39:57 GMT -5
A couple of thoughts:
"1999" is always an interesting one to me, since it was the first release off the 1999 album in the fall of '82 and peaked in the 40's before falling out of sight. Then Prince released Little Red Corvette, which went top 10. Then "1999" got re-released and made it into the top 15 in the summer of '83...but I agree, it should've gone well into the top 10, and if it had come out in the late 80's after Prince became a megastar, I think it would have.
Great call on the tunes by Tears for Fears, Scandal, and Missing Persons. I remember well the videos for "Words" and "Goodbye to You" getting heavy rotation on MTV during the second half of '82, but we can probably surmise that MTV wasn't in enough households at that point to have enough of an impact to push those two tunes into the top 40. "Destination Unknown" is another fantastic song.
A few others that come to mind: -"What About Love" by til Tuesday - great song that peaked around #26 in Oct. 1986 -"Do You Want Crying" by Katrina and the Waves - peaked at #37 or so in Sept. 1985 (one of its two weeks on the 40 was during the "Snuggles" show) - guessing that after Katrina's happy-fest of "Walking on Sunshine", people weren't ready for a more intense moody rocker. -"Love Plus One" by Haircut 100 - peaked around #37 in August 1982 - Haircut 100 also had a good song called "Fantastic Day", to which "Love Plus One" was the follow up. -Scritti Politti had a number of good songs off their Cupid & Psyche '85 album that were top 10's in the UK but didn't chart in the U.S. Ironically, their only top 40 in the U.S. "Perfect Way" wasn't a hit in the U.K. -Squeeze had a great song called "Footsteps" in early 1988 that charted in the U.K. and had a video on MTV, but didn't crack the Hot 100. -"Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen - terrific R&B tune from June 1982 that should've charted better IMO. -"Workin' for a Living" by Huey Lewis and the News - topped out around #44 in late '82 - still don't understand how it wasn't a much bigger hit. -"More Than This" by Roxy Music - can't remember if this song even made the Hot 100, but what a great song that never cracked the top 40. -"New Frontier" by Donald f*gen - peaked around #70 in early 1983, but was a terrific song about a guy who has a crush on a girl while in a fallout shelter during a nuclear war.
OK, so I could probably think of a bunch more, but off the top of my head at the moment...
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Post by mkarns on Mar 15, 2011 17:46:53 GMT -5
-Squeeze had a great song called "Footsteps" in early 1988 that charted in the U.K. and had a video on MTV, but didn't crack the Hot 100. Speaking of Squeeze, there's "Tempted", another great song which in 1981 charted but didn't make the top 40. However, it's probably better known now than their two hits in 1987-88 that did. IIRC, as with "Goodbye To You", Premiere played "Tempted" as an AT40 optional extra even though it never made the countdown. I think they've also done that with the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way" and "Pretty In Pink", two other should've-been top 40 hits.
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Post by canat40fan on Mar 15, 2011 18:11:52 GMT -5
-"Love Plus One" by Haircut 100 - peaked around #37 in August 1982 - Haircut 100 also had a good song called "Fantastic Day", to which "Love Plus One" was the follow up.... Haircut 100's, Pelican West album was very good and their songs received heavy airplay in my area. Surprising that "Love Plus One" didn't do better for this decent british invasion band.
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Post by canat40fan on Mar 15, 2011 18:27:17 GMT -5
..... and Modern English's "I Melt With You", which peaked at #78 (and at #76 in remixed form in 1990), but has long outlasted its modest chart showing; nowadays I hear it in a TV commercial. Wow I have to really shake my head at that one. The TV commercial notwithstanding, "I Melt With you" seems to be one of the memorable songs of the 80's, that I heard a lot and even got recurrent airplay during the middle of that decade. Hard to believe that it only reached #78.
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Post by caseyfan100 on Mar 15, 2011 19:50:00 GMT -5
Back in the early days of MTV,they needed to fill hours and played a lot of stuff that never made the top 40 so you wouldn't see the same videos over and over,plus I'm sure many artists and record labels saw MTV as an outlet to expose these lesser known acts to the music buying public.
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Post by jdelachjr2002 on Mar 15, 2011 23:54:34 GMT -5
Workin At The Car Wash Blues was good but it was just posthumous greed by the record company I always thought. I mean, when it charted it was going on 9 months after he died. Jim Reeves, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and the list goes on. As you know, there's a fine line between record company greed and fan demand. Aren't John Lennon and Selena included in this list?
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Post by CountEmUp on Mar 16, 2011 0:48:14 GMT -5
As already mentioned, A-Ha's "The Sun Always Shines on TV", 'til Tuesday's "What About Love", and Wa Wa Nee's "Sugar Free" all should have charted much much higher than they did.
I also thought Kenny Login's 1985 hit "Forever" deserved to go much higher than #40. Don't know how that got overlooked back then. Also thought Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed" deserved much better than to miss the top 20 in 1986.
How about songs that were big hits, but should have been even bigger?! I've always thought Chicago's "Will You Still Love Me?" was their all-time best pop hit. I think it peaked at #3, but to me it could have spent many weeks at #1, especially since other hits of theirs (which I also like) did spend several weeks at #1.
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Post by Josh Joel's Top 40 on Mar 16, 2011 3:30:27 GMT -5
ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin" (#37 1983) - This was an "video arcade" banger. I used to hear this every freaking weekend at the Westridge Mall in Phoenix, AZ, must have been an AOR station. Anyway this was also an MTV banger and that's a no brainer for some.
Jimmy Hall - I'm Happy That Love Has Found You (#27 1980) - Lots of airplay 'cause I remember this as a first grader!
James Taylor - Your Smiling Face (#20 1977) - Lots and lots of airplay and only #20? What the hay, man! This is one of his best songs ever!
And yes there's more!!
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Post by Josh Joel's Top 40 on Mar 16, 2011 3:41:07 GMT -5
What about What About Me-Moving Pictures - I'm sure if this song would have been re-released it would have hit Top 10, maybe even #1 like Sheriff's When I'm With You did. Actually it was re-released and it failed yet again. You know, the interesting thing about all of this is that I only heard this the 2nd time around in 1989. In Rapid City, SD it received a grip of spins on KGGG (the then Hit 100). I thought for sure that it made the top 40 not even realising that it was a re-issue on the Geffen label. By the way it ended up reaching #47. 26 weeks (first run) 17 weeks (second run) on the Hot 100
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Post by jgve1952 on Mar 16, 2011 4:36:29 GMT -5
Here are several that I feel should have hit the Top 10: I'm Happy That Love Has Found You, Jimmy Hall, 1980, #27 peak; Dialogue, Chicago, 1972, #24 peak; Another Rainy Day in New York City, Chicago, #32 peak; Heart Hotels, Dan Fogelberg, 1980, #21 peak; and Missing You, Dan Fogelberg, 1982, #23 peak
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Post by matt on Mar 16, 2011 9:49:48 GMT -5
-Squeeze had a great song called "Footsteps" in early 1988 that charted in the U.K. and had a video on MTV, but didn't crack the Hot 100. Speaking of Squeeze, there's "Tempted", another great song which in 1981 charted but didn't make the top 40. However, it's probably better known now than their two hits in 1987-88 that did. IIRC, as with "Goodbye To You", Premiere played "Tempted" as an AT40 optional extra even though it never made the countdown. I think they've also done that with the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way" and "Pretty In Pink", two other should've-been top 40 hits. Can't believe I didn't mention "Tempted", and for that matter, how about "Another Nail In My Heart", "Pulling Muscles from the Shell" and "Black Coffee in Bed". All great Squeeze cuts that didn't chart very high in the U.S. (some of these not at all). Good call on Psychadelic Furs too - another great band that didn't have much chart success, but some fantastic tunes. I think "Heartbreak Beat" made the Hot 100 (not sure about the 40) in 1987?
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