American Top 40: The 80s - February 6, 2016
This week's presentation - February 8, 1986
Droppers:
EVERYBODY DANCE - TAMARA & THE SEEN (40)
FACE THE FACE - PETE TOWNSHEND (32)
TONIGHT SHE COMES - THE CARS (29)
IT'S ONLY LOVE - BRYAN ADAMS & TINA TURNER (26)
All of the above songs are all not bad, but no tremendous loss.
40: SANCTIFY YOURSELF - SIMPLE MINDS (debut) - Their third Top 40 hit, and their best, IMO. This was my favorite song in the world in the spring of 1986 and I thought it was a shame that it wasn't as big as their first two singles. They edited this down quite heavily, which was also a shame.
39: YOU'RE A FRIEND OF MINE - CLARENCE CLEMONS AND JACKSON BROWNE (34) - One of two friendship anthems on this week's chart - the other one is coming up much later. This definitely has the typical E Street Band sound, with Clarence's saxophone. It's a good song indeed.
38: BEAT'S SO LONELY - CHARLIE SEXTON (debut) - This song was on its way to a somewhat unusual chart feat. The song peaked at #17 for three weeks, the third of those being in its 17th week and, with the way the chart was printed at the time, that made for 17's across the number columns. And guess how old Charlie was at the time? Anyway, the song was pretty good, but nothing I'd go out of my way to listen to.
37: SMALL TOWN - JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP (25) - One of Cougar's autobiographical songs. Not quite my favorite song from him, but passable.
36: STAGES - ZZ TOP (debut) - The second of four singles from Afterburner to hit the Top 40. Of course, I preferred the Afterburner singles, since that album had more of a pop sound than their trademark southern rock. My favorite song from the album was "Rough Boy", but it was a toss-up between this and "Sleeping Bag" as my second favorite.
35: NIKITA - ELTON JOHN (debut) - At this point, AT40 could have conceivably compiled a chart of the Top 40 Hits by Elton John, as this was his 40th song to make the Top 40. It was a good song, but not quite his best.
34: DAY BY DAY - HOOTERS (39) - They were more or less a flash in the pan, with three Top 40 hits. This one was pretty good, though I slightly preferred "And We Danced".
33: EVERYTHING IN MY HEART - COREY HART (30) - This one reminded me a lot of "Never Surrender". I preferred that song slightly, but this is a great one as well - definitely deserved a higher peak than #30, IMO.
LDD: WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS - QUEEN - This song was very appropriate for the dedication! Glad the Sabers (the basketball team of the school that the author went to) finally won a game, just a little over a week before.
32: ALIVE & KICKING - SIMPLE MINDS (21) - As mentioned earlier, I preferred their new song over this one that was on its way out.
31: HE'LL NEVER LOVE YOU (LIKE I DO) - FREDDIE JACKSON (36) - After two slow songs, he went with a mid-tempo song as his third Top 40 hit. I liked this, as well as his first two, about the same.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: THE POWER OF LOVE - JENNIFER RUSH - Sort of a curveball extra here, although, as popular as Celine Dion's version was, it's a song that most people know. Too bad we only got to hear the first two verses and choruses - as the second chorus was ending, they outroed it. Not sure which version I preferred.
30: RUSSIANS - STING (38) - This song is based on a classical music piece, but I can't remember off the top of my head which one. Anyway, I liked this song - very haunting.
29: PARTY ALL THE TIME - EDDIE MURPHY (19) - Not a bad song, but Murphy was much better as a comedian, IMO.
28: THESE DREAMS - HEART (37) - Interesting story that Casey told about dreams going into this song. This, I believe, was the first of their hits that featured Nancy Wilson on lead vocals - and it became their first #1 hit. A great song indeed!
27: GOODBYE - NIGHT RANGER (17) - This song was moving up the week before, but this week, it began its downslide. Too bad it didn't get any higher than #17, as it's one of my favorite songs by Night Ranger.
26: KING FOR A DAY - THOMPSON TWINS (40) - As we all know, I wasn't a huge fan of "Lay Your Hands On Me", but their second was a good one. Still, I preferred a few others from them.
25: DIGITAL DISPLAY - READY FOR THE WORLD (33) - People who followed both Billboard and R&R was probably wondering when this song would hit the latter, especially with its good-sized move this week. It was apparently a huge seller, as it peaked at #21 on the Hot 100, but didn't quite make the R&R chart. I preferred this one over the overplayed "Oh Sheila", but it wasn't quite as good as "Love You Down", which would chart a year later.
24: THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON TV - A-HA (28) - I preferred "Take On Me", but this was a good one as well. Going into this song, Casey listed the five longest running TV shows. I don't believe I've ever watched any of them (except maybe bits and pieces of "The Tonight Show").
23: TARZAN BOY - BALTIMORA (27) - This song charted twice - once in 1986 and again in 1993, thanks to its inclusion in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III movie (and it was also used in promos for Listerine Cool Mint mouthwash around that time. It was a good song.
22: I MISS YOU - KLYMAXX (14) - This song definitely got a lot of chart mileage - so much that it ranked on the year-end Top 100 higher than it peaked on the weekly charts. It's a great song, though I preferred their other two Top 40 hits.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: HOW TO BE A MILLIONAIRE - ABC - Interesting how their five Top 40 hits each debuted in different years. This was a good one - I liked it and their first two hits about the same.
21: SECRET LOVERS - ATLANTIC STARR (31) - A song about two people bored with their spouses, so they sneak around to be together. Sounds like a typical situation for the Jerry Springer show. Anyway, it's a good song nevertheless.
20: SIDEWALK TALK - JELLYBEAN (18) - This one wasn't quite my cup of tea. I preferred Jellybean's other song featuring Elisa Fiorello on the vocals, "Who Found Who".
19: A LOVE BIZARRE - SHEILA E. (22) - I'm not generally a huge fan of hers, though I did like her underrated "The Belle Of St. Mark", from late 1984.
18: SILENT RUNNING - MIKE & THE MECHANICS (24) - This was their first Top 40 single, but such was not the case with the lead singer Paul Carrack, who had charted as the lead singer of groups like Ace and Squeeze, and as a solo artist as well. I liked this song, but preferred their next two singles.
17: WALK OF LIFE - DIRE STRAITS (9) - They had been a one hit wonder until the summer of the previous year when they charted with their biggest hit "Money For Nothing". This was their third hit and, like the first two, it was a Top Ten hit. It was a good song, IMO.
16: LIFE IN A NORTHERN TOWN - THE DREAM ACADEMY (20) - This song indeed had a northern town feel to it. It was my favorite of their two Top 40 hits.
15: SARA - STARSHIP (23) - It's good to hear this song every now and again, but back in the spring of 1986, this song was way overplayed and I was sick of hearing it no less than once every hour, or so it seemed.
14: SAY YOU, SAY ME - LIONEL RICHIE (5) - This song was edited on this week's show, cutting out the bridge, where the tempo picks up briefly. The song was pretty good, but definitely not one of my favorite songs from him.
13: MY HOMETOWN - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (6) - The seventh and final song from Born In The USA album - and all seven songs reached the Top Ten, tying the record with Michael Jackson's Thriller as the album that spawned the most Top Ten hits. This was possibly my favorite song from the album, though "I'm On Fire" and "Glory Days" were very close behind.
LDD: THROUGH THE YEARS - KENNY ROGERS - This, of course, was one of the biggest LDD requests of the 1980s. A great song - I'm surprised that this one didn't quite hit the Top Ten.
12: THE SWEETEST TABOO - SADE (16) - Their second and final Top Ten hit, though they would chart a few more times. Of their Top Ten hits, I preferred "Smooth Operator", but this one was pretty good as well.
11: GO HOME - STEVIE WONDER (10) - Wonder had been hitting the charts since the early sixties and, with two Top Ten hits from In Square Circle, it looked like he was far from over but, unfortunately, this was his final Top Ten hits, and he had three more singles after that. I liked this song, but preferred his next hit "Overjoyed".
10: CONGA - MIAMI SOUND MACHINE (12) - Their debut hit became their first Top Ten as well. It was OK, but I preferred many other songs from both MSM and Gloria Estefan as a solo artist.
9: LIVING IN AMERICA - JAMES BROWN (15) - This song set a record of longest span between Top Ten hits (I'm sure it has since been broken - for instance, Paul McCartney had a span of nearly 30 years between Top Ten hits. More on that in a moment. Anyway, this song was so/so, but I was never a huge James Brown fan.
8: TALK TO ME - STEVIE NICKS (4) - One of her most successful solo hits. Another was heard on the "B" show this week (although, technically, it was a duet, but that's beside the point). Anyway, I liked this song, but preferred her next release "I Can't Wait".
7: SPIES LIKE US - PAUL McCARTNEY (8) - Earlier, I mentioned how Paul McCartney went for almost 30 years without having a Top Ten hit. This was the final one before the drought. He would return in early 2015 as a featured singer on Kanye West's "FourFiveSeconds". I believe that might be the record, but I'm not totally sure. It definitely dwarfs James Brown's record of 17 1/2 years.
6: KYRIE - MR. MISTER (13) - This song would become their second number one song in a row. I preferred their first, "Broken Wings", which had dropped from the survey the week before.
5: HOW WILL I KNOW - WHITNEY HOUSTON (11) - This song was on its way to becoming her second #1 song - in fact, it hit the top the following week. It was an OK song, but I preferred her next hit, which would also hit #1.
4: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING - BILLY OCEAN (7) - This song was #1 on the R&R chart this week (more or less by vacuum effect, since there wasn't much competition near the top), and it looked like it might also top the Hot 100, but, as stated above, Whitney leapfrogged over him. This was my favorite Billy Ocean song back during its chart run, but I've since heard many other songs that I prefer. It's still a good song, though.
3: I'M YOUR MAN - WHAM (3) - Due to the aforementioned lack of competition on the R&R chart, this is one of the songs that looked like it had a chance at the top spot but, in fact, the song was pushed back to #5. This was about the time that we found out that Wham! would be splitting up, but I doubt that had anything to do with it.
2: BURNING HEART - SURVIVOR (2) - This song had an unusually long run on the R&R chart - it was the first song since the fall of 1984 to spend more than fifteen weeks on the chart. It spent 16 weeks on both R&R and AT40. Of their Rocky soundtrack hits, it would be my favorite.
1: THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR - DIONNE & FRIENDS (1) - This was the song's fourth and last week on top, but that was enough for it to become 1986's top hit. It's a great song for a great cause!
Coming up next week: Only one show next week, and it's a brand-new show from February 11, 1984. I'm kind of surprised that they haven't yet run the February 25, 1984 show, which was overplayed on XM Radio. Perhaps the fact that it was overplayed is why they're holding off on playing it. The most memorable element of that show for me, of course, was the Long Distance Dedication from the girl to the cast of Happy Days, a TV show that was ending its run later that spring.
BTW,
here is my critique for the 1982 show. It's about halfway down the page.