American Top 40: The 80s - January 25, 2014
This week's presentation - January 26, 1985
Droppers:
NO MORE LONELY NIGHTS - PAUL McCARTNEY (35) - Great song! One of my favorite of his solo hits!
TENDER YEARS - JOHN CAFFERTY & THE BEAVER BROWN BAND (33) - Great song! Too bad it doesn't receive any recurrent airplay.
BRUCE - RICK SPRINGFIELD (31) - This one was OK, but definitely not one of his best.
I FEEL FOR YOU - CHAKA KHAN (29) - Not a fan of this one. I much preferred her next hit, "Through The Fire", which was mainly an AC hit.
UNDERSTANDING - BOB SEGER (24) - Great song! One of his most underrated hits ever.
OUT OF TOUCH - DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES (22) - Good song, but not their best.
40: PRIVATE DANCER - TINA TURNER (debut) - Good song - how many times did AT40 edit the #40 song - especially one that was a debut?
39: ROCKIN' AT MIDNIGHT - THE HONEYDRIPPERS (debut) - Good song. Another song with a throwback sound, like their first hit.
38: IN NEON - ELTON JOHN (38) - Great song - one that has fallen into obscurity. I still prefer others from him, however.
37: TENDERNESS - GENERAL PUBLIC (debut) - Meh, this one was OK, but nothing I'd go out of my way to hear.
36: MISTAKE NO. 3 - CULTURE CLUB (39) - Good song, but definitely not their best.
35: MR. TELEPHONE MAN - NEW EDITION (debut) - Great song! Definitely my favorite song from them (although "Lost In Love" would be a relatively close second.
34: CAN'T FIGHT THIS FEELING - REO SPEEDWAGON (debut) - Great song! Definitely one of their best!
33: CALIFORNIA GIRLS - DAVID LEE ROTH (debut) - This was a good song - I actually preferred it over the original by the Beach Boys.
32: MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING - CYNDI LAUPER (34) - This was OK, but not one of her better hits by any means. Apparently, much of the Top 40 audience agreed, as, after four Top Five hits, this one, on the other hand, came nowhere near the Top 20.
31: SUGAR WALLS - SHEENA EASTON (36) - Not a big fan of this song.
30: THE OLD MAN DOWN THE ROAD - JOHN FOGERTY (40) - Great song. Sounded a little like his old stuff with CCR.
OPTIONAL EXTRA: ONLY THE YOUNG - JOURNEY - Good song, although I prefer many of their other songs over this.
29: THE HEAT IS ON - GLENN FREY (37) - This wasn't bad, but I prefer a few others from him.
28: VALOTTE - JULIAN LENNON (19) - Great song! My favorite song from the album of the same name.
27: MISLED - KOOL & THE GANG (32) - Good song, but I preferred their next hit.
26: JUNGLE LOVE - THE TIME (30) - Great song. The only song by them that I liked.
25: FOOLISH HEART - STEVE PERRY (28) - Great song! I still hear this song on AC radio today.
LDD; LADY – KENNY ROGERS - Great song, and indeed fitting for the dedication!
24: SEA OF LOVE - THE HONEYDRIPPERS (11) - Good song, but I actually preferred their other song in the countdown.
23: OPERATOR - MIDNIGHT STAR (27) - Interesting song - a big hit on the dance chart.
22: CALL TO THE HEART - GUIFFRIA (26) - Great song! Sounds a lot like something that Triumph would do.
21: SOLID - ASHFORD & SIMPSON (25) - Good song, though I didn't like it during its chart run, for some reason.
20: LOVE LIGHT IN FLIGHT - STEVIE WONDER (23) - Great song! Sounds a little like a few of his older songs.
19: DO WHAT YOU DO - JERMAINE JACKSON (18) - Great song! One of his all-time best!
18: COOL IT NOW - NEW EDITION (15) - It's okies, but doesn't hold a candle to their other song in the countdown.
17: DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS - BAND AID (13) - Kind of weird hearing this one a month after Christmas, but its sales were apparently still strong enough, though declining (the song would fall out of the Top 40 the following week). Anyway, it's a great song to a great cause.
16: WE BELONG - PAT BENATAR (8) - Good song, though not quite my favorite from her.
15: THE WILD BOYS - DURAN DURAN (7) - Meh, not a fan of this one. One of my least favorites from them.
14: JAMIE - RAY PARKER JR. (17) - Great song! One of two songs on this week's chart he was involved with (he produced the New Edition song back at #35).
13: NEUTRON DANCE - THE POINTER SISTERS (20) - Meh, not a big fan of this one. K.T. Tunstall's "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree" used the "woo-hoos" from this song (or so I've heard).
At this point, CKPE was having a "station fit". It kept cutting out near the middle of "Jamie" and then skipped over the next segment (they may have played the #13 song - I was involved with a video game, so I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention, but I vaguely remember hearing "Neutron Dance". In any case, knew something was up when I heard "Change Of Heart" by Cyndi Lauper played next, from last week's 1987 show.
12: METHOD OF MODERN LOVE - DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES (21) - This song wasn't bad, but I don't understand why they didn't spell out the word "modern"
11: BORN IN THE USA - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (9) - Great song! Definitely his signature hit!
10: I WOULD DIE 4 U - PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION (14) - Good song. This one had kind of a fast chart run, especially over on the R&R chart (but that's understandable, as the Purple Rain soundtrack had sold millions of copies by this point and, hence, people weren't compelled to call in and request this on the radio).
9: LOVER BOY - BILLY OCEAN (16) - Good song - oddly enough, I heard another Billy Ocean song a few songs earlier, as the LDD of "Suddenly" on last week's 1987 show was in the segment that inadvertently run in place of this week's show.
8: THE BOYS OF SUMMER - DON HENLEY (12) - Great song, though released at the wrong time of year.
7: RUN TO YOU - BRYAN ADAMS (6) - Good song, though far from being his best.
6: ALL I NEED - JACK WAGNER (2) - Great song! Too bad this one just missed hitting the top, but the song at #1 was just too strong for him.
LDD: TIME AFTER TIME – CYNDI LAUPER - Wow, I heard three Cyndi Lauper songs during this week's broadcast (though one of them was during the station malfunction).
5: CARELESS WHISPER - WHAM FEATURING GEORGE MICHAEL (10) - Ordinarily, this one would get a "No. Just no", but since they cut out the second verse...
4: EASY LOVER - PHILIP BAILEY w/PHIL COLLINS (5) - Great song! The second Phil was also involved with the Band Aid song back at #17.
(Is it me, or did they tell the story about Johnny Ray on a show recently aired by Premiere?)
3: YOU'RE THE INSPIRATION - CHICAGO (3) - On the R&R chart, this song was #1 this week. It didn't quite make it on the Hot 100. I liked this song, but preferred their last hit "Hard Habit To Break", which also hit #1 on R&R but not Billboard.
2: I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS - FOREIGNER (4) - Great song, with excellent back-up work by Jennifer Holiday and the New Jersey Mass Choir.
1: LIKE A VIRGIN - MADONNA (1) - This is the song that held the aforementioned Jack Wagner out of the top spot, although the song seemed to be holding on by the skin of its teeth (as it took a hard fall out of the top spot the following week).
Predictions for next week: Some people think that we'll get a repeat of the February 2, 1980 show next week, but I personally hope they hold off on that year until the following week so they can run the February 9 show - the only show from February, 1980 not yet played. So my first prediction is going to be February 1, 1986, with February 2, 1980 as a back-up prediction.