This Week's Lost '80s Classic

[jlthorpe]

From the infamous Kiss concept album Music from "The Elder", "A World Without Heroes" was in its ninth and final week on the Hot 100 for the week ending February 6, 1982. The song was at #96 after having peaked at #56.



As a bonus, here's an interview Kiss did with Casey Kasem from America's Top 10 promoting the song and the album (it looks like the video was played on the show as well, but most of it has been cut out).

[jlthorpe]

Following up on their double-sided single "Friends"/"Five Minutes of Funk" (with both songs being posted here last year), Whodini's "Freaks Come Out at Night" was on the February 9, 1985 Bubbling Under chart at #108, a week away from peaking at #104.

[jlthorpe]

For Super Bowl Sunday, it's appropriate to post possibly the only time a football team charted on the Hot 100. Credited to The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew, the Chicago Bears' "The Super Bowl Shuffle" was released prior to their win in Super Bowl XX. It was spending its second week at its peak position of #41 on the February 15, 1986 chart.

[jlthorpe]

Too famous to really be considered a "lost" classic, "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls entered the Hot 100 in January 1983; this week that year, it climbed to #55 but only got up to #46 in early March.

[jlthorpe]

Checking the Disco Top 100 chart for February 21, 1981, two songs by The Police are listed together at the #5 position, down from their peak of #3. From the album Zenyatta Mondatta, here are "Voices Inside My Head" and "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around".

[jlthorpe]

Crosby, Stills and Nash reunited with Neil Young for the album American Dream in 1988, but compared to their earlier successful collaboration Déjà Vu it was considered a disappointment. The only song to chart from the album - "Got It Made" - reached #69 on the Hot 100 this week in 1989. It also hit #1 on the Album Rock Tracks chart.



As a bonus, here's the title track from the American Dream album, a #4 hit on the rock chart in late 1988.

[jlthorpe]

On the Disco Top 100 chart for March 1, 1980, the disco band La Flavour was holding at #9 with their dance hit "Mandolay"; the song would reach a peak of #7 on the chart.

[jlthorpe]

In 1989, a remix of "Hooked on You" by Sweet Sensation reached #23 on the Hot 100. Two years earlier, the original version of the song (not too dissimilar to the remix) was on the chart. Having peaked at #64 a week earlier, it dropped to #68 for the week ending February 28, 1987.

[jlthorpe]

The closest Thomas Dolby came to a Top 40 hit after "She Blinded Me with Science" wouldn't live up to its name; "Hyperactive" only reached #62. This week in 1984, it was still trying to reach that peak, up to #70 from #85 in its third Hot 100 week.

[jlthorpe]

After lead singer Limahl was fired in 1983, Kajagoogoo shortened their name to Kaja and continued with bassist Nick Beggs as singer. On the Hot Dance/Disco chart for March 9, 1985, Kaja's "Turn Your Back on Me" climbed from #34 to #16 in its third week, eventually reaching #2 for two weeks.

[jlthorpe]

Before Barry Manilow's version of "Memory" from the musical Cats reached #39 on the Hot 100 in 1983, and before the musical itself opened on Broadway in October 1982, Barbra Streisand took her version of the song to #52 in late March of that year. During the week ending March 13, 1982, it was still climbing the chart, going from #69 to #62.

[jlthorpe]

Holding at #31 on the Album Rock Tracks chart this week in 1988, and peaking at #28 the following week, was R.E.M.'s third single from Document after "The One I Love" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" - "Finest Worksong".

[jlthorpe]

It debuted on the Hot 100 the previous week at #80; on the March 19, 1983 chart, Heaven 17's "Let Me Go" climbed to its peak of #74.

[jlthorpe]

Dance artist Phyllis Nelson's only Hot 100 hit "I Like You" reached #61 on the chart and was down to #66 for the week ending March 22, 1986. Her son Marc Nelson would hit #27 on the Hot 100 in 1999 with "15 Minutes", less than two years after her death from breast cancer.